Other Psychology Commons^™

Mental Illness And Ethnic Identity And Their Relationship With Internalized Stigma Among Individuals Identifying As Latinx And Diagnosed With A Mental Illness, Melissa V. Martinez

Student Theses

Identity plays a key role in all matters regarding mental health, especially in experiences of stigma. Stigma, a term used to describe the processes of labeling and stereotyping of particular groups, has been shown to be a major contributor to mental health outcomes. Internalization of stigma, is an emotional and behavioral response that further affects an individual’s functioning beyond the effects of a mental disorder. The relationship between stigma and certain identities, such as gender, have been clearly demonstrated in prior research. However, identity is a complex concept that varies in meaning between individuals. The significance of a particular identity …

The Nature Of Anti-Asian American Xenophobia During The Coronavirus Pandemic: A Preliminary Exploration Into Envy As A Key Motivator Of Hate, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

Background. The current Coronavirus pandemic has been linked to a dramatic increase in anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate incidents in the United States. At the time of writing, there does not appear to be any published empirical research examining the mechanisms underlying Asiaphobia during the current pandemic. Based on the stereotype content model, we investigated the idea that ambivalent attitudes toward AAPIs, marked primarily with envy, may be contributing to anti-AAPI xenophobia. Methods. Study 1 (N = 140) explored, through a survey, the link between envious stereotypes toward AAPIs and Asiaphobia. Study 2 (N = 167), …

Social Production Of Intellectual Disability And The Mechanics Of Moral Exclusion: Past, Present, And Future, Emese Ilyes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The institutionalized dehumanization in the United States continues to allow for people who are categorized as intellectually disabled to be legally warehoused and paid as little as pennies per hour to complete rote, repetitive work within segregated environments. An entire court case was conducted about whether a man labeled as intellectually disabled was able to engage in a consensual relationship or whether he was the victim of sexual assault without ever allowing him to express his desires and lived experiences. This project is an attempt to explore a theoretical, historical explanation for how humanity is denied in some bodies, how …

Variation In Personality Among Semi-Wild Myanmar Timber Elephants, Sateesh Venkatesh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines two personality traits: exploration and neophobia, which could influence human-elephant conflicts. Thirty-one semi-wild elephants were tested over two trials using a custom novel puzzle tube containing three tasks and three rewards. Our studies show that elephants do vary significantly between individuals in both exploration and neophobia.

The Effects Of Self-Esteem And Motivation On Cognitive Control, Andrea Benavides

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cognitive control describes a set of mechanisms that guide behavior towards a goal (Cohen, 2017). The successful execution of cognitive control is essential for effective learning, information processing, problem solving, and academic achievement (Visu-Petra et al., 2011). The Expected Value of Control framework (EVC; Shenhav et al., 2013) suggests that control carries an inherent cost, which is weighed against the potential benefits of expending it. This cost-benefit analysis determines the direction and intensity that a goal is pursued. Importantly, motivation plays a role in this cost-benefit analysis and may function as the factor that offsets the cost of control expenditure …

Differences In Psychopathy And Associated Traits By Police Officer Rank, Rosanne Libretti

Student Theses

Most psychopathy research focuses on its manifestation in forensic populations, however these results may not generalize onto noncriminal, or “successful,” psychopaths. Lykken (1995) conjectured that socialization may enable “heroes,” like law enforcement, to utilize the interpersonal and affective aspects of psychopathy in a manner that benefits society. Previous research (Falkenbach et al., 2018a) suggests that psychopathy and its correlates differ between police recruits and individuals in the community. It is necessary to continue this work with other groups in the police force to see if the patterns found in these studies generalize to veteran officers who have worked in law …

Bumbling In The Dark: The Effect Of The Dark Triad, Online Dating, And Gender On Risky Sexual Behaviors, Rebecca Boudreau

Student Theses

The Dark Triad is used to describe three distinct yet related personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, which share several characteristics such as manipulation, exploitation, emotional coldness, and lack of empathy. The Dark Triad has been associated with several negative behaviors including infidelity and risky sexual behavior, however most of the current research focuses only on males high on the Dark Triad traits. The present study seeks to expand the literature by studying how the Dark Triad traits and online dating usage relate to the composite score of risky sexual behaviors. Further, we seek to examine if gender moderates this …

What’S Your Story? Assessing Childhood Maltreatment Using The Thematic Apperception Test In An Adult Inpatient Population., Thachell C. Tanis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a robust evidence that childhood maltreatment contributes to the development of adult psychopathology (Brown & Anderson, 1991; Johnson, Cohen, Brown, Smailes, & Bernstein 1999; Johnson, Smailes, Cohen, Brown, & Bernstein, 2000; Ruggiero et al., 1999). However, the identification of childhood maltreatment remains a methodological problem that results in inconsistencies in the reported incidence and psychological sequelae of maltreatment. A primary method for identifying histories of childhood maltreatment among adults is retrospective self-report measures which are susceptible to multiple biases (Briere, 1992; Cicchetti & Rizley, 1981; Shaffer, Huston, & Egeland, 2008). This present study suggests that childhood maltreatment can …

Psychopathy, Empathic Concern, And Emotional-Sentence Processing: An N400 Erp Study, Farren Larson

Student Theses

Using an undergraduate sample, the present study examined how psychopathic traits (assessed by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised) and empathic concern (assessed by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index) affect emotional-information processing using event-related potentials (ERPs) and a sentential priming paradigm. Participants had their electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded while they silently read sentences with three types of endings: congruent, incongruent, and emotionally negative. We hypothesized that participants with high levels of psychopathic traits and participants with low levels of empathic concern would find the emotionally negative sentence endings less unexpected and disturbing (yielding a smaller N400), compared to participants with low levels of psychopathic …

Who Am I To You? Using Function Words As A Measure Of Transference, Jon William P. Lentz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a gap in our understanding of transference resolution as an aspect of therapeutic process and its relation to observable changes in language. My hypotheses can contribute to this area by identifying whether there are detectible changes in pronoun use in a psychoanalysis that are related to the resolution of transference. Data: The de-identified transcripts of a young agoraphobic housewife in a four time a week then two time a week psychoanalysis from the 1970s. Method: The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software will be used to measure structural changes in language that may reflect intrapsychic changes in the …

Boundaries And Belonging: Asian America, Psychology, And Psychoanalysis, Natalie C. Hung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation addresses a vexing problem. In psychology and psychoanalysis, Asian Americans are more often understood as a collective Other than as individual Selves, more frequently an object of study than a subject. Through two overarching aims, my dissertation sheds light on neglected aspects of Asian American selves, the meanings of the invisibility surrounding them, and implications for clinical practice.

First, the project challenges extant psychological perspectives on Asian Americans, which often implicitly assume a wide gulf of difference between Asian American cultural values and the Western epistemologies of psychology and psychoanalysis. Through the examination of academic research, clinical literature, …