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An Exploratory Study Of The Perceptions And Associated Coping Skills Of Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Rayna Ruth Mckinnon

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects between 3% and 5% of school-age children. In addition to hyperactivity, difficulty paying attention, and impulsivity, children with ADHD have been found to have lower self-perceptions than their peers who do not have ADHD. Researchers have attempted to explain why children with ADHD have lower self-perceptions. Despite these studies