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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Psychological Distress And Risky Sexual Behaviors Among A Treatment-Seeking Opioid-Dependent Population, Hayley M. Smith Dec 2015

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Psychological Distress And Risky Sexual Behaviors Among A Treatment-Seeking Opioid-Dependent Population, Hayley M. Smith

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Substance abusing populations are at an increased risk for disease transmission and have higher rates of psychological comorbidity compared to the general population (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012a; Chaudhury & Singh, 2009; Des Jarlais, Semaan, & Arasteh, 2011; Goodwin & Stein, 2013). Numerous studies have implicated the interaction of psychological distress and risky sexual behaviors in the increased risk of disease transmission, however, several studies have not found this association. It has been suggested that there may be curvilinear relationship between psychological distress and risky sexual behaviors but this theory has yet to be tested. The …


Shop 'Til You Drop: A Coping Mechanism For Stressed University Students?, Aileen M. Pidgeon, Leanne Bottomley, Amy Bannatyne Sep 2015

Shop 'Til You Drop: A Coping Mechanism For Stressed University Students?, Aileen M. Pidgeon, Leanne Bottomley, Amy Bannatyne

Aileen M. Pidgeon

Compulsive buying is a concerning problem affecting university students who are particularly vulnerable to experiencing anxiety and stress due to academic workloads, financial difficulties, and social isolation. The current study explores the relationship between compulsive buying behaviour, gender differences, anxiety, stress, and coping styles among university students. As expected, findings revealed female university students reported significantly higher levels of compulsive buying behaviour compared to male students, and students engaging in compulsive buying behaviours were significantly younger than non-compulsive buying students. Compared to university students who reported regular purchasing behaviours, university students who engaged in compulsive buying also reported significantly higher …


Should'a Put A Ring On It: Investigating Adult Attachment, Relationship Status, Anxiety, Mindfulness, And Resilience In Romantic Relationships, Aileen M. Pidgeon, Alexandra Giufre Aug 2015

Should'a Put A Ring On It: Investigating Adult Attachment, Relationship Status, Anxiety, Mindfulness, And Resilience In Romantic Relationships, Aileen M. Pidgeon, Alexandra Giufre

Aileen M. Pidgeon

This study aimed to investigate the predictive ability of relationship status, anxiety, mindfulness, and resilience in relation to the two orthogonal dimensions of adult attachment: attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. 156 participants completed measures assessing relationship status, adult attachment, anxiety, mindfulness and resilience. The results showed that resilience and the relationship status of single significantly predicted attachment anxiety, whereas anxiety and being either single or divorced significantly predicted attachment avoidance. A significant mediating role of resilience in the prediction of attachment anxiety from being single was also observed. The main implications of this study provided preliminary support for the significant …


Caffeine Use And Alexithymia In University Students, Michael Lyvers, Natalija Duric, Fred Thorberg Aug 2015

Caffeine Use And Alexithymia In University Students, Michael Lyvers, Natalija Duric, Fred Thorberg

Mike Lyvers

Alexithymia refers to difficulties with identifying, describing, and regulating one’s own emotions. This trait dimension has been linked to risky or harmful use of alcohol and illicit drugs; however, the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world, caffeine, has not been examined previously in relation to alexithymia. The present study assessed 106 male and female university students aged 18-30 years on their caffeine use in relation to several traits, including alexithymia. The 18 participants defined as alexithymic based on their Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) scores reported consuming nearly twice as much caffeine per day as did non-alexithymic or borderline …


Learning To Learn And Naming Through Receptive And Expressive Identification, Kelli Perry Aug 2015

Learning To Learn And Naming Through Receptive And Expressive Identification, Kelli Perry

Dissertations

Poor or no language skills are typical of most preschool children with autism (American Psychological Association, 2013). Language can be divided into the two components of receptive, or listener, skills and expressive, or speaker, skills. Recommendations for sequencing language instruction vary across the different behavior-analytic instructional models (Lovaas, 1981; Barbara & Rasmussen, 2007; Sundberg & Partington, 1998; Sundberg, 2008). The current study sought to examine those recommendations using young children (three- to four-years-old) with limited vocal repertoires and to explore the acquisition of learning to learn (Harlow, 1949) and naming (Greer & Ross, 2007). This research (1) adds to the …


Does Self-Compassion Protect Against Emotional Dysregulation, Anxiety, And Other Negative Emotions?, Elizabeth Willits Jan 2015

Does Self-Compassion Protect Against Emotional Dysregulation, Anxiety, And Other Negative Emotions?, Elizabeth Willits

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Self-compassion is a multifaceted construct meant to allow individuals to treat themselves with kindness, have a balanced perspective on their experiences, and feel connected to others (Neff, 2003a). Emotion regulation is related to higher levels of self-compassion (Diedrich et al., 2013; Vettese et al., 2011), and Neff (2003a) proposes that self-compassion can be viewed as a superior emotion regulation strategy. Self-compassion is negatively correlated with many forms of psychopathology, including anxiety (Neff, 2003b; Neff et al., 2007; Neff & McGehee, 2010). Based on prior research, it appears that self-compassion may increase the ability to regulation emotions, therefore increasing an individual’s …


The Effectiveness Of A Computer-Assisted, Cognitive-Behavior Program For Treating Anxiety Symptoms In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jennifer A. Zabel Jan 2015

The Effectiveness Of A Computer-Assisted, Cognitive-Behavior Program For Treating Anxiety Symptoms In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jennifer A. Zabel

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex and multifaceted, neurodevelopmental disorder that severely impacts children and families across a variety of settings. Prevalence rates of ASD are continuing to increase rapidly, with sizeable intervention and treatment costs placed on families and society. Further complicating the matter, many individuals with ASD also evidence co-occurring anxiety symptoms or disorders and tend to be at a higher risk for developing such problems when compared to other clinical populations or typically developing children. This study investigated the effectiveness of a computer-assisted CBT program, Camp Cope-A-Lot (CCAL), in regards to reducing anxiety symptoms in four …