Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Predicting Arithmetic Performance From Age And Executive Function Skills, Andrea Molzhon

Theses and Dissertations

The learning of mathematics can be a difficult process for many students. Understanding the cognitive components that contribute to arithmetic achievement may illuminate sources of difficulty and inform the development of better teaching and learning practices. Executive functions (EFs) have been implicated in the development of arithmetic skills in early childhood, but less is known about this relation across middle childhood and beyond. The current study included individuals ages 6-7, 9-10, 12-13, and 18+ years and examined the contributions of 3 components of EF, working memory (WM), inhibition, and set shifting (SS), to arithmetic skills in two domains. It was …

Effect Of Social Status On Behavioral And Neural Response To Stress, Daniel W. Curry, Kathleen E. Morrison, Matthew A. Cooper

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Educators' Attitudes Toward Outdoor Classrooms And The Cognitive Benefits In Children, Carlie Speedlin

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A case study was organized at a K-5 elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraksa. This school is Saratoga Elementary School and is a United States Title I Distinguished School1 under No Child Left Behind. It has a population of 266 students, with 47% being minority, 1% gifted, and 28% special education (LPS School Profile Brochure). 80% of the student population is eligible for free/reduced meals, implying that it’s a school with a lower socioeconomic status. At this school a garden space was constructed and an after school garden club was implemented for this case study. The club had been running since …

How Does Facebook Browsing Affect Self-Awareness And Social Well-Being: The Role Of Narcissism, Lin Qiu, Han Lin, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Social networking sites such as Facebook have become extremely popular recently. In this research, we studied how Facebook browsing affects self-awareness and social well-being. Our results show that after Facebook browsing, individuals high in narcissism raised their public self-awareness while those low in narcissism reduced their public self-awareness. We also found that individuals low in narcissism perceived their friends' lives to be better than their own and consequently experienced negative social well-being and emotion. However, this effect did not occur for individuals high in narcissism.

Ethical Dilemmas In Managed Mental Health Care, Kolina J. Delgado

Psychology Student Publications

In the United States, health care has become a significant political, social, economical, and ethical concern. It is difficult to identify a professional or personal area of life that is not impacted in some way by health care. According to the United States Census Bureau (2010) approximately 255 million Americans were enrolled in some form of managed health care in 2009. The current paper describes the evolution of managed care, common practices in managed care, and ethical issues inherent to working in a managed mental health care system.

Dual Diagnosis: Impact, Assessment, And Treatment In Co-Occurring Substance Abuse And Severe Mental Illness, Kolina J. Delgado

Psychology Student Publications

Mental illness and substance use disorders individually comprise a challenging area of work for health care professionals. In combination, these issues create an even greater demand; a demand that many health care professionals find themselves ill prepared to address (McKeown, 2010). The prevalence rates of substance disorders and psychiatric disorders co-occurring in one person, a condition referred to as dual diagnosis, are astoundingly high.

The Statistical Properties Of The Survivor Interaction Contrast, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Joseph W. Houpt

The Survivor Interaction Contrast (SIC) is a powerful tool for assessing the architecture and stopping rule of a model of mental processes. Despite its demonstrated utility, the methodology has lacked a method for statistical testing until now. In this paper we briefly describe the SIC then develop some basic statistical properties of the measure. These developments lead to a statistical test for rejecting certain classes of models based on the SIC. We verify these tests using simulated data, then demonstrate their use on data from a simple cognitive task.

Put Your Money Where Your Butt Is: A Commitment Contract For Smoking Cessation, Xavier Giné, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman

Dartmouth Scholarship

We designed and tested a voluntary commitment product to help smokers quit smoking. The product (CARES) offered smokers a savings account in which they deposit funds for six months, after which they take a urine test for nicotine and cotinine. If they pass, their money is returned; otherwise, their money is forfeited to charity. Of smokers offered CARES, 11 percent took up, and smokers randomly offered CARES were 3 percentage points more likely to pass the 6-month test than the control group. More importantly, this effect persisted in surprise tests at 12 months, indicating that CARES produced lasting smoking cessation. …

The Statistical Properties Of The Survivor Interaction Contrast, Joseph W. Houpt, James T. Townsend

Psychology Faculty Publications

The Survivor Interaction Contrast (SIC) is a powerful tool for assessing the architecture and stopping rule of a model of mental processes. Despite its demonstrated utility, the methodology has lacked a method for statistical testing until now. In this paper we briefly describe the SIC then develop some basic statistical properties of the measure. These developments lead to a statistical test for rejecting certain classes of models based on the SIC. We verify these tests using simulated data, then demonstrate their use on data from a simple cognitive task.

