Psychology Commons^™

Maternal Mental Health And Child Health And Nutrition, Karen Mccurdy, Kathleen Gorman, Tiffani Kisler, Elizabeth Metallinos-Katsaras

Karen McCurdy

No abstract provided.

Family Food Environment And Child Overweight In Low-Income Families, Karen Mccurdy, Tiffani Kisler, Kathleen Gorman, Elizabeth Metallinos-Katsaras

Karen McCurdy

No abstract provided.

Sandtray Therapy: A Tool To Help Clients Change, April Schottelkorb, Karrie Swan, Rhyan Garcia-Briggs

Karrie L Swan

In this presentation, attendees learned with what populations sandtrays can be utilized, what materials are needed, and how to process sandtray sessions with clients. Role play and videotaped segments of sessions were utilized to facilitate learning.

Playing With Clay: Deepening Therapeutic Processes Through Expressive Arts Techniques, Karrie Swan, April Schottelkorb, Rhyan Garcia-Briggs

Karrie L Swan

Through experiential activities, attendees learned several expressive arts techniques for promoting holistic development. Participants were exposed to sand tray, puppetry, clay, and art. Adlerian and Child-Centered theories were used as frameworks for understanding children’s growth.

Chronic Stress Elevates Telomerase Activity In Rats, Annaliese K. Beery, Jue Lin, Joshua S. Biddle, Darlene D. Francis, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Elissa S. Epel

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

The enzyme telomerase lengthens telomeres—protective structures containing repetitive DNA sequences at chromosome ends. Telomere shortening is associated with diseases of ageing in mammals. Chronic stress has been related to shorter immune-cell telomeres, but telomerase activity under stress may be low, permitting telomere loss, or high, partially attenuating it. We developed an experimental model to examine the impacts of extended unpredictable stress on telomerase activity in male rats. Telomerase activity was 54 per cent higher in stressed rats than in controls, and associated with stress-related physiological and behavioural outcomes. This significant increase suggests a potential mechanism for resilience to stress-related replicative …

Intentional Analysis In Psychological Research, Rodger E. Broome Phd

Rodger E. Broome

http://phenomenologyblog.com/?p=878 Giorgi’s approach to psychological analysis is an analysis of intentionality at the psychological level rather than at the universal level of philosophy. In short, phenomenological research psychologists do not aim at finding universal a priori facts about mental life, but rather to illuminate the lived-experiences of people in various kinds of situations. The purpose of using a Husserlian approach to intentional analysis is to get at the mental acts to see how they are synthesized by the mind into personal meanings. With that in mind, the researcher examines the personal meanings and generates a unified and coherent whole from …

Lessons Learned: Building A Better Laboratory School, Amanda S. Wilcox-Herzog, Meridyth S. Mclaren

NALS Journal

Laboratory schools serve an important function in the education and training of early educators as well as important sites for the development of new knowledge related to best practices in early care and education. To this end, it is important to determine how to promote and preserve Laboratory Schools in the United States. The following paper utilizes existing literature and field data to identify essential components of successful Laboratory schools and provides a case study of a relatively new Laboratory school serving infants and toddlers; both its successes and struggles.

College Mission Alignment: Lessons For Laboratory Schools, Sharon L. Carnahan Ph.D., Diane Terorde Doyle Ma

NALS Journal

This paper concerns the content, role, and purpose of mission statements in higher education and the the advisability of aligning the mission and activities of a laboratory school with the overall aims of the sponsoring college. We review strategic planning for alignment and share mission-driven activities that we have developed. We end with ideas about receiving recognition for doing the important job of a laboratory school, through disseminating and displaying examples of excellence.

Detecting Structure In Glass Patterns: An Interocular Transfer Study, Dawn Vreven, Jarrod Berge

Dawn L Vreven

Glass patterns are visual stimuli used here to study how local orientation signals are spatially integrated into global pattern perception. We measured a form aftereffect from adaptation to both static and dynamic Glass patterns and calculated the amount of interocular transfer to determine the binocularity of the detectors responsible for the perception of global structure. Both static and dynamic adaptation produced significant form aftereffects and showed a very high degree of interocular transfer, suggesting that Glass-pattern perception involves cortical processing beyond primary visual cortex. Surprisingly, dynamic adaptation produced significantly greater interocular transfer than static adaptation. Our results suggest a functional …

