Psychology Commons^™

Does Speech-To-Text Assistive Technology Paired With Graphic Organizers Improve The Written Expression Of Students With Traumatic Brain Injuries?, Kayla Cuifolo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can range from mild to severe and can cause debilitating outcomes that require children to need specialized medical or educational services post-injury. Outcomes vary and are dependent on the location of injury, age, severity, and environmental factors. Some common deficits that happen as a result of a brain injury are fine motor and executive functioning skill difficulties. Fine motor and executive functioning skills are an important component of written expression. Therefore, this current study utilized a brief experimental analysis in order to determine the effects that speech-to-text assistive technology along with a graphic organizer has …

Sexism And Severity: An Examination Of Teacher's Attitudes About Autism Symptomology In The Classroom, Kaitlyn Niederstadt

Psychology and Counseling Theses

Girls continue to be underdiagnosed and under-researched in the study of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is the result of a systemized preference towards masculine symptomology of ASD examined and created to diagnose ASD. The ideas produced by the research trickle down to teachers who then are in charge of flagging students for signs of ASD, however this step is not only limited by understanding, but their own inherent gender biases on behaviors. Our sample consisted of 139 current or former teachers. Each participant received one of three, (varying from severity levels and gender), rating scale of behavior association, rating …

Sustaining Boys' Motivation Over The Transition To Middle School: Can Interpersonal Resources Protect Boys From Engagement Declines Across Sixth Grade?, Brandy Anne Brennan

Dissertations and Theses

Recent research has highlighted the challenges boys face in school. Boys are overrepresented on indicators of negative academic outcomes, such as detention, suspension, and dropout, as well as underperformance on state and national tests. Moreover, these effects may be long lasting: Compared to females, male students are less likely to graduate high school, enroll in college, and complete a college degree, and they may be particularly vulnerable in middle school. As students enter middle school, their motivation and engagement normatively decline, and these losses may be especially problematic for boys. Nevertheless, research documents the importance of close relationships with parents, …

Parenting And Children's Academic Coping As A Dynamic System: Feedforward, Feedback, And Mediators Of Changes Across The School Year, Kristen Elizabeth Raine

Dissertations and Theses

Using a motivational framework based in self-determination theory, the present study investigated the dynamic system between parenting and children's coping, defined as the ways they handle the everyday difficulties they encounter in school, using a sample of 1,020 students in grades three through six drawn from a larger cohort-sequential study. Three overarching research questions were examined using multiple regression that concerned 1) feedforward effects from parents' initial provision of motivational support (i.e., involvement, structure, and autonomy support) to changes in children's academic coping across the school year, 2) feedback effects from children's initial coping to changes in the same parenting …

Identifying Risk Factors For Ptsd Symptom Clusters In Maltreated, Multiracial Youth Using Nonparametric Modeling, Mallory Constantine

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Multiracial youth are one of the most at-risk racial groups for child maltreatment. Multiracial individuals are also more likely to report mental health concerns than other racial or ethnic groups. This study aimed to identify demographic and psychological risk factors that are unique to multiracial, maltreated youth with respect to PTSD symptoms (i.e., re-experiencing, hyperarousal, avoidance) through classification and regression tree (CART) analyses. Participants included 99 multiracial, maltreated youth directly following their placement in an emergency group shelter due to substantiated maltreatment. The first hypothesis was that female gender, English first language, questions related to guilt and self-blame, and depressive …

Multiple Approaches To Auditory Rhythm: Development Of Sustained Musical Beat And The Relation To Language, Development Of Rhythmic Categories Via Iterated Production, And A Meta-Analytic Study Of Neural Entrainment To Beat, Karli Marie Nave

