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The Claustrum In Autism And Typically Developing Male Children: A Quantitative Mri Study, Warren B. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The claustrum (Cl) is a subcortical gray-matter structure housed between the external capsule medially and the extreme capsule laterally. Due to its extensive reciprocal connections throughout the brain, it has been implicated in consciousness and other higher order functions including linking behavior and emotion. Such linkage may be important in understanding the neurobiology of autism since other cortical and subcortical regions including the spatially and ontologically related basal ganglia, as well as limbic structures, have been implicated in the disorder. Participants were males with autism (n=16) and typically developing (TD; n=14) matched for head circumference and age. The Cl and …

Deconstructing The Reflection In The Mirror:, Dr. Jill D. Duba, Aaron Kindsvatter, C J. Priddy

Counseling & Student Affairs Faculty Publications

Women facing middle age and beyond are pressured by a cultural ideal of slimness. Literature pertaining to the factors affecting the societal perceptions of body image will be reviewed. Authors also will address relevant counseling interventions aimed at this population, specifically group therapy based in Narrative theory.

"It's All One Big Circle": Welfare Discourse And The Everyday Lives Of Urban Adolescents, Staci T. Lowe

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Welfare reform succeeded, in part, because of discourse that characterized the poverty problem as one of long-term dependency and personal irresponsibility. Adolescent pregnancy was targeted as both cause and manifestation of a welfare crisis. This study examined how welfare reform was perceived and experienced by lowincome, urban adolescents. Findings from interviews revealed that adolescents agreed with many of the basic tenets of welfare reform, largely because they had appropriated much of the discourse prevalent in wider society. However, their complex life stories contained a powerful subtext concerning structural determinants of poverty that ran counter to prevailing notions of "personal responsibility."

The Political Personality Of 2008 Republican Presidential Nominee John Mccain, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Arizona senator John McCain, Republican nominee in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data regarding Sen. McCain was extracted from biographical sources and published reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed in accordance with interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC manual. McCain’s …

Healing Young People Thru Empowerment (H.Y.P.E.): A Hip-Hop Therapy Program For Black Adolescent Males, Adia B. Mcclellan

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Treating Black adolescent males with disruptive behavior disorders can be challenging for psychologists and other mental health professionals The negative perception of this group within society, as well as the absence of clinical training exploring issues pertinent to Black adolescent males, among other things, may hinder a professional’s ability to effectively work with this population. This doctoral project discussed the research in several areas currently pertinent to Black adolescent males, as well as factors that have historically been oppressive to Black Americans. It then describes several DSM-IV-TR diagnoses and legal classifications associated with Disruptive Behavior Disorders. In addition, research analyzing …

Examining The Relationship Between Proactive Personality And Career Success, Jeremy Owens

Modern Psychological Studies

With increasing levels of employee autonomy and responsibility in today's workforce, proactive behavior and the performance of discretionary, extra-role work behaviors are becoming vital to effective organizational functioning. This study examined how proactive personality relates to career success through extra-role behaviors including innovation, contextual performance, and organizational citizenship behavior by surveying 302 employees from a large manufacturing organization. Hierarchical regression and multiple mediation analyses showed that the relationship between proactive personality and career success is at least partially influenced by indirect effects via extra-role behaviors, even after controlling for demographic and personality variables (age, sex, and FFM traits).

Same, But Different: Understanding Asians' Attitudes Towards Affirmative Action, Luisa J. Maun, Brian J. O'Leary

Modern Psychological Studies

Organizations often use affirmative action plans to increase demographic diversity, but, the success of these plans depends on employee attitudes. Attitudes toward affirmative action differ among racial groups, with Blacks having more favorable attitudes than Hispanics, Asians, and Whites (e.g., Bell, Harrison, & McLaughlin, 1997). To correct a paucity of literature that includes a large Asian American sample, Asian participants from various ethnicities, such as Indian, Filipino, and Vietnamese, (N = 181) completed several online questionnaires at surveymonkey.com about affirmative action attitudes (Attitude Towards Affirmative Action Scale), collectivism/individualism (Triandis & Gelfand, 1998) , and ethnic identity (Multigroup Measure of Ethnic …

What Are Public Views On Using Video To Deter Crime And Consumer Fraud?, Ada W.J. Chan, Shani Rumaldo, Robert Emmons

