Psychology Commons^™

A Hybrid Brain-Computer Interface Based On Motor Intention And Visual Working Memory, Ching-Chang Kuo

Doctoral Dissertations

Non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) based brain-computer interface (BCI) is able to provide alternative means for people with disabilities to communicate with and control over external assistive devices. A hybrid BCI is designed and developed for following two types of system (control and monitor).

Our first goal is to create a signal decoding strategy that allows people with limited motor control to have more command over potential prosthetic devices. Eight healthy subjects were recruited to perform visual cues directed reaching tasks. Eye and motion artifacts were identified and removed to ensure that the subjects' visual fixation to the target locations would have …

Emotional Labor And Authentic Leadership, John E. Buckner V

Doctoral Dissertations

Organizational research has begun to once again focus on the importance of emotions in the workplace. In particular, the concept of emotional labor, the management of emotions at work to influence clients and customers, has recently received much attention. While research has addressed the impact of emotional labor on both employees and clients or customers, research has not examined emotional labor within the context of leadership.

Authentic leadership, an emerging construct in the study of leadership, is proposed to relate to emotional labor. Leaders' authentic behavior has been shown to positively impact followers, such as increasing trust in their leader …

Predicting Substance Abuse Treatment Participation With The Personality Assessment Inventory: An Investigation Of How Personality And Interpersonal Factors Affect Treatment, Annese Baum Hutchins

Doctoral Dissertations

The prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse or dependence among Americans ages 12 and over is thought to be about 9.4% of the total population, or 22 million Americans (Karpiak & Norcross, 2005; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association [SAMHSA], 2003). According to Vuchinich (2002), substance use disorders (SUD) are the most common mental health problem in our society today. Additionally, estimates are that anywhere from half to 84% of all substance use disorder patients also experience a co-occurring disorder (Johnson, Brems, & Burke, 2002).

Traditional treatment facilities usually are focused primarily on either substance abuse treatment or psychiatric …

Proposed Dsm-5 Personality Traits And Substance Use: A Multi-Faceted Study, W. Reese Mayer

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, the Brief Assessment of Traits – 37 (BAT37) was developed to measure the presence of the personality traits initially proposed for inclusion in the personality disorders section of the DSM-5. The structure of the measure was supported by the results of a pilot study and its construct validity was supported by correlations with theoretically-related scales from the PAI, DAPP-BQ, and HEXACO-PI-R. The BAT37 was administered to a sample of undergraduate college students and clients at a residential substance use disorder (SUD) treatment facility.

Several of this study's findings are relevant to the proposed changes to the personality …

Deception Detection: Using Eye-Tracking Technology To Measure Faking In A Simulated Applicant Setting, Luke Simmering

Doctoral Dissertations

The impact of faking on selection assessments and the need for methods to detect such behavior has drawn increased attention of researchers in the selection field over the last quarter century. The overarching purpose of this study was to assess the validity of utilizing eye-tracking technology in the detection of applicant faking on personality measures. Specifically, this study examined the physiological cues of response latency, eye fixation, and pupil dilation and their association with deception in the context of personality assessment in a job seeking scenario. The results indicated that individuals engaged in faking behavior had significantly more eye fixations …

The Impact Of Psychological Reactance And Approach/Avoidance Motivation On The Effectiveness Of Sleep Interventions, Barbara Calvert

Doctoral Dissertations

Research has shown that college students experience sleep difficulties at a higher rate than the general population. Many factors contribute to the sleep difficulties of college students including lifestyle, stimulant use, alcohol use, physiological arousal, and cognitive factors. Sleep difficulties have been shown to have a significant negative impact on numerous aspects of an individual's life including cognitive/academic performance, physical health, and psychological functioning. College administrators and counselors need effective interventions for students experiencing sleep difficulties. It is also essential that individuals working with college students be aware of personal factors that may impact how an individual responds to a …

The Effects Of Training In Self-Regulated Learning And Achievement Orientations In Lower Socioeconomic Elementary Students, Ashley N. Carroll

