Cultural Adaptation Of A Single Session Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Guide For College Students In Uganda, Miriam Mukasa Kasozi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and stress are common among Ugandan university students and can make it difficult for them to succeed in school or maintain well-being. However, many students do not have access to professional mental health care. Digital self-help programs can make support more available, especially when they are designed to fit the local culture and context. This project examined how an online program called ACT Guide Lite, which teaches skills from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), could be adapted for use with Ugandan college students. Students and other university community members first completed the program …

Dyadic Agreement In And Task Correlates To A Measurement Of Conversational Success, Samantha Budge

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Successful conversation matters for social connection, wellbeing, and quality of life, but people do not always agree on whether a conversation was successful, even when they participated in the same interaction. Conversation is also commonly measured through task success, even though it’s unclear how task success correlates to how successful a conversation feels. This study examined how conversational success is experienced by different conversation partners and whether feeling successful in a conversation is related to how well a task is completed.

Participants took part in a structured conversational task and then rated their own conversational experience using a self-report questionnaire …

The Moderating Role Of Cannabis Use Motives On The Relationship Between Intragroup Marginalization And Cannabis Use In Hispanic Emerging Adults, Austin Ray Vernon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cannabis use has become increasingly normalized among emerging adults, yet associated risks to health remain a growing concern. Cannabis use among Hispanic populations has risen over the past decade, underscoring the need to examine culturally relevant factors that may influence use patterns and related harm. Intragroup marginalization, a culturally specific form of identity-based rejection from one's own ethnic group, may represent one such factor. The present study examined whether intragroup marginalization is associated with cannabis use outcomes and whether cannabis use motives moderate these associations. Participants were 358 Hispanic college students recruited from a U.S.-Mexico border university. Following informed consent, …

The Role Of Service-Learning & Critical Pedagogy In Student Empowerment Through Self-Consciousness, Democratic, And Culturally Responsive Education, Shahbaa Zaidan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological research examines the role of service learning that is based on critical pedagogy in empowering students and developing identity and consciousness in a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) on the United States-Mexico border found in South Texas. This study challenges the top-down paradigm, in which empowerment and learning are considered in view of the practices of educators, their teaching methods, and their impacts on student achievement. The research is bottom-up and student-centered. This research explores how students' experiences during service-learning courses shape their sense of identity, voice, and empowerment. Key theories include critical pedagogy (Freire), experiential learning (Dewey), transformative …

Psychological Principles In Writing Center Consulting & Ai, Ella S. Hansen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

A third of those ages 18 to 24 have engaged with ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2025). The newest form, ChatGPT-4, is better at generating more plausible long-form essays and creative writing than ever before (Imran & Almusharraf, 2023), meaning that AI-assisted writing is prevalent at higher education institutions (Cardon et al., 2023) and in writing centers (Goulet, 2025). Limited research has investigated the impact of this on writing center consultants. This multidisciplinary study investigated how consultants feel about large language model artificial intelligence (LLM AI) and how it can impact the consulting process, through the lens of three psychological principles: empathy, social …

The Impact Of Traditional Machismo On Mental Health Outcomes: Depression And Suicide Risk Among Latino Immigrant And Non-Immigrant Men, Yesenia A, Romero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traditional masculine norms have long been recognized as influential factors in men’s psychological well-being. Within Latino cultures, the construct of machismo represents a culturally specific form of masculinity characterized by ideals of masculinity and characterized by ideals of strength, dominance, and emotional restraint. While these norms may promote resilience and family responsibilities, rigid adherence to traditional machismo has also been associated with emotional suppression, reduced help-seeking behaviors, and increased psychological distress. The present study conducted a meta-analysis to examine the relationship between traditional machismo and mental health outcomes among Latino men, with particular attention to depressive symptoms as well as …

Unraveling The Path From Stress To Coping Among Indonesian Emerging Adults: The Role Of Cognitive Flexibility, Stephanie Yuanita Indrasari, Sri Hartati Suradijono, Lucia R.M. Royanto

Psychological Research on Urban Society

Abstract

Emerging adulthood (ages 18-25) is a developmental stage marked by significant life transitions, which can heighten stress levels. In Indonesia, urban dynamics and socio-cultural pressures further intensify this stress among emerging adults. Cognitive flexibility, the ability to adaptively shift thoughts and strategies in response to changing circumstances, is an important factor in effective coping. This study examined the relationships among stress and adaptive coping, with cognitive flexibility playing a role as a mediator, among Indonesian emerging adults over three months (Time 1: N = 512; Time 2: N = 166) using a two-wave cross-lagged panel model (CLPM). Results indicated …

Synthesizing Evidence And Testing The Militant Extremist Mindset Across Scales Version, Haykal Hafizul Arifin, Aly Lamuri, Aryodi Wahyu Kurniawan, Mirra Noor Milla, Ali Mashuri, Bagus Takwin

