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Assessment Perception: Delivery Matters, Nicole Marie Arcuri-Sanders, Chelsey Simmons

Educational Sciences and Organizations

Perception shapes how individuals experience the world and guides their actions toward personal goals. In counseling, clients’ accurate understanding of assessment results is essential for informed decision-making and effective treatment engagement. Mental health clinicians have an ethical responsibility to communicate findings in ways that safeguard client welfare and empower both clients and stakeholders to collaborate in care. This conceptual manuscript introduces the BRIEF (Brief, Relevant, Interpretive, Empathetic, and Factual) Feedback Integration Framework, a structured model for delivering assessment feedback ethically and accessibly. Integrating cognitive, developmental, and cultural considerations. BRIEF provides counselors, supervisors, and educators with a practical strategy for improving …

Attachment Styles Of Women Who Are Attracted To Violent Incarcerated Men, Carolina Felix

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In this qualitative study, attachment styles of women who are attracted to violent incarcerated men were investigated. Bowlby’s attachment styles were used to develop an insight into the women who are attracted to violent incarcerated men. Steinberg’s theory of love was used for a more intimate view into the women and their pursuit of relationships with incarcerated males. The findings revealed that the women identify as having anxious attachment styles and are insecure-ambivalent/resistant. Those with anxious attachment styles yearn to develop supportive relationships as their insecurities hinder them from developing trust, satisfaction, commitment, and interdependence. As for being insecure-ambivalent/resistant, it …

The Emotional Landscape Of Cult Involvement From Recruitment To Disaffiliation: A Grounded Theory Study Of Survivor Experiences To Inform Trauma Counseling, Yaroslaba Garcia, Suzanne M. Dugger, Jackie Greene

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

This study used a constructivist grounded theory design to explore survivors’ unwanted emotions across the recruitment, retention, and disaffiliation phases of cult involvement. Through inductive analysis, the researchers developed a theoretical model grounded in participants’ experiences to explain the persistence and impact of these emotions. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 15 U.S.-based cult survivors of diverse types of cults and with varying lengths of membership. Participants completed three onehour interviews, each focused on unwanted emotions during a specific phase of cult involvement. Data analysis included iterative coding, bracketing meetings, and memo-writing. Analysis revealed 16 categories of unwanted emotions, with …

Navigating Collective Trauma Following A Workplace Mass Shooting, Rebecca Cowan, Vanessa Qualls, Shari Andreasen

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

Public mass shootings occur most frequently in workplace settings, yet little is known about the experiences of survivors, co-victims, and first responders of these incidents and how they cope with this shared trauma. This collective case study examined the experiences of 14 survivors, co-victims, and first responders affected by a single workplace mass shooting. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed four main themes: (1) the spectrum of suffering, (2) ripple becomes wave: the spread of trauma, (3) forgotten in recovery, and (4) the healing power of shared experience. This study offers insight into the collective nature of impact and recovery, and how …

Longitudinal Association Between Sleep Disturbance And Disordered Eating In Adolescents: The Mediating Role Of Emotion Dysregulation, Antonia Louise Hamilton

Theses - ALL

Accruing evidence suggests a significant relationship between sleep disturbances and disordered eating. Early adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability for sleep disturbances and disordered eating. However, the longitudinal relationship between sleep disturbance and disordered eating remains unclear in early adolescent samples. The current study aims to examine if sleep disturbance longitudinally predicts disordered eating in early adolescents three years later, how the odds of having clinically significant disordered eating change per each unit increase in sleep disturbance, and if emotion dysregulation mediates these relationships. It is hypothesized that baseline sleep disturbance will predict greater disordered eating at follow-up, and …

Investigating The "Tend-And-Befriend" Stress Response As A Risk Factor For Sexual Victimization Among College Women, Emily Kathleen Presutti

Theses - ALL

Sexual victimization of college women is a significant public health concern on U.S. college campuses. Traditional research on the human stress response has focused on the "fight-or-flight" model, which may not adequately capture female-typical responses in stress-inducing situations. Using a mixed-methods design, we sought to determine whether the "tend-and-befriend" stress response serves as a potential correlate of sexual victimization among college women and examine whether it contributes additional variance beyond established correlates of sexual victimization such as alcohol use, history of sexual victimization, and involvement in campus party culture. The study was conducted in two phases. In Phase I, 128 …

Relational Knowledge Restructuring: Explored Though Experimental And Bayesian Computational Methods, Ashley Nicole Douglass

Dissertations - ALL

Are people rational Bayesian learners that produce a final posterior belief that is a compromise of their prior and the amount of new data? If they are then can one create a model that can predict their final belief given an estimate of their prior belief and the new data? This study aims to explore this. The participants were presented with two relational structures, the initial and the alternative which contradicted each other to a certain degree. In condition 1 the alternative structure was similar to the initial and in condition 2 the structure had the same number of contradictions …

