Psychology Commons^™

The Impact Of Personal Resources, Job Resources And Job Demands On Nurse Engagement, Michael J. Kern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In today’s VUCA (Volatile, Complex, Uncertain, and Ambiguous) world, the more we understand about how individual differences interact with the work environment to impact employee engagement the greater our chances are of making changes to lead to positive work outcomes regardless of the profession. There is no profession better suited for this type of investigation than that of nursing. Previous research has shown that more highly engaged nurses are able to provide better care and thus increase the chances of a more favorable outcome. There are many factors that can impact work engagement and one accepted model that helps to …

Unraveling The Double-Bind: An Investigation Of Black And Latina Women In Stem, Katlyn L. Milless

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Civil rights activist Robert P. Moses was a driving force in defining equitable dissemination of quality science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education as an act of social justice. My work borrows this frame to highlight access to STEM education as a civil rights issue and to emphasize the importance of taking a social justice approach to interventions for those who experience intersecting systems of oppression (i.e., Black and Latina women), and for whom previous intervention efforts have not adequately addressed. Ameliorating racial and gender disparities through fostering psychological safety (e.g., belonging) in STEM fields has been a substantive focus …

Withdrawal From Voluntary Oral Methamphetamine Reveals Female Specific Susceptibilities To Behavioral Deficits And Neurochemical Perpetuators Of Neurotoxicity And Drug Seeking Behavior, Nicoletta K. Memos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

MA is a potent, highly addictive psychomotor stimulant known to produce neurotoxic effects on the brain leading to neurological impairments^1-6 characterized by neurodegeneration of dopaminergic fibers, cell bodies and pathways, as well as brain regions such as the hippocampus, frontal cortex, and midbrain^1,5.

In MA addiction, women are more vulnerable to the behavioral and cognitive effects of MA compared to men. Adult human literature reveals gender differences in usage patterns and women demonstrate increased vulnerability to the neurotoxic effects and health effects of MA use. Women begin drug use at an earlier age, escalate drug use quicker, …

Happiness And Policy Implications: A Sociological View, Sarah M. Kahl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The World Happiness Report is released every year, ranking each country by who is “happier” and explaining the variables and data they have used. This project attempts to build from that base and create a machine learning algorithm that can predict if a country will be in a “happy” or “could be happier” category. Findings show that taking a broader scope of variables can better help predict happiness. Policy implications are discussed in using both big data and considering social indicators to make better and lasting policies.

Tell Me A Story: Exploring The Use Of Narratives To Reduce Backlash To Organizational Diversity Initiatives, Desmond W. Leung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Diversity initiatives represent key priorities for many organizations, but research and recent high-profile examples suggest that diversity initiatives can generate significant backlash, particularly among organizational members. The primary aim of this study is to investigate how narrative forms of diversity initiative messaging may attenuate backlash among organizational members compared to more traditional expository forms of diversity initiative messaging. Drawing on research related to narrative communication, persuasion, and diversity, I proposed a first-stage dual moderated mediation model where psychological reactance and perceptions of realistic threat mediate the negative effect of narrative (vs. expository) diversity messaging on backlash. Additionally, I examined whether …

Testing An Overtraining Protocol For Fear Learning In Humans, Gordon M. Haskell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Successful regulation of fear memories is a fundamental tenet to the exposure-based therapies often employed by mental health professionals for individuals with PTSD, phobias, and other anxiety disorders. Consequently, the efficacy of these treatment methodologies is largely dependent on the strength of the fear memory, as stronger memories are often characterized by an increased resistance to extinction and heightened fear recovery. However, there is little consensus within the scientific community regarding how to effectively maximize fear memory strength in human studies, and the literature exploring the impact of variability in acquisition parameters on memory strength is sparse. Here, we tested …

Examining The Buffering Effect Of Mindfulness On The Relationship Between Stress And Ethical Decision Making, Irina Kuzmich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Poor ethical decision making is an issue in many modern-day organizations. Academic research and the popular press have shown that failures in ethical decision making have resulted in harm to organizations, their employees, and the societies in which they exist. While there is much research into what may impact ethical decision making, this paper examined the effects of two understudied factors, stress and mindfulness, within a self-regulatory framework. A 2x2 experimental design with undergraduate student participants was used in which each participant was randomly assigned to a mindfulness training condition and a stress condition. Trait mindfulness was also measured as …

Individual Differences In Coping With Large Multimodal Conflicts In A Spatial Orientation Paradigm, Cassandra J. Engstrom

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined how humans respond to large 180º disparities between internally generated self-motion cues and external landmarks in a navigation task. Subjects learned the locations of 4 objects in a virtual environment, navigating back to these sites in a testing phase that probed their sense of direction at dead-ends. In select (incongruent) trials, subjects’ virtual rotations were mirrored relative to their physical turns, forcing them to navigate along separate virtual and physical trajectories. On these trials, subjects were either instructed to navigate using their memory of the required turn sequence (proprioceptive instructions) or the external environment (visual …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Multiple-Exemplar Training For Visual Analysis Of Ab-Design Graphs, Verena S. Bethke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In behavior analysis, data are usually analyzed using visual analysis of the graphed data. There are a wide range of methods used to visually analyze data, from a basic ‘textbook’ style approach to the use of visual aids, decision-rubrics, and computer-based approaches. In the literature, there have been some comparisons of the efficacy of different approaches. Visual analysis as a behavior can be taught using a variety of methods, independent of how the skill itself is to be performed. Teaching methods include lecture, online instruction, and equivalence-based instruction. There is not much research on the teaching of visual analysis specifically, …

Neurocardiovascular Instability (Ncvi) Risk As A Predictor Of Cognitive Function In The Long Life Family Study, Rebecca Abraham

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In aging populations, the abnormal neural control of the cardiovascular system has been examined within the construct of neurocardiovascular instability (NCVI). The main research aim addressed whether baseline features of NCVI could predict cognitive function (i.e., decline) at follow-up within long-lived families. Across 941 subjects, baseline NCVI risk was indexed by two features: (1) self-reported syncopal or fall events and (2) average seated BP. The Low NCVI risk group included those who were normotensive (e.g., within normal BP range) and reported no NCVI features (n=379). The Moderate NCVI risk group included those who elicited pre-hypertensive (elevated BP) or hypertensive (high …

Investigation Of Behavioral Responses Including Visual Side Biases To Social Stimuli In Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Jennifer R. Savoie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cetacean field studies have reported consistent population-level side biases for foraging behaviors and this right side feeding bias is arguably the strongest in any species next to handedness in humans. Notably, experimental studies with cetaceans, particularly dolphins, have struggled to find laterality in other behaviors, and some have reported patterns that are inconsistent with those typically found in vertebrates. Side biases related to social processing have been reported in a few observational studies of wild delphinids but have not been successfully evaluated in a controlled experimental context. This dissertation investigated viewing side biases of bottlenose dolphins in two contexts: when …

Is Less More? Examining The Effects Of Predictor Method Factors On Mobile Sjt Scores And Test-Taker Reactions, Anne E. Kato

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, job applicants have increasingly taken internet-based pre-employment tests on mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) in addition to nonmobile devices (e.g., computers). This mobile assessment phenomenon introduces new issues into the test design process, such as ensuring consistent assessment outcomes across different device types. Mobile assessment research has focused on device attributes and predictor constructs as explanations for potential differences across device types but has given little attention to predictor methods. Examining the role of predictor methods is important for understanding how to design assessments that perform comparably across device types, particularly for highly modular methods like situational judgment …

Making Sense Of Pre-Symbolic Trauma: A Qualitative Study On The Lived Experiences Of Adults Who Were Born Extremely Prematurely, Noia Efrat

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The psychological experiences of adults (n=5) who were born at or before the threshold for extreme prematurity (weeks) was examined using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). Subjects were interviewed to learn about how their extreme prematurity has become organized and integrated on the levels of fantasy, identity and personality. Results showed that dysregulation and the propensity to self-contain on both somatic and affective levels were common themes across cases, supporting current research connecting the ongoing impacts of prematurity to the context of overstimulation and fundamental absence in the first months of life in the NICU. Despite …

"A Fallen Woman": The Use Of Metaphor In Psychoanalysis, Matthew Schneider

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study sought to understand the use of a central metaphor in a psychoanalytic treatment and its relationship to the process of change for the analysand. In linguistics, a metaphor is a word, phrase or idea that stands in for another idea. In psychoanalysis the relationship between conscious and unconscious conflictual material can share similar metaphorical connections as conscious thoughts or behavior often stands in for an unconscious wishes. The presence of a word or phrase that appears in speech in the context of particular affective moments in an analysand’s experience could be understood to be linked to unconscious processes …

Mapping Learning Ecologies: A Diffractive Exploration Of The Emergence Of Learning, Laurie Hurson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, drawing on Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism (2007), I explore the learning ecology as a “specific material configuration” that produces learning, an emergent, “onto-epistemological” phenomenon of entangled being-knowing. I offer a new materialist approach to the learning ecology to better define the concept, taking seriously the material nature of the ecology and acknowledging that learning and knowing is a material practice of being in the world.