Psychological Research on Urban Society

Extremist violence continues to pose serious risks in urban areas, yet tools for understanding these radical mindsets on the general population remain underdeveloped. Research on the Militant Extremist Mindset (MEM) is fragmented, with no synthesis of findings, unclear factor structure across shifting subscales, and little evidence from contexts with a documented history of extremist activity like Indonesia. This study addresses these gaps through two studies. First, we conducted a systematic review of empirical studies and a meta-analysis of 11 studies (N total = 5293) to examine the correlates of MEM’s three components - nastiness (endorsement of violence), grudge (hostile outlook), …

Hemispheric Processing Of Words And Unfamiliar Symbol Strings, Karoline Curlo

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

This study investigates the role of each cerebral hemisphere in processing word forms to better understand how the brain decodes letter strings. Participants completed a same-different judgment task for four-character word and symbol (Orkhon) pairs presented unilaterally. On different trials, a single character was substituted at the first, second, third, or fourth position in the string. Results showed a sameness advantage in the left hemisphere (LH) and a difference advantage in the right hemisphere (RH) - effects only observed with word stimuli. Performance was best when the substituted character occurred at the beginning or end of words and symbols, rather …

Who Leaves Home? Parenting Style And Personality As Predictors Of College Students’ Intent To Study Abroad, Katelyn Sutton

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

This study examines how parenting styles and personality factors influence college students’ intentions to study abroad. Using the Five-Factor Model and Baumrind’s parenting framework, it explores how authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting relate to personality and students’ likelihood of pursuing international education, addressing a gap in research on early developmental influences. A sample of 156 undergraduate students from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University completed measures of personality (NEO-FFI), parenting style (Parental Authority Questionnaire), and study-abroad intention. Participants were divided into two groups: those who intend to study abroad and those who do not, allowing for direct …

Cross-Cultural Neuropsychological Testing: A Behavioral Item Analysis Of The Party Subtest From The Muns Battery Administered To Argentinian And U.S. Participants, Arwen A. Miranda, Alberto Luis Fernandez

Honors Thesis

In response to prevalent cultural bias in neuropsychological testing, cross-cultural tests (CCTs) were developed for accessibility across cultures through the use of “universal” stimuli. The Multicultural Neuropsychological Scale (MUNS) is a CCT developed to be appropriate across education levels, cost-effective and capable of assessing cognitive functions. The MUNS consists of seven subtests, including the Party subtest, which measures executive functioning by instructing participants to organize a party on a map. During this activity, participants purchase items such as food while remaining mindful of a 100-coin budget and minimizing travel distance. The present study examined whether the Party subtest functions comparably …

Covid Minds: A Thematic Review Of The Pandemic On Neural Mechanisms And Political Polarization, Madison Jeffries

Honors Projects

This paper analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced political polarization in the United States by examining the interactions between social system disruption, psychological stress, and underlying neurological behaviors. While previous research has extensively discussed pandemic's influence on public health and societal breakdowns, studies fail to examine how these disruptions shaped political divisions. This study synthesizes interdisciplinary literature on pandemic-induced stressors and analyzes factors, including institutional mistrust and social isolation, and how these experiences shape political behavior and perspectives. Applying research from psychology and neuroscience, the paper argues that prolonged exposure to pandemic-related stressors changed neurological and behavioral patterns in response …

Thinking With The Feet In The Clinic Of Psychosis, Jed Wilson

Middle Voices

In his later work, Lacan makes occasional reference to the idea of “thinking with the feet.” An equivocal formulation, it first seems to suggest that thought and language can be regarded as physical processes—not occurring in some homunculan disembodied brain or mind, but in the real of the body. Equally, it can call to mind the idea of thinking “on” one’s feet, in the manner of adaptive improvisation. Going further, could we not also say that it points to the possibility of setting something in motion (as in walking, dancing, going somewhere—all the things we do with the feet) as …

Beyond Symptoms: A Narrative Counseling Interpretation Of First-Year Student Anxiety In Indonesian Higher Education, Azizah Abdullah, Rizky Andana Pohan, Ramtia Darma Putri, Triyono Triyono, Marimbun Marimbun, Rahmi Dwi Febriani

Buletin Konseling Inovatif

The transition to higher education is a critical period in which first-year students face new academic demands, financial pressures, social adjustment challenges, and uncertainty about the future. However, limited research has examined how freshmen make sense of and narrate their anxiety, particularly in the Indonesian context. This study aimed to explore the main domains of anxiety among first-semester students in Indonesian public universities and to interpret these experiences through a narrative counseling lens. The study employed a qualitative online survey design with an interpretivist orientation. Data were collected from 199 first-semester students through open-ended questions addressing anxiety-provoking situations, sources of …

