Psychology Commons^™

The Sociopolitical Development Of Community And Labor Organizers Of Color: A Qualitative Study, Omar Guessous

Psychology Theses

This study applies qualitative methodology to the study of sociopolitical development (SPD) among community and labor organizers of color. Participant data (open-ended applications) were obtained from a long-standing training institution, span 18 years (n=200), and equally represent Black, Latino/a, and Asian individuals. This study sought to reveal important dimensions of SPD and to identify contributing life experiences. Three SPD themes emerged: (1) social analysis, (2) commitment, and (3) empowerment. An organizer thus exhibits multidimensional insight into social injustice, commitment to taking action, and genuine belief in his/her individual and collective abilities. Four experiential domains contributed to participants’ SPD: (a) family, …

Gender And Site-Name Recall Of Geographic Sites Varying In Distance., Joshua Sean Godsey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research project was to replicate, refine, and extend research by Zinser et al. (in press) of the site-name, associative memory of male and female college students of nearby to very distant geographic sites. A test booklet included eight schematic aerial maps. The maps were of 20 to 50 geographic sites participants attempted to match with their names. The number of campus buildings, campus city sites, regional cities, U.S. cities, U.S. states, world cities, world countries, and world continents/bodies of water matched correctly were determined. A demographic questionnaire was also presented. Overall, men performed significantly better than …

The Relationships Among Perceptions Of Family Disharmony, Parent-Child Relationships, Disharmonious Family Experiences, And Adolescent Cigarette Smoking., Herbert F. Wolfe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among the following perspectives: perception of family disharmony, parent-child relationships, disharmonious family relationships, and adolescent cigarette smoking. Participants from a southeastern university reported about whether they smoke daily, weekly, monthly, never, or no longer smoke. The independent variable was smoking status of participants. Four to eight rating scales served as dependent variables for the three perspectives. Independent groups (smoking status) multivariate analyses of variance with unequal cell sizes were performed on the rating scale measures. Because none of the comparison tests were significant, the results were interpreted to suggest that …

Positive Self-Talk Statements As A Self-Esteem Building Technique Among Female Survivors Of Abuse., Fred Jackson Teaster Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this integrated review of literature was to explore the relationship between and among females in abusive relationships, self-esteem, and positive self-talk. Various models are discussed that provide possible explanations in the understanding of the complex social and psychological nature of cyclic abuse. These models are: learned helplessness, psychological entrapment, self-verification theory, and feminist theory. It is suggested that positive self-talk statements used by the female survivor as a basis for cognitive restructuring can act as a self-esteem building technique, thus promoting healthier cognitions over time. Furthermore, it is argued that self-esteem enhancement can assist females in developing …

The Social Competence Of Homeschooled And Conventionally-Schooled Adolescents: A Preliminary Investigation, Denise Lopez Haugen

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Homeschooling is a controversial educational option that has grown dramatically during the past two decades. Socialization concerns contribute strongly to this controversy. Research in this area is sparse, but it indicates that homeschooled students do well academically and socially. Many homeschooling studies suffer, however, from serious methodological issues. This investigation sought to discover whether differences in social competence existed between sample populations of homeschooled and conventionally-schooled students; research in the arena of competence and resilience served to guide the methodology. Where differences were found, specifics were elucidated and factors contributing to these differences were isolated.

Forty-seven homeschooling and conventionally-schooling families …

Influence Of Age, Gender, And Race On Depression In Heart Failure Patients., Ronald Freudenberger, Stacey C. Cahn, Christine Skotzko

PCOM Scholarly Papers

No abstract provided.

Book Review 2 Optimize Your Life! The One-Page Strategic Planner By Bernhoff A. Dahl, M.D., William C. Mcpeck

William C. McPeck

This is my personal review of Optimize Your Life! The One-page Strategic Planner by Bernhoff A. Dahl and published by Wind-Breaker Press in 2003.

