Psychology Commons^™

Enabling Behaviors, Stigmatization, And Attitudes Towards Substance Abuse And Bulimia, Melissa Mattice

Psychology Master's Theses

Enabling behaviors may impair the recovery of individuals with substance use and eating disorders. Participants read one of six vignettes portraying a character with either a substance use disorder or bulimia and were asked how they would react. The effects of several factors, such as gender, knowledge of disorder, disorder type, and enabling behaviors, on the likelihood of specific responses were examined for the most common responses. Some notable results included that females were more likely to intend to provide support. Participants who had higher enabling scores were less likely to tell a professional and were more likely to do ...

Promoting Competence In College Students: The Role Of Psychological Flexibility, Elyse Rubin Rosenberg

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Psychological flexibility (PF), the core process of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; a third-wave cognitive-behavioral therapy), is the ability to stay focused on the present moment and intentionally engage in value-driven behavior despite experiencing difficult thoughts or feelings. This multifaceted construct includes components that target processes occurring both internally (e.g., cognitive processes) and behaviorally (e.g., value-consistent actions). Psychological flexibility has been applied to studies of adjustment in non-clinical samples and may be beneficial for college students as individuals navigate novel developmental stressors. Despite evidence suggesting the benefits of PF for psychological distress, additional work is needed to examine ...

Capitalizing On Positive Emotional Experiences: A Gratitude Intervention As An Emotional Uplift Strategy, Amanda L. Walker

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Positive psychological interventions are well suited to build upon positive experiences to enhance positive affect and coping resources; however, experimental research is limited, especially regarding if and how gratitude practices can bolster positive affect and coping resources. As a result, the purpose of the current research was to determine (a) if self-reports of gratitude traits vary by important demographic categories (i.e., gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, rural status), (b) if gratitude interventions elevate reports of positive affect after accounting for the effects of positive memory recall, and (c) if gratitude interventions contribute to greater elevations on coping resources (i.e ...

Expressions Of Optimism Bias And "Self" Versus "Other" Perceived Controllability In The Context Of Military-Related Risks, Lauren Lachica-Muschett

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This study aimed to examine expressions of optimism bias and perceived controllability specifically regarding risks often associated with military service. Optimism bias refers to people’s tendency to believe they are less susceptible to experiencing negative life events compared to others. Previous studies show high levels of optimism bias are associated with strong perceptions of personal controllability. Optimism bias is a significant aspect of health promotion research particularly in the field of general occupational health and safety (OHS). However, optimism bias has never been investigated in the military OHS domain. Given the number of risks associated with military occupations, examination ...

Anti-Muslim Prejudice When Exposed To News About Terrorism: The Roles Of Negative Affect And Psychological Inflexibility, Arthur T. Hatton Sr.

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

In the United States, some proposed law enforcement policies intended to prevent terrorism may violate the civil rights of American minorities. These policies include random searches by law enforcement, banning Muslims from entering the country, and refusing to grant asylum to Syrian refugees. Additionally, the rise of ISIS has heightened the salience of terrorism across the world and in the United States. The goal of the high-production videos produced by ISIS may be partially intended to create inter-religious conflict in the West. My study examines the effect of news about ISIS propaganda videos on Americans’ opinions about policies that limit ...

Emotional Eating In The Work Place: The Eating Patterns Of Mental Health Workers, Carly Rene Zies

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than a third of all adults in the United States are considered obese. Due to the high costs of health care for obese adults and children, obesity has become a national health crisis. Many government programs have been developed to curtail obesity in adults and children. Unfortunately, there has only been limited success. Past research has shown that obesity has been linked to stress and eating while stressed. Emotional eating occurs when individuals respond to certain emotions, such as stress, by eating to cope with the emotion. Research has shown a correlation between nursing and disordered eating. Given the ...

Rumination And Self-Medication Among Women With Posttraumatic Stress And Alcohol Use Disorders, Deeann Dawn Lizarraga

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often develop alcohol use disorders (AUD) resulting from the use of alcohol to self-medicate from negative affect. Research supports the relationship between comorbid PTSD and AUD, and studies with women additionally identify the role of rumination, or excessive thinking about distress and its causes, as a precipitating aspect leading to self-medication. Female-based data is sparse, however, regarding specific thought patterns and factors which trigger the need to self-medicate with alcohol. Numerous researchers have studied the relationship between stress, anxiety, and alcohol use, although, there exists a need for qualitative studies providing thick, rich information ...