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Rhythm is ubiquitous to human communication, coordination, and experience of music. In this dissertation, I address three empirical questions through three different methodologies, all of which contribute to the growing body of literature on human auditory rhythm processing. In Chapter 2, I present a registered report detailing the results of independent conceptual replications of Nozaradan, Peretz, Missal, & Mouraux (2011), all using the same vetted protocol. Listeners performed the same tasks as in Nozaradan et al. (2011), with the addition of behavioral measures of perception. In neuroscience, neural correlates to musical beat perception have been identified, yet little to no …

The Relationship Between Cognitive Functioning And Internalizing/Externalizing Behaviors In Children And Adolescents With Down Syndrome, Jessalin R. Good

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Introduction: Down syndrome (DS) is a developmental disorder caused by a complete extra copy of chromosome 21. This genetic error results in a variety of other symptoms related to a range of medical and cognitive challenges. Although it has been reported that a significant relationship exists between cognitive functioning and both internalizing and externalizing behaviors in typically developing (TD) individuals, the literature is severely limited in investigating this relationship in those with DS.

Rationale: Internalizing and externalizing behaviors have been shown to have a negative relationship with cognitive functioning in TD children and adolescents (Shankman et al., 2010; Wood et …

Mental Health And Adolescents: The Impact Of Social Isolation In Adolescents During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Gabriella Aguinaldo

Nursing | Senior Theses

In early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic, first detected in late 2019, afflicted the world. The disease associated with the virus became known as COVID-19. COVID-19 was recognized as a highly contagious and deadly disease. In California, United States, COVID-19 was detected in February and the first shelter-in-place orders were ordered by the counties and state, which forced children and adults to stay at home and attend school and work virtually. Shelter-in-place orders were quickly implemented around the world.

As the world began this sudden switch in lifestyle, many were concerned for the mental health and safety of themselves and their …

Does Whispering Improve Children’S Memory? Comparing Auditory Vigilance And Salience Hypotheses, Christina M. Barnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oral communication is one of the primary tools children use to learn new information and speech registers can deliver additional meaning to the words someone uses. Cirillo’s (2004) vigilance hypothesis states “Whispering can affect the psychobiological state of recipients, and in particular raise their auditory vigilance” (Cirillo, 2004, p. 76). Building on this theory, the current study investigates the role of whispering and children’s memory by examining a whispering vigilance, whispering salience which focused on the changes between normal and whisper registers, and combined vigilance and salience hypotheses to determine if whispering contributes to the recall of information. Using video …

Personality As A Predictor Of Patterns Of Substance Use, Cynthia Sergi

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Substance use (SU) affects many people worldwide and is an important public health concern. Personality has been theorized to play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of SU. To test how personality is related to patterns of SU, a latent profile analysis was used to cluster individuals into SU classes with multinomial logistic regression used to test the relationship between personality and patterns of SU. Results suggested that polysubstance use was common, with variations in primary substance of choice among classes. As classes became more inclusive of more substances, they increased in psychopathological personality traits. Higher domains of …

Improving Stress Management For Female College Students, Kelsey Acosta

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Although many college students report feeling stress, women may have a unique perspective and experience regarding stress. Gilligan's theory states that women consider their relationships when considering decisions. This decision-making process can create an added layer of the already existing academic stressors that women face. Stress management techniques that acknowledge the unique stressors that women face are essential to improve mental health and provide an optimal college experience.

An Experimental Investigation Into The Impact Of Acute Stress On Alcohol Craving Through Implicit Coping Motives, Douglas J. Glenn

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Drinking to cope with negative emotions is associated with many negative alcohol-related outcomes such as increased alcohol use, drinking-related problems, and alcohol use disorders. An acute stressor is one example of a stimulus leading to negative emotions that an individual may wish to avoid. Research has shown that acute stress positively relates to drinking. Specifically, previous experimental studies have shown that individuals exposed to a stressor drink more alcohol and have stronger urges to drink than those not exposed to a stressor. Thus, it may be that drinking to cope explains why people experience alcohol cravings after experiencing a stressor. …

