Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Therapist Burnout And Interpersonal Problems, Shabad-Ratan Kaur Khalsa

Masters Theses

Therapist burnout has been linked to poorer therapy outcome, and may be related to leaving the profession. However, a number of questions remain about the nature of burnout among psychotherapists, and why it occurs. Interpersonal difficulties in the workplace have been examined as correlates of burnout, but thus far there is little attention to the role of non-professional interpersonal problems in general as they relate to burnout. The practice of psychology requires the therapist to engage with patients under duress. The therapist’s ability to remain poised under-fire is critical. This puts a premium on stamina, emotional balance, and a reasonably …

Motivated Endorsement Of Interethnic Ideologies: An Optimal Distinctiveness Approach, Kevin Lee Zabel

Masters Theses

The current study examined the effects of need for inclusion and differentiation (Brewer, 1991) activations on endorsement of colorblind and multicultural ideologies, and the roles ideological endorsements played in visual social perception. A total of 238 university students were given false feedback on a personality inventory to activate needs for differentiation and inclusion, as well as completed interethnic ideology measures and a morphed faces judgment task in which they perceived whether paired others were exactly the same or different. Bootstrapping analyses (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) confirmed that, consistent with hypotheses, need for inclusion activation participants endorsed colorblind ideology to a …

Implicitly And Explicitly Assessed Relationship Satisfaction, Matthew Jason Shaffer

Masters Theses

This study investigates the relationship between implicitly assessed (i.e., unexpressed, sometimes unconscious, “gut-level”) attitudes and explicitly assessed attitudes in romantic couples. 135 newlywed couples were examined in a laboratory session. A series of Hierarchical Linear Models were run to assess whether implicitly assessed attitudes predict the use of demand-withdraw behaviors in conflict discussion tasks. Results indicate that, for demand behaviors, there is a 3-way interaction between implicitly assessed attitudes, participant sex, and partner behavior during the discussion task. Implicitly assessed attitudes did not predict withdraw behaviors. Theoretical implications for both implicitly assessed attitudes research and romantic relationships research are discussed.

Rejection Sensitivity In Adolescent Offspring Of Mothers With Borderline Personality Disorder, Jennifer Marie Strimpfel

Masters Theses

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a chronic and severe psychological disorder with symptoms including fear of abandonment, negative relationships, and inappropriate expressions of anger. Individuals with BPD score higher on rejection sensitivity than do normative comparisons. The present study assessed rejection sensitivity in a sample at high risk for developing BPD—adolescent offspring of women with BPD. We hypothesized that adolescents whose mothers have BPD would have higher levels of rejection sensitivity than would normative comparisons, adolescents’ rejection sensitivity would be positively correlated with their mother’s borderline features, and adolescents’ rejection sensitivity would be positively correlated with their own borderline features. …

The Role Of Attention In The Other-Species Effect In Infancy, Dantong Zhang

Masters Theses

Infants experience a gradual decline in the ability to discriminate other-species faces during the first year of life (Pascalis, de Haan, & Nelson, 2006). It is possible that this decline is due to infants distributing more attention to human faces than to other-species faces. The current study explored the effect of modifying the distribution of 9-month-old infants’ selective attention during the processing of monkey faces. After familiarization with monkey faces with successively highlighted internal features, infants showed significant preference to novel faces in paired-comparison tasks. In contrast, infants in a control group with no highlighting during familiarization did not show …

The Interaction Of Neuroticism And Stress In Predicting Infidelity In A Newlywed Sample, Maria Moana Rowley

Masters Theses

Crisis theories (e.g., Hill, 1942; Karney & Bradbury 1995) suggest that the reciprocal interaction between long-term vulnerabilities and stressors predict relationship outcomes. This model might partially explain an individual’s choice to engage in an extramarital affair. In particular, neuroticism may be an individual vulnerability that can lead to chronic stress, and when this chronic stress is combined with acute stressors, the individual’s resources may be overwhelmed. Thus, the addition of acute stressful events may lead to infidelity as an emotion regulation strategy. The data for this study were drawn from two larger studies assessing newlywed couples’ marital interactions. Participants in …

Perform + Function: A Proposal For A Healthy Public Housing Community, Brandon M. Harvey

Masters Theses

PERFORM+FUNCTION: Proposal for A Healthy Public Housing Community

Architecture exists in Place, the integrated context of both the built and natural environments, including socio-economic, cultural, and political climates that influence our growth, development, and survival. As architecture necessitates around human purposes, it is important that architecture is built for and sited in an environment compatible for human well-being. My thesis focuses on human habitation and its immediate relationship with human health, assessing the performance and functionality of Place that have an impact on human health. Using public housing as the vehicle of my investigation, I will seek the appropriate application …

Varying Degrees Of Difficulty In Melodic Dictation Examples According To Intervallic Content, Michael Hines Robinson

Masters Theses

Melodic dictation has long been a daunting task for students in aural skills training. Research has found that interval identification is a factor when taking melodic dictation. Research has also found that some intervals are easier to identify than other intervals. The goal of this thesis is to determine whether the difficulty of melodic dictation examples can be categorized by their intervallic content. A popular aural skills text was used as the source for the melodic dictation examples. The adjacent intervals in each melodic dictation example were counted and recorded by interval type. The analysis of the melodic dictation examples …

Adulthood Animal Abuse Among Men Arrested For Domestic Violence, Jeniimarie Febres

Masters Theses

The effectiveness of batterer intervention programs at reducing future intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration is limited. Learning about perpetrators to more comprehensively address issues relevant to their aggressive tendencies could aid in the development of more effective treatments. This study examined the prevalence of adulthood animal abuse perpetration and its association with psychological and physical IPV perpetration, antisocial traits, and alcohol use in a sample of men arrested for domestic violence (N = 307). Forty-one percent (n = 125) of the men committed at least one act of animal abuse since the age of 18, in contrast to …

Daily And Longitudinal Associations Between Sexual Coercion, Affect, And Relationship Functioning Among Women In Heterosexual Dating Relationships, Vanessa Tirone

Masters Theses

Sexual coercion, the use of manipulative tactics to have sexual contact with another person against their will, is experienced frequently by women in dating relationships. Cross sectional data suggests this type of experience is associated with deleterious outcomes for women’s mental health and relationship satisfaction. To date, no published studies have examined how sexual coercion relates to women’s well-being and relationship functioning on a daily basis or their satisfaction with dating relationships over time. The present study measured the frequency of 4 sexual coercion tactics (i.e., arousal, verbal, intoxication and force) and their association with women’s wellbeing and relationship functioning …

Strangers With Benefits: Ovulation And Attraction To Outgroup Men, Joseph Frederick Salvatore

Masters Theses

The tendency for humans to behaviorally and attitudinally favor ingroups over outgroups is robust and pancultural. An evolutionary framework, however, provides reason to expect a systematic tendency toward outgroup-favoritism in a particular context. Ancestral females may have mated furtively with outgroup-males and returned to their cuckolded ingroup-male partner for child rearing, as a means of both maximizing genetic variability and promoting the long-term welfare of an offspring. The footprint of such a process may evidence in human females via increased physical attraction to outgroup (but not ingroup) males as ovulation approaches (conception-risk increases). Two studies of normally ovulating women tested …