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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Effects Of Combined Evaluative And Memo, Matrix, And Graphic Objective Feedback On Performance When Receiving Fixed Pay, Amber L. Derthick Apr 2024

The Effects Of Combined Evaluative And Memo, Matrix, And Graphic Objective Feedback On Performance When Receiving Fixed Pay, Amber L. Derthick

Dissertations

The purpose of this current study was to examine the relative effectiveness of written feedback in the form of a memo that displays the performer’s current performance (memo feedback), written feedback in the form of a matrix that displays the performer’s current performance along with past performance (matrix feedback), and graphic feedback that displays the performer’s current performance along with past performance on a line graph (graphic feedback) when individuals receive fixed pay. The memo, matrix, and graphic feedback displayed “objective” feedback. Participants were 70 undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. Participants attended a …


Teaching Children Consent Skills Through The Lens Of Personal Boundaries And Bodily Autonomy, Prerana Atreya Jan 2024

Teaching Children Consent Skills Through The Lens Of Personal Boundaries And Bodily Autonomy, Prerana Atreya

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Sexual violence is a public health and safety problem affecting many children across the United States. One preventative tool the public health department uses to mitigate the high prevalence rates and harm of sexual violence is teaching consent skills to children. Previous research has demonstrated that behavior analytic principles effectively teach other important safety skills (e.g., abduction prevention, gun safety, and poison safety). Thus, it is possible that using behavioral technologies to teach consent skills will show similar effectiveness as teaching safety skills. The current study’s purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of using behavioral skills training (BST), video modeling, …


Evaluating The Effects Of Self-Monitoring On Physical Activity Within A Health Coaching Package, Morgan E. Valois Jan 2024

Evaluating The Effects Of Self-Monitoring On Physical Activity Within A Health Coaching Package, Morgan E. Valois

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The World Health Organization recommends that adults engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every week. Engaging in physical activity improves long-term health, unfortunately, half of the adults in the United States do not meet the recommended levels. Health coaching is a patient-oriented approach to deliver behavior change interventions that has been shown to increase physical activity and improve health outcomes. Self-monitoring is a component of health coaching, and is a behavior change technique that has been identified as an integral component of health interventions that resulted in improved health outcomes. However, the specific effects …


The Effects Of Behavioral Skills Training For Goal Setting On Skill Acquisition, Michelle Beaulieu Jan 2024

The Effects Of Behavioral Skills Training For Goal Setting On Skill Acquisition, Michelle Beaulieu

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

With many U.S. adults being diagnosed with or at high risk for largely preventable chronic diseases, positive health behavior change is a critical public health concern. Behaviors such as physical activity, healthy eating, substance use (e.g., alcohol, nicotine) have all been linked to risk of various chronic diseases and long-term health outcomes. Health coaching has emerged to fill the gap within the current healthcare system surrounding behavior change treatment. Many health coaching organizations and resources claim that the practice incorporates client-directive care. However, further research is warranted for determining what skills are necessary for health coaching clients to successfully work …


An Evaluation Of Prompting To Teach Children To Ask For Help In A Virtual Classroom, Katherine Griffith Brock Jan 2023

An Evaluation Of Prompting To Teach Children To Ask For Help In A Virtual Classroom, Katherine Griffith Brock

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many students have been forced to learn online. However, more information is needed about effective strategies for promoting active engagement in the online classroom, particularly the impact of peer modeling. This study investigated peer modeling and behavioral skills training to increase hand raising and question asking/answering behavior in six elementary school students. The study employed a multiple baseline across participants design, with data collected live during Zoom sessions by three research assistants, one acting as the teacher and two acting as peer models. Latency to speech was also coded subsequently to the live session …


Caregiver Acceptability Of Differential Reinforcement Procedures For Honest Reports Of Transgressions, Stephanie C. Bowar Jan 2023

Caregiver Acceptability Of Differential Reinforcement Procedures For Honest Reports Of Transgressions, Stephanie C. Bowar

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

When measuring social validity, many researchers rely exclusively on subjective measures, such as questionnaires or surveys; however, these measures may fail to capture the variables that control later intervention adoption by stakeholders, and objective measures may capture these variables more accurately. Moreover, few researchers have investigated the adoptability of differential reinforcement (DR) interventions to increase children’s honesty about transgressions. We taught caregivers to implement the DR procedures reported in Lehardy et al. (2023) and measured the acceptability and adoptability of procedures using three measures: (1) a social validity questionnaire and rating scale immediately following training, (2) a concurrent-chains preference assessment …


