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Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Treatment Program With A Latency-Aged Male Child, Michael Calavetta

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of a therapeutic treatment program for a latency-aged male child. This eight-year old child presented with several problem areas. These included poor academic performance, attention difficulties, symptoms of depression and acting out behaviors. The client also had a long standing history of family dysfunction and instability. The client participated in a multimodal treatment program consisting of individual and family counseling, as well as a school-based partial care intervention program. The client also received Adderall and Zoloft. The Connor's ADHD Scales, Children's Depression Inventory, and a Patient Satisfaction Survey were administered …

Trends. For Homeland Security, Against A Department Of Homeland Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses national security as well as the addition of a new department – the Department of Homeland Security – as a psychological and political tactic.

Musings On One Who Got Away: Personnel Security, Counterintelligence, And Edward Lee Howard, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes several concerns with the United States Government's (USG) approach to minimizing betrayal by its personnel who are entrusted with security clearances, special access to sensitive information, and sensitive positions.

The Ahimsa Acculturation Scale: A New Measure Of Acculturation For Adolescents In A Multicultural Society, C. Anderson Johnson, Paula Palmer, Jennifer B. Unger, Peggy Gallaher, Sohaila Shakib, Anamara Ritt-Olson

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Acculturation has been associated with adolescent health-risk behaviors. Most acculturation scales are inappropriate for adolescent surveys because they are too long, are not applicable to differing ethnic groups, or are language-based only. A brief, multidimensional, multicultural acculturation measure for adolescents was developed. Sixthgrade students (N = 317) in Los Angeles completed that scale and other measures of acculturation. The Acculturation, Habits, and Interests Multicultural Scale for Adolescents (AHIMSA) generates four subscores: United States Orientation (Assimilation), Other Country Orientation (Separation), Both Countries Orientation (Integration), and Neither Country Orientation (Marginalization). Three of the subscales were correlated with the subscales of a modified …

Social Intelligence: Social Skills Competence And Emotional Intelligence In Gifted Adolescents, Lisa Corso

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Two schools of thought diverge into an ongoing debate as regards to the social intelligence of gifted youth. One view holds that the gifted are often maladjusted (Chronbach, 1960; Hollingworth, 1942). The contrary view is that they are more likely to be well adjusted, with overall above average social and emotional intelligence (Allen, 2000; Chesser, 2001; Kihlstrom & Cantor, 2000; Neihart, 1999). The current research is consistent with views supporting enhanced overall social and emotional intelligence of gifted youth. Some researchers have argued that emotional intelligence and social skills competence are subsets of social intelligence (Chesser, 2000; Greenspan, 1979; Kihlstrom …

The Viability Of The Implicit Association Test Applied To Attitudes Toward Individuals With Disabilities And Measurement Of Coworker Attitudes Toward Individuals With A Disability, Andrea Doyle

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Attitudes toward individuals with disabilities were examined using two different methods: (a) the Implicit Association Test assessing general implicit attitudes and (b) a vignette study assessing coworker attitudes. The Implicit Association Test was used in an attempt to replicate Tringo's Hierarchy of Preference using five exemplar disabilities: (a) Cancer, (b) Paraplegic, (c) Mental Illness, (d) Alcoholic, and (e) HIV Positive. The results did not support a replication of the Hierarchy of Preference. Three dimensions of disabilities were manipulated for the vignette study. These dimensions were the overtness of the disability, the level of risk associated with the disability, and response …

Reading Mastery Versus Word Study Instruction As It Pertains To Third Graders' Reading Achievement Scores, Mia Sullivan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study was conducted in order to compare two phonics-based approaches to teaching reading. The two approaches were Reading Mastery (SRA Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, 1995) and Word Study (Bear et al. 1996). While Reading Mastery has been compared to other reading methods to examine the effectiveness of instruction with reading achievement measures, there are no studies that compare Word Study to other methods of reading instruction. The purpose of the present study was to compare Reading Mastery and Word Study instruction groups in terms of reading achievement scores. This study included 36 third grade students, 18 in each group. All students were …

Public Displays Of Affection With Relation To Comfort Levels And Culture, Janice R. T. Bryden

Graduate Theses

To determine the tolerance levels of public displays of affection between males, females, Hispanics, and White Non-Hispanics (Whites), a total of 152 participants completed the Attitudes Toward Public Displays of Affection Inventory. While the hypothesis that males would be significantly more tolerant than females of observing public displays of affection was statistically supported for certain settings and certain levels of affection, overall, results may not be clinically meaningful. The second hypothesis, that there would be a significant difference between Hispanics and Whites and their tolerance levels for watching public displays of affection, was not supported. Overall trends indicate passionately kissing …

Differing Death Scenarios: Self Esteem And Death Anxiety., Kenneth Grant Brewer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found a correlation between death anxiety and self esteem. Researchers have found that both self-esteem and death anxiety play a significant role in an individual's behavior.