Emotional Intelligence As A Moderator Of Problem Based Arousal On Solution Quality And Quantity, Anne E. Herman

Student Work

The study examined the interactive influence o f the affective qualities of a problem and a problem solver’s emotional intelligence (El), an individual difference in the ability to perceive, express, integrate, understand, and regulate emotion, on the quality and quantity of solutions generated to two different ill-structured problems. The general hypothesis was that emotional intelligence would moderate the effect of the negative emotional arousal of a problem controlling for the influence of cognitive intelligence, such that the discrepancy between those higher and lower in emotional intelligence would be greater for the problem which is high in emotional arousal than for …

The Adaptiveness Of Punishing Behavior: A Baseline Study, Levente Littvay

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study sheds light on the current patterns of punishing behavior. Experimental work with ultimatum bargaining shows that individuals have a high sensitivity to fairness, and when taken advantage of, are willing to endure costs to punish deviant behavior. Third party observers of the unfair behavior asked to represent ultimatum recipients are more hesitant to engage in such punishment. This becomes ever more puzzling when we consider individuals’ high value of their own reputation in similar settings. This leaves both rational choice modelers and political psychologists puzzled. This study presents the baseline model for a research agenda proposing a multi-agent …

Shame And Negative Body Image In Adolescent Females, Erin K. Anderson-Fortier

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Current research in the fields of shame, body image, and adolescent female weight has had little convergence until recently. Biological changes that occur during adolescence, particularly weight gain for females, may result in feelings of shame. Shame is an involuntary reaction to the belief that the self is inherently flawed. Body image begins to form in early childhood, and "is a multidimensional construct that refers to subjective perceptual and altitudinal experiences about one's body, particularly one's physical appearance" (Cash, Melnyk, & Hrabosky, 2004, p.305). Body image may be negatively impacted when the adolescent female's belief that her actual body is …

Equality News (Winter 2004-2005), Equality Maine Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Performance Success, Skill Level, And Gender On The Causal Attributions Of Recreational Golfers, Kevin W. Mchenry

Student Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of performance success, skill level, and gender on the causal attributions made by recreational golfers. Skill level was determined by handicap, and performance success was the golfer’s estimation of whether the particular round of golf was successful or unsuccessful. It was hypothesized that the causal attributions that recreational golfers made would be more internal, stable, and personally controllable after a successful performance than after an unsuccessful performance. Male and female golfers (N=101), from age 19 to 73, with an average age of 39, playing recreationally completed the Causal Dimension Scale-ll …

Intimate Partner Violence And The Justice System: An Examination Of The Interface, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Women entering the court system face a challenging experience, in part, because a courtroom can be an intimidating and difficult place for any person, and in part because women victimized by crimes in which the offender is known to them face distinctive difficulties when they seek the court’s remedies. The interface is also made more challenging for women as the literature offers disparate findings as to the efficacy of criminal justice responses and civil remedies. This article briefly explores the unique characteristics of intimate partner violence cases that influence the interface of these victims with the court system.Areviewis provided of …

Toward A National Research Agenda On Violence Against Women: Continuing The Dialogue On Research And Practice [Part Two], Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

No abstract provided.

A Theater-Based Approach To Primary Prevention Of Sexual Behavior For Early Adolescents, Jessica B. Janega, David M. Murray, Sherri P. Varnell, Jonathan L. Blitstein, Amanda Birnbaum, Leslie A. Lytle

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

This article compares four mixed-model analyses valid for group-randomized trials (GRTs) involving a nested cohort design with a single pretest and posttest. This study makes estimates of intraclass correlations (ICCs) available to investigators planning GRTs addressing dietary outcomes. It also provides formulae demonstrating the potential benefits to the standard error of the intervention effect (σΔ) from adjustments for both fixed and time-varying covariates and correlations over time. These estimates will allow other researchers using these variables to plan their studies by estimating a priori detectable differences and sample size requirements for any of the four analytic options. These methods are …

Size Matters: A Test Of Boldness In Eight Populations Of The Poeciliid Brachyraphis Episcopi, Culum Brown, Victoria Braithwaite