Literacy Abilities Of Children And Adolescents With Williams Syndrome., Caroline Greiner De Magalhaes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I report findings from two studies of the literacy abilities of children with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic disorder associated with intellectual disability. I had two overarching goals: 1) evaluate the applicability of theories of reading and spelling acquisition developed based on typically developing children to children with WS; and 2) provide results that would inform the development of targeted assessments and interventions. In Study 1, individual differences in phonological awareness, visual spatial perception, vocabulary, overall intellectual abilities, and reading instruction approach (systematic phonics vs. other approaches) for sixty-nine 6 – 7-year-olds (most of whom were in …

Nicu Experiences Of Adoptive Parents & Desired Preparation, Catherine J. Howe

MSU Graduate Theses

Parents who have newborns admitted into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) have multiple experiences and emotions. Additional social and emotional layers are experienced by adoptive couples when the infant they wish to adopt needs specialized care. This research study was completed to find out what adoptive parents experience in the NICU and what preparation would have been helpful. The method included semi-structured, open-ended interviews with seven couples who adopted a newborn at a Midwestern adoption agency within the past three years and had a NICU experience. The results described adoptive couples’ experiences on the unit, bonding and attachment, fears …

Effectiveness Of An Early Literacy Intervention For Increasing Teen Parents' Child-Directed Speech And Conversational Turns, Deborah H. Christie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children’s language ability upon entry to kindergarten is a powerful predictor of reading achievement throughout elementary school; yet disparities in children’s language growth have been detected as early as 18 months of age. These disparities have been linked to the quantity and quality of speech provided to children as they are learning to talk. The current study employed a single-case multiple-baseline across participants experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of an early literacy intervention to increase teen parents’ child-directed speech and conversational turns. The intervention was delivered one-on-one via videoconferencing by a teen parent peer coach. Participants included teen parents …

The Predictive Influence Of Challenging Behavior On Parent Stress In Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Paige Weir

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication, restricted interest, and repetitive patterns of behavior. Individuals with ASD also exhibit challenging behaviors that affect parent and caregiver stress directly. However, researchers have not yet examined the predictive influence of specific challenging behaviors on parent stress, particularly in young children (i.e., infants and toddlers) with ASD. Therefore, the current study expands existing literature by a) investigating the influence that challenging behaviors of young children with ASD have on parent stress and b) examining the unique contribution that each behavior (i.e., aggressive/disruptive behavior, stereotypy, and self-injurious …

Mobile Technology Use And School Readiness In Low-Income Preschoolers, Trina M. Harmon

Masters Theses

Once a luxury, mobile devices are now utilized by most members of society, including those in even the poorest communities. Unfortunately, little research has examined the effects of mobile media use in young children, and even less on young children from low-SES communities. Past research on television, and preliminary research on mobile technology, suggests that mobile media may affect school readiness, and that the direction and strength of this relation could depend on the content and context of the use. The current study examined the relation between mobile media use and a composite school readiness measure that included preliteracy, emergent …

Correlates Of Co-Rumination Among Married Women And Men In Pakistan, Mohib Rehman

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

This dissertation examined co-rumination among married men and women and its effects on their marital quality and depressive outcomes. The study addressed the concept of co-rumination in the Pakistani family context as the notion of gender role affects many aspects of people’s lives in Pakistan including their self-disclosure. Data were collected online through social media from 150 married men and women who were in a marital relationship for at least a year. Using multiple regression, the association between co-rumination and depression was assessed and the moderating role of gender was examined to see if co-rumination results in different outcomes among …

Facial Affect As A Component Of Emotion Regulation During Inhibitory Control In Fxs, Abigail Digby, Erin Hunt

Senior Theses

The present study investigated emotion regulation through facial affect during inhibitory control in FXS. Male participants (N=32) were asked to complete a task that induced frustration. An M&M was placed in front of the subject, and they were instructed not to eat the M&M until the trial has ended, marked by the ringing of a bell. The subject’s facial affect was observed and recorded throughout the 6 trials to investigate the differences between the emotion regulation of TD and FXS children. It was hypothesized that the TD group would be less expressive, and more negative than the TD children. It …