Cultural Mistrust Framework Of Mental Help-Seeking And Internalized Model Minority Myth, Jin Zhao

Dissertations - ALL

Objective: Cultural mistrust can serve as an intermediary variable indirectly facilitating the association between racial microaggressions and unfavorable mental help-seeking attitudes. This study sought to broaden the cultural mistrust framework’s applicability to Asian and Asian American college students by (1) replicating the framework using a national multi-campus sample and (2) integrating internalized model minority myth (i.e., unrestricted mobility and achievement orientation) via a conditional process approach. Methods: This study used cross-sectional data from a national sample of Asian and Asian American college students (N = 180, Mage = 21.47 [SD=1.84]). Path models estimated indirect and direct associations, as well as …

Examining The Effects Of Video Modeling To Enhance Culturally Specific Social Greeting Skills In Preschoolers With Asd In Saudi Arabia, Sarah Alzahrani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A lack of social communication skills, including initiation and responding, has been a prominent characteristic of children diagnosed with ASD (Kanner, 1943; Kroeger et al., 2007). Enhancing these skills in children with ASD during early childhood is crucial to their future relationships, friendships, participation in communal activities, and overall lowering the likelihood of adverse long-term effects, giving significance to this age as a pivotal period for enhancing various skills (Hart Barnett, 2018). Failure to provide interventions to address social communication in children with ASD, specifically in cultures that value this skill, can impede their integration into that society. Thus, this …

‘If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It:’ Bridging Creative Ideas & Beliefs In A Neurodiverse Workforce Through Autonomy & Social Support, Mesaley A. Alemseged

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Reports from the business world highlight the competitive advantage that neurodiversity can provide for workplace creativity and innovation through the inclusion of workers who represent a broad range of perspectives and abilities. However, while neurodivergent individuals have naturally divergent ways of thinking, producing creative works might not come as easily in workplaces designed for neurotypical forms of thinking and working. Drawing from the componential theory of creativity, this study sought to explore how neurodivergence, as it relates to creativity-relevant processes, and work characteristics related to the social environment can influence creativity across the various stages of the creative process. While …

Evaluating Joint Control Teaching Procedures For Teaching Yes-No Responding With Tact And Intraverbal Questions For Children With Autism, Desiree J. Dawson

Theses & Dissertations

Responding to yes and no questions is a general language skill that allows individuals to efficiently interact with their verbal community. Few behavior analytic studies have sought teaching this skill in general, with even fewer studies seeking to teach this skill when it pertains to a tact or intraverbal context. All behavior analytic studies to date seeking to teach this skill have used direct prompting and reinforcement of the yes and no responses, but there is little guidance for what can be done if this teaching strategy is not producing desired acquisition. The current experiments examined a teaching procedure informed …

The Other Side Of The Wall: A Study On The Impact Of Paternal Incarceration On African American Children, Chance M. Wideman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation explores the long-term psychological, relational, and systemic impacts of paternal incarceration on adult children. Guided by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Theory, Attachment Theory, and Family Process Theory, this study examines two research questions:

(1) What types of childhood trauma are associated with paternal incarceration?

(2) How does the childhood trauma associated with paternal incarceration impact one in adulthood?

The study draws on three in-depth narrative interviews with adults who experienced paternal incarceration in childhood. These interviews, framed as dialogic and reflexive spaces, illuminate the deep and layered consequences of incarceration across the lifespan.

Five central findings emerged: …

Child Maltreatment And Recidivism: Do Maltreatment Patterns Influence General And Violent Reoffending?, Nan Li, Matt Shelton, Elena L. Grigorenko

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

This study examined whether patterns of maltreatment predicted reoffending among 5,194 justice-involved youth (JIY) from a large Texas juvenile probation department. Using latent class analysis on five maltreatment types (physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence), we empirically identified three classes: “Poly-victimization” (17.8%; high across all types), “Psychological Maltreatment” (15.3%; high emotional abuse and neglect), and “Low Maltreatment” (66.9%; low/moderate across types). JIY in the “Poly-victimization” and “Psychological Maltreatment” classes were more likely to engage in general and violent reoffending within 1 year controlling for covariates. These findings highlight the varying importance of different maltreatment …

Emotions As Work Material: On Dancers' Refined Use Of Affectivity, Camille S. Buttingsrud

Duquesne Studies in Phenomenology

As part of their professional practice, dancers allow their affectivity to enhance their kinesthetic work. Their intentional and disciplined use of personal, emotional resources ensures both creativity, interpretation, absorption, and connections in ways that extend beyond the traditional phenomenological understanding of affectivity as pre-reflectively based. The affective regulations dancers employ can be seen as an “artistic epoché,” and their layered performance awareness corresponds with Edmund Husserl’s descriptions of “image-consciousness.” Through qualitative interviews with three professional dancers, phenomenological theory, and additional supportive literature, this article shows how affectivity can be experienced through high-order levels of Leib, constituting states of “bodily …