Modern Psychological Studies

Since 1978, Nassau County NY has pioneered the use of "video stings" to protect the public from a wide variety of dishonest behaviors—with appliance repair, auto repair, home contractors, insurance sales, chiropractors, and even internet pedophiles (Lambert, 1997). Surprisingly, though this has been a model for a few other municipalities, neither Nassau County nor others have conducted systematic research on how the public regards this unusual policy (Wrightsman, Greene, Nietzel & Fortune, 2002). In this survey, 114 people completed an anonymous structured 18-item survey containing 3 scales: their support of video stings (0-28), their familiarity with past media reports of …

College Student Vulnerability To Harmful Religious Groups Based On Perceptions., Kevin Clark Dreher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted in an attempt to understand which, if any, groups of college students are susceptible to cult influence based on false perceptions. Religion is a powerful practice that, if used for the wrong reasons, can influence a person to dissolve social and financial relationships with family, friends, and the surrounding community. Surveys were given to randomly selected cluster samples of students currently enrolled at the university. These surveys consisted of demographic questions and a scale designed to measure perceptions. Also devised was a scale to measure traits of depression. Both bivariate and multivariate analysis showed that the …

Fmri Evidence Of Group Differences On The Word Memory Test In A Sample Of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients, James Douglas Larsen

Theses and Dissertations

The Word Memory Test (WMT) is a popular effort test that requires participants to memorize lists of paired words and repeat them back in a variety of different memory tasks. Four brain injured patients participated in two trials of the delayed recall (DR) portion of the WMT while undergoing fMRI scanning. In the first trial subjects put forth full effort, and during the second trial subjects were instructed to simulate increased memory impairment in order to represent poor effort. fMRI activation from both trials were compared in order to contrast full and simulated poor effort activation patterns during the WMT. …

Self-Injury In The Schools: A Survey Of Educators, Jacquetta Danielle Butts

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Self-injury (SI) is a growing concern for professionals working in educational settings who desire more information on SI and express a lack of confidence in working with youth who self injure (Carlson, DeGreer, Deur, & Fenton, 2005; Heath, Toste, & Beettam, 2008).

A sample of 263 teachers from a small, rural Kentucky county completed a survey (response rate of 45.5%) designed to address educators’ knowledge of SI, training needs, and knowledge of school response plans for working with youth who self-injure.

A 20-item measure developed by Jeffery and Warm (2002) assessed SI knowledge. Educators evidenced significantly lower scores on the …

The Influence Of Cultural Identification And Gender-Linked Characteristics On The Body Satisfaction Of African American Men, Amy Lynn Baird

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The goal of the present study was to examine the relationships between gender schema, level of cultural identification, and body dissatisfaction in African American men. The first hypothesis under study was that men with a low identification to African American culture would report higher dissatisfaction with their body than those with a high cultural identification. Secondly, it was hypothesized that men with a large discrepancy from their culture’s description of an “ideal man” would also report higher body dissatisfaction than those with low or no discrepancy. Lastly, it was hypothesized that an interaction between variables would occur and that men …

An Evaluation Of Preference For Modeling Interventions, Kaneen B. Geiger

Masters Theses

Video modeling is an instructional technique demonstrated to effectively increase social skills, academic skills, daily living skills and play skills of children with autism. There are several hypotheses for why video modeling is effective. One hypothesis is that children with autism prefer watching videos to looking at people, thereby enhancing motivation and making attending to the video model automatically reinforcing, however, preference for video has not been experimentally examined. This study assessed participants' preference for either video modeling or in vivo modeling using a concurrent-chains arrangement. None of the three participants showed a preference for either video modeling or in …

Internationalizing A Psychology Department: A Case Study, Leeann Bartolini, Afshin Gharib, W. Phillips

Collected Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Unwanted Sexual Experiences: Preliminary Development And Validation Of A Behavioral Analog Measure For Risk Perception, Response Appraisal, And Response, Robin M. Carter-Visscher

Dissertations

Based on research findings indicating that sexual victimization is a prevalent problem on college campuses and has significant consequences for victims, researchers have examined the effectiveness of sexual assault education programs on reducing incidents of sexual victimization and have found programs to be unsuccessful. Other researchers have begun to investigate behavioral factors associated with risk for sexual victimization in order to better understand mechanisms of sexual victimization and revictimization before developing and implementing interventions. One hypothesis that has received increased attention in recent years is that women with a sexual victimization history may have deficient risk perception and effective responding …

Health Anxiety And Cognition: Chronic Awareness Of Health Concerns Or Situational Activation Of Latent Dysfunctional Assumptions About Illness?, Desmon Craig Mitchell