Sentience Collection

Individual variation in behaviour within populations may be explained in part by demographics and long-term, stable individual psychological differences. We examined the relation between boldness (taken as the time to emerge from a shelter and explore a novel environment) and body size in eight populations of the poeciliid Brachyraphis episcopi originating from sites upstream and downstream of waterfalls in four rivers that run into the Panama Canal. The relation between body size and time to emerge from a shelter was positive, with larger fish taking longer to emerge. This relation differed between downstream and upstream sites, being significant in the …

Is Empathy Gendered And If So, Why? An Approach From Feminist Psychological Anthropology, Claudia Strauss

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Difference feminists have argued that women have special virtues. One such virtue would seem to be empathy, which has three main components: imaginative projection, awareness of the other's emotions, and concern. Empathy is closely related to identification. Psychological research and the author's own study of women's and men's talk about poverty and welfare use in the United States demonstrate women's greater empathic concern. However, some cross-cultural research shows greater sex differences in empathy in the United States than elsewhere. This combination of findings (women tend to demonstrate greater empathic concern, but this typical difference varies cross-culturally) requires a complex biocultural …

The Information Used To Judge Supportiveness Depends On Whether The Judgment Reflects The Personality Of Perceivers, Objective Characteristics Of Targets Or Their Unique Relationships, Brian Lakey, Catherine Lutz, Alan Scoboria

Psychology Faculty Publications

People who judge their relationships as more supportive enjoy better mental health than people who judge their relationships more negatively. We investigated how people made these judgments; specifically, how people weighed different types of information about targets under three different conditions: when judgments reflected the personality of perceivers, the objective characteristics of targets, and the unique relationships between perceivers and targets. Participants (i.e., perceivers) judged the same four videotaped targets on personality, similarity to perceivers and likely supportiveness. As in previous research, perceivers based their judgments on perceived target similarity to perceivers, and on target personality. However, how perceivers weighed …

Psychopathy And The Five Factor Model In A Noninstitutionalized Sample: A Domain And Facet Level Analysis, Scott R. Ross, Catherine J. Lutz, Steven E. Bailley

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study examined the relationship of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality to primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions in a noninstitutionalized sample. Previous investigations suggest that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism are basic personality traits that characterize psychopathy. However, few studies have examined the relationship of the FFM to primary and secondary psychopathic attributes, respectively. In the current study, the relationship of the FFM using the NEO-PI-R to primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions was investigated in a sample of young adults. Previous findings were extended by (1) addressing the relationship of higher and lower order FFM traits (i.e., facet …

Measuring Student Well-Being In The Context Of Australian Schooling : Discussion Paper, Julian Fraillon

Wellbeing

This report was commissioned by the South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services as an agent of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). The report constitutes Phase 1 of a planned two phase process. Specifically this report defines a measurement construct for student well-being; outlines a methodology for measuring student well-being; and provides recommendations for ongoing work in the measuring, reporting and monitoring of student well-being (Phase 2).

Child Pornography: Patterns From Nibrs., David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Presents findings from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). By collecting data on pornography/obscene material offenses from law enforcement jurisdictions, NIBRS enables researchers to draw conclusions about the number, locations, and characteristics of these crimes. NIBRS data suggest that approximately 2,900 crime incidents of pornography with juvenile involvement were known to state and local police in 2000; these offenses most often were committed by a lone adult male offender, occurred in a residence, and did not involve a computer. Currently, NIBRS data represent about 14 percent of the population. As more jurisdictions support uniform reporting of accurate data to …

Forgiveness And Rumination: Their Relationship And Effects On Psychological And Physical Health, Kimberly A. Edmondson

Doctoral Dissertations

Forgiveness has recently become a popular focus of research in psychology. In addition to philosophical and theological explorations, psychologists have extended the study of forgiveness into physical and psychological health. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between forgiveness and rumination, as well as the associations among these two factors, health and acute physiological responses. Sixty females participated in a betrayal narrative as well as a rumination period. Two measures of state forgiveness, one measure of trait forgiveness, and two measures of trait rumination were used. Blood pressure and cortisol reactivity were assessed. State forgiveness was associated …