Beyond Victimhood, Expanding Narratives: A Generative Inquiry With Trafficking Survivors, Giacomo Chiara, Celiane Camargo-Borges, Diego Romaioli, Alberta Contarello

The Qualitative Report

This study is a generative inquiry with survivors of trafficking from a social constructionist perspective. Inspired by the principles of Appreciative Inquiry, its focus is collaboration between researchers and trafficking survivors with a view to shaping and understanding their trafficking experiences together, expanding understanding of the topic and co-constructing a relational space in which counter-narratives on victimhood can be generated. It consisted of 10 interviews with women survivors of trafficking at the Italian Anti-Trafficking System. These women were from a range of nations and their experiences of exploitation varied. Taking a constructionist approach to research, we formulated an episodic-generative interview …

Questionnaire For Eudaimonic Well-Being: Psychometric Validation Among Malaysian Youth, Mohd Ahsani A. Malek, Nurulwahida Saad, Suzana Mohd. Hoesni, Muhamad Ariff Ibrahim, Nurul Shafira Adi, Mohd Nazir Mohd Nazori

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: The rising prevalence of mental illness underscores the need to understand how individuals can live and flourish under such conditions. In Malaysia, research has largely emphasized diagnosis and treatment, with limited focus on positive psychology and few validated instruments. This study aimed to translate and validate the questionnaire for eudaimonic well-being (QEWB) among Malaysian youth.

Methods: The QEWB was translated into Malay using back-to-back translation and administered to undergraduates from four public universities through a cross-sectional survey design. Convenience quota sampling was used, resulting in 229 respondents completing the online form to measure sociodemographic characteristics, eudaimonic well-being, …

Smartphone Use, Social Media, And Academic Procrastination In Secondary Education: A Multi Method Approach Investigation With Implications For School-Based Interventions, Haslee Sharil Lim Abdullah, Riza Amalia, Henny Indreswari, Im Hambali, Ronal Surya Aditya, Rusnila Rusnila

Buletin Konseling Inovatif

Academic procrastination has become a significant challenge in digital learning environments, particularly among adolescents with high smartphone and social media usage. This study examines the relationship between mobile phone use and academic procrastination among 262 high school students in Indonesia using a cross-sectional survey, narrative review, and network analysis. Results show 75.6% of students exhibit medium and 20.2% high procrastination levels, with "alternative activities" like digital distractions as the main form (M = 15.87, SD = 2.92). No significant differences were found by gender (p = .067) or age (p = .412), but strong positive correlations emerged between gadget use …

Investigating The Synergistic Effects Of Mental And Physical Exhaustion On Learning And Attention In Emergency First Responders: An Eye-Tracking Study, Kayla Page

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Exhaustion is known to impair cognitive functioning and performance, yet its effects on learning during video-based instruction among first responders and military service members remain underexplored. This study examined how mental, physical, and combined exhaustion independently influence learning outcomes and visual attention in a physically active sample drawn from military, public safety, and emergency service roles. Visual attention was measured utilizing eye tracking, focusing on fixation duration (FD) and fixation rate (FR). Participants completed instructional tasks under each exhaustion condition, allowing comparison of learning and gaze behavior across fatigue states. Results indicated that mental and physical exhaustion were associated …

Using Ai Tools Shifts The Cognitive Structures Of Creative Problem-Solving In A Prompt-Based, Free Response Task, Veronica Smith, Andra Geana

Psychology Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Item Response Warehouse: What It Is, How To Use It, And Targets For Potential Improvements, Savira D. Nadela, Hansol Lee, Nishka Jain, Ayaan Gupta, Xingyi Zhang, Benjamin W. Domingue

Chinese/English Journal of Educational Measurement and Evaluation | 教育测量与评估双语期刊

The Item Response Warehouse (IRW) is a repository of harmonized item response datasets designed to support secondary analysis and methodological research in psychological and educational measurement. This paper serves as a practical guide for researchers interested in using the IRW. We describe the structure of IRW datasets and the quantitative and qualitative metadata available for dataset selection, and we demonstrate how researchers can navigate the IRW website to explore and compare available tables. We further show how the IRW R and Python packages can be used to filter datasets programmatically, download response-level data, and generate standardized citations for reproducible research …

Holding The Line: The Existential Threat To Dei Language And Values, Terrance Fitzsimmons, Larry Martinez, Jennifer Bishop, Darryl Rice, Florence Villesèche

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose – This article critically analyses and critiques the operationalisation of the Trump administration’s anti- DEI policies on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the United States of America and beyond. It specifically examines the attempt to silence DEI scholarship and practice, assessing the broader implications for social justice and global progress towards equity. The article also positions these attacks as an existential threat to DEI scholarship, scholars and practitioners, with the potential to reverse progress made since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The article serves as a call to action, urging the …

Demographics & Diversity Training Among Counselors Serving Dhh Clients: A 2025 Field Study, Moss Maclean, Cheryl Wu

Annual Student Research Day

This project aims to determine the demographic composition and the multicultural competencies of counselors working with DHH clients. Currently, no comparable data exists. Findings indicate that most counselors are women, straight, and deaf. Common barriers to professional development include cost, transportation, access to interpreters, and access to training in ASL. Implications include the need to address barriers in existing professional development, innovative multicultural counseling training in ASL, and the need for interpreters and other cultural liaisons to facilitate home-school collaboration between Deaf schools and CLD families.

