Psychology Commons^™

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of Behavioral Skills Training On A Mindfulness-Based Protocol, Chealsy Darby

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This evaluation examined the effects of behavioral skills training on the correct implementation of a mindfulness-based protocol by direct support staff who provide services to adults with intellectual disabilities in a community, residential setting. Participants included two direct support staff who provide services to two different adults with intellectual disabilities who have a mindfulness-based protocol as an intervention for problem behavior described in their behavior support plan. The participants were exposed to a behavioral skills training package and were required to demonstrate mastery criteria of the mindfulness-based protocol as part of their regular job duties. The results of this evaluation …

The Union Of Opposites: Carl Jung, Folklore, And The Caduceus And Ouroboros In Alchemy, Jack Daly

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis advocates for the use of Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic theory in folkloristics by examining the role of the caduceus and the ouroboros in alchemy as a case study. Although a Jungian lens has not been widely accepted by folklorists, it can and should be applied to folklore, particularly in the context of binary oppositions. Folklorists such as Alan Dundes have been harshly critical of this perspective. However, Dundes also stressed the importance of binaries in folklore. Furthermore, Dundes championed the theory of symbolic equivalences, and in my paper I argue that the caduceus and the ouroboros are examples of …

Racial And Ethnic Differences In Adverse Childhood Experiences And Health Outcomes In Adulthood, Sallie Mack

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been linked to many negative physical and mental health disorders in adulthood. Many individuals in the United States have ACEs, and rates are higher among people of color. Less is known about how to prevent these physical and mental health disorders and symptoms for individuals with ACEs. Five different factors may help in intervening on the negative effects of ACEs. These include: mental wellness, healthy relationships, physical activity, sleep and nutrition (Burke Harris, 2018). This study investigated how these factors influence health in adulthood for individuals with ACEs. The current researcher used data from the …

Comparison Of Public Mental Health Stigma In Youth, Desiree A. Clarke

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study looked at mental health stigma in youth. Mental health stigma is devaluing, disgracing and disfavoring individuals with mental illness. Participants aged 11-14 completed a measure to rate their stigmatizing beliefs toward peers with either ADHD, depression, or asthma. Their ratings were compared for significance between genders and for the three different conditions: ADHD, depression, and asthma. Significant differences were found between the stigma ratings for asthma, depression and ADHD. ADHD had significantly higher stigma ratings than asthma, and depression had significantly higher stigma ratings than ADHD (on some, but not all, areas rated) and had consistently higher …

Perceptions Of Disabilities Among Native Americans Within The State Of Utah, Erica Ficklin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Native Americans are diagnosed with disabilities at a significantly higher rate than the general American population. Due to cultural differences, other factors are likely impacting this difference in diagnosis rates. One possible factor is that Native Americans may have a different definition for ‘disability’ than the general American population. This study aimed to identify whether there is a difference in the definition for ‘disability’ and to learn about the current services available and what changes should be made to better serve Native Americans with disabilities. Native American participants were asked to share their experiences and thoughts about disabilities in sharing …

A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of Acceptance And Commitment Therapy In South Korea, Woolee An

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although psychologists have emphasized the importance of considering clients’ various cultural backgrounds and researching various populations, research is still overly focused on participants from English-speaking countries like the United States and Western countries. Numerous studies evaluating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) have been published in South Korea. However, most of the studies are still unknown to English-speaking research communities because of language differences. In order to promote cross-cultural communication of study findings, the current study reviewed treatment research from South Korea.

After searching for Korean ACT studies using Korean electronic databases, 62 studies were selected, and each study’s treatment outcome …

Effects Of Effort Training On Effort-Based Impulsive Choice, Sara Peck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Because impulsive decision-making is correlated with many maladaptive tendencies, researchers have increasingly studied methods for reducing impulsive choice. Most research in this area has focused on reducing delay-based impulsive choice, as measured by choices between smaller, immediate or larger, delayed rewards. A second type of impulsive choice is selecting a smaller, less-effortful reward over a larger, more-effortful one. Little nonhuman research has examined experimental methods for reducing effort-based impulsive choice. Within the realm of delay-based impulsive choice, extended exposure to reinforcer delays has proven effective in reducing impulsive choices in rats. The current study took a similar tac by evaluating …