Polishing The "Boots," Part 2, Rodger E. Broome

Rodger E. Broome

Autocracy, Bureaucracy, and Complacency, the A-B-Cs of bad management.

How Tibet Buddhists In The United States Negotiate Mental Health Concerns, Paul Peter Sireci

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

No abstract provided.

The Relevance Of The Natural Environment To Social Work : A Comparison Of Fields That Consider The Natural Environment In Social Problems : A Project Based Upon An Independent Investigation, John D. Ritchie

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Given the natural environment's importance to humans, this study was undertaken to understand how social work has considered the natural environment in approaching social problems compared to other fields that consider the natural environment. In addition, comparing literature from several fields, the author sought to evaluate the adequacy of social work's attention to the natural environment as the field analyzes and conceives solutions to social problems and carries out its mission. The study examined the gaps in social work literature regarding the natural environment. The author compared published literature from social work, psychology, environmental health and medicine, and environmentalism to …

Criminal Profiling Methods, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

Extract:As an investigative aid, criminal profiling has received a great deal of attention from academic audiences and popular culture (Petherick, 2003), and significant advances have been made in both practical and theoretical terms. Even though our collective knowledge about this area has grown, there is still much about the process that remains a mystery. For example, there is little acknowledgment or understanding of the logic or reasoning employed within the profiling process (see Chapter 2), or that there are indeed different methods employed within the profiling community. Of more concern is the fact that many practitioners continue to confuse these …

A Qualitative Study Of The Psychological Impact Of Unemployment On Individuals., Marie Conroy

Dissertations

This research study examines individual’s experiences of unemployment from a psychological perspective. It presents the different psychological and financial effects of unemployment and presents the different theories developed on the effects of job loss on the individual. It will also examine the central role which work contributes to an individual’s life. Finally, it will investigate how a person deals with unemployment and copes with the transition. A qualitative approach was selected as the research method for this study, through the use of six semi-structured interviews.

The research findings indicate that unemployment can affect an individual’s psychological well-being. Unemployment can leave …

A Comparison Of The Response Topography Of Steady-State Versus Transient Verps To Global Form And Motion, Sophia Gray

Modern Psychological Studies

Neurons in area VI are responsible for visual processing of the local properties of visual array while the lager receptive fields of extra-striate visual areas such as V4 and V.5 serve to process global representations. In adults, transitions in global coherence of both form and motion yield reliable visual event-related potentials (VERPs) with scalp distributions that are topographically distinct. Ten adult students at UCL participated in the current VERP study, which compared steady-state stimuli, which have rapid transitions between coherent and incoherent states, to transient stimuli, which have longer intervals between transitions, for both form and motion. Analysis of VERP …

Etiological And Gender Perspectives Of Anxiety Disorder Development, Erika L. Harrington, Jeffrey S. Danforth, Margaret Letterman

Modern Psychological Studies

This paper presents a comprehensive, integrative review of research on the biological, environmental, and cognitive etiology of anxiety. Causes of generalized anxiety disorder, specific and social phobias, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder are discussed, as is the role of gender in anxiety development. Biological research concerning genetic heritability, neurobiological structure, and neurotransmitter functioning are reviewed. Environmental factors such as aversive events, parental interactions, environmental control, and learning are discussed, followed by research on cognitive distortions, attribution style, attention biases, and catastrophic cognitions. The review finds evidence of an interaction between biological, environmental and cognitive variables, as well as a mediating …

Mental Health Intervention And Prevention Of Stategies For Emergency Service Personnel Facing Traumatic Stress Symptoms, Kathryn Cochran, C. Albert Bardi

Modern Psychological Studies

Emergency first responders are affected by second-hand exposure to trauma; they put themselves at risk for developing debilitating posttraumatic stress symptoms in the aftermath of a traumatic crisis. Empirical research is reviewed for successful mental health services for civil servants, such as police officers, firemen, and emergency medical technicians recovering from traumatic stress or sustaining a healthy mental state. This review investigates successful mental health intervention for emergency service personnel, such as Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) and Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD),concluding CJSD to be an effective intervention treatment among secondary victims of trauma. Effective traumatic stress prevention strategies …

Word Recognition In The Parafovea: An Eye Movement Investigation Of Chinese Reading, Jinmian Yang

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Chinese is a logographic writing system that drastically differs from alphabetic scripts in many important aspects. Thus, the nature of parafoveal processing in reading Chinese may be different from that in reading alphabetic languages. Here, four eye-tracking experiments using the boundary display change paradigm (Rayner, 1975) were conducted to explore the role of high level information, like semantic and plausibility information, in the parafovea for Chinese readers.

Experiments 1 and 2 used two-character words that can have the order of their component characters reversed, and still be lexical units as target words. Readers received a parafoveal preview of a target …

Working With Clay Reduces Anxiety Among College Students, Melissa Lindquist, Cynthia Turk

Modern Psychological Studies

This study examined the efficacy of an art therapy intervention (working with clay) on reducing anxiety. Forty-eight college students participated in small groups. Participants underwent a brief anxiety induction and were then randomly assigned to work with either a Rubik's cube or clay for 15 minutes. The two anxiety subscales were administered at baseline, after the anxiety induction, and after the intervention. The individuals in the clay condition experienced a significantly greater reduction in anxiety at post-intervention on both measures relative to the control condition. Possible explanations, clinical implications, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Front Matter

Modern Psychological Studies

No abstract provided.

The Etiology Of Conduct Disorder And Its Relation To Antisocial Personality Disorder: A Literature Review, Lyndsi Maciow, Carolyn Mcnamara Barry

Modern Psychological Studies

Antisocial behavior enacts a heavy price on both the individual engaged in the behavior and the society in which he or she resides. Research has shown that among a subset of individuals antisocial behavior is fairly stable from childhood through early adulthood. This review article traces the hierarchical development of antisocial behavior from childhood Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) through the adult diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), with particular emphasis placed upon adolescent Conduct Disorder (CD). Possible environmental etiological factors of CD are discussed, the most notable being familial discord and low socioeconomic status. Potential biological etiological determinants of antisocial …

Perceived Racism As A Predictor Of Depression And Cultural Mistrust, Erika L. Harrington, Madeline A. Fugere

Modern Psychological Studies

We examined the role of perceived racism as a predictor of depression and cultural mistrust in African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, and Caucasian students. Design: 65 university students of varying racial and ethnic backgrounds completed the Perceived Racism Scale, Beck Depression Inventory second edition, and Cultural Mistrust Inventory-Revised. Results: African Americans experienced the highest levels of perceived racism, followed by Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and Caucasians. Higher levels of perceived racism were associated with increased cultural mistrust, while depression and mistrust varied with ethnic background. Further, high perceived racism was associated with increased cultural mistrust for African American and …

Fostering Empathy In Children: A Literature Review And Proposal, Jennifer L. Hanson

Modern Psychological Studies

Empathy links separate beings together as it enhances interpersonal relationships and motivates justice and prosocial behavior. Therefore, it is beneficial to reflect upon how empathy is first instilled and enhanced, as well as how it is suppressed. With such information, strategies can be devised to foster empathy by means of structured guidance. The experience of empathy involves both cognitive precursors and affective experiences that allow the observer to become involved in the complex, emotional, inner-world of the subject. Moreover the observer's expression of empathy and an individual's feelings of concern for the subject can be prompted or inhibited by a …

