Psychology Commons^™

Phonological Memory And Broader Language Development: Longitudinal And Etiologic Relations, Robin Leonhardt Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current research investigated the relationship of phonological memory (PM) to vocabulary and syntax learning in school-age children with and without language disorders. Previous research has established that PM and broad oral language skills covary, but disagreement remains about the reason for this association. Opposing theoretical viewpoints emphasize the importance of either bottom-up (PM influences vocabulary and syntax acquisition) or top-down (vocabulary growth influences PM skill) factors. In three longitudinal studies, we tested competing bottom-up and top-down explanations of the PM-broad language link. Study 1 utilized a structural equation modeling approach to understand PM and broad language relations from age …

Family Coping As A Protective Factor For Poor Children, Catherine Decarlo Santiago

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined family influences on coping and adjustment among 90 low-income Latino middle school children (46% Female; Average age = 11.38, SD = .66) and their primary caregivers (93% Female; Average age = 36.12, SD = 6.13). All participants identified as Hispanic/Latino, with 75% of families identifying as Mexican-origin Latino, 77% of parents identifying as immigrants, and 32% of children identifying immigrants. All children participating in the study were receiving free or reduced lunch, a poverty indicator. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that family reframing is related to fewer symptoms of psychopathology and that familism enhances the protective effect …

Foreign Language Comprehension: Understanding The Centrality Deficit, Amanda C. Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to determine how reading in a foreign language (L2) affects one's mental representation of the text and the ability to recognize and recall the text's important information. Using a within-participants design, the proportion of central and peripheral ideas recalled by participants reading in their L2 was compared to that when reading in their native language (L1). Readers recalled a greater proportion of central than peripheral ideas when reading in both their L2 and L1, but when their L2 and L1 recalls were directly compared, a very interesting, yet counterintuitive, result emerged. The greatest deficit …

Trajectory Of Quality Of Life In Advanced Parkinson's Patients Receiving Bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation, Karl S. Chiang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quality of Life (QOL) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients after Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) neurosurgery generally improves between 3 to 24 months post-operatively. However, QOL beyond 2 year follow-up is generally unknown. This study examined the QOL in 16 advanced PD patients who received DBS at an average of 7.5 year follow-up with the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). Participants had an average Disease Duration of 20.57 years (SD 5.7) and a mean Age of 63.50 (SD 8.05). Linear regression analyses suggested a constellation of changes involving Time, Age, and Disease Duration. As Time progressed since DBS intervention, the PDQ-39 Cognitions …

The Humiliation Experience: Causes, Emotional Correlates, And Behavioral Consequences, Kendall Elyse Mccarley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to provide a comprehensive investigation of the emotional experience of humiliation by examining: (1) the direct effects of self-esteem and narcissism on emotional responses to potentially humiliating events; (2) the direct effects of the emotional correlates of humiliating experiences (i.e. sadness, humiliation, and anger) on the related behavioral reactions to such events (i.e., withdrawal, retaliation, and minimization); and (3) a process model to determine whether or not the emotional correlates of potentially humiliating events mediated the predicted effects of self-esteem and narcissism on the behavioral consequences on those events.

Participants, ranging in age from …

Relational Financial Satisfaction Of Cohabiting Couples, Christine C. Mcdunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study tested a model of factors affecting cohabiting couples' relational financial satisfaction, defined as the contentment an individual has with how financial issues are handled within his or her domestic romantic relationship, and examined the relations within these factors. This study was a cross-sectional online survey of 266 participants (81% female; 85% Caucasian) recruited from listservs and subsequent snowball sampling. Measures assessed couples' financial strain, dedication commitment, financial conflict, financial trust, financial equality and financial communication. Relational financial satisfaction (RFS) was significantly related to financial conflict, financial strain and dedication commitment. Financial conflict mediated the association between …

Gene X Environment Interactions In Developmental Dyslexia, Lauren M. Mcgrath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this project was to advance understanding of the complex multifactorial etiology of developmental dyslexia, or reading disability (RD), by investigating gene x environment (G x E) interactions. This project tested for G x E interactions using molecular genetic methods and measures of psychosocial and bioenvironmental risk factors. There are two competing predictions that can be derived from existing G x E models about the expected direction of interactions in RD. There could be "diathesis-stress" interactions in which the effects of genotype are stronger in risk environments, or there could be "bioecological" interactions in which the effects of …

Humiliation And Its Relationship To Embarrassment And Shame, Danielle Jean Pulham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to expand our knowledge of humiliation by examining the cognitive correlates of this emotion. Since norm violations may often elicit this emotion, attributions of blame and perceived devaluation of the self from others were investigated as possible cognitions that may both link and distinguish this emotion from close emotion relatives, namely embarrassment and shame.

Participants were presented with vignettes that described a social versus moral norm violation. Blame for the event was manipulated by varying who/what caused the norm violation. Perceived devaluation was manipulated by varying what the observing audience knew about the cause of the norm …

Mitigating Risk For Anxiety Among Preschool-Age Children Living In Poverty: Evaluating The Impact Of Adult-Provided Social Support On Autonomic Stress Reactivity, Brian Cory Wolff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Poverty increases children's exposure to stress, elevating their risk for developing patterns of heightened sympathetic and parasympathetic stress reactivity. Repeated patterns of high sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal place children at risk for anxiety disorders. This study evaluated whether providing social support to preschool-age children during mildly stressful situations helps reduce reactivity, and whether this effect partly depends on children's previously assessed baseline reactivity patterns. The Biological Sensitivity to Context (BSC) theory proposes that highly reactive children may be more sensitive than less reactive children to all environmental influences, including social support. In contrast, conventional physiological reactivity (CPR) theory contends …

Attention And Emotion Influence The Relationship Between Extraversion And Neural Response, C. A. Hutcherson, P. R. Goldin, W. Ramel, Kateri Mcrae, J. J. Gross

Psychology: Faculty Scholarship

Extraversion has been shown to positively correlate with activation within the ventral striatum, amygdala and other dopaminergically innervated, reward-sensitive regions. These regions are implicated in emotional responding, in a manner sensitive to attentional focus. However, no study has investigated the interaction among extraversion, emotion and attention. We used fMRI and dynamic, evocative film clips to elicit amusement and sadness in a sample of 28 women. Participants were instructed either to respond naturally (n = 14) or to attend to and continuously rate their emotions (n = 14) while watching the films. Contrary to expectations, striatal response was negatively associated with …