Modulation Of P3 And The Late Positive Potential Erp Components By Standard Stimulus Restorativeness And Naturalness, Salif P. Mahamane

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Tests of attention restoration theory (ART) consistently support that exposure to restorative environments can replenish finite cognitive resources, needed to focus attention, from a depleted state. These environments are usually natural, but the dimensions of naturalness and restorativeness are not one and the same, and yet have not been empirically delineated. The restorative effect has been documented in children and adults. However, neuroscientists have barely begun to test for neural correlates of ART. In this dissertation, I employ electroencephalography (EEG) to record electrophysiological brain activity during an active visual oddball task to capture and analyze p3 elicitation and late positive …

Nicotine And Alcohol Interactions, Charles C. J. Frye

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Charles C.J. Frye, a graduate student in the Behavior Analysis program at Utah State University, completed this dissertation as part of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology.

Alcohol and Nicotine are the two most commonly abused drugs in the United States, often used at the same time. The goal of the dissertation was to more fully understand how exposure to one drug alters motivation for the other. In Chapter I, we investigated how exposure to nicotine affects relapse for alcohol in rats. Nicotine did not affect relapse for alcohol, possibly due to the method of …

Using Video Modeling To Teach Staff How To Implement Preference Assessments, Megan Weaver

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Identification of reinforcers through preference assessments for individuals with disabilities is an important task because it increases the probability of skill development, including academic tasks, self-help skills, social skills, and behavior modification. Teachers of students with disabilities often experience problems with training paraprofessionals to implement preference assessments using written instructions alone. In this study, researchers will investigate whether video modeling will be more effective than written instruction to staff to implement preference assessments. Participants will include three to five paraprofessionals in a classroom setting with no previous behavior analysis training on preference assessments and three to five students in a …

A Translational Examination Of Alternative-Response Discrimination Training And Resurgence, Kaitlyn O. Browning

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders often engage in severe forms of problem behavior. Reward-based behavioral interventions are highly effective at reducing levels of problem behavior and teaching more appropriate and adaptive alternative behaviors. Despite successful reduction in problem behavior during treatment, problem behaviors are susceptible to reoccurrence or relapse. Resurgence is a type of behavioral relapse that is particularly relevant to the treatment of problem behavior and may occur following the worsening of conditions of a more recently learned alternative behavior. That is, if the rewards that were used to teach the alternative behavior are removed …

Cultural And Contextual Influences On Mental Health, Stigma, And Substance Use Among Mena U.S. College Students, Molly Mechammil

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The aim of this dissertation was to investigate whether certain cultural and contextual factors influence Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) college students' mental health, alcohol/marijuana use, and experiences with mental health stigma and help seeking. Research with MENA college students is very limited, which leaves mental health providers with limited information on how to best support MENAs. MENAs report high rates of discrimination, and other research shows that many they may use religion as a way to cope with stressors such as discrimination. I examined whether religious coping might buffer the effects of discrimination on mental health outcomes. I also considered …

Harmonic Delay Reduction, Jay E. Hinnenkamp

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Stimuli which, during the life of an organism, acquire the ability to increase the probability of behavior that they follow are called conditioned reinforcers. The concurrent-chains procedure has been used to study conditioned reinforcement for over 60 years. During this time several different models have been developed to explain how stimuli become conditioned reinforcers. The three experiments of this dissertation introduced a new quantitative model of conditioned reinforcement (DRT_H) and tested its predictions against four existing models. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that DRT_H improves upon the accuracy of its predecessor, delay reduction theory (Fantino, 1969), …

A Brief Online Acceptance And Commitment Training For Enhancing Outcomes Of A Cultural Competence Intervention, Elizabeth Tish Hicks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In an increasingly diverse and multicultural society, there is a pressing and practical need for interventions to help professionals improve their cultural competence. Cultural competence trainings that target psychological flexibility in addition to knowledge, awareness, and skills may produce more efficacious results. The current study will examined the utility of targeting psychological flexibility (the ability to maintain contact the present moment and current internal experiences and to choose contextually appropriate, values-consistent behaviors, regardless of what one’s internal experiences are) as a process to enhance the impact of a cultural competence intervention with an Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT)-enhanced cultural competence …

Psychosocial Effects Of Shared Book Reading, Amy Halling

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many studies have examined the academic benefits of parents reading with their children, but few studies have looked at the psychological and social benefits, and even fewer have related the quality of shared book reading to psycho-social benefits. This study looked at whether positive and negative reading interactions during shared book reading predicted parent-child relationships, child social skills and child academic skills. Twenty-five parents of 4-year-olds read a story with their child and completed parent relationship and child social skills questionnaires. The reading interactions were then coded into two separate composite scores: positive and negative. Positive interactions did not significantly …

Gratitude In Adolescents: Examining The Role Of Attachment, Parental Gratitude, And Discounting, Savannah C. Rupp

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

From early childhood, parents often teach their children to use their manners by saying "Thank you"; however, are there any benefits from experiencing gratitude during youth? Understanding the relationship between gratitude and other areas, such as happiness and decision-making, can potentially help researchers in planning interventions for youth. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between gratitude and decision-making in youth, as well as the role of maternal gratitude and the mother-child attachment in determining gratitude in youth. Two hundred four participants (102 mothers, 102 adolescents) completed an online survey. Mothers and adolescents completed two gratitude questionnaires …

Temporal Bisection Dynamics, Mahdi Shafiei

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Temporal bisection is a behavioral task used to study how we perceive time. However, it is not fully clear how time perception should be interpreted in different variations of this task. Moreover, it is not understood why the results of this task are often different for human and animal subjects. Understanding parameters of this task and making a connection between human and animal experiments may help researchers to understand how time is perceived in the brain and consequently disorders involving time perception.

In this thesis, I propose a computational model that A) provides researchers with a framework to study the …

Rumination And Quality Of Life Among Northern Plains Indians, Devon S. Isaacs

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Native Americans (NAs) share unique risk factors for poor mental health. In response, mental health providers must address barriers to treatment while making the most of low resource situations. One way to increase usefulness of treatment is to address the mechanisms underlying multiple mental health disorders. Rumination is a style of thinking marked by repeated thoughts about distress and is well-recognized as a diagnostic factor for underlying disorders in the general population. Secondary data from the Mood Disorder Assessment Validation with Northern Plains Indians (NPI) pilot study was used to examine the relationship between rumination and anxiety, depression, and substance …

College Prescription Opioid Misuse: An Exploration Of Social Learning, Social Control, And Strain Theories, Julie Murray

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Prescription opioids, when used as medically intended, can be effective in pain management. However, the consequences and costs of widespread misuse of prescription opioids in the United States are cause for concern. Prescription opioids are related to increased risk of death and injury. Young adults, between the ages of 18 and 25, have the highest rates of misuse nationally and within this age group, college students may be particularly at risk. In order to effectively curb the growing misuse of prescription opioids within college populations, we must have a better understanding of the factors that potentially lead to misuse.

This …

A Translational Investigation Of Reinforced Behavioral Variability: Implications For Promoting Behavioral Variability In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Ann Galizio

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Behavioral variability is sometimes adaptive and can be maintained by the delivery of reinforcement. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show restricted and repetitive behaviors. Therefore, interventions to promote behavioral variability in individuals with ASD are needed. The present line of research was designed to inform such interventions by investigating reinforced behavioral variability from basic, applied, and translational perspectives. Each of these laboratory studies involved participants making sequences of well-defined responses, which were compared to previous responses. Responses that meet a variability contingency (i.e., were sufficiently different from previous responses) produced rewards. Studies 1 and 2 were basic experiments, …

Impacts Of Racial Microaggressions On White American And Ethnic Minority Students In The College Classroom, Lesther A. Papa

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The racial and ethnic makeup of college is becoming more diverse as the general trend heads towards more bachelor's degrees being conferred to ethnic minority students. However, ethnic minority students often experience racial and ethnic microaggressions (REMAs) on campus either in the classroom or in the dorms. REMAs are subtle, chronic, and negative verbal and nonverbal exchanges that communicate hostility, degradation, or dismissiveness towards a member of an ethnic minority group. From the literature, REMAs have been found to impact both White and ethnic minority students and both White and ethnic minority professors commit microaggressions towards student of color. In …

