Psychology Commons^™

Professional Deceit: Normal Lying In An Occupational Setting, Janet M. Ruane, Karen Cerulo

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Normal lies are those that social actors legitimate as appropriate means to desirable outcomes. Such lies have been acknowledged in the literature as tools for maintaining social order. Yet, little has been done to document the social structural sources of normal lying. This paper offers a first step in filling this research gap, examining aspects of occupational structure and their connection to the practice of normal lying. Specifically, we discuss four dimensions of occupational structure — occupational rewards and entry requirements, occupational loyalties, social control styles within an occupation, and an occupation's level of professionalization — and we explore the …

Eating Behaviors Of Older Adults Participating In Government-Sponsored Programs With Different Demographic Backgrounds, Yeon Bai, Shahla M. Wunderlich, Joseph Brusca, Johnson-Austin Marti, Michelle O'Malley

Department of Nutrition and Food Studies Scholarship and Creative Works

The purpose of this study was to determine the food behaviors of nutritionally high-risk seniors as a function of their racial background, gender, marital status, and education level. A total of 69 seniors were identified to be at high nutritional risk using the Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI) checklist. A supplemental questionnaire (SQ) was created to examine the risk factors in relation to the participant’s demographic background. Key results indicated that Asians practiced healthy food behaviors and women were more likely to eat alone (p≤0.05). Married participants (90.9%) were most likely to consume 2 meals or more each day. College educated …

Asymmetry In Resting Alpha Activity: Effects Of Handedness, Ruth E. Propper, Jenna Pierce, Mark W. Geisler, Stephen D. Christman, Nathan Bellorado

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha band power during rest shows increased right, and/or decreased left, hemisphere activity under conditions of state or trait withdrawal-associated effect. Non-right-handers (NRH) are more likely to have mental illnesses and dispositions that involve such withdrawal-related effect. The aim of the study was to examine whether NRH might be characterized by increased right, relative to left, hemisphere activity during rest. Methods: The present research investigated that hypothesis by examining resting EEG alpha power in consistently-right-handed (CRH) and NRH individuals. Results: In support of the hypothesis, NRH demonstrated decreased right hemisphere alpha power, and therefore increased right hemisphere …

A Call To Integrate Religious Communities Into Practice: The Case Of Sikhs, Muninder Kaur Ahluwalia, Anjali Alimchandani

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

Sikhs, an ethnic and religious minority group in the United States, have seen a significant shift in their social location since 9/11. They have experienced harassment and violence beyond race and ethnicity to the visible markers of the religion (e.g., turbans). In this article, we address how counseling psychology is uniquely positioned to work with Sikhs given these circumstances. We provide an overview of Sikh Americans, including specific experiences that may affect treatment such as race-based traumatic injury, identification as a part of a visible religious minority group, and the impact of historic community-level trauma. We discuss recommendations for practitioners …

Impact Of Goal And Intentions-Setting On Student Performance In A Classroom, David Dariani

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The impact of goal and intentions-setting on the performance of students was evaluated. A cohort of volunteer students (n=54) were randomly assigned to three groups. Then, each group was exposed to an appropriate intervention seminar lasting one hour. The Control Group (n= 18) who used neither goal nor intentions-setting was asked to utilize strategies that they had used in the past that had helped their academic performances. Group 2 (n=16) was coached in developing S.M.A.R.T. goals and how to apply them to accomplish the objectives of their current semester’s course. Group 3 (n=20) was coached in developing S.M.A.R.T. goals in …

Gender Differences In Adolescents' Autobiographical Narratives, Robyn Fivush, Jennifer G. Bohanek, Widaad Zaman, Sally Grapin

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this study, the authors examined gender differences in narratives of positive and negative life experiences during middle adolescence, a critical period for the development of identity and a life narrative (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001). Examining a wider variety of narrative meaning-making devices than previous research, they found that 13- to 16-year old racially and economically diverse females told more elaborated, coherent, reflective, and agentic narratives than did adolescent males. There were surprisingly few differences between narratives of positive and negative events. These findings replicate and extend previous findings of gender differences in autobiographical narratives in early childhood …

The Urgency Of Doing: Assessing The System Of Sustainable Implementation Model Via The Schools Implementing Towards Sustainability (Sits) Scale, Dominic C. Moceri, Maurice J. Elias, Daniel B. Fishman, Robert Pandina, Jazmin Reyes-Portillo

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

School-based prevention and promotion interventions (SBPPI) improve desirable outcomes (e.g., commitment to school and attendance) and reduce undesirable outcomes (e.g., suspensions and violence). Unfortunately, our understanding of how to effectively implement and sustain SBPPI outside of well-controlled conditions is lacking. To bridge this science/"real world" practice gap, a system of sustainable implementation, which merges implementation strategies and sustainability strategies, is proposed for SBPPI. Ecological levels and phases affect this system. This conceptualization is supported by analyses from a diverse sample of 157 schools implementing Social-Emotional Character Development, a type of SBPPI. The system of sustainable implementation was measured using the …

Learning Patterns Relationship To Leadership Development, Brett Vincent Morgan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Although college faculty and administrators provide many types of leadership development opportunities for college students, there has been little research connecting leadership development in college with adult learning theory. This mixed method descriptive study examines the impact of learning patterns based on information processing preferences on the leadership development “events” experienced by college student leaders. 44 Junior and Senior college student leaders were administered the Learning Connections Inventory (Johnston, 1994) to identify their learning patterns. In addition, the students participated in an interview to assess key events they felt crucial to their leadership development. It was predicted that particular learning …