Edgar Allan Poe: The Tell-Tale Hero, Michael David Bonifonte

Scott T. Allison

Digitally Segregated Understanding Technology Readiness In Preparation For Higher Education Success, Gloria D. Mullons

Dissertations

The Digital Divide is the gulf between those that have access and use of technology and those that do not. The Digital Divide is a multilayered issue impacting low-income persons, low literacy persons, seniors, and persons with disabilities. The new emphasis is on whether people know how to use technological devices and the Internet for multiple purposes, especially to function and progress in daily society. This dissertation study focuses on technology readiness in preparation for higher education, specifically examining: 1) experiences students had prior to attending the HP3 program, 2) factors that influenced student preparedness for engaging in college-level technology ...

The Power And Pathologies Of Language: How Human Rights Messaging Can Also Affect Support For Violent Non-State Actors, Alexandra Haines, Michele Leiby, Matthew Krain

The Social Practice of Human Rights: Charting the Frontiers of Research and Advocacy

Are framing strategies that are effective at encouraging pro-social behavior such as participation in human rights campaigns also effective at mobilizing support for “anti-social” and violent causes? Using an experimental research design, we seek to understand under what conditions individuals will express support for retributive violent action.

We hypothesize that a personal story of victimization, wherein the humanity and vulnerability of the victim and the intensity of the violence suffered are described in vivid detail, will be necessary and sufficient to cause the audience to express support for the victim’s subsequent participation in organized, retaliatory violence. We expect that ...

The Path (Partners Against Trafficking In Humans) Project: Development Of The Path Model, Fanell Williams

The Social Practice of Human Rights: Charting the Frontiers of Research and Advocacy

The University of Toledo’s Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute is conducting the PATH (Partners Against Trafficking in Humans) Project to develop the PATH Model. The PATH Project is a community-wide, coordinated, and data-driven response to human trafficking. PATH applies the structure and techniques from a successful and focused healthcare model called the Pathways Model. The vision is for the PATH Model to become an evidence-based model expanded throughout the United States.

PATH coordinates existing services to create a transparent, accountable, and comprehensive system to move clients along the continuum of care. The goal is to move victims from ...

Doing Greater Good, While Doing No Individual Harm: A Public Health Approach To Human Trafficking Using A Human Rights-Centered Model, Patrick L. Kerr, Rachel Dash

The Social Practice of Human Rights: Charting the Frontiers of Research and Advocacy

Human trafficking (i.e., modern slavery) includes myriad forms of sex and labor trafficking. Widely ranging estimates of the prevalence of human trafficking are commonly cited; at the same time, accurate data on these phenomena remain elusive, and assumptions rather than empirical evidence about the nature, targets, and proliferation of trafficking often dominate public policy discourse.

In this paper, we describe the ways in which this lack of accurate data on basic prevalence rates has led to key limitations in anti-trafficking work. First, this lack of data prevents a clear understanding of the problem of trafficking. Second, this deficit limits ...

Ethics For Helping Professionals: Teaching A Framework That Supports Collaborative Ethical Decision-Making, Laura E. Kaplan, Valerie Bryan, Scott Sanders

Barbara Solomon School of Social Work and Human Services Publications

Social work professionals are often employed in interdisciplinary settings with nursing, psychology, medical, and psychiatric professionals. All of these professions have commonality in their codes of ethics such as the primary principle that we work for the client or patient’s benefit. However, we also know that these same codes do not specifically address ethical dilemmas and their resolution (ACA, 2014, ANA, 2011, AMA/ APA, 2013, AMA,2001, APA, 2010, NASW, 2015). There are numerous decision making models that can be used as a step-by-step process in deciding what to do when confronted by a dilemma (Congress, 1996; Strom-Gottfried, 2007 ...