The Impact Of Absent Fathers In Forensic And Criminal Justice Settings, Sara J. Bradley

Master of Arts in Human Services

This capstone examines the interplay between father absence, marginalization through economics, and larger structural factors in shaping youth crime and intergenerational patterns of risk. This review synthesizes studies in family instability, neighborhood disadvantage, and barriers to paternal involvement in demonstrating the interplay between larger forces in shaping developmental outcomes. Father absence correlates with diminished protective factors, increased exposure to stressful contexts, and elevated dangers of system contact. Larger structural factors of concentrated poverty levels, resource scarcity in neighborhoods, and inconsistent levels of support upon return from incarceration exacerbate dangerous outcomes and intergenerational patterns. The applications analysis in this capstone evaluates …

Examining The Role Of Early Bilingualism On Interference Suppression And Prefrontal Connectivity, Matthew L. Cook, Lisa K. Boyce, Allison S. Hancock, Mackenzy S. Turner, Spencer D. Bradshaw

Human Development and Family Studies Student Research

Inhibitory control is a core cognitive function that is primarily associated with activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and is the cognitive function that inhibits impulses, thoughts, and suppresses irrelevant information to an identified goal or task. Prior research suggests that bilingualism may affect brain activity related to inhibitory control, yet few studies have compared functional activity between monolingual and bilingual children. The current study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine region of interest comparisons and task-state functional connectivity across the PFC during an interference suppression Simon task with 13 bilingual (East Asian or Ibero-romance paired with English) and …

The Negative Impact Sleep Loss Has On Mental Health, Kaden Sayler

Psychology Student Publications

Many teenagers struggle with chronic sleep deprivation due to busy schedules, social media, and late-night habits. Research shows that lack of sleep severely affects adolescents’ mental health, increasing risks of depression, anxiety, poor attention, and impaired brain development. This paper highlights how modern factors like screen time and “social jetlag” worsen the issue, warning that sleep deprivation is a hidden but serious threat to teens’ well-being.

The Effect Of Talker Intelligibility On Adaptation And Generalization To An Unfamiliar Accent, Kaitlyn L. Matthews

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Hearing unfamiliar second language (L2) accented speech reduces intelligibility (i.e. accuracy of speech understanding) and increases the listening effort (i.e. deliberate allocation of cognitive resources) required to process the speech. However, listeners readily adapt to L2-accented speech, improving intelligibility and reducing listening effort. The type of exposure that may lead to lower listening effort when generalizing knowledge to a new speaker of the same accent has yet to be explored. We exposed native English speakers to English sentences spoken by native English speakers, highly intelligible Mandarin Chinese-accented English speakers, or less intelligible Mandarin Chinese-accented English speakers. While measuring pupil dilation …

Emotional Regulation In Adolescents, Its' Link To Social Media, & Potential Solutions, Jace Burke

Psychology Student Publications

This essay discusses emotional regulation in adolescents, and how social media has significant effects on its development. It also goes over potential solutions on how to fix irregular emotional dysregulation, and how society might be able to help prevent or teach adolescents to adapt emotional regulation to the modern digital landscape.

Investigating The Differential Effects Of Narrativization And Causal Structure Of Stories On Memory, Savannah J. Born

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Narratives are an effective stimulus-type for studying memory, as they can closely replicate how we use our memories in daily life. A key feature of narratives is the cause-and-effect structure between events, and previous research has found that events that are part of a causal chain are more often remembered and rated as important compared to events that are not part of a causal chain. However, there has not been a systematic investigation of the effects of varying narrativity and causality across a stimulus yet. This study aimed to address this gap by manipulating two factors: 1) the narrative vs …

Best Integrated Writing Fall 2025 - Complete Edition, Wright State University School Of Humanities And Cultural Studies, Tracy Smith, Kristie Mckiernan

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University.

Dance Movement For Wounded Warriors With Mental Health Diagnoses: A Phenomenology, Amelia Ann Forsmo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study will be to understand how dance movement can improve the psychological health of military veterans who are experiencing a mental health disorder such as posttraumatic stress disorder. The theories guiding this study are Carl Rogers’ humanistic perspective, Schlossberg’s transition theory, and the post-traumatic growth theory. A purposive sample of 12 to 15 veterans will be selected for participation in this study. Each veteran will have different military backgrounds, various battle wounds, and unique experiences with dance movement or dance movement therapy. For this reason, these perspectives allow each participant to be prioritized and heard. …