The purpose of this study was to investigate a correlation, if any, between death anxiety and self esteem using death related scenarios. It was hypothesized the high death anxiety groups will have lower self-esteem than the low death anxiety group, and that the low self-esteem group will have higher death anxiety than the high self-esteem group.

Results of an ANOVA indicate that there is a significant difference between the high death …

Adolescent Drinking And Driving: A Descriptive And Intervention Study, Emalee M. Fields

Masters Theses

Given the high rates of alcohol use and abuse among adolescents in our society, it is not surprising that drinking and driving is also relatively common. This paper starts with a summary of national statistics, which is followed by a critical review of previous interventions. The purpose of this project was to attempt to find an effective drinking and driving intervention for high school students which was relatively inexpensive, less time intensive than past interventions and required little or no training for the facilitator to present. Two related intervention conditions (a video only intervention and a slightly more extensive package …

Hispanic Psychology: A 25-Year Retrospective Look, Amado M. Padilla

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Hispanic psychology has its roots in ethnic psychology and in cross-cultural psychology. The basic premise is that it is a valuable enterprise both theoretically and empirically to study the behavior of Hispanics. Over the past 25 years, research in Hispanic psychology has given way to a new scholarship or paradigm that calls for the recognition of intragroup variation which values within-group comparisons rather than relying exclusively on between-group effects. Acculturation and biculturalism have taken on special significance in Hispanic psychology. Further, Hispanic psychology must also consider the effects of racism and oppression on people and how these affect ethnic identity, …

Clinically Relevant Aspects Of Chronic Pain: Normal Personality Predictors, Stephen Ray Nitch

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study examined the normal personality characteristics of chronic pain patients using cluster analysis. To date, much of the research involving chronic pain and personality has assumed that signs of psychopathology are likely to be present (Jay, Grove, and Grove, 1987; Love and Peck, 1987). There have been some exceptions to this trend by researchers who sought to measure the normal personality structure of individuals with chronic pain (see Wade, Dougherty, Hart, and Cook, 1992). One of central aims of the current study was to further refine the psychosocial taxonomy of chronic pain patients by paying more attention to individual …

Effect Of Employment On Generativity In Married Mothers, Tracy Sierra Dern

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Generativity is Erikson's seventh stage of psycho social development in his life cycle theory, but he postulates different ways of achieving generativity for males and females. Erikson proposed that a woman achieves a sense of generativity from raising a family. However over the last twenty years social roles have changed and there is an increasing number of women developing careers. It is important to determine whether the role of employment has an effect on generativity in women. This study had ten women participants: five married with children, homemakers and five married with children, professionals. Using a semi-structured interview, the·participants shared …

Comparative Perceived Breast Cancer Risk Before And After An Intervention, Constance F. Welebir

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Breast cancer screening has the potential of early detection, more effective treatment, and possible arrest of certain breast cancers, yet many women do not adhere to screening guidelines. With research showing that people use social comparison while making risk judgments, often holding optimistically biased beliefs about their health, women who maintain an optimism bias about their breast cancer risk may not practice routine breast cancer surveillance. Therefore, effective interventions designed to inform women of their breast cancer risks and to encourage adherence to breast cancer screening guidelines are necessary. This study investigated the role that social comparison plays in risk …

Studying Personality Traits Across Cultures: Philippine Examples, A. Timothy Church, Marcia S. Katigbak

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Trait perspectives are dominant in the study of personality cross-culturally. We review the questions addressed by researchers who study personality traits across cultures, including, among others, whether traits are used in all cultures to understand persons and their behavior, the universality versus culture-specificity of traits, the validity of imported and indigenous measures of personality traits, and the meaningfulness of trait comparisons across cultures. We then summarize evidence relevant to these questions in one collectivistic culture, the Philippines. Overall, personality research in the Philippines supports the applicability of traits and trait theory as a basis for understanding persons and their behavior …