An Interdisciplinary Investigation Of Infant Sleep: How We Study It, What It Means For Other Areas Of Development, And Where Methodological Creativity Can Take Us, Melissa Noel Horger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present dissertation is broken into six chapters. Chapters 2 through 5 comprise four research projects that build upon each other and in both theoretical and methodological ways. The bookends – my introduction and conclusion – are written for an interdisciplinary, even lay audience. In its entirety, the text is centered on infant sleep. First, I describe the functional role of sleep and liken it to a barista working in a coffee shop. Then, I lay out researcher choices – of design and measurement – when incorporating sleep as a facet of a research paradigm. After comparing three measurement techniques …

Rejection Sensitivity, Relationship Quality, And Adjustment In Late-Adolescent Romantic Relationships And Friendships, Laura A. Foster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rejection sensitive (RS) individuals are at greater risk for emotional maladjustment across the lifespan, with consistent links identified with depression and social anxiety. Yet little is known about interpersonal factors that may affect this association for late adolescents, especially with their romantic partners and close friends. The present study examined relationship qualities of support and negative interactions with romantic partners and friends as moderators of the link between RS and internalizing symptoms. Given the differences between male and female social relationships and experiences, these associations were expected to be further moderated by gender, with RS females in poorer quality relationships …

Testing Candidate Cerebellar Presymptomatic Biomarkers For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Zoe Wilson Hawks

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosed on the basis of social impairment, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. Contemporary theories posit that cerebellar-mediated error signaling impairments contribute to the causation of ASD. However, the relationship between infant cerebellar functional connectivity (fcMRI) and later ASD behaviors and outcomes has not been investigated. Such work is critical to establish early (presymptomatic) cerebellar correlates of ASD. Methods: Data from the Infant Brain Imaging Study (n=94, 68 male) were used to evaluate cerebellar fcMRI as a presymptomatic biomarker for ASD. Specifically, brain-behavior associations were analyzed for 6-month cerebellar connections in relation …

Having A High-Activity Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Allele Is Associated With Elevated Anxiety And Lower Salivary Dehydroepiandrosterone But Also Lower Alpha Amylase In Children With Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome., Jessie Beebe

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) results from a hemizygous deletion located on the long arm of chromosome 22. The most common deletion sizes affect between 30 and 90 genes. Individuals with 22q11.2DS may develop serious developmental and psychiatric disorders. The phenotype is highly variable, however, and may be influenced by allelic variation of the retained copies of genes covered by the deletion. I set out to examine the effects of two genes, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and proline dehydrogenase (PRODH), in relation to anxiety in children and adolescents with 22q11.2DS. Individuals with the major COMT allele (higher activity) have significantly higher anxiety …

"Like I Was An Actual Researcher": Participation And Identity Trajectories Of Underrepresented Minority And First-Generation Stem Students In Research Training Communities Of Practice, Jennifer Lynn Lindwall

Dissertations and Theses

Although calls for a more diverse workforce in biomedical fields have been widespread, racial and ethnic gaps in biomedical degree attainment remain. Contextualist perspectives seek to understand persistent STEM inequities by examining person-in-context experiences and how systemic factors filter into students' proximal contexts shaping their participation and science identity trajectories. Research training communities of practice aim to offer underrepresented minority and first-generation students support, guidance, and opportunities to learn the practices of science and construct their science identity. However, many students still choose to leave these programs. There is limited research on these students' science identity construction process and their …

Audiovisual Speech Processing: Implications For Speech Perception And Language Development, Ryan Andrew Cannistraci