Evaluating The Effects Of Feedback On College Students' Self-Reports Of Alcohol Consumption And Standard Drink Free-Pours, Alondra Del Real Jan 2023

Evaluating The Effects Of Feedback On College Students' Self-Reports Of Alcohol Consumption And Standard Drink Free-Pours, Alondra Del Real

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Excessive alcohol consumption is a widespread concern among many college campuses. Most of the data on the prevalence and adverse consequences associated with college drinking are gathered from self-report surveys, which require respondents to have a knowledge of standard drink sizes. Unfortunately, the reliability and validity of these data are questionable because college students are typically unable to define or pour standard drinks. Efforts to improve college students’ self-reported alcohol consumption are warranted. Some researchers suggest that we can improve self-reports of alcohol consumption by providing college students with feedback on the accuracy of their standard drink free-pours (White et …


Evaluating A Nondirective Health Coaching Package And A Directive Coaching Package For Increasing Physical Activity, Hailey E. Donohue Jan 2022

Evaluating A Nondirective Health Coaching Package And A Directive Coaching Package For Increasing Physical Activity, Hailey E. Donohue

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Physical inactivity is a worldwide public health problem. Applied behavior analysis has demonstrated success in this area; interventions such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and feedback have produced increases in physical activity of adults. Nevertheless, strategies with a more nondirective approach, such as health coaching, are gaining traction in practice independent of behavior analytic approaches. We do not know about the relative effects of nondirective approaches and the established, directive interventions in applied behavior analysis, or about client preference for nondirective and directive approaches. The present study employed a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate a largely nondirective, client-centered health …


The Feasibility Of Assessing Infants’ Social Evaluations Using Within-Subject Repeated Measures In A Virtual Format, Samantha Crooks Jan 2021

The Feasibility Of Assessing Infants’ Social Evaluations Using Within-Subject Repeated Measures In A Virtual Format, Samantha Crooks

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Foundational research on infant social evaluations (e.g., Hamlin et al., 2007; Hamlin et al., 2011; Hamlin & Wynn, 2011) has been cited over 2,500 times and infant researchers suggest these data show infants have an unlearned preference for prosocial others. However, several failed replications have been published, which might be attributable to the type of research methods used to investigate this question. A single measure of the dependent variable is ubiquitous among these studies; within-subject repeated measures are rarely used. In the current study, we adapted methods used by Hamlin and Wynn (2011) to a video-only format, due to COVID-19 …


Teaching Study Skills To College Students Using Checklist Training, Sarah T. Kong Jan 2021

Teaching Study Skills To College Students Using Checklist Training, Sarah T. Kong

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Deficits in the study skills of college students can lead to lower academic performance and disqualification. Although behavior analytic research has evaluated methods for teaching, structuring in-class notes, increasing attendance, and improving participation, no studies have evaluated methods for improving independent studying outside of the classroom using a single-case design. We evaluated the effects of a study skills training package using a multiple probe design across skills with college students. Sessions took place in a room arranged to emulate the typical study space found in a dorm or library. During sessions, participants were given a 3–6 page reading from a …


Using Two Reinforcement Contingencies To Alter Teachers' Rates Of Praise, Ashleigh Eaves Aug 2020

Using Two Reinforcement Contingencies To Alter Teachers' Rates Of Praise, Ashleigh Eaves

Dissertations

The current study evaluated the effects of a positive and negative reinforcement contingency on teachers’ use of behavior specific praise (BSP) in the educational setting. An alternating treatments design was used across four participants in a rural, Southern elementary to determine if one or both conditions was successful in increasing the use of BSP. Data were collected on teachers’ use of BSP, general praise, general reprimands, and behavior specific reprimands (BSR). Additionally, student engagement in academically-associated and/or disruptive behaviors was measured throughout baseline, treatment, and follow-up phases. Results indicate both the positive and negative reinforcement contingency were successful in improving …


Teaching College Students How To Answer Interview Questions: Content, Fluency, And Social Validity, Jennifer Wahonick Jan 2020

Teaching College Students How To Answer Interview Questions: Content, Fluency, And Social Validity, Jennifer Wahonick