The Mental Health Of Latino Immigrants, Brenda Gallardo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research study explores the daily challenges, coping strategies, and mental health outcomes of undocumented adult Latino immigrants currently residing in the United States of America. The purpose of the research was to address the critical gap in scientific literature regarding the mental health of Latino immigrants residing in the United States. The healthy immigrant effect theory guided the study, which posits that immigrants' health declines the longer they live in a foreign country. Data collection occurred through a qualitative case study design using the first-hand accounts from 18 Latino immigrants residing in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Each participant …

Socially Interfering Sexual Behaviors In Autistic Adolescents And Treatments As Reported By Behavior Analysts, Steven Pai

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Caregivers often express concern regarding socially interfering sexual behaviors (SISB) in autistic adolescents, yet recent literature offers limited updates on this topic. Existing survey studies have primarily relied on parent, caregiver, or educator reports, with little focus from the perspective of healthcare professionals. To address this gap, the present study surveyed Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA) about the SISB they encounter, commonly utilized interventions employed, and their perceived effectiveness. Of 120 respondents, 74 qualified BCBAs provided data on behaviors such as socially interfering comments, public masturbation, touching others, and public disrobing. Public arousal, verbal remarks/comments, and sexualized gestures were the …

Examining The Complementary Nature Of Working Memory And Dual Coding Theory, Elizabeth Hofschulte Collins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The working memory system is responsible for maintaining, manipulating, and transferring information into long-term memory, yet it operates under strict capacity limitations. Dual coding theory proposes that information can be encoded both verbally and visually, allowing learners to distribute cognitive load across complementary representational systems. Leveraging dual coding may therefore enhance recall, particularly for noun-based stimuli, though there is little to no research exploring this possibility. In the present study, 529 adults completed a forward digit span task and pre-test and post-test free recall tasks involving concrete, abstract, and mixed nouns. Participants were assigned to one of four instruction groups …

Face Recognition Ability: The Role Of Facial Experience Across The Lifespan, Kirsty Kulhanek

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The other-race effect is a phenomenon in which individuals are better able to recognize individuals of their own race than individuals of another race. These effects begin to develop during the first year of life and may be attenuated by intergroup contact. Limited research in the language domain has suggested that multilingualism may result in easier learning of non-native speech contrasts, so it is of interest whether early experience with racially diverse faces may result in more easily learning to recognize unfamiliar race faces. We conducted two studies to examine the effects of early diverse experience with faces on recognition …

Gaming: An Untapped Resource For Women In Computer Science Careers?, Claudia Quynh Luu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research focused on women who identify as gamers (i.e., an individual who regularly plays video games) with the goal of better understanding how being a gamer might help or hinder women’s interest in computer science careers. In particular, I examined the connection between interest in computer science careers, gaming, sexual harassment experiences, coping strategies, and allyship for women in gaming using a mixed-methods approach. The sample (N = 166) included women identifying as previous or current gamers. Participants were recruited from a psychology participant pool and gaming communities on Discord. We conducted a series of analyses to examine whether …

Hypervigilance In Emerging Adulthood: The Impact Of Trauma, Milestone Achievement, And Minority Identity, Alexis Rice

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Emerging adulthood is a critical developmental period marked by identity exploration, increased autonomy, and heightened vulnerability to societal pressures. This mixed methods study examined how hypervigilance: a heightened state of alertness often associated with trauma and minority stress- varies by gender, sexual identity, racial trauma exposure, and adulthood milestone achievement among emerging adults aged 18–29. A total of 369 participants completed measures assessing hypervigilance behaviors, adulthood milestone attainment, and trauma exposure. Quantitative analyses revealed that sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals and cisgender women reported significantly higher levels of hypervigilance compared to their counterparts. Witnessing trauma inflicted on someone of …

The Effects Of Educational Materials On Knowledge And Attitudes Toward Psilocybin, Lindsey Elise Wade

Master's Theses

Depression is one of the most prevalent and burdensome mental health conditions worldwide, affecting millions and contributing to over 700,000 deaths by suicide annually. Nearly half of patients with major depressive disorder fail to respond adequately to standard antidepressant treatments such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) has emerged as a promising alternative for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), yet public understanding of this therapy remains limited. The present study examined whether a brief psychoeducational intervention could affect knowledge and attitudes toward PAT among members of the general public in the United States. Participants were randomly assigned to read …

The Implementation Of Tact And Bidirectional Intraverbal Training In Teaching A Foreign Language: A Systematic Replication, Karen Parra Caballero

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The current study replicates and extends Yamaguchi and Matsuda (2024) to evaluate the effects of foreign tact and bidirectional intraverbal training on teaching foreign-language vocabulary to adults. An adapted alternating-treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of learning vocabulary of a foreign language through tact teaching (tacting a picture in French), foreign-native intraverbal teaching (vocalizing a French word in the presence of the Spanish word), and native-foreign intraverbal teaching (vocalizing a French word in the presence of the Spanish word). Each teaching condition had an assigned stimulus set for teaching, and an additional stimulus set was included as a …