To explore learning ecologies, I conducted qualitative interview and mapping sessions with 26 undergraduate students at the City University of New York. To analyze the narrative and visual data, I …

Blurring The "Bright Line": Examining Age-Related Differences In Jail Incarceration Outcomes Using A Resources-Challenges Model Of Emerging Adulthood, Olive F. Lu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Jail incarceration represents an early and prevalent point of contact with the criminal legal system. While there is some evidence of age-related differences in jail incarceration outcomes such as rearrest and reconvictions, existing research typically only make comparisons between adults and adolescents. This bifurcation ignores the unique experiences of a third group: emerging adults aged 18 to 25. Evidence from developmental research combined with shifting social and cultural dynamics suggest that 18-25-year-olds, though adults by law, straddle the line between adolescence and adulthood while facing challenges that set them apart.

The current study incorporates a resources-challenges framework of emerging adulthood …

Reducing Fear Overgeneralization With Safety Learning: Attention Bias As A Moderator, Boyang Fan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health condition and affect one out of nine individuals around the world. Fear generalization is a neurocognitive mechanism thought to maintain and exacerbate anxiety, and thus is an important target of therapeutic interventions. Yet, intervention research and practice place relatively little emphasis on its importance. Given that a significant proportion of individuals do not respond to extant treatments of anxiety disorders, a strengthened focus on fear generalization may inform the development and personalization of new treatment approaches. Recent notions have linked fear generalization to failures in distinguishing between signals that predict the occurrence …

Screen Time And The Psychological Well-Being Of U.S. Teenagers: An Exploratory Re-Analysis Of Data From The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Russell Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Numerous studies, notably secondary analyses of survey data, have examined the possibility of adverse effects from teenagers' use of digital screen-based media--with correspondingly diverse findings. One research group in particular, led by Jean M. Twenge, has been prolific and forceful in associating adolescents’ screen time with reported increases in depression, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide. Others have pointed to small effect sizes, construct validity issues, and other methodological problems in the Twenge research. However, one characteristic of the group's analyses of survey data, including data from the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), has remained unexplored: the use of metric …

Adapting Small Unmanned Aerial Systems For Behavioral Research With Coastal Marine Mammals, Eric Angel Ramos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Marine mammals inhabit aquatic worlds where their subsurface behavior, cryptic surface profiles, and movements make them difficult to study. New tools are needed to study coastal marine mammals in a world increasing impacted by climate change related shifts in weather and animal distribution patterns. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are important remote-sensing tools for studying a range of wildlife including terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna. These systems offer flexible platforms for adding sensor packages needed for different applications, for example, most are equipped with high-resolution cameras and GPS sensors. The vantage point from an aerial platform dramatically improves the ability …

Integrating Social-Emotional Learning And School Climate With A Sociocultural Narrative Inquiry Approach, Isabella Fante

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study introduces a novel application of sociocultural narrative theory and method to integrate social-emotional learning (SEL) and school climate research. Extensive research has demonstrated the importance of SEL and school climate in promoting student success (Cohen et al., 2009; Durlak et al., 2011; Rivers et al., 2013). However, few studies examine SEL and school climate as interrelated concepts; they are frequently studied separately, most often using quantitative, survey-based methods (Brackett et al., 2012). Furthermore, despite the wealth of research on SEL and climate, there is a dearth of studies in the context of high school settings. This study employed …

The Psychological Allure Of Alford: Why Innocents Plead Guilty, Johanna Hellgren

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Alford plea allows defendants to maintain their innocence while accepting a plea. Although this plea is more prevalent than jury trials, it is largely unknown to both lay people and researchers (Redlich & Özdoğru, 2009). Legal scholars have argued that the Alford plea may present an undue influence on innocent defendants who may not otherwise accept a plea, while other assert that the Alford plea is a beneficial alternative for defendants who want to preserve their reputation (Ronis, 2009; Ward, 2004). However, no research to date has explored either of these assumptions.

