Digital Commons Network^™

The Need For Proximal Mechanisms To Understand Individual Differences In Altruism, Gustavo Carlo, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

An "Open Peer Commentary" on the article "Altruism and selfishness" by Howard Rachlin.

There are three concerns regarding Rachlin’s altruism model. First, proximal causal mechanisms such as those identified by cognitive neuroscientists and behavioral neuropharmacologists are not emphasized. Second, there is a lack of clear testable hypotheses. And third, extreme forms of altruism are emphasized rather than common forms. We focus on an overarching theme – proximal mechanisms of individual differences in altruism.

Would Smokers With Schizophrenia Benefit From A More Flexible Approach To Smoking Treatment?, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Susy B. Gulliver, Brian Hitsman

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

We evaluated literature that addresses the notion that flexible smoking treatment approaches are warranted for smokers with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Understanding the biological and psychological mechanisms that increase the likelihood of smoking and decrease the motivation to quit for these individuals is addressed within the framework of a neurobiological model. We provide a brief overview of the limited smoking cessation treatment literature for patients with schizophrenia and compare abstinence-focused versus reduction-focused treatment modalities. The potential utility of the reduction-focused approach to tobacco treatment for these smokers is evaluated. Suggestions for future research to address the utility and efficacy of …

Factors Influencing Children To Self-Disclose Sexual Abuse, Mary L. Paine, David J. Hansen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Self-disclosure by victims of child sexual abuse (CSA) is critical to initiate legal and therapeutic intervention. Unfortunately, research indicates that lengthy delays in disclosure and even nondisclosure are common. A comprehensive review of the clinical and research literature on CSA and an overview of related bodies of literature was conducted. Areas addressed include the context of sexual abuse as it relates to disclosure, the context and elements of children’s disclosures, motivational factors inhibiting disclosure, and models of the disclosure process. Ancillary and analogue research on secrecy and disclosure are also reviewed. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Evaluation Of Florida’S Mental Health And Substance Abuse System Redesign Strategies: Year 1 Report, Neil Jordan, Julienne Giard, Pat Robinson, Rebecca Larsen, Mary R. Murrin

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Too Many Of A Good Thing? The Effects Of Multiple Motivations On Stress, Cost, Fulfillment, And Satisfaction , Marc T. Kiviniemi, Mark Snyder, Allen M. Omoto

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Individuals engage in behaviors to satisfy motivations and can engage in the same behavior to satisfy a variety of different motivations. Previous research has examined how differences in the overall amount of motivation influence outcomes but has not addressed how differences in the number of conceptually distinct motivations one has for a particular action influence outcomes. In two longitudinal field studies, individuals with more than one motivation for volunteering experienced greater negative outcomes than did those who volunteered to satisfy a single motivation. A laboratory study manipulated the number of motivations individuals had for engaging in a volunteer activity. Individuals …

The Impact Of Systematically Varying The Duration Of Breath Samples During Infrared-Based Alcohol Breath Testing, Chris C. Clatterbuck

Dissertations

The present study set out to investigate the reliability and performance of the BAC DataMaster®, an infrared-based alcohol breath testing instrument. The focus of this study was to determine: (a) the impact of varying breath sample duration during testing, (b) if Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) levels produced by the DataMaster® (BAC_DM) are significantly different from BAC levels produced by analysis of whole blood (BAC_WB), and (c) if the relationship between BAC_DM estimates and BAC_WB is influenced by the amount of alcohol an examinee has ingested. Each of 27 participants was randomly assigned to one …

The Role Of Psychologists In Primary Care: An Integrative Curriculum, Gary Charles Hawley

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Psychologists have been service providers in the health care sector for many years. They are consistently recognized as valued members of health care teams but are not frequently included as primary care providers. Integrated primary care services that include psychologists are a positive step toward achieving a comprehensive model of patient care. The biopsychosocial model is suggested to supplant the current biomedical model for health and wellness conceptualization. Psychologists are trained in the dynamic interplay between biological, psychological, and social domains. However, education at the graduate level for psychologists working specifically in primary care has not been well conceptualized, developed …

What Do We Assess When We Assess A Big 5 Trait? : A Content Analysis Of The Affective, Behavioral, And Cognitive Processes Represented In Big 5 Personality Inventories, Lisa M. Pytlik Zillig, Scott H. Hemenover, Richard A. Dienstbier

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

What are personality traits? Are all “broad” traits equally broad in the constructs they encompass and in the pervasiveness of their effects? Or are some traits more or less affective, behavioral, or cognitive in nature? The present study examined these issues as they applied to the Big 5 traits of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Expert and novice raters judged the extent to which items from four popular Big 5 inventories contain behavioral, cognitive, or affective components. Traits and inventories were then compared in terms of their relative assessment of these components. Results indicate convergence among inventories but remarkable …

Truth Serum And Terrorism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes several epistemological--as opposed to ethical and moral--anxieties in administering drugs to individuals for the purpose of securing truths supporting the United States Government (USG)-declared war against terrorism with global research.

Effect Of Non-Nicotinic Moist Snuff Replacement And Lobeline On Withdrawal Symptoms During 48-H Smokeless Tobacco Deprivation, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Frank L. Collins Jr., Lee M. Cohen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study investigated the effects of two herbal components (BACCOFF^TM and DIPSTOP ™) of a commercially available smokeless tobacco treatment program for reducing subjective withdrawal symptoms during deprivation. One component, BACCOFF™, is a non-nicotinic chew. The second component, DIPSTOP™, is a liquid containing the alkaloid lobeline, which to some extent mimics peripheral nicotinic effects. All participants (N = 22 males) were placed in four conditions: BACCOFF™ + DIPSTOP™, BACCOFF™ + placebo control, DIPSTOP™ only, and placebo control only. The conditions involved 48 h of deprivation, and subjects were exposed to one condition per week for 4 weeks. …

Affective Development Of Battered Women Subsequent To Leaving Abusive Partner, Cheryl Harrah

Graduate Theses

The present study consisted of semi-structured interviews of formerly battered women who have been out of the relationship for at least one year. The interviews focused on the women’s narratives concerning their experience leaving the relationship and were coded for affect using an Emotional Adjective Checklist. A total of 10 women were recruited from the campus of The University of Texas of the Permian Basin. While each story was unique, a pattern did emerge whereby the women expressed feelings of fear and relief, followed by depression, numbness, and resolve to survive. Long term emotional consequences of the abuse that persisted …

Factors Influencing Self-Rated Preparedness For Graduate School: A Survey Of Graduate Students, Matthew T. Huss, Brandy A. Randall, Marc Patry, Stephen F. Davis, David J. Hansen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Numerous studies have found a host of factors that are likely to result in more successful applications to graduate schools. This study was a retrospective examination of the variables that distinguish graduate students who believed they were better prepared for graduate school. We examined several of these factors, including variables associated with undergraduate education and the individual for their relation to self-rated preparedness for graduate school. Our findings highlighted quality faculty interactions and participation in research as important factors in graduate students’ post hoc ratings of their preparedness for graduate school. We also found that different types of institutions differed …

Sharing Power And Knowledge: Professional And Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Researchers Working Together In A Participatory Action Research Project, Joanna Ochocka, Rich Janzen, Geoffrey Nelson

Psychology Faculty Publications

In this article we document and reflect on the process and outcomes of consumer/survivor researchers' involvement in a community mental health research project. The study used a participatory action research approach that challenges traditional assumptions of how to conduct research. Research roles and relationships were reexamined by both professional and consumer/survivor researchers. Four values were central to the research process: consumer/survivor empowerment, supportive relationships, learning as an ongoing process, and social justice. The benefits of this value-driven approach were seen in terms of positive impacts on the lives of individual researchers and also in the quality of the research itself. …

Center For Psychology Studies Newsletter - Spring 2002, Nova Southeastern University

Center for Psychological Studies Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Span Span Away! Creating One Unique Record For Overlapping Admissions And Discharges From Multiple Inpatient Hospital Stays, Shabnam Mehra, Robyn Spittle, Rebecca Larsen, Diane Haynes, Kathleen Dailey

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

The Policy and Services Research Data Center (PSRDC) in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy at The Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute performs research with a variety of secondary mental health datasets. The data format is often manipulated to accommodate our research objectives. One example of this manipulation is “span coding” using SAS^®. This code is specifically designed to transform overlapping inpatient hospital stays into one unique record by means of the admission and discharge dates. The techniques in this paper apply to health care agencies and the pharmaceutical industry but may easily …

Generalizing The Dynamic Field Theory Of The A-Not-B Error Beyond Infancy: Three-Year-Olds’ Delay- And Experience-Dependent Location Memory Biases, Anne R. Schutte, John P. Spencer

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Thelen and colleagues recently proposed a dynamic field theory (DFT) to capture the general processes that give rise to infants’ performance in the Piagetian A-not-B task. According to this theory, the same general processes should operate in noncanonical A-not-B-type tasks with children older than 12 months. Three predictions of the DFT were tested by examining 3-year-olds’ location memory errors in a task with a homogeneous task space. Children pointed to remembered locations after delays of 0 s to 10 s. The spatial layout of the possible targets and the frequency with which children moved to each target was varied. As …

The Effects Of Defendant Remorse On Mock Juror Decisions In A Malpractice Case, Brian H. Bornstein, Lahna M. Rung M.A., Monica K. Miller

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to observe the effects of defendant remorse on monetary damages awarded to a plaintiff in a malpractice case. In two experiments, the physician-defendant expressed remorse at the time of the incident and again at trial, expressed remorse at trial, explicitly demonstrated a lack of remorse at trial, or made no mention of remorse (or a lack thereof). Participants decided how much money to award to the plaintiff and evaluated both the plaintiff and the defendant on several dimensions. Participants awarded greater compensation when the physician expressed remorse at the time of the incident than …

The Development Of A Measure Of Prosocial Behaviors For Late Adolescents, Gustavo Carlo, Brandy A. Randall

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The correlates and structure of prosocial behaviors in late adolescents were examined using a newly constructed, multidimensional measure. In Study 1, 249 college students (145 women; M age = 19.9 years) were administered the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM) which assesses 6 types of prosocial behaviors: altruistic, compliant, emotional, dire, public, and anonymous. Measures of sympathy, perspective taking, personal distress, social desirability, global prosocial behaviors, social responsibility, ascription of responsibility, vocabulary skills, and prosocial moral reasoning were also completed. Test-retest reliability and further validity of the PTM were demonstrated in Study 2 with a sample of 40 college students (28 women; …

Pretrial Publicity And Civil Cases: A Two-Way Street?, Brian H. Bornstein, Brooke L. Whisenhunt, Robert J. Nemeth, Deborah L. Dunaway

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Published pretrial publicity (PTP) research has been conducted almost exclusively with criminal cases and has focused on PTP that is detrimental to the defense. The current research examined the effects of PTP in a civil case to determine if PTP can have a biasing effect against either the defendant or the plaintiff in civil litigation. In Experiment 1, participants exposed to PTP biased against the defendant were more likely to reach a liable verdict than participants who read a control article or PTP biased against the plaintiff. Experiment 2 demonstrated that a judicial admonition did not reduce the biasing effect …

Improvement In Quantity And Quality Of Prevention Measurement Of Toddler Injuries And Parental Interventions, Lizette Peterson, David Dilillo, Terri Lewis, Kenneth Sher

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Injury is the leading killer of children in the United States, yet little research has focused on this vital subject. One of the distinct barriers to injury prevention is the absence of effective assessment devices. Epidemiological aspects of injury have been assessed, but these provide little information at a level sufficient to allow conclusions about potential behavioral prevention methods. This paper describes an alternative, the Participant Event Monitoring (PEM) system. In this paper, the PEM system is used to examine a sample of 170 toddlers (ages 18 to 36 months), over a 6-month period, resulting in data on over 4,200 …

Child Sexual Abuse, Eugenia Hsu, Georganna Sedlar, Mary Fran Flood, David J. Hansen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This chapter describes the case of two adolescent girls who were living in foster care with their maternal aunt and her family, the Kraller family. The girls and their aunt and uncle participated in Project SAFE, a university-based program for sexually abused children and their nonoffending caregivers, which is described in detail in the Course of Treatment section. The Kraller family was referred to Project SAFE by the local Child Advocacy Center. Miriam Kraller contacted the Child Advocacy Center when she learned that her two nieces (her younger sister’s daughters), Gina (age 14) and Suzy (age 13), had been sexually …

Using Controversial Mock Trials In “Psychology And Law” Courses: Suggestions From Participants, James L. Werth, James Harvey, Rebecca Mcnamara, Andrea Svoboda, Raina Gulbrandson, Jennifer Hendren, Tiffany Greedy, Christie Leybold

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

We discuss the use of a mock trial of the controversial Jack Kevorkian euthanasia case in an undergraduate psychology and law course. We provide an overview of the project, student feedback, and recommendations for improving the exercise. Based on feedback from students, we conclude that constructing a trial around a controversial topic with psychosocial issues as the foundation of a course can increase the utility of a mock trial and make the course a better learning experience.