The Effects Of Caffeinated Vs. Placebo Beverage On Self-Reported Mood State In College Students, Sheena Williams, Jason King, Johnathan Hammersley

Modern Psychological Studies

Many people rely on caffeine because of its effects. The primary purpose of the current study was to measure the effects of caffeine on current mood state, the effects of caffeine on mood dependent upon time of questionnaire administration, how caffeine and mood interact to impact attention and distraction, and if this varied by gender. A Feeling State Questionnaire (FSQ) was taken by each of the 13 participants throughout the day, before and after the administration of a soft drink containing either caffeine or placebo; furthermore it was a within subjects design meaning that each of the participants received both …

The Effects Of Situational Cues On Inducing Stress, Asma Mahood, Rebecca White

Modern Psychological Studies

The effect of situational cues on inducing and increasing state anxiety was investigated in this research experiment. 132 college students were asked to participate in the experiment. After completing a baseline stress questionnaire, a story was read out loud in three parts to the students about a party that involved underage drinking and other escalating stressors. After each part a short questionnaire was given to measure the impact on stress levels based on self-report. Previous research on the subject was conclusive in finding that presenting situational cues could influence state anxiety. An experiment involving positive and negative written scenarios evidenced …

Correlating Body Experiences, Knowledge Of Verbs, And The Development Of Argument Structure, Josita Maouene, Nitya Sethuraman, Karin Harman James, Mounir Maouene, Linda Smith

Josita C Maouene

No abstract provided.

Functional Principal Components Analysis And The Capacity Coefficient, D. Burns, Joseph W. Houpt, M. J. Endres, J. T. Townsend

Joseph W. Houpt

The capacity coefficient is a well established measure of the efficiency of processing combined sources of information. It has been applied to measure cognitive processes ranging from audio-visual integration to face perception. Recently, the capacity coefficient has also been applied in various clinical situations. Typical clinical analysis, such as structural equation modeling, use scalar values or vectors with limited length as input. We explored the use of functional principal component analysis (fPCA) to allow researchers to describe the capacity coefficient, a continuous function of time, with a small set of discrete values. The fPCA approach was compared with two simple …

Sociocultural Attitudes And Expectations As A Result Of Media Internalization: An Exploration Of Potential Cultural Resiliency Factors Among Mexican-American College Women, Natalie Marie Perez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study involved a final sample of 153 Mexican-American college women who viewed photos of models who exemplify the thin ideal and models who are considered average and overweight according to society’s standards of beauty. The order of the photos was manipulated to determine if subjection to the thin ideal would negatively affect body satisfaction and or affect how the participants judged the models who did not meet the thin ideal. Manipulation did not negatively affect how participants judged the average and overweight models. In addition, upon manipulation, both groups rated themselves as heavier despite group assignment. Finally, acculturation level …

The Occurrence Of Child Maltreatment And Revictimization Among Hispanic Women, Eleni Isis Escorza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The current study examines the prevalence rates of child multi-type maltreatment and adult revictimization among Hispanic women who have witnessed domestic violence and/or experienced sexual abuse or physical abuse as children. A sample of two hundred-forty-three undergraduate, Hispanic, female students completed measures of events occurring in childhood and adulthood, sexual experiences, substance use, acculturation status, and family characteristics. The results indicate that experiencing multiple forms of child abuse is fairly common, especially for women who report a history of child abuse. The results also suggest that experience of abuse as a child is significantly associated with experiencing physical or sexual …

Gender Differences In Advanced Theory Of Mind And Social Competence Among School-Age Children, Cheryl A. Barton

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The present study explored gender differences in the development of theory of mind (ToM) and social competence among school-age children. It was hypothesized that children’s ToM ability related to their social competence. Children, ages 6 to 12-years (N=62; 38 girls, 24 boys) were administered 12 advanced ToM stories and a language assessment. Parents and teachers evaluated the children’s social skills (N=70; 40 girls, 30 boys), - using a 23 item social competence inventory which consisted of positive behaviors and two forms of negative behaviors: relational aggression and overt hostility. Results indicated positive associations between children’s ToM ability and positive social …