Psychology Commons^™

Mental Health In Student Leadership: Perceptions Of Ability, Rose M. Jardine

Student Research Symposium

This proposal aims to evaluate the relationship between perceptions of mental health and leadership ability among student leaders in university communities.

Over fifty participants, including faculty and students, from Oregon universities and community colleges are expected to contribute to this study. Participants will answer a survey and be randomly assigned to one of four situations describing a student leader’s disclosure or non-disclosure, both with and without Bipolar 1 Disorder. Bipolar 1 Disorder was chosen for this study based on its intermittence, varying severity, higher associated stigma, and symptomatology that can include externally perceived increased productivity. They will respond to this …

Examining The Relationship Between Genetic Counselors’ Implicit Attitudes Toward Disability And Their Practice Methods, Helen W. Gould

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Genetic counselors serve as a link between the medical community and the disability community as they are regularly the first exposure families have following a new diagnosis in a pregnancy, infant or child. This role requires genetic counselors to be responsible and compassionate when approaching conversations about disability. With a lack of research on how the specific attitudes of genetic counselors toward disability impact clinical practice, we aimed to understand these attitudes, what factors affect implicit attitudes toward disability, and how these attitudes affect counseling. Case scenarios involving disability were used to examine different counseling content preferences within a genetic …

Factors That Influence Perceptions Of Others: An Emphasis On Down Syndrome, Briana J. Walls

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The current study examined how physical characteristics influence perceptions others have of people with Down syndrome (DS). Participants were shown one of four pictures, which were an adult male with Down syndrome facial characteristics, an adult male without Down syndrome facial characteristic, a male child with Down syndrome facial characteristic and a male child without Down syndrome facial characteristics. After viewing one of the four pictures with a description of likes and dislikes of the person in the picture, the participants completed a questionnaire examining perceptions of cognitive-behavioral competence, emotional distance- discomfort, and occupational ability. The hypothesis of this study …

Possible Benefits Of Playing Music Video Games, Amanda Pasinski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Music video games, such as Rock Band, are an emerging and popular genre of video game that allows non-musicians a taste of what it is like to be a musician. For most people, developing musicianship (or the process of becoming competent with a particular musical instrument) to an expert level is a long and difficult process that can take up to 10 years or over 7,500 hours to complete. Yet musicians tend to outperform non-musicians on a variety of tasks--showing greater motor coordination, better synchronization skills, and better pitch and tempo discrimination--and possibly show differences in related cognitive processes. However, …

Factors Affecting Talent Development: Differences In Graduate Students Across Domains, Stephanie Hartzell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There is an abundance of literature on young individuals who show early signs of talent and on older individuals who have demonstrated their abilities throughout the years. This research aims to look at those individuals who are in between, that is, graduate students who have the demonstrated potential to achieve within their fields of study. This study explored backgrounds of talented individuals in their adolescent period and their current measures of cognitive abilities. A total of 38 graduate students majoring in the areas of art (n= 12), science (n= 12), and education (n= 14) were used as examples of individuals …

Usability Of Unproctored Internet Testing: Needs Of Older Applicants, Leslie Ann Hagen

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to contribute to bridging the gap between research and practice by investigating the particular usability and design issues that impact applicant perceptions when using unproctored testing, particularly the potentially unique reactions of older applicants. Age was also used as a variable to determine if it moderates applicant perceptions of procedural justice, organizational attraction and intentions toward the organization when taking an unproctored test.

The Relationship Between Personality And Self-Report Abilities, Julie Schermer, Andrew Johnson, Philip Vernon, Kerry Jang

Andrew M. Johnson

The relationship between self-report abilities and personality was examined at both the phenotypic (zero-order) level as well as at the genetic and environmental levels. Twins and siblings (N = 516) completed self-report ability and personality questionnaires. A factor analysis of the ability questions revealed 10 factors, including politics, interpersonal relationships, practical tasks, intellectual pursuits, academic skills, entrepreneur/business, domestic skills, vocal abilities, and creativity. Five personality factors were examined, including extraversion, conscientiousness, dependence, aggression, and openness. At the phenotypic level, the correlations between the ability factor scores and personality factor scores ranged from 0 to .60 (between political abilities and extraversion). …

Examining The Ability Of The Halstead -Reitan Battery And The Wide Range Achievement Test To Utilize Severity In Discriminating Among Alzheimer's Dementia Patients, Gina Gibson-Beverly

Doctoral Dissertations

Measuring change in cognitive status is essential for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of brain dysfunction. Psychological abilities are differentially affected by brain dysfunction severity, as some abilities are more vulnerable to brain dysfunction than others. Neuropsychological assessments can be viewed as a continuum of "hold" and "don't hold" tests. "Hold" tests assess abilities that remain stable in spite of brain dysfunction, while "don't hold" tests measure skills that are significantly compromised by brain impairment. The present study ranks the Halstead-Reitan Battery (HRB) and the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) subtests based on their ability to discriminate between two levels …

The Association Of Working Memory And Anxiety With Skill Acquisition And Transfer In Young And Older Adults, Isabelle Valk

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Two studies, involving a total of 184 adults between 17 and 89 years of age, were conducted to determine whether age differences in skill acquisition and transfer could be related to age differences in working memory functioning and anxiety. In both experiments, working memory functioning was measured using the Digit Span task (Wechsler, 1997) und the Reading Span tusk (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980), while anxiety levels were measured using the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983). Participants were required to perform a mental arithmetic task in Experiment I, and a visual numerosity task in Experiment …

The Effect Of Familiarity Of Task And Choice On The Functional Performance Of Young And Old Adults, Anne E. Dickerson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An experiment was conducted to compare the functional performance of young and old adults on familiar and unfamiliar tasks under two conditions of perceived control. Specifically, the relation between age and motor and process skills was examined. The familiar tasks were simple cooking tasks, whereas the unfamiliar tasks were contrived, meaningless tasks developed for this study. Young and old did not differ in the ratings of the familiarity of the tasks, but results from two Age by Task by Choice ANOVAs demonstrated a significant age difference for motor and process skills under all conditions. For the process skill scale, there …

Remedial Reading: Evaluation Of A Reading-And-Study Course With Implications For A College Reading Center, Antoine T. Powell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the method of teaching a "How to Study" class in helping students more adequately meet their reading needs.

Research was conducted to test the reading gains made by students in the program with respect to ability and group size. The results indicate that group size had the greatest effect as to changes in reading behavior.

Instruction was based on diagnosing student needs. It was shown that a significant number of students who decreased in rate of reading, increased in comprehension. The same diagnostic principle was observed for those …

Personality Differences Between Talented High School Achievers And Underachievers, Martin Leroy Mini

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Today, more than ever before, there is present an increasing emphasis on the part of educators to help the academically talented student develop his scholastic ability to its maximum level. Past experience has shown that there is a large number of talented students who are not achieving scholastically in terms of their apparent intellectual potentials. Research on the differences between achieving and underachieving talented students, has left unanswered many important questions concerned with this area of educational psychology.