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Poor interview performance may be one factor contributing to the unemployment and underemployment of recent college graduates, and content and fluency of interview answers seem to be especially important. Although decades of research have shown improvements in interview skills using instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback, researchers have noted that the duration of training could limit the practicality of using these procedures in college classrooms or career centers. Additional time could be saved if teaching one skill led to collateral changes in another. Although previous research reported collateral changes in speech disfluencies after targeting elements of answer content (Hollandsworth et al., …


Further Comparison Of Preference For Intervention With And Without Restricted Topics, Meg Patel Jan 2020

Further Comparison Of Preference For Intervention With And Without Restricted Topics, Meg Patel

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has shown that individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may dwell on restricted topics of interest during conversations (Mercier et al., 2000; Smerbeck, 2019). Stocco et al. (in press) found that individuals may prefer a conversational-skill intervention that includes access to restricted topics over an intervention that only provides high-quality attention for speech about experimenter-led topics. We replicated and extended Stocco et al. in two ways. First, we evaluated if speech about restricted topics (a) occurred at high levels and (b) was sensitive to interested responses from a listener. Second, we experimentally evaluated the additive effects of …


A Praise-Based Intervention Does Not Increase The Honest Reports Of Children, Adam David Moline Jan 2020

A Praise-Based Intervention Does Not Increase The Honest Reports Of Children, Adam David Moline

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Although lying is a major concern for many caregivers (Alwin, 1989; Gervais et al., 2000), there is little behavior analytic research on effective, practical interventions. Studies have shown that a moral story, instruction, or rule implying praise for honesty produced statistically significant improvements in children admitting a transgression (Lee et al., 2014; Talwar et al., 2015; Talwar et al., 2016). Although praise has been shown to function as a reinforcer (Dozier et al., 2012; Hall et al., 1968; Polick et al., 2012), it is unknown if an intervention package including praise for telling the truth would compete with reinforcement contingencies …


Evaluation Of Behavioral Skills Training (Bst) To Teach College Students To Pour A Standard Serving Of Alcohol: Skill Acquisition And Generality Across Cups And Time, Margaret Brock Jan 2020

Evaluation Of Behavioral Skills Training (Bst) To Teach College Students To Pour A Standard Serving Of Alcohol: Skill Acquisition And Generality Across Cups And Time, Margaret Brock

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Binge drinking is prevalent among college students and is associated with a number of serious consequences. However, research suggests college students who count drinks and set drink limits are less likely to engage in binge drinking. In order to successfully use these tactics, college students must identify and pour standard servings of alcohol. Unfortunately, college students typically cannot identify or pour standard servings of alcohol. Behavioral Skills Training (BST), comprised of instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback (Miltenberger, 2008), can be used to teach college students to pour standard servings of alcohol (Hankla et al., 2017). If effective, universities might consider …


Free Operant Comparison Of Interventions For Problematic Speech Using Reinforcement With And Without Preferred Topics, Ingrid Marcela Saavedra Jan 2019

Free Operant Comparison Of Interventions For Problematic Speech Using Reinforcement With And Without Preferred Topics, Ingrid Marcela Saavedra

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Deficits in conversation skills can be one barrier to developing and maintaining relationships for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Individuals with ASD may deter conversation partners if they do not stay on topic or if they dwell on topics. Several interventions have been identified in targeting the reduction of problematic (off-topic or perseverative) speech, and withheld attention for its occurrence. In addition to leveraging attention as a reinforcer, one study provided signaled access to preferred topics contingent on talking about non-perseverative or therapist-selected topics. Despite showing clear improvements in on-topic speech and stimulus control of preferred topics, little is …


Effects Of A Group-Deposit Prize Draw On The Step Counts Of Adults, Alex J. Mccurdy Jan 2019

Effects Of A Group-Deposit Prize Draw On The Step Counts Of Adults, Alex J. Mccurdy

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The World Health Organization (WHO, 2016) reports that 3.2 million deaths per year are attributable to physical inactivity, making it the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Physical inactivity is also a key risk factor for noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes (WHO, 2018). Globally, 1 in 4 adults is not active enough and, therefore, foregoes a myriad of health benefits associated with Physical Activity (PA; WHO, 2018). In the United States, only about 1 in 5 (21%) adults meet the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2018). …


An Evaluation Of Individual And Group Behavioral Skills Training To Teach Members Of Greek Letter Organizations To Free-Pour Standards Of Alcohol, Meagan Anne Strickland Jan 2019