Intuitive Proportion Judgment In Number-Line Estimation: Converging Evidence From Multiple Tasks, Emily Slusser, Hilary Barth

Emily Slusser

Women’S Sexual Fantasies In Context: The Emotional Content Of Sexual Fantasies, Psychological And Interpersonal Distress, And Satisfaction In Romantic Relationships, Sarah Constantine

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Psychoanalytic thinkers propose that aspects of an individual’s sexual fantasies are related to her psychological and interpersonal functioning. The present study aims to elucidate the significance of sexual fantasies with respect to women’s emotional and interpersonal lives. The study evaluated a model, which hypothesized that internal representations of self and others (e.g. attachment security, maturity of object relations) along with psychological and interpersonal factors would predict both the emotional content (guilt, fear, affection) of written sexual fantasy narratives, and overall romantic satisfaction in heterosexual women. Methods: Five hundred and thirty four women completed self-report questionnaires online ...

Mental Illness Stigma And Community Integration: Linking Perceived Experiences With Reported Behavior, Lauren L. Gonzales

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the relationship between individual and neighborhood characteristics, stigmatizing experiences, and measures of community integration among individuals with mental illness. Surveys were administered to two samples: 608 community member participants and 343 participants with mental health diagnoses. Participants in both samples were recruited from 3 community sites in the New York City metropolitan area: East/Central Harlem in Manhattan, Crown Heights/East Flatbush in Brooklyn, and Yonkers and Mt. Vernon in Southern Westchester. Negative symptoms and perceived level of community microaggressions were strong predictors of community integration for participants with mental illness. Prior contact with mental illness predicted ...

The Conceptualization Of A Crime Event As A Process To Analyze Crime Commission And Behavioral Consistency In Serial Sexual Assaults, Kimberley R. Schanz

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examined the two main questions of why and when behaviors change. In the course of five studies, four aims were addressed. The first aim examined why behaviors change by examining whether the behavioral subtypes of control, sex, and violence could differentiate offenses within the elements of a crime (e.g. the offender, victim, and situation. The second aim addressed when behaviors change by examining whether the behavioral subtypes of control, sex, and violence could differentiate offenses within the temporal phases of a crime (e.g. before, during, and after the crime). The third aim examined which behaviors to ...

An Examination Of Therapeutic Alliance During Prolonged Exposure In The Treatment Of A Comorbid Ptsd And Sud Population, Annelisa Pedersen

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Prolonged exposure has emerged as a highly effective method of treating PTSD (Foa, Hembree, & Rothbaum, 2007; Ruzek et al., 2014), yet for some individuals it has proven to be anxiety-arousing to the point of being contraindicated (Morris, 2015). As a treatment, prolonged exposure can be a challenging procedure to implement given the high levels of avoidance, fear, and resistance that often accompany a diagnosis of PTSD (Arntz, Tiesema, & Kindt, 2007; Hoffart et al., 2013; McLaughlin et al., 2014). When it is used to treat individuals who carry an additional diagnosis of SUD, further complications may arise with respect to avoidance and tolerating the temporarily ...

The Relationships Among Different Traits Of Masculinity And Intimate Partner Violence, Jennifer E. Loveland

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research has shown that distinct yet overlapping concepts of dominance, hostility towards women, and sexism—all indices of masculinity—influence the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV), although the mechanisms are unclear. This paper seeks to explore the relationship between these individual-level trait measures of masculinity and two aspects of IPV, physical violence and coercive control. With inconsistent findings and the limited study of clinical populations, further examination of these concepts may provide increased understanding of the mechanisms behind IPV perpetration. Results will provide a greater understanding of the complexity of this violence in order to better assist individuals experiencing ...

Physiological Correlates Of Affective Decision-Making In Anxiety And Depression, Louisa I. Thompson

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Improving our understanding of cognitive and physiological profiles in anxiety and depression has the potential to reveal novel ways to target and improve treatments for these prevalent mental health conditions. The present study examined the impact of self-reported anxiety and depression symptoms on three established decision-making measures, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994), Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART; Lejuez et al., 2002), and Game of Dice Task (GDT; Brand et al., 2005), in a diverse sample of 100 college students (age 18 to 35). Physiological measures of tonic heart rate variability and galvanic skin response were obtained to better characterize autonomic flexibility and ...