The goals of the current research were …

A Comparison Of Simulated Schizophrenia In Mental Health Experts And Genuine Schizophrenia In Psychiatric Patients, Amanda Rosinski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Malingering includes the intentional feigning of psychiatric symptoms combined with motivation for external gain (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Malingering is likely to occur in the justice system in both criminal and civil contexts, as there is increased opportunity for secondary gain in these settings. When individuals successfully malinger, it can be very costly for the United States. For example, if an individual successfully malingers, it can delay their criminal proceedings, allow them to inappropriately use resources associated with psychiatric or medical treatment, allow them to gain access to unneeded medications or financial assistance, or allow them to avoid work (Chafetz …

Motivation Of Networking Behavior: A Study Of Novel Interventions, Jeremy D. Rothstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Networking is a critical yet potentially underutilized career self-management strategy. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the extent to which novel reading and writing exercises could foster networking motivation and network use. The first set, based on Social-Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), was designed to increase participants’ confidence about their ability to engage in effective networking, and help them believe that networking is a valuable activity. The second set, based on Goal-Setting Theory (GST), was designed to help participants practice setting effective career development objectives and networking goals linked to those objectives. The Networking Information Control (NIC) condition was …

A Schema-Theoretic Approach To Hierarchy In Eighteenth-Century Tonality, Simon K. S. Prosser

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Prevalent modern-day theories of tonal hierarchy for eighteenth-century music, especially those influenced by the ideas of Heinrich Schenker, have been called into question by schema theorists such as Robert Gjerdingen and Vasili Byros, who argue from both cognitive and historical evidence that eighteenth-century tonal cognition was sequential or “windowed” rather than hierarchical. This dissertation seeks to recuperate the concept of tonal hierarchy in eighteenth-century music, drawing on research that reconstructs the implicit tonal theories of the partimento and thoroughbass traditions, as well as concepts of hierarchy from schema theory itself, to formulate a historically and cognitively grounded theory of tonal …

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 …

The Influence Of Evidence-Based Sex Discrimination Policies On Women’S Perceptions Of Organizational Climate, Sexism, And Identity Safety, Maya A. Godbole

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sexism has proven to be a stubborn barrier to women’s participation and advancement in workplaces and academic institutions (Rosette, Akinola, & Ma, 2017). Importantly, sexism in organizational settings has endured despite the implementation of federal, state, and organizational policies that prohibit discriminatory behavior. One reason for this may be that because organizational policies are typically written for the purpose of complying to federal and state laws, they do little to foster psychological safety among employees and address the “chilly” organizational climates that enable sexism. To that end, the current research aimed to (a) develop novel, evidence-based sex discrimination policies and …

Barriers And Bridges To Intimacy: A Constellation Of Same-Sex Female Couples’ Experiences, Struggles And Strengths, Jenna K. Bennett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Intimacy is central to romantic relationships, however, this aspect of experience has been largely unstudied in female couples. Further, few studies have looked at how minority stress and internalized homophobia impact these women’s experiences of intimacy. With a sample of 19 women, through self-report measures and a semi-structured interview, experiences of intimacy, the factors that impact intimacy, barriers to intimacy, and how couples bridge these barriers were explored. Quantitative analysis revealed an association between internalized homophobia and relationship satisfaction. Qualitative thematic analysis indicated that this group of women had a robust range of explicit and implicit experiences of intimacy. Further, …

Telehealth Caregiver Training: Treating Food Selectivity Without Extinction, Christina M. Alaimo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Telehealth behavioral interventions are becoming increasingly necessary given limited accessibility for in-person services; while there is a growing evidence-base for these interventions, there are few applications for pediatric feeding disorders. Those studies that have evaluated telehealth feeding interventions have done so only after children received some form of in-person services. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a telehealth caregiver training package to teach caregivers to implement an alternative to escape extinction feeding intervention in their home to treat their child’s food selectivity. All three caregivers demonstrated high levels of correct performance following training and all children demonstrated increases …

The Federalist Papers' Account Of Human Nature, Jeffrey P. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper is an analysis of the account of human nature found in The Federalist Papers. This interpretation assumes The Federalist is a work of political rhetoric and advocacy, but also one of genuine significance as political science and philosophy. As a book, The Federalist is a coherent whole, which offers a coherent account of human nature, despite the collective nature of its authorship, the time pressures of its publication, and the piecemeal nature of its workmanship. This understanding of human nature is the thread which runs through all its analysis and numbers. Its arguments asserting the inadequacies of …

Semantic Network Activation Contributes To The Relationship Between Mood And Inhibition, James S. Maniscalco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Prior research has identified several relationships between mood and executive functions. Very broadly, these findings generally suggest that positive moods are associated with enhanced cognitive performance, particularly in working memory and learning. However, recent studies note that there are some instances in which negative moods may benefit select executive skills, such as those involved in divided attention and inhibition. In sum, these findings indicate that positive moods favor top-down, heuristic, or relational processing, whereas negative trait moods favor bottom-up, detail-oriented processing. However, a clear mechanism by which these effects occur has yet to be identified.

The most compelling theories that …