Kluckhohn And Strodtbeck's Values Orientation Theory, Michael D. Hills

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

People's attitudes are based on the relatively few, stable values they hold. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's (1961) Values Orientation Theory proposes that all human societies must answer a limited number of universal problems, that the value-based solutions are limited in number and universally known, but that different cultures have different preferences among them. Suggested questions include humans' relations with time, nature and each other, as well as basic human motives and the nature of human nature. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck suggested alternate answers to all five, developed culture-specific measures of each, and described the value orientation profiles of five SW USA cultural …

Life-Span Developmental Psychology: Midlife And Later Years In Western And Non-Western Societies, Frank Eyetsemitan

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

This chapter discusses the basis on which studies have been done on the later years of life in Western and non-Western cultures. It suggests that because Westerners value independence, most research on aging in Western societies has focused on how to help the individual maintain his or her functional independence throughout the life-span. Non-Westerners, on the other hand, value interdependence. Therefore, most research on aging has focused on the availability of social support in later life. But with Westernization influences in non-Western societies, there should be a shift in research efforts in order to accommodate a new understanding of aging …

What Questions Arise When Studying Cultural Universals In Depression? Lessons From Abnormal Psychology Textbooks, Junko Tanaka-Matsumi, Robert Chang

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

We examined 70 abnormal psychology textbooks published from 1920s to the present to identify consistent cross-cultural themes with regard to human depressive experiences over time and across regions of the world. The cultural and cross-cultural literature on abnormality and depression, in particular, has contributed to widening the scope of abnormal psychology textbooks over time. However, the texts are almost entirely dependent on Western diagnostic categories, particularly with regard to definitions of depression. Within the Western classification framework, authors of abnormal psychology textbooks have increasingly recognized the role of culture in depressive experiences and their communication. On the basis of our …

Social Anxiety: Attentional Bias In Reaction To Emotional Faces Before And After Participation In A College Level Public Speaking Course, Scott Walter Maieritsch

Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of a semester-long public speaking course in reducing the self-reported levels of communication anxiety and social anxiety among college students enrolled in such a course. The current study also sought to replicate and extend a recent line of research that has demonstrated that highly socially anxious individuals show an attentional bias away from emotional faces under conditions of social-evaluative threat. The current study extended this line of research by conducting the same reaction time procedure with participants in a pretest/post-test design. The project was designed to determine if groups (rating high vs. …

Automobiles, Individualism-Collectivism, And Psychic Systems: An Essay On The Functional Perspective In Cross-Cultural Psychology, Stefan Strohschneider

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

This chapter identifies the mainstream approach in (cross-cultural) psychology as "variables psychology" and contrasts it with two versions of functionalist thinking. Functionalist approaches are concerned with the purpose of cultural differences and with the psychological mechanisms that produce them. Whereas questions of purpose are frequently debated in cross-cultural psychology, the problem of the basic psychological mechanisms is not. This reading demonstrates how this problem might be tackled by explaining empirical differences between individualists and collectivists through the concepts and mechanisms of a general model of action regulation. The consequences of this approach for the development of cross-cultural psychology are briefly …

Subjective Culture, Harry C. Triandis

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

The definition of subjective culture is followed by a listing of the elements of subjective culture and an examination of the content of each element and the methodological problems in studying that element.

Directions In Gender Research In American Indian Societies: Two Spirits And Other Categories, Beatrice Medicine

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Indigenous social role categories that represent third and fourth gender characteristics, such as the Lakota (Sioux) winkte and the Dino (Navajo) n and other Native terms, mark the status of these individuals. However, they are often blanketed by the term, berdache, in social science literature. Contextualization in an ethnographic frame is essential to greater comprehension of these roles. A critical review of contemporary research and the writings of the Native occupants of these categories has resulted in an all encompassing term: "Two Spirits." Coterminously, Native terms for lesbians are also emerging. However, all Native gay males and lesbians have …

Cultural Interpretation Of Dying And Death In A Non-Western Society: The Case Of Nigeria, Frank Eyetsemitan

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Using Western theories and perspectives as models, this chapter discusses the cultural interpretation of dying and death in a non-Western society. Also discussed, based on the historical, political, and cultural history of Nigeria, are the implications of dying and death for death preparation, the problem of death- causation diseases without external symptoms, and the special plight of widows. Suggestions are made on how to change current practices to alleviate the conditions of widows. The Nigerian experience provides a model for other non-Western societies with similar historical, political, and cultural backgrounds.