An Evaluation Of Individual And Group Behavioral Skills Training To Teach Members Of Greek Letter Organizations To Free-Pour Standards Of Alcohol, Meagan Anne Strickland

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

College students engage in high levels of excessive drinking and certain subpopulations of college students, such as members of Greek Letter Organizations (GLOs) report higher levels of excessive alcohol consumptions. Those who report less excessive drinking also report counting their drinks and setting drink limits. However, the effectiveness of these strategies may be improved by the ability to accurately identify and pour standard servings of alcohol, an area in which college students’ knowledge is generally quite poor. Although individual behavioral skills training (BST) has been used to teach college students to accurately pour beer (Hankla et al., 2017), little is …


A Randomized Trial To Compare Switching To Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes Versus Reducing Cigarettes Per Day, Elias Mushabac Klemperer Jan 2019

A Randomized Trial To Compare Switching To Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes Versus Reducing Cigarettes Per Day, Elias Mushabac Klemperer

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Smoking cigarettes is the most preventable cause of death in the US. Smokers are often unsuccessful at quitting because they are dependent. Reducing nicotine could be one way to reduce dependence. Currently, reducing cigarettes per day (CPD) is the most common strategy to reduce nicotine intake. However, some have proposed switching to very low nicotine content (VLNC) cigarettes to reduce nicotine and dependence. Both reducing CPD and switching to VLNC cigarettes aim to reduce nicotine but do so in different ways. I conducted a randomized trial to compare the degree to which switching to VLNC cigarettes vs reducing CPD 1) …


The Contributing Factors To Adolescent Depression, Josie H. Lee Apr 2018

The Contributing Factors To Adolescent Depression, Josie H. Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Objective: This paper reviews individual, familial, peer, and societal factors influencing adolescent depression in developed countries. Background: Depression usually onsets at adolescence and contributes to high DALYs. Since depression is treatable, efforts should be made to reduce its prevalence and effect. Methods: The research consisted of looking at literature relevant to the topic and age group and conducting interviews with experts who know about and have worked with adolescent depression. Discussion: Adolescents begins at the onset of puberty, allowing different biological factors such as genetics, stress of puberty, and cognitive changes to increase vulnerability to depression. Adolescents who had substance …


Sacrificial Dynamite: The Convergence Of Developed Empathy And Ongoing Relational Experience With God: A Grounded Theory, Toran Scott Apr 2018

Sacrificial Dynamite: The Convergence Of Developed Empathy And Ongoing Relational Experience With God: A Grounded Theory, Toran Scott

Dissertations

This grounded theory study examined how participants described and reflected on their lives and what led them to choose sacrifice. The study was grounded in a Christian understanding of sacrifice, defined as the willful giving up of one’s positions or possessions for the sake of serving others. Using in-depth, open-ended interviews and follow-up interviews to co-construct meaning, participants were asked to reflect on their childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood to reflect on and describe any messages, relationships, or experiences that they thought contributed to their eventual choice to sacrifice. The interviews were free-flowing and filled with beautiful and engaging stories. …


The Implementation And Adoptability Of Behavioral Skills Training In A Career Center, Vinthia Wiryananda Wirantana Jan 2018

The Implementation And Adoptability Of Behavioral Skills Training In A Career Center, Vinthia Wiryananda Wirantana

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

It is unclear if staff at career centers use, or are willing to use, empirically-supported procedures like behavioral skills training (BST) when teaching interview skills to college students. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which the typical career center training consisted of BST, to evaluate staff-implemented BST, and to measure student performance as a result of both training. Using non-concurrent multiple baseline design, three staff were taught to use BST to teach three students to answer interview questions. First, staff used their typical training procedure, and then, they used BST to teach student interview skills; …


Groups Are Unpredictably Transformed By Their Internal Dynamics, R Scott Tindale Oct 2017

Groups Are Unpredictably Transformed By Their Internal Dynamics, R Scott Tindale

R. Scott Tindale

No abstract provided.