Dissertations

Rationale: This study investigated if health anxious individuals have chronically aroused illness-related concerns or if these concerns remain latent, only to be activated when first primed by illness-related stimuli. To test these alternatives this study examined whether participants, with varying levels of health anxiety, differed as to their (a) performance on an emotional Stroop task that included health-related words, (b) memory tasks (free recall and recognition tasks), and (c) the participants' dream content, after either being exposed, or not exposed, to an illness-related trigger. Hypotheses: If illness concerns are chronically activated in health anxious individuals, then participants will perform worse …

Reproduction Of Cultural Knowledge And Practices Interviews With Spanish-Speaking Parents Of Deaf Children In South Texas, Christina J. Quilantan-Cavazos

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Hispanic population is the largest and fastest growing cultural and language minority group in the United States (Figueroa et al. 1989); consequently, "as the number of Hispanic individuals in the United States increases, so does the number of Hispanic hearing impaired children" (Walker-Vann 1998: 46), making them the fastest growing population among deaf and hard of hearing school age students (Gerner de García 1995b). Yet, little is known about Mexican families raising a deaf child because "there is a shortage of research that looks at Hispanic deaf children in their home environment or in the community of their families" …

Democracy And The Press In The Middle East, Badreya Al-Jenaibi

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines relationships between Arab media and several different institutions including government in general, democracy specifically, and Islam. The primary purpose of this research is to gain not only broad, but also in-depth understanding of Arab governments and their control of media. One of the key issues discussed is the role of the Arabic media channel, Al-Jazeera, in the Arab region.

A literature review has been provided that serves the purpose of providing valuable background on Islam and democracy, Arab media history and the new Arab media. The literature review provides a context for the use of normative theories, …

Self-Injury Knowledge And Peer Perceptions Among Members Of Internet Self-Injury Groups, Emily L. Boeckmann

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Members of 26 MySpace social groups for self-injury (SI) provided data for this study investigating knowledge of SI, friends’ perceptions of SI, and the impact of online activity on SI. This study proposes that people who have belonged to these online SI groups for longer periods have higher levels of SI knowledge than those group members who have recently joined. In addition, the study proposes that individuals who self-injure have higher levels of SI knowledge than professionals who work with individuals who self-injure. An additional purpose of this study is to explore information regarding the reasons why people belong to …

Perceiving Aperture Widths During Teleoperation, Suzanne Butler

All Theses

When teleoperating robots it is often difficult for operators to perceive aspects of remote environments within which they are working (Tittle, Roesler, & Woods, 2002). It is difficult to perceive the sizes of objects in remote environments and to determine if the robot can pass through apertures of various sizes (Casper & Murphy, 2003; Murphy 2004). The present experiment investigated whether remote perception could be improved by providing optic flow during robot movement or by positioning an on-board camera so that the forward portion the robot is in the camera's view. Participants judges the sizes of remote apertures viewed through …

Predicting Performance On Criterion-Referenced Reading Tests With Benchmark Assessments, Kaitlyn Nicole Dyson

Theses and Dissertations

The current research study investigates the predictive value of two frequently-used benchmark reading assessments: Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). With an increasing emphasis on high-stakes testing to measure reading proficiency, benchmark assessments may assist in predicting end-of-year performance on high-stakes testing. Utah's high-stakes measurement of end-of-year reading achievement is the English Language Arts Criterion-Referenced Test (ELA-CRT). A Utah urban school district provided data for students who completed the DRA, DIBELS, and ELA-CRT in the 2005-2006 school year. The primary purpose of the study was to determine the accuracy to which the …

The Parents As Teachers Program And Kindergarten Literacy Readiness, Teresa Lynn Ockey

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the Parents as Teachers program and its relationship to literacy and school readiness among kindergarten students enrolled in three elementary schools in southwestern New Mexico, using the Dynamic Indicators of Literacy Skills assessment system. Data were collected by trained teachers and parent volunteers and used by the Parents as Teachers program as part of their program evaluation. Analysis of these data showed that the PAT program is having positive results for participating students in this school district in comparison to non-PAT kindergartners. The overall results from this study support continuing implementation of …

Improving Psychotherapy Outcome: The Use Of Immediate Electronic Feedback And Revised Clinical Support Tools, Karstin Lee Slade

Theses and Dissertations

While the beneficial effects of psychotherapy have been well documented, the fact remains that 5 to 10 percent of clients get worse while in treatment (Lambert & Ogles, 2004) and a large minority of patients show little response (Hansen, Lambert, & Forman, 2003). The effects of four interventions, aimed at reducing deterioration and enhancing positive outcomes were examined in an Immediate Electronic Feedback sample of 1101 patients whose outcome was contrasted across experimental groups and with two archival groups: the Week-Delayed Feedback group, consisting of archival data from 1374 patients and the treatment-as-usual control group consisting of archival data from …

The Group Questionnaire: A New Measure Of The Group Relationship, Julieann Krogel

Theses and Dissertations

The Group Questionnaire (GQ) is a 30-item, self-report measure of the group relationship that was developed in the present study. It is based off of Johnson's new three factor model of the group relationship which includes Positive Bonding, Positive Working, and Negative Relationship. This study involved two parts, the creation of the GQ followed by the validation and refinement of the GQ using 486 participants from three populations - outpatient university counseling center, inpatient state hospital, and non-patient AGPA process groups. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to test the goodness-of-fit of Johnson's model to each of the populations separately …

Latino Students Identified As At Risk For Emotional Or Behavioral Disorders: Descriptions Of Their School Experience, Ryan M. Balagna

Theses and Dissertations

Latinos are the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority in the U.S. (NCES, 2004). Despite dramatic increases in Latino enrollment, a dearth of information exists regarding culturally responsive services. Latino students face poor education outcomes, including the highest dropout rate of any race (President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans [PACEEHA], 2003), and disproportionate over-representation in special education programs (Aaroe, 2004; Artiles & Trent, 1994; U.S. Department of Education, 1992, 1995, 2000). The present study explored issues relevant to serving Latino students who may be at risk for emotional or behavioral disorders. This study used qualitative interviews to …

Planning School Memorials: Feedback From The Columbine Memorial Planning Committee, Rebecka Dawn Bingham

Theses and Dissertations

On April 20, 1999, twelve students and one faculty member were shot and killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The two shooters also died. Today, over nine years after the tragedy, the community continues to heal and cope with their loss. Rather than investigating the actual tragedy, this study focused on perceptions of three leaders representing the Columbine Memorial Planning Committee, summarizing their responses to 9 questions related to planning the Columbine Memorial. Now completed, the memorial invites students; families; the community of Littleton, Colorado; and the world to never forget this loss or precious life. This memorial …

Service-Learning: A Case Study Approach To Understanding Cross-Age Tutoring With Junior High Students At-Risk For Behavioral And Emotional Disabilities, Megan S. Pratt

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to investigate the effects a service-learning tutorship had on the Social and Personal Responsibility Scale scores of middle school students identified as at risk for emotional and behavioral problems and enrolled in a one hour class that focused on social skills, self-management, and emotional resilience. Eight students identified through school-wide screening measures as at-risk for emotional and behavioral problems were involved in a pre/post quantitative survey, pre/post exploratory interviews, and a post focus group to analyze their level of growth in relation to social and personal responsibility. Currently, there is a limited amount …

Characterization And Comparative Analysis Of Adolescents Admitted To Therapeutic Wilderness Programs And More Traditional Treatment Settings, Mayer M. Jeppson

Theses and Dissertations

Therapeutic Wilderness Programs (TWP) are a fast growing segment of the adolescent treatment arena. Scientific literature on TWPs shows that researchers have skipped the natural step of identifying the population of adolescents admitted for treatment. To fill the gap in TWP research, this archival study identified demographic features and distinctive foundational aspects that represent the TWP treatment population. Comparison samples were taken from two TWPs, two residential treatment centers (RTC) and an outpatient therapy clinic (OP). At each of the five sites, basic descriptive data from client records were combined to represent multiple characterizing indexes that are in common usage …

Teachers' Perspectives On Positive Behavior Support In Secondary Schools, Veronica Maria Gorgueiro

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate teachers' perspectives regarding the social validity of the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) model implemented at a middle school and a junior high school. Qualitative data were collected through teacher focus groups and categorized then analyzed in order to summarize teachers' opinions regarding PBS and its' effectiveness. Both qualitative and quantitative results revealed that teachers perceived evidence of social validity in the areas of social appropriateness and social importance of effects. Four factors were also identified as the most influential areas to influence the success of PBS implementation. These included (a) administrative support, …

Predicting Sixth Grade Performance On Criterion-Referenced Reading Tests With Third Grade Test Scores, Michael Sean Gallacher

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the correlation between students' third grade reading ability and sixth grade reading ability. The data were collected from an urban school district, and the participants were students whose records contained information from their third grade school year and their sixth grade school year. The Utah English Language Arts Criterion-Referenced Tests (ELA-CRT) administered in third and sixth grade were used to determine reading ability. Additional demographic data, including race, gender, special education identification, free/reduced lunch, and English Language Learner (ELL), was assessed and controlled for in the data analysis and provided important information concerning the overall findings. Analysis …