Psychology Commons^™

Peak Alpha Frequency: An Electroencephalographic Measure Of Cognitive Preparedness, Efthymios Angelakis

Doctoral Dissertations

Background.

Electroencephalographic (EEG) peak alpha frequency (PAF) has been shown to correlate with a variety of phenomena, including age, memory performance in healthy and demented individuals, different emotional states, schizophrenia, anxiety, recovery from stroke, cerebral blood flow (CBF) velocity, brain oxygenation, as well as acute administration of stimulant and nootropic substances. These studies have shown that PAF varies between healthy and clinical individuals, with the latter consistently having lower PAF. Moreover, PAF varies between healthy individuals, reflecting cognitive performance, with better performance being associated with increased PAF. Finally, PAF varies within individuals both between developmental stages and between different cognitive …

Eeg Patterns Of Tbi Patients With Attention Deficits During Cognitive Tasks And Second Resting Baseline, Stamatina Stathopoulou

Doctoral Dissertations

According to previous research, different regions of the brain are activated when a person is required to use different types of attention like selective, alternating, focused, sustained and divided attention. The frontal, prefrontal and parietal areas especially in the right hemisphere, seem to be the most frequently activated areas. Little research has addressed differences in the electroencephalogram (EEG) between traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients, with different types of attentional deficits because of their injury, and normal population. This study focuses on differences in magnitude in five brain regions between TBI patients and normal population, during recording of one cognitive task …

An Empirical Analysis Of The Effect Of The Need For Closure On Materiality Thresholds Of Auditors, Cynthia M. Daily

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify the strengths of a specific motivator for judgment and decision-making, referred to as “need for closure” and determine how the strength of that motivator affects materiality judgments of auditors.

The extent to which auditors seek and process information prior to forming a judgment can have important consequences in the conduct of an audit. In this regard, psychology researchers have identified a personality characteristic—a motive for judgment and decision making—that influences the decision making process. This motive, referred to as the need for closure, pertains to the desire of individuals to clear …

The Integrative Model Of Personality Assessment For Achievement Motivation And Fear Of Failure: Implications For The Prediction Of Effort And Performance, Mark Nathaniel Bing

Doctoral Dissertations

While both self-report (SR) and conditional reasoning (CR) measures of achievement motivation (AM) and fear-of-failure (FF) have been shown to be predictive of academic and organizational outcomes (James, 1998; Spangler, 1992), substantial criterion variance is often left unaccounted for by either measurement system when used in isolation. The current work proposes a new, theoretical model of AM and FF created by integrating information on explicit cognitions gathered from SR with information on implicit cognitions gathered from CR. This “integrative model” of assessment provides an enhanced understanding of the approach-avoidance conflicts people experience when they are faced with challenging tasks. Predictions …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Experience Of Travel, Norris Lee Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

To describe and gain an understanding of the experience and meaning of travel, ten participants were asked to “tell me about some times you’ve traveled that stand out to you.” These interviews were non-structured, and the ensuing dialogue served as data for a research project concerning first-person accounts of the lived experience of travel. Once completed, each interview was typed and underwent hermeneutic analysis within the context of an interpretive research group. Results of thematic analysis revealed that travel was described as a movement away from “home,” a venturing out, which was characterized by participants in figure-ground terms. For this …

Relationships Between A Quaternary Model Of Psychological Type Processes And Defense Mechanism Clusters, Kathryn Elizabeth Kelly

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the relationships between two psychological type dimensions (Extraversion-Introversion and Thinking-Feeling) and defense mechanism preferences. Psychological Type Theory was used as a conceptual framework for the generation of hypotheses. Specific hypotheses between the two psychological type dimensions and defense mechanism preferences were tested. Further, Extraversion-Introversion and Thinking-Feeling were combined, resulting in the formation of a quaternary personality model consisting of four groups (Introverted Thinking, Introverted Feeling, Extraverted Thinking, and Extraverted Feeling). Hypotheses that certain quaternary groups would display specific relationships with defense mechanism preferences were tested. To test hypotheses, 223 university students were administered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator …