Psychology Commons^™

An Overview Of The Near-Death Experience Phenomenon, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Near-death experiences appear to be universal phenomena that have been reported for centuries. A near-death encounter is defined as an event in which the individual could very easily die or be killed, or may have already been considered clinically dead, but nonetheless survives, and continue his or her physical life. Reports of near-death experiences date back to the Ice Age. There are cave paintings, in France and Spain that depict possible after life scenes that are similar to reported scenes related to near-death experiences. Plato's Republic presents the story of a near-death experience of a Greek soldier named Er. In …

Behaviorally-Based Disorders: The Historical Social Construction Of Youths' Most Prevalent Psychiatric Diagnoses, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

The article discusses the historical social construction of the most prevalent diagnosis of youth in the U.S. The country's psychiatry controls the definitions of mental health disorders and diagnosis through required practice utilization of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. A research is conducted through a social construction theoretical paradigm to identify diagnostic classification systems, nosology changes, and critical time periods.

Stress, Coping, Social Support, And Prostate Cancer Risk Among Older African American And Caucasian Men, Ann L. Coker, Maureen Sanderson, Gary L. Ellison, Mary Kay Fadden

CRVAW Faculty Journal Articles

Objectives: While psychosocial stress and high effort coping have been associated with reduced immune function, no epidemiologic study has addressed psychological stress and risk of prostate cancer. The purpose of this analysis was to investigate the association between stress, coping, social support, and risk of prostate cancer among older men (age 65–79 years). Design: Population-based case-control study in South Carolina.

Participants: Cases were 400 incident, histologically confirmed prostate cancer cases identified through the South Carolina Central Cancer Registry between 1999 and 2001 (70.6% response rate). Controls were 385 men identified through the 1999 Health Care Financing Administration Medicare beneficiary file …

Determinants Of Physical Activity In An Inclusive Setting, Stephen Kodish, Pamela Hodges Kulinna, Jeffrey J. Martin, Robert Pangrazi, Paul Darst

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

The purposes of this study included (a) to determine if the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) predicted intentions of individuals with and without disabilities to be physically active, (b) to determine if the TPB predicted behaviors of individuals with and without disabilities to be physically active, and (c) to determine if significant differences were present in physical activity opportunities between inclusive and non-inclusive elementary physical education classes taught by the same teacher. Students (N = 114, ages 10-13) completed questionnaires assessing the TPB constructs and had four days of PA evaluated through pedometer measurements. Analyses revealed that subjective norm …

Six-To-One Gets The Job Done: Comments On The Reviews, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff

Psychology Faculty Research

We are pleased to note that six of the seven responses to our article were marked by approval, and/or thoughtful contemplation, regarding our central theses—that the research said to support biological causation of mental disorders is relatively weak, and that the claims of drug effectiveness are often overstated.

Biological Psychiatry: A Practice In Search Of A Science, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff

Psychology Faculty Research

The rise of the biological causation model in the past thirty years is traced to psychiatry’s efforts to regain lost status and to protect itself from intrusions by non-medical practitioners, as well as to the pharmaceutical industry’s drive for profits. Evidence in support of the model, including studies of identical twins and of brain structure and function, are less revealing than was earlier thought, due to problems in methodology and interpretation. Organized psychiatry, when challenged in 2003, was unable to provide compelling evidence for biological causation of most mental and behavioral disorders. A paradigm shift away from biological causation and …

Early Predictors Of Sexual Behavior: Implications For Young Adolescents And Their Parents, Lisa D. Lieberman

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

The study provides empirical evidence of the independent contribution of nonsexual romantic relationships in the seventh grade to the onset of sexual intercourse by the ninth grade for both males and females. In addition, it shows that among females, seventh graders in serious relationships with older teenagers—uniquely defined as those two or more years older—have an increased likelihood of sex in the ninth grade. Finally, the study demonstrates that seventh graders of both genders who have had serious romantic relationships were already significantly different in the sixth grade from those who have not: They had peers who were more accepting …

Naturally Occurring Changes In Time Spent Watching Television Are Inversely Related To Frequency Of Physical Activity During Early Adolescence, Robert W. Motl, Edward Mcauley, Amanda Birnbaum, Leslie A. Lytle

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

In this longitudinal study, we examined the relationship between changes in time spent watching television and playing video games with frequency of leisure-time physical activity across a 2-year period among adolescent boys and girls (N=4594" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: normal; font-size: 16.200000762939453px; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; position: relative;">). Latent growth modelling indicated that a decrease in time spent watching television was associated with an increase in frequency of leisure-time physical activity. That relationship was strong in magnitude …

Commentary: Community Partnered Research: Driving Sensemaking, Managing Knowledge, And Moving Mental Health Care To New Heights, Junius J. Gonzales, Carmen Moten

Publications from Provost Junius J. Gonzales

No abstract provided.

Historical Perspectives On Attitudes Concerning Death And Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Beliefs and practices concerning death have changed throughout human history. In pre-modern times, death at a young age was common due to living conditions and medical practices. As medical science has advanced and helped humans live longer, attitudes and responses to death also have changed. In modern Western societies, death is often ignored or feared. Changes in lifestyles and improved medical science have depersonalized death and made it an encroachment on life instead of part of life. This has left many people ill equipped to deal with death when it touches their lives.

Religious Interpretations Of Death, Afterlife & Ndes, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This E-book reviews religious beliefs concerning death, afterlife, and near-death experiences. The discussion will provide commentary regarding the similarities between different religious beliefs and experiences concerning death, as well as between religious interpretations of near-death experiences.

Perspectives On The Fears Of Death & Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This E-Book will examine some perspectives on fear, the fears of death, and constructs used to overcome or deal with the fears of death. By examining the literature on fear in general, a framework can be developed to understand how individuals become fearful. In the section, “Fears of Death,” what people fear about death and why they fear it will be discussed.

Philosophical, Psychological & Spiritual Perspectives On Death & Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This Ebook reviews the philosophical perspectives on death, the psychological perspectives on death and the fears of death and some religious perspectives of death. The philosophic section will review perspectives of death from ancient Greece through modernity. The psychological section will review death, and the fear of death, from the perspectives of psychoanalytic, humanistic, and existentialist theories. The religious section will provide a brief overview of Prehistoric, African, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, and Christian religious beliefs concerning death and afterlife.

Psychosocial Aspects Of Youth Disability Sport, Jeffrey J. Martin

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

Psychosocial aspects of participation in youth disability sport were examined using social-cognitive theory and the sport commitment model. An international sample of athletes with disabilities (N = 112) reported high levels of sport commitment and sport enjoyment, perceived physical ability, and sport friendship quality. They perceived their parents to provide moderately strong levels of encouragement of their sport participation. Correlational analyses indicated moderate to strong relationships among sport commitment, sport enjoyment, and perceived physical ability. Sport commitment, parental encouragement, and sport friendship quality were only somewhat related. Regression analyses indicated that enjoyment was a significant predictor (i.e., 43% of …

Developmental Needs Of Adolescents And Media, Laura M. Padilla-Walker

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Adolescence is marked by a number of physical, cognitive, and social changes that interact to create a number of developmental needs specific to this age group. As adolescents seek to define themselves independently of their parents, they often turn to media as sources of self-socialization and of messages about their identity in terms of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. Although parents and peers remain influential during this transition, this entry focuses on adolescents’ use of media to navigate developmental changes and cope with the daily difficulties of being teenagers, and on the role of media in shaping adolescents’ development of identity …

Organizations As Evil Structures, Cary Federman, Dave Holmes

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Nursing practice in forensic psychiatry opens new horizons in nursing. This complex, professional, nursing practice involves the coupling of two contradictory socioprofessional mandates: to punish and to provide care. The purpose of this chapter is to present nursing practice in a disciplinary setting as a problem of governance. A Foucauldian perspective allows us to understand the way forensic psychiatric nursing is involved in the governance of mentally ill criminals through a vast array of power techniques (sovereign, disciplinary, and pastoral), which posit nurses as “subjects of power.” These nurses are also “objects of power” in that nursing practice is constrained …

It’S Not About The Money: The Role Of Preferences, Cognitive Biases And Heuristics Among Professional Athletes, Michael Mccann

Law Faculty Scholarship

Professional athletes are often regarded as selfish, greedy, and out-of-touch with regular people. They hire agents who are vilified for negotiating employment contracts that occasionally yield compensation in excess of national gross domestic products. Professional athletes are thus commonly assumed to most value economic remuneration, rather than the love of the game or some other intangible, romanticized inclination.

Lending credibility to this intuition is the rational actor model, a law and economic precept which presupposes that when individuals are presented with a set of choices, they rationally weigh costs and benefits, and select the course of action that maximizes their …

The Sexual Sinthome, Geneviève Morel, Roland K. Végső

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Psychoanalysis possesses the means to think the difference of the sexes without relying on the phallus. Lacanian theory of the sinthome offers an alternative by articulating a new quadruplicity (R, S, I, and the sinthome), which allows us to think the relation between the sexes and the generations without necessarily referring to the Name-of-the-Father or the phallus as absolute norms. Thanks to this theory, we can avoid the moral and political prejudices that accompany the grand questions of society posed to us at the dawn of the 21st century: the treatment of “mental health,” the legislation of marriage, filiation, and …

Responding To Discrimination As A Function Of Meritocracy Beliefs And Personal Experiences: Testing The Model Of Shattered Assumptions, Mindi D. Foster, Lisa Sloto, Richard Ruby

Psychology Faculty Publications

We examined whether the model of shattered assumptions (Janoff-Bulman, 1992) could be applied to the reactions of victims of discrimination. Consistent with this model, it was hypothesized that those whose positive world assumptions are inconsistent with their negative experiences of discrimination would report more negative responses than those whose world assumptions match their experience. Disadvantaged group (both gender and ethnicity) members’ responses to discrimination (self-esteem, collective action, intergroup anxiety) were predicted from their meritocracy beliefs and personal experiences of discrimination. Regression analyses showed a significant interaction between meritocracy beliefs and personal discrimination such that among those who reported personal discrimination, …

Attachment Disorders In Residential Treatment, John Church

Graduate Research Papers

Various aspects of developmental attachment are explored in this power point presentation. Attachment is defined and differentiated from bonding. The variations of attachment are described as they relate to the work of Mary Ainsworth (1978) and Katharine Leslie (2004). Trauma is also explored as one of the major contributors to attachment disorders. The trauma information is also linked with how the brain develops and ultimately is affected by trauma. Lastly, the symptoms of reactive attachment disorder are discussed and explored as they relate to other diagnoses such as depression and oppositional defiant disorder.

School Violence, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The purpose of this chapter is threefold. First, the chapter summarizes what is known about the prevalence of violence and weapons in U.S. schools. Second, the chapter examines theories that bear on school violence and the empirical evidence linked to those theories. Third, the chapter looks at attempts to prevent school violence and, consequently, the suffering school violence causes.