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation aims to empirically assess the complex, multileveled relationships between audiovisual speech perception and early language development. The majority of extant language development research has justifiably focused on infants’ ability to learn language from auditory input, and indeed, infants are precocious auditory learners (Saffran & Kirkham, 2018). Complementary to auditory speech, however, are the necessarily redundant facial movements used to articulate speech. Outside of language development research, multimodal processing has been theorized to facilitate perceptual learning and cognitive development (Bahrick & Lickliter, 2000), but only a small number of empirical studies have investigated how audiovisual speech perception in infancy …

In Search Of A Simplified, Objective Attachment Style Assessment: The Attachment Implicit Measure, Lisa Savage

All NMU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

IN SEARCH OF A SIMPLIFIED, OBJECTIVE ATTACHMENT STYLE ASSESSMENT: THE ATTACHMENT IMPLICIT MEASURE

By

Lisa M. Savage

Attachment is a lasting bond between two people (Bowlby, 1958). Bonding starts at birth and lasts through the lifetime (Bowlby, 1958). Emotional and social development is impacted by attachment (Bowlby, 1976). Measuring attachment is beneficial to clinical psychologists and psychological research. There are both implicit and explicit measures of attachment. Explicit measures are subject to social desirability and other bias and require a person's honesty and understanding of self. Current implicit measures are lengthy and expensive to administer and score. The development …

Predictors Of Aggression Among Adolescent Girls, Sarah Joy Park

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Women and girls will often deny what they feel and think to maintain their relationships. Silencing the self can be detrimental to the physical and mental health of teenage girls. This stifling of the self is related to depression, earlier first intercourse, eating disorders, and less relationship satisfaction. Girls who silence their voices are also likely to have difficulty expressing themselves when they feel angry. In this study we explored the relationship between silencing the self and physical, verbal, and indirect aggression. Our sample consisted of 88 teenage girls from two high schools, with a mean age of 16. They …

The Effect Of Parent Interactions On Young Infants’ Visual Attention In An Object Manipulation Task., Nonah Marie Olesen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Sticky Mittens (SM) task, an object-manipulation task that facilitates typically developing pre-reaching infants’ learning through active experience with objects, is often utilized to understand how experience affects young infants’ learning about objects. SM experience has been shown to increase infants’ attention to objects, object engagement, and object exploration (Libertus & Needham, 2010; Needham, Barrett, & Peterman, 2002) and facilitates development of causal perception (Rakison & Krogh, 2012; Holt, 2016). Although the majority of SM studies have involved parents interacting naturally with their infants, few have focused on how those interactions affect infants’ learning and performance during or after SM. …

Git (Gender-Informed Trauma) In Black N Blue Boys / Broken Men: How Concepts Of Gender Restrict The Black Male Actor’S Creative Process And The Methods He Can Use For Creative Freedom., Tyler Tate

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how the black male actor’s creative process can be affected by historical and cultural constructions of masculinity connected to race, sexuality, and physical movement. My research on black men’s experience with gender identity finds that social and cultural forces lead black men to reproduce behaviors that mirror a prescribed masculine ideal through physical movement. This prescribed masculine behavior is typically coded in terms of stiffness or lack of expression. This study explores how self-imposed restrictions reiterated by social standards of masculine behavior limit the creative freedom in the black male actor’s creative process. Specifically, black male actors’ …

Why Am I Like This? An Examination Of The Impact Of Early Childhood Experiences On Adult Attachment Style, Amaris Clay

MSU Graduate Theses

Early childhood experiences and parental relationships have a lasting influence on future interpersonal relationships and the associated behaviors (Cortazar and Herreros 2010; Raby et al. 2015; Simons et al. 2014; Treger and Sprecher 2011). The proposed study is investigating the complex links between adverse childhood experiences, parenting style, and attachment style. The purpose of this study was to examine the lasting impact of early childhood factors and how they affect relationships in adulthood. The study intends to replicate previous research on parenting style and attachment style. The results of this study will add to the body of research centered on …