Attachment Disorders And Personality Disorders : A Possible Connection, Jen Sacora

Graduate Research Papers

Researchers now propose that attachment theory can be applied beyond childhood. They believe attachment exists in adulthood and influences adult relationships. Possible connections between personality disorders and well-known approaches to personality development such as attachment theory have been made (Brennan & Shaver, 1998).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between parent-infant attachment which influence adult relationships and psychopathology. Theories of personality development as they relate to attachment will be explored as well as influence of early childhood experiences on personality. Finally, possible connections between attachment disorders and personality disorders will be speculated.

Respecting Pandora's Box, Erica Beecher-Monas

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Unbuckling The Chemical Straitjacket: The Legal Significance Of Recent Advances In The Pharmacological Treatment Of Psychosis, Douglas Mossman Md

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Antipsychotic medications figure prominently in the rapidly-growing field of mental disability law. Although the properties of antipsychotic medications are medical matters, legal scholars, judges, and practicing attorneys often need to understand what these drugs do. Yet the legal database - the principal or sole information source cited and consulted by legal thinkers - is often a source of confusion or misinformation about the actions of antipsychotic drugs and the scientific basis for prescribing them. The potential for misunderstanding antipsychotic treatment has increased since the arrival of "novel" or "aytpical" antipsychotic drugs, which cause fewer side effects than drugs that were …

Gender Differences In Gross And Fine Motor Abilities In Preschool Aged Children In West Virginia, Kelly R. Pennington

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in gross and fine motor abilities in preschool aged children in West Virginia. Subjects consisted of 21 males and 16 females. Data was collected via the West Virginia Educare Initiative using the Carolina Curriculum for Preschoolers with Special Needs. Results of this study indicate that there are no significant gender differences in either gross motor or fine motor abilities in preschool aged children.

Reactive Attachment Disorder : Diagnosis, Assessment, And Treatment, Kimberly A. Rees

Graduate Research Papers

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend toward the use of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) as a diagnosis to describe myriad problem behaviors and disturbed interactions between infants, young children and their caregivers. There is considerable disagreement about what RAD actually entails and, in particular, what types of assessments and treatment interventions to use with affected children and families (Hanson & Spratt, 2000). This paper is intended to clarify what the current research states about Reactive Attachment Disorder. It includes the definitions and diagnosis, importance of attachment, biological components, risk factors later in life, assessment, and treatment available …

The Effect Of Repeated Experience On Children’S Suggestibility Across Two Question Types, Martine B. Powell, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

There is a discrepancy in the literature regarding the effect of repeated experience on children’s suggestibility. Some researchers have concluded that repeated experience increases children’s suggestibility for variable details whereas others have reported no detrimental effect. This study demonstrated that the type of question used to test memory (cued-recall vs. yes/no questions) could account for the different reported conclusions. Children aged 5-6 years took part in an event either once or four times. Three or 21 days later, they were given a suggestive interview about the single/final occurrence of the event during which half of the event details were inaccurately …

Children's Ability To Distinguish Between Memories From Multiple Sources: Implications For The Quality And Accuracy Of Eyewitness Statements, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

Identifying the sources of memories (e.g., who carried out an action, whether an event happened or was suggested, when an instance of a repeated event occurred) is an important skill in providing accurate accounts of events in forensic investigations. Sensitivity to the nature and development of children’s source-monitoring skills can inform interviewing practices. Five perspectives addressing alternate aspects of the development of children’s source monitoring are outlined (source-monitoring theory, fuzzy-trace theory, schema theory, the person-based perspective, and the mental-state reasoning model). Six main areas of empirical research stemming from these theories are then discussed with emphasis on how the findings …

Commentary And Reply To: Would Smokers With Schizophrenia Benefit From A More Flexible Approach To Smoking Treatment?, Tony George, Jennifer Vessicchio, David G. Gilbert, John R. Hughes, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Suzy B. Gulliver, Brian Hitsman

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Treating Tobacco Addiction in Schizophrenia: Where do we go From Here?
Yes! Smokers with Schizophrenia will Benefit from More Flexible Treatment Approaches
Rigidity in Measures of Smoking Cessation
A Reply to the Commentaries on Schizophrenia and Smoking Treatment: More Research is Needed