Update Mechanisms In Event Models: Boundary Effects And Dimensional Influences, Xing Su

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

People construct working event models to comprehend dynamic, multimodal information such as movies and narratives, but how these models update remains debated. Two mechanisms have been proposed: incremental updating, which selectively modifies specific dimensions while preserving others, and global updating, which discards the existing model entirely to construct a new one. This dissertation investigated how event boundaries influence which updating mechanism people employ. Across two experiments, participants read narratives about everyday activities while we measured recognition memory response times and self-paced reading times. Participants also completed event segmentation tasks to identify perceived boundaries. Results revealed a consistent dissociation opposite to …

Are You Deaf-Smart? : Deaf School-Based Mental-Health And Assessment Resource Toolkit, Rachel Shaffer, Moss Maclean

Annual Student Research Day

This project aims to increase awareness, promote best practices, and encourage partnership and information sharing in relation to working with Deaf people as psychologists. This project leads to a resource library for psychologists.

Language And Emotional Experience: A Worldwide Study, Natalie Lorange, Chelsea Romney

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This qualitative study explored how native language influences emotional experience. Fourteen participants from diverse countries were recruited to capture a range of linguistic perspectives and experiences. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, resulting in four key themes: (1) shared experience as central in creating emotional meaning, (2) the power of words in shaping emotional experience, (3) stronger emotional resonance in native or frequently used languages, and (4) the importance of regional differences in emotional experience. Findings suggest that while emotions may be largely universal, linguistic and cultural differences play a significant role in an individual's emotional identity. The study highlights …

The Effect Of Visual And Narrative Perspective On Memory For Social Interactions, Allen Hagen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The visual perspective we experience events from is particularly important in social settings that are both referenced over time and within areas of importance such as courtroom settings, police interrogations, and workplace evaluations. The current study investigated the effect of visual encoding perspectives (first-person, observer) during valenced social interaction footage on the recognition of old or altered footage (changed perspective, valence, or all new), as well as emotional metamemory judgements for the event. The study also investigated the effect of written narrative perspective of event descriptions (first-person, second-person) on these dependent variables. The experiment revealed a significant effect of encoding …

Author Biographical Notes

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Navigating End-Of-Life Decisions: Cultural Considerations For Latine Patients, Michelle Carbajal Hernandez

Honors Capstones

Healthcare professionals face many challenges when communicating terminal illness prognoses for individuals. This responsibility to address a terminal prognosis is further complicated when communicating with Latine patients who may face multiple barriers within the healthcare system and whose cultural preferences influence end-of-life care planning (Carrion, 2010). For example, Latines are less likely to enroll in end-of-life (EOL) care services (e.g., hospice) (Barragan-Carrillo et al., 2022). As well as engage in end-of-life care planning than White Non-Latines (Shen et al., 2016). To understand this hesitancy towards EOL care options, this literature review aims to explore how terminally ill Latine and …

Silent Or Silenced? A Systematic Review Of Deaf And Hoh Workers In Io Psychology Research, Lora Bishop

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) workers report routinely missing workplace information that hearing colleagues receive through informal and ambient channels, as well as constrained participation in environments where communication norms treat hearing as the default. Despite over a century of research, this literature remains largely outside flagship industrial-organizational (IO) psychology journals. This dissertation conducts an integrative systematic review of 48 empirical studies published between 1919 and 2025, examining workplace outcomes and methodological patterns, the theoretical frameworks deployed, sampling and reporting practices, and the framing and identity-language conventions through which the literature engages DHH workers. The review appears predominantly in WORK and …

Reevaluating Pediatric Concussion Recovery: The Need For Comprehensive Psychological Assessments, Jolie L. Slobodin

Senior Theses

Pediatric concussions represent a significant public health concern due to their complex and often long-lasting effects on the developing brain. Although concussion is classified as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), growing evidence indicates that children and adolescents experience psychological, cognitive, and academic difficulties that extend beyond physical symptom resolution. While somatic and cognitive symptoms often predominate in the acute phase of recovery, emotional and behavioral concerns frequently emerge or persist later, yet remain inconsistently evaluated in standard concussion care. This thesis examines the psychological, cognitive, and academic outcomes of pediatric concussion and evaluates whether current assessment practices capture the …