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous research has explored the development of the self-regulated learner. The majority of these studies have focused on high school and college students (Hofer & Yu, 2003). This study explored this concept at the elementary school level with lower socioeconomic students. This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of a short intervention teaching self-regulatory and metacognitive learning strategies to these elementary students. The researcher designed a learning intervention for fifth-grade students that included various cognitive strategies and study skills. The intervention group was compared to a control group of fifth-graders. The students' self-efficacy, self-regulation, and achievement orientation were assessed …

Effects Of Gender Composition Of Target And Sender Dyads On The Tendency To Infer Lies, Byron J. Simoneaux

Doctoral Dissertations

Lying is so common in human behavior that some have labeled it a social skill. Despite the ubiquity of lies, humans have consistently been found to be poor lie detectors. Attempts have been made to improve the accuracy of human lie detection. Unfortunately, the most successful training only improves accuracy slightly above the level of chance. Because of its importance to society, considerable effort has been aimed at developing methods to help determine when people are lying. Researching how and why humans infer that another person is lying has the potential to advance the understanding of lie detection. Researchers have …

Psychological Effects Of Intensive And Comprehensive Training Centers On Blind And Visually Impaired Adults, Caitlin Singletary

Doctoral Dissertations

Omvig (2002) stated that adjustment to blindness means that a blind individual views his or her blindness as a characteristic that may be inconvenient at times, but "does not define the entire person" (p. 31). This belief provides the philosophical foundation for and supports the training model in intensive and comprehensive training centers for blind individuals. The training curriculum is believed to foster adjustment to blindness and acceptance of self by creating an environment in which essential lifestyle skills improve, independence is achieved, and positive changes occur in psychological factors such as depression, self-esteem, and self-efficacy.

In the current study, …

Examining The Effects Of Fear Of Failure, Self-Efficacy And Gender Role Conflict In Male And Female Engineering Students, Krista L. Nelson

Doctoral Dissertations

The field of engineering continues to have significantly fewer women engineers than men. Engineering has long been considered to be a male dominated career, with fewer women receiving bachelor's degrees in engineering and gaining employment in the engineering field. The present study was an attempt to determine influencing factors that discourage women from pursuing engineering as an educational and career choice. The current study examined gender role conflict, self-efficacy, and fear of failure as potential factors influencing women's preferences to pursue an engineering degree. Both male and female genders were participants in the research to determine gender differences for these …

The Relationship Between Personality And Forgiveness Of Sexual Infidelity In Marriage, Karen Suggs Roper

Doctoral Dissertations

Discovery of sexual infidelity is often accompanied by a strong desire for infidelity relevant information (Peluso, 2007). This study explored how information and conceptualization of situational factors affects forgiveness in a spouse who discovers the extramarital sexual activity of his or her spouse. The current study focused on knowledge of details and how such knowledge affected rumination and motivations of revenge, avoidance, and benevolence. Popular literature currently promotes a process of healing that begins with a revelation of the details associated with the extramarital behaviors of the offending spouse. A unique objective of this study was consideration of the specific …

Research Motivation In Professional Psychology Doctoral Students: Examination Of The Psychometric Properties Of The Research Motivation Scale, Carly Bischoff Mayer

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous research suggests that the majority of clinical and counseling psychology doctoral students report low levels of research interest while in graduate school, and indicate little or no intention to pursue postdoctoral research despite having been trained within a scientist-practitioner model. Contextual and individual factors related to research interest, such as the research training environment (RTE) and self-efficacy, have been identified as potential contributors to research outcomes. Although these variables seem to be linked, many studies have found that they do not account for a substantial portion of variation in research interest. Recently, Deemer, Martens, and Buboltz (2010) developed the …

The Relationship Between Personality Traits, Coping Resources, And Burnout In North Louisiana Secondary School Teachers, Angela Kennedy

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate sources of resistance to burnout in secondary teachers. For the purpose of this study secondary teachers were defined as teachers employed in grades 9-12 with 0-5 years of teaching experience employed in north Louisiana schools. Sources of resistance to burnout was researched in three investigative steps: (a) the relationship between levels of burnout and personality traits, (b) the relationship between levels of burnout and coping resources, and (c) the relationship between burnout and aspects of the job. The study sample consisted of 139 participants from nine identified north Louisiana parishes.

When testing …