Examining The Effects Of Aspects Of Resiliency And Vulnerability On The Relationship Between Experiencing Microaggressions And Mental Health Among Persons Of Color, Amanda K. Blume

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ethnic minorities experience discrimination frequently, especially a subtle form of discrimination called microaggressions-which are linked with poorer mental health. This study examined protective factors against microaggressions. In this study, responding to microaggressions actively (as opposed to ignoring the situation) was linked with better mental health. When use of active coping strategies was low, microaggressions were associated with lower self-esteem and higher depression and anxiety. Alternatively, when use of active coping styles was high, microaggressions were associated with higher self-esteem and less depression, anxiety, and drug use. Responding to microaggressions is a disengaged way (such as attempting to ignore or avoid …

Making A Decision On Ethical Decision-Making Models, Melanie K. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Those in the helping professions, like psychology, counseling, and social work, have numerous ethical guidelines and codes to dictate ethical behavior. These codes, while extensive, do not encompass all situations. When professionals find themselves in an ambiguous situation, it is called an ethical dilemma. Many of the professional organizations that create ethical codes also recommend the use of ethical decision-making models. Ethical decision-making models provide steps, or instructions, on how to make an ethical decision when presented with an ethical dilemma.

Little research has been done on ethical decision-making models, so it cannot be concluded that these models actually help …

A Temporal Information-Theoretic Model Of Suboptimal Choice, Paul J. Cunningham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Humans and animals often make decisions not in their long-term best interest. In one example, called suboptimal choice, pigeons sacrifice food for food-predictive stimuli. The study of suboptimal choice can reveal insights into the role of reward-predictive stimuli in maladaptive decision-making that characterizes numerous behavioral disorders. However, there is currently little evidence that rats engage in suboptimal choice, thereby raising questions about the species-generality of suboptimal choice. According to the temporal information-theoretic model, developed in Chapter 2, suboptimal choice emerges when pigeons pay more attention to the bits of temporal information conveyed by food-predictive stimuli than the rate of food …

Parenting Styles And Child Outcomes In Puerto Rican Families: A Comparison Of Individual And Dyadic Coding, Jeisianne Rosario Colón

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Parenting styles are comprised from three dimensions: warmth, autonomy granting, and demandingness. These dimensions combined form four parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful. Forty-nine Puerto Rican families with children 6-11 years participated. Families engaged in several tasks that were coded using the Parenting Style Observation Rating Scale and child outcomes were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist. Overall, parents received high ratings in warmth, autonomy granting, and supportive demandingness, and low scores in nonsupportive demandingness. There were some differences between parents, with mothers exhibiting higher levels of warmth with girls than boys, and higher levels of autonomy granting and …

Biological Sex As A Moderator Of The Association Of Military Sexual Trauma And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Total And Symptom Cluster Severity, Hallie S. Tannahill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a multifaceted disorder comprised of distinct symptom clusters and is commonly diagnosed in military service members/veterans (SM/Vs), particularly in those with history of military sexual trauma (MST). Evidence and theory suggest that females and males may have different traumatic responses following MST, though research investigating this association has limitations, such as modeling the sexes separately or not covarying for MST severity. The current study examined the moderating role of sex on the association of MST severity and PTSD total and symptom cluster severity. Participants were 1,161 SM/Vs (female: n = 782, 67.36%) who completed online …

The Art Of Seduction: Male Perceptions Of Sexual Willingness, Lisa Starrett

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The body of sexual assault research historically focuses on survivors, specifically female survivors. Examining male perpetrators is an important gap in the literature. Research demonstrates that men often misperceive the sexual willingness of female partners. Additionally, men predominantly react with guilt, shame, and depression when accused of sexual assault (Brennan, Swartout, Cook, & Parrot, 2018). The current study examined men’s perceptions of non-consensual dating advice as provided by a best-selling men’s dating book. We found several factors that related to higher endorsement of the non-consensual tactics, including past or present involvement in a fraternity, knowing a sexual assault perpetrator, living …