Ethics And Downsizing : A Policy-Capturing Approach, Diana Evans

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Downsizing has become a prominent part of the business landscape and is reshaping the way people work and deal with their organizations. The present study investigated how the context and process behind a downsizing decision can influence people’s perceptions of the organization. Using a policy capturing methodology, subjects read 67 scenarios about downsizing organizations and were asked to rate the fairness of the organization and indicate if an ethical violation had occurred. The cues manipulated included the size of the organization, whether the company is currently losing money, whether the company tried other options before considering downsizing, whether the layoffs …

Self-Enhancement Bias : A Literature Review, Kelly Anne Jordan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

When partaking in self-evaluation, individuals tend to engage self-enhancement, rating themselves higher than would be objectively called for. This work reviews the relevant literature on what self-enhancement bias is and when we engage in it. Further, it explores the controversies over the universality of self-enhancement with some contending that East Asians do not engage in self-enhancement and others proclaiming it to be a universal trait. Lastly, the adaptiveness both socially and psychologically of selfenhancement is examined.

Cross-Modal Enhancement Of Sound Detection In Noise, Jack Latona

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The ventriloquist effect refers to the well-documented mislocalization of auditory targets that occurs when a spatially incongruent visual cue is simultaneously presented, generally towards the location of the visual cue. Spatial release from masking refers to the improvement in auditory detection that occurs when an auditory target is moved away from a noise source. The purpose of the present thesis was to induce cross-modal spatial release from masking using a ventriloquized visual cue. Two experiments were conducted to determine whether this visually induced mislocalization can cause spatial release from masking and enhance target detection. In the first experiment, spatial release …

Characterizing Trauma In A Community Sample : How Trauma Symptoms Are Related To Problem Behaviors, Shaquanna A. Brown

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Exposure to trauma can lead to an array of maladaptive behaviors and an extensive range of physical, emotional, and psychological difficulties. In fact, researchers have linked trauma to the development of debilitating symptoms such as anxiety (Suliman et ah, 2009), psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (Read, van Os, Morrison, & Ross, 2005) and risky behaviors such as substance abuse (Danielson et ah, 2009). Unfortunately, studies examining the consequences of trauma often do so using clinical samples, limiting the generalizability of those results. Thus, the current study sought to characterize trauma in a community sample. Data analyzed for the present study …

The Relationship Between Yoga And Stress, Ashley Alayne Corallo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Research has shown that too much stress can be harmful to your health (Sinha, 2007). Stress can contribute to depression, weaken the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, and also speed up the process of aging (Aldwin, 2007). Aside from improving one’s flexibility and endurance, there is evidence that regular yoga practice (i.e., an hour session, at least twice a week) can decrease one’s risk of such health-related problems by lowering stress (Smith, Hancock, Blake-Mortimer & Eckert, 2006).

The aim of the present study was to further investigate the relationship between yoga and stress. We compared …

An Asymmetry Between Goal And Source In Infants’ Representations Of Motion Events, Stephanie Difabrizio

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this paper, the asymmetry between source and goal was explored in the context of motion events involving inanimate figures (e.g. balloon, tissue). Past research with infants has indicated a preference for goal paths in animate events, such as a duck walking into a box, over source paths, such as a duck walking out of a box (Lakusta, et ah, 2007). The difference between a goal bias for animate and inanimate events has not been thoroughly researched in infants (e.g., a balloon, rather than a duck, moving out of a box). In order to explore this, the current study measures …

Preference Magnitude Affected By Context, Range, And Categorization, Matthew Forsythe

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Previous studies have shown that when subjects view hedonically positive stimuli followed by stimuli of lesser hedonic value their preference for the stimuli of lesser hedonic value decreases. This is hedonic condensation. In addition, its opposite, an increase in preference judgment, occurs when subjects view a less hedonically positive stimuli followed by hedonically positive stimuli. Experiment 1 showed that condensation and its opposite, an increase in preference judgments, were produced using unattractive and moderately attractive faces. Experiment 2 showed that when instructed to view the stimuli as coming from two different groups the participants rating the attractive faces did not …

Language And Memory For Motion Events: Origins Of The Asymmetry Between Source And Goal Paths, Laura Lakusta, Barbara Landau

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

When people describe motion events, their path expressions are biased toward inclusion of goal paths (e.g., into the house) and omission of source paths (e.g., out of the house). In this paper, we explored whether this asymmetry has its origins in people's non-linguistic representations of events. In three experiments, 4-year-old children and adults described or remembered manner of motion events that represented animate/intentional and physical events. The results suggest that the linguistic asymmetry between goals and sources is not fully rooted in non-linguistic event representations: linguistic descriptions showed the goal bias for both kinds of events, whereas non-linguistic memory for …

Risky Sexual Behavior: A Race-Specific Social Consequence Of Obesity, Tamara Leech, Janice Johnson Dias

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Scant attention has been given to the consequence of actual weight status for adolescents' sexual wellbeing. In this article, we investigate the race-specific connection between obesity and risky sexual behavior among adolescent girls. Propensity scores and radius matching are used to analyze a sample of 340 adolescents aged 16-17 who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Young Adult Survey in 2000 or 2002. Nearly even numbers of these participants identified as white and black (183 and 157, respectively). We find that compared to their non-obese white peers, obese white adolescent girls exhibit higher rates of multiple sex partners …