Bilingualism: Language, Memory And Applied Issues, Jeanette Altarriba

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Bilingualism, or the knowledge of more than one language, is quite prevalent throughout the world. However, much of the cognitive literature that exists on language processing and memory retrieval has included participants who are monolingual speakers. The current chapter introduces the ways in which bilingualism has been investigated in the areas of autobiographical memory, memory recall, and communication in applied settings. The notion of code-switching or language-mixing is introduced as a strategic means through which bilingual memory may be fruitfully investigated.

Cultural Explorations Of Human Intelligence Around The World, Robert J. Sternberg

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

The goal of this article is to review cultural explorations of human intelligence around the globe. The article opens in the first part with a consideration of cultural studies that suggest that there is more to intelligence than IQ. It continues with the suggestion for what that "more" might be, namely, "successful intelligence." The second part of the article thus describes the theory of successful intelligence, as well as data from various cultures that support the theory. The third part of the article considers cultural conceptions, of implicit theories of intelligence. It is concluded that cultural studies suggest that conventional …

Cross-Cultural Research On The Five-Factor Model Of Personality, Robert R. Mccrae

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

The Five-Factor Model (FFM) is a comprehensive taxonomy of personality traits, which are tendencies to show consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions. Although it was originally identified in the United States, the model appears to describe personality structure well in a wide variety of cultures, suggesting that personality trait structure is universal. Age changes--decreases in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness and increases in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness from adolescence to adulthood--also appear to be universal, as are gender differences. Current studies comparing the mean levels of personality traits across cultures show systematic patterns, but their interpretation is uncertain. The FFM is …

Are Sexual Promiscuity And Relationship Infidelity Linked To Different Personality Traits Across Cultures? Findings From The International Sexuality Description Project, David P. Schmitt

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Over 17,000 participants responded to self-report measures of sexuality and personality as part of the International Sexuality Description Project. It was expected that romantic relationship infidelity would be associated with the personality traits of disagreeableness and a lack of conscientiousness across most cultures. Sexual promiscuity, on the other hand, was expected to relate to extraversion across most cultures. Analyses across 58 cultures from 52 nations revealed that romantic relationship infidelity was significantly associated with disagreeableness and low levels of conscientiousness across most cultures. Sexual promiscuity was related to extraversion across many, but not most, cultural regions. The expected pattern of …

Leadership And Teamwork In Developing Countries: Challenges And Opportunities, Zeynep Aycan

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Leadership and teamwork are the key factors contributing to organizational effectiveness if their attributes fit to the socio-cultural context. In this reading, the leadership and teamwork process are described in Developing countries (DCs). Developing countries, which comprise of 80 % of the world's population, are diverse in many ways. However, there are some common socio-economic, institutional, and political characteristics as well as shared cultural attributes. The first section addresses the difficulty of finding a definition of developing countries and lays out some common features. Next comes the presentation of six key socio-cultural characteristics that have implications for leadership and teamwork. …

Sojourners To Another Country: The Psychological Roller-Coaster Of Cultural Transitions, Nan M. Sussman Ph.D.

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Cultural sojourners are temporary visitors to another country who return to their home country. They can be students enrolled in a foreign university or corporate employees assigned to an international branch of their company. This chapter explores the psychological aspects of the cultural transition cycle experienced by the sojourner. The concepts of enculturation and cultural identity are introduced followed by a discussion of a transition model which focuses on awareness, adjustment, adaptation, self-concept change, cultural identity response and repatriation. Ideas for minimizing repatriation distress are suggested.

Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors Across Cultures, P. Wesley Schultz

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

One of the fundamental aspects of culture is the relationship it prescribes between individuals and environment. Am I part of the natural environment, or am I separate and perhaps superior to nature? The answer to this question influences the types of attitudes that individuals within a given culture are likely to develop, the types of environmental behaviors that individuals are likely to adopt, and more generally, beliefs about how to solve environmental problems. This chapter examines differences in attitudes about environmental issues across cultures. We distinguish between egoistic environmental attitudes, and biospheric environmental attitudes, and summarize recent cross-cultural research on …