Evaluation Of A Mindfulness Intervention For Children With Emotion Regulation Difficulties, Stephanie Jo Pirsig Jan 2017

Evaluation Of A Mindfulness Intervention For Children With Emotion Regulation Difficulties, Stephanie Jo Pirsig

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Emotion regulation difficulties are featured in internalizing and externalizing psychological diagnoses and can be seen as a precursor for a severe and persistent mental illness, relationship, and personal problems. Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) is a non-pharmaceutical alternative and may alleviate limitations for medication, cognitive behavior therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a MBSR intervention on emotion regulation in children with emotion regulation difficulties and associated psychiatric diagnoses. Five participants, ages 6 to 13 years old, with emotion regulation difficulties were recruited through local psychiatric clinics and participated in …


Identifying Criminals’ Risk Preferences, Murat C. Mungan, Jonathan Klick Jan 2016

Identifying Criminals’ Risk Preferences, Murat C. Mungan, Jonathan Klick

All Faculty Scholarship

There is a 250 year old presumption in the criminology and law enforcement literature that people are deterred more by increases in the certainty rather than increases in the severity of legal sanctions. We call this presumption the Certainty Aversion Presumption (CAP). Simple criminal decision making models suggest that criminals must be risk-seeking if they behave consistently with CAP. This implication leads to disturbing interpretations, such as criminals being categorically different than law abiding people, who often display risk-averse behavior while making financial decisions. Moreover, policy discussions that incorrectly rely on criminals’ risk attitudes implied by CAP are ill-informed, and …


Effects Of Gender Composition Of Target And Sender Dyads On The Tendency To Infer Lies, Byron J. Simoneaux Jul 2012

Effects Of Gender Composition Of Target And Sender Dyads On The Tendency To Infer Lies, Byron J. Simoneaux

Doctoral Dissertations

Lying is so common in human behavior that some have labeled it a social skill. Despite the ubiquity of lies, humans have consistently been found to be poor lie detectors. Attempts have been made to improve the accuracy of human lie detection. Unfortunately, the most successful training only improves accuracy slightly above the level of chance. Because of its importance to society, considerable effort has been aimed at developing methods to help determine when people are lying. Researching how and why humans infer that another person is lying has the potential to advance the understanding of lie detection. Researchers have …


Nondrug Reinforcement Loss And Relapse To Alcohol Seeking In Another Context, Adam D. Pyszczynski May 2011

Nondrug Reinforcement Loss And Relapse To Alcohol Seeking In Another Context, Adam D. Pyszczynski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Extinguished alcohol-maintained responding has been shown to relapse in a
resurgence preparation when food-reinforced responding is subsequently extinguished within the same context. However, drug and nondrug reinforcers are often specific to different contexts. Accordingly, the present experiments sought to determine whether loss of an alternative source of nondrug reinforcement in one context could produce relapse to drug seeking in a separate context. In one experiment, rats made topographically different responses for food or alcohol in alternating components of a multiple schedule. Both reinforcers were delivered during baseline, alcohol was withheld during the second phase of the experiment, and finally both …


Examination Of Behavioral Momentum With Staff As Contextual Variables In Applied Settings With Children With Autism, Mark P. Groskreutz May 2010

Examination Of Behavioral Momentum With Staff As Contextual Variables In Applied Settings With Children With Autism, Mark P. Groskreutz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Behavioral momentum theory proposes that the persistence of behavior when exposed to disruptors provides an appropriate measure of the strength of behavior. Basic research has consistently demonstrated that behaviors that occurred in a context with higher overall rates of reinforcement (rich contexts) were more persistent than other behaviors that have occurred in a context with relatively lower rates of reinforcement (lean contexts). More surprisingly, behavioral momentum theory goes on to assert that this greater persistence in richer contexts is found even when rate of responding is lower in the rich context, and when the greater richness is due to noncontingent …


Language Brokering In Latino Families: Direct Observations Of Brokering Patterns, Parent-Child Interactions, And Relationship Quality, Kee J. E. Straits May 2010

Language Brokering In Latino Families: Direct Observations Of Brokering Patterns, Parent-Child Interactions, And Relationship Quality, Kee J. E. Straits

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the growing percentage of immigrant families in the USA, language transition is a common immigrant experience and can occur rapidly from generation to generation within a family. Child language brokering appears to occur within minority language families as one way of negotiating language and cultural differences; however, the phenomenon of children translating or mediating language interactions for parents has previously been hypothesized to contribute to negative outcomes for children, such as role-reversals and parentification, emotional distancing and lack of communication, increased parent-child conflict, and increased internalizing/externalizing disorders. The current study used direct observations of 60 Spanish-speaking parent-child dyads (30 …


Groups Are Unpredictably Transformed By Their Internal Dynamics, R Scott Tindale Jan 1996

Groups Are Unpredictably Transformed By Their Internal Dynamics, R Scott Tindale

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.