Treatment Acceptability Of A Well-Established Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Panic Disorder In A Passamaqyoddy Community, Elizabeth Ranslow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a step towards evaluating the cross-cultural effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for panic disorder, treatment acceptability was used in the current study to gain an understanding of the treatment utility and social validity of that treatment with a group of Passamaquoddy individuals. American Indian communities face substantial psychosocial challenges (e-g., poverty, discrimination, and high rates of violent deaths), which are associated with increased risk for psychopathology, and there is little empirical evidence of the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy within these communities. The current study addressed these issues in two phases. In phase 1, qualitative methodology was used to …

The Effect Of Levels Of Processing On Event-Related-Potentials, Warren Scott Merrifield

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The primary research question for this study was to determine if physiological correlates of encoding and retrieval could be observed across three levels of processing. It was hypothesized that physiological correlates of encoding and retrieval would be observed at electrode sites near Cz with the semantic processing condition yielding the most positive going event-related-potential, the phonological processing condition yielding an intermediate positive going event-related-potential, and the perceptual processing condition yielding the least positive going-event-related-potential. The experiment had a study phase and test phase. For the study phase, participants were encouraged to process the target word at one of three different …

A Multicomponent Intervention System Using Human Performance Technology Concepts To Improve Performance In Small Service Businesses, Doug Lafleur

Masters Theses

A small business servicing dealerships in the chimney lining industry was responsible for training and resupplying contractors in a propriety chimney lining system. A process was developed for sharing and comparing the dealerships' financial reports and business processes. The process involved a small group of dealers attending regular 6- month meetings called Impact Groups. Dealers took turns hosting the meetings and having the attending dealers analyze their business. A detailed list of problems and solutions was provided to each host business.

Prayer As A Treatment Modality In Patient Healthcare: Physicians' Spiritual Beliefs And Religious Practices And Their Relationship To Patient Health, D. Ronald Rickerhauser

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The intention of this study was to determine whether physicians' spiritual beliefs and the integration of prayer in medical practice are associated with patient health. In this study, 546 physicians from 40 different family practice residency programs in the contiguous United States completed and returned surveys. Regression analyses using these data and patient statistics provided by the clinics were performed. Patient's length of hospital stay and a ratio of clinic patients to hospital patients were used as dependent measures. The results did not show a relationship between physician beliefs, prayer, and patient health. However, there was a significant relationship between …

A Meta-Analytic Review Of The Effects Of High Stress On Eyewitness Memory, Kenneth A. Deffenbacher, Brian H. Bornstein, Steven D. Penrod, E. Kiernan Mcgorty

Psychology Faculty Publications

In the past 30 years researchers have examined the impact of heightened stress on the fidelity of eyewitness memory. Meta-analyses were conducted on 27 independent tests of the effects of heightened stress on eyewitness identification of the perpetrator or target person and separately on 36 tests of eyewitness recall of details associated with the crime. There was considerable support for the hypothesis that high levels of stress negatively impact both types of eyewitness memory. Meta-analytic Z-scores, whether unweighted or weighted by sample size, ranged from -5.40 to -6.44 (high stress condition–low stress condition). The overall effect sizes were -.31 for …

A Survey On The Use And Misuse Of Attention/Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) Stimulant Medication Among Louisiana State University Students, Devan R. Guidry

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Stress And Sudden Changes On Decision-Making As Moderated By Individual Differences In Sensation-Seeking, Nataria T. Joseph

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Personal Narrative Views Of Mothers And Their Children: Setting Events For Mother-Child Interactions?, Meredith P. Schwartzman

Masters Theses

The personal narratives of mothers and children were examined for coherence and richness. Both were assessed for commonalities in narrative structure and possible links to mother’s responsiveness to child’s aversion behaviors. Narrative structure was empirically manipulated to assess changes on responsiveness and child negativity. A sample of thirty mother-child dyads were recruited for participation from normal populations and ten mother-dyads were recruited through the University of Tennessee Psychological Clinic. Measures include the Child Behavior Checklist 9CBCL; Achenback & Edelbrock, 1983), Personal Narrative (Castlebury & Wahler, 1997), and the Standardized Observation Codes-Revised (SOC-R, see Cerezo, 1988). Mother and child narratives were …