The Absence Of Depth Constancy In Contour Stereograms, Dawn Vreven, Leslie Welch

Dawn L Vreven

Stereoscopic surfaces constructed from Kanizsa-type illusory contours or explicit luminance contours were tested for three-dimensional (3-D) shape constancy. The curvature of the contours and the apparent viewing distance between the surface and the observer were manipulated. Observers judged which of two surfaces appeared more curved. Experiment 1 allowed eye movements and revealed a bias in 3-D shape judgment with changes in apparent viewing distance, such that surfaces presented far from the observer appeared less curved than surfaces presented close to the observer. The lack of depth constancy was approximately the same for illusory-contour surfaces and for explicit-contour surfaces. Experiment 2 …

Juvenile Delinquency And Violence: Examining International Police And Societal Response, Gordon A. Crews, Angela West Crews

Angela Crews

This presentation comparatively examines relationships in the United States, Eastern and Central Europe, Scandinavia, and parts of the Middle East among juvenile violence, "heavy metal" music, substance abuse, and participation in occult and "alternative" youth groups (e.g., Wicca, Satanism, vampirism, Goth). We trace the movement of certain groups, behaviors, and preferences and make a correlation between some of these movements and an increase in youth violence and substance abuse. The authors use results from surveys and participant observations in the U.S., Copenhagen, Germany, the Netherlands, & the Middle East (Egypt & Turkey) that indicate, however, that mere participation in these …

Juvenile Delinquency And Violence: Examining International Police And Societal Response, Gordon A. Crews, Angela West Crews

Gordon A Crews

This presentation comparatively examines relationships in the United States, Eastern and Central Europe, Scandinavia, and parts of the Middle East among juvenile violence, "heavy metal" music, substance abuse, and participation in occult and "alternative" youth groups (e.g., Wicca, Satanism, vampirism, Goth). We trace the movement of certain groups, behaviors, and preferences and make a correlation between some of these movements and an increase in youth violence and substance abuse. The authors use results from surveys and participant observations in the U.S., Copenhagen, Germany, the Netherlands, & the Middle East (Egypt & Turkey) that indicate, however, that mere participation in these …

Teacher Nominations And The Identification Of Social, Emotional, And Behavioral Concerns In Adolescence, Stephanie Deverich Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) directly influence learning, relationships, mood, and overall scholastic experiences. Research provides evidence that early intervention and prevention efforts can address the needs of students with EBD (Allen-DeBoer, Malmgren, & Glass, 2006; Cook, et al. 2008; Lien-Thorne & Kamps, 2005; Regan, Mastropieri, & Scruggs, 2005; Rivera, Al-Otiba, & Koorland, 2006), but in order to identify these at-risk youth, a screening system is needed to broadly consider Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Concerns (SEBC).This dissertation evaluated the alignment of a teacher nomination process (Teacher Nomination Form (TNF)) and a normative screener of EBD risk (BASC-2 Behavioral and Emotional …

Bereavement In Emerging Adulthood: The Influence Of Religion And Type Of Loss, Elizabeth Collison

Theses and Dissertations

Bereavement is an important area of research as it may result in grief reactions that lead to serious psychological and health consequences (Stroebe, Schut, & Stroebe, 2007). Positive outcomes, such as personal growth or spiritual well-being, may also transpire post-loss (Hogan & Schmidt, 2002; Paloutzian & Ellison, 1982). Though research on bereavement has grown, few studies have focused on the at-risk group of emerging adults (Hardison, Neimeyer, & Lichstein, 2005; Arnett, 2000). The current study aims to add to the bereavement in emerging adulthood literature through analyzing descriptive data and assessing the impact of type of loss (i.e., nonviolent vs. …

Meg Coherence Imaging In Dyslexia: Activation Of Working Memory Pathways, Alfred Mansour

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The aims of this dissertation are to 1) review the genetic, neurodevelopmental, structural, and functional brain imaging studies that are the foundations of our understanding of dyslexia and 2) investigate the pattern of activation and functional connectivity of neuronal networks critical in working memory in dyslexics by means of magnetoenchephalographic (MEG) coherence imaging. Dyslexics showed an early onset of activation in the precentral gyrus and the superior frontal gyrus, which differed from controls where activation was initiated in posterior cortical regions (supramarginal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus). Further, dyslexics showed lower normalized amplitudes of activation in the right superior temporal …

Examining The Necessity For And Utility Of The Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (Ppi-R) Validity Scales, Jaime Anderson, Martin Sellborn, Dustin Wygant, John Edens

Dustin B. Wygant

The present study aimed to investigate the need for and utility of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory—Revised (PPI–R) Deviant Responding (DR) and Virtuous Responding (VR) validity scales in identifying overreporting and underreporting, respectively. Since the PPI–R was published, there has not been an independent peer-reviewed examination of these scales. Participants were 384 undergraduate individuals asked to respond to the PPI–R under standard, underreporting, or overreporting instructions. A comparison group consisting of 200 forensic psychiatric patients was also used for the overreporting analyses. Effects of response bias on mean elevations on the PPI–R substantive scales were examined along with the effects on …

Deadly Paradox Of Self-Defense, Rodger E. Broome Phd

Rodger E. Broome

Police deadly force is not intended to kill, but its purpose is to stop a violent person from hurting others. It is a desperate measure to bring someone physically under control, even at the risk of taking his or her life. In my research, the officers’ lived experience with shooting another person was paradoxical. Each shot fired by the officers was the most horrible thing they had ever done while being vital to surviving the encounters. Every bullet that hit its mark improved the likelihood that the officer would live while each bullet extinguished the life of the adversary. The …

Effects Of Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Brain Injury On Spatial Working Memory, Amanda L. Smith

Master's Theses

Children born prematurely or at very low birth weight (VLBW) have an increased risk for hypoxic ischemic brain injury (HI). HI refers to a lack of adequate blood and oxygen flow in the brain. HI can also occur in the term infant due to birth complications such as prolonged labor, placental dysfunction, or cord prolapse. In both populations (though exact patterns of neuropathology vary) brain damage is likely to occur in the form of decreased hippocampal and cortical volume, and enlargement of the ventricles (Kesler et al., 2004, Nagy et al., 2009). Resulting neuropathology can in turn lead to cognitive …

Examining The Bifactor Irt Model For Vertical Scaling In K-12 Assessment, James Koepfler

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Over the past decade, educational policy trends have shifted to a focus on examining students’ growth from kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). One way states can track students’ growth is with a vertical scale. Presently, every state that uses a vertical scale bases the scale on a unidimensional IRT model. These models make a strong but implausible assumption that a single construct is measured, in the same way, across grades. Additionally, research has found that variations of psychometric methods within the same model can result in different vertical scales. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of …

Evaluating The Role Of Environmental Stressors And Sensitive Parenting On The Emergence Of Behavior Problems During Early Childhood, Brenna Sapotichne

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Repeatedly, parenting quality has been shown to affect children’s level of behavior problems during early childhood (e.g., Bayer, Sanson, & Hemphill, 2006; Shaw, Gilliom, Ingoldsby, & Nagin, 2003). However, the parent-child relationship exists within a broader social context (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). Therefore, social contextual stressors such as financial strain, neighborhood danger, and residential overcrowding may affect children’s adjustment through parenting. Based on The Family Stress model (Conger & Elder, 1994), the current study tests the theory that sensitive parenting mediates the relationship between these three environmental stressors (i.e., financial strain, neighborhood danger, and residential overcrowding) and children’s behavior problems from ages …

Positive And Negative Parenting Strategies, Parental Psychopathology, And Relational Aggression In Youth, Genevieve E. Lapre, Monica A. Marsee

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the mediating role of parental psychological control on the association between parental psychopathology and youth relational aggression in a community sample of 118 adolescents (aged 11-17) and their parents. Additionally, an analysis was conducted to examine the moderating role of positive parenting on the association between parental psychopathology and relational aggression. Further analyses controlled for overt aggression and examined effects of youth gender. Results suggest psychological control partially mediates the association between parental psychopathology and relational aggression. The overall mediation was not significant after controlling for overt aggression; however, the association between psychological control and relational aggression …

The Impact Organizational Psychology Can Have To Optimize Performance In Elite Athletes, Managers, And Executives., Colin Pugh

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The development of major organizations has led to an increase in the use of different psychological principles. Organizational psychology has many different applications within sports organizations and, if used correctly, these applications can improve overall performance. When the principles of Organizational psychology are implemented properly, the attitude, motivation, and leadership qualities of individual members within the organization are enhanced. This improvement of individual members will have an impact on the performance of the entire organization. A successful organization should be adaptable, committed, goal-orientated, and synchronized. To apply these principles and concepts, the organization needs good leaders who can manage the …

Forgiveness, Mental Health, And Adult Children Of Alcoholics., Khia L. Sams

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Research has shown that spirituality can play a role in addiction and recovery. However, little work in this area has focused on adults who have grown up with parents who have had alcohol and/or drug problems. Cross-sectional data was collected from college students from a regional university in southern Appalachia. Multiple dimensions and aspects of forgiveness and mental health were examined among undergraduates, including differences based upon participants’ likelihood of being an adult child of an alcoholic (ACOA). Individuals likely to be an ACOA had poorer levels of the forgiveness and mental health related variables. Among ACOAs forgiveness of others …

The Influences Of Caregiver-Child Interactions And Temperament On Cortisol Concentrations Of Toddlers In Full-Day Childcare, Helen Morris Lane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the influences of caregiver-child interaction and temperament on cortisol concentrations of toddlers in full-day childcare. Sensitive and responsive caregiving is critical to the quality of children's early experiences. Caregivers who are attuned to unique needs of young children can support and guide child growth and development. In the context of relationships the child grows, develops, and learns to biologically respond to events in his or her world that he or she may perceive as threatening, with the production of cortisol. Studies show that regulation of cortisol release later in life may be …

Perceptions Of Peer Leadership Among Honors Students, Christy M. Culbreth

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

My Capstone Experience/Thesis project seeks to explore and compare the perceptions of peer leadership among freshmen honors students who have received formal leadership training and freshmen honors students who have received no formal leadership training. Peer leadership plays an important role in all aspects of life. If students who have had formal leadership training have a more positive perception of their peer leaders, educators may want to put more peer leadership curriculum into their programs. This study tests the hypothesis that freshmen honors students who have received formal leadership training will have a more positive perception of their peer leaders. …

Identity Discrepancy, Male Role Norms, And Mental And Physical Health, Daniel Kevin Mckelvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Male gender role norms were considered from a self-discrepancy perspective. The male gender role was divided into 4 perspective domain combinations based on the participant's perceptions: self-ideal/ought, other-ideal/ought, self-actual, other-actual. These categories were assessed using an adapted form of the Male Role Norms Inventory-Revised (Levant et al., 2007). It was hypothesized that large discrepancies between the perspective domains in a male's gender role concept would be significantly related to depression, anxiety, and lower general health quality, and this relationship would be moderated by the centrality of the perspective domains to the participant's gender role concept and by the centrality of …

Factors Associated With Play Therapists' Use Of Family-Systems Play Therapy Interventions, Jaime K. Parker

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Four hundred fifty-six (456) members of the Association for Play Therapy responded to the researcher-developed survey, the Play Therapists' Decision-Making Inventory-Revised (PTDI-R). The instrument assessed play therapists’ perceptions of the role of attachment in the treatment process, the frequency with which play therapists feel competent to use family-systems play therapy, and the frequency with which they utilize these interventions. Items from the PTDI-R were analyzed using a principal component analysis to assess the underlying structure of six items that addressed participants’ frequency of use of FSPTI relative to their understanding of the attachment relationship. This factor accounted for …

An Exploration Of Counseling Practicum Students' Experiences In Department-Based And Community-Based Settings, Corrie Delorge Minges

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Counselor educators are continually improving the quality of their training programs. The purpose of the present study was to investigate counseling students’ practicum experiences and development in community-based and department-based settings. The framework for this study was based on Stoltenberg’s integrated developmental model, which describes stages of counselor development and supervision conditions needed for a learning environment (Stoltenberg & Delworth, 1987; Stoltenberg & McNeill, 2010; Stoltenberg, McNeill, & Delworth, 1998)

A nation-wide study was conducted utilizing counselor education practicum students enrolled in programs listed in the CACREP program directory (2008) and Counselor Preparation: Programs, Faculty, Trends (12^th ed.; …

Adolescents With Callous Unemotional Traits And Their Roles In Group Crime, Laura C. Thornton

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the relationship between callous-unemotional (CU) traits and self-reported leadership characteristics during group crimes among 614 first-time offenders participating in a large multi-site study. Resistance to peer influence (RPI) and self-esteem (SE) were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between CU traits and leadership during group crime. The results indicated that youth with CU traits were more likely to commit crimes with others. Further, although youth with CU traits reported they came up with the idea for crimes and were leaders during group crimes, these relationships were not mediated by RPI and SE. Future research on youth with …

Autonomic And Behavioral Reactivity To An Acute Laboratory Stressor, Jeremy C. Peres

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Stress has been widely shown to directly influence people’s emotional and behavioral processing as well as their underlying biological systems. This project examined physiological and behavioral responses as indicators of stress and coping in the context of a psychosocial stressor in a controlled laboratory setting. We examined the association between indicators of behavioral coping and underlying physiological reactivity within participants while experiencing stress. Participants included 68 emerging adults. Physiological measures include autonomic biomarkers (e.g., heart-rate, skin conductance) at rest and during the stressor while behavioral indicators that were coded include acute verbal and non-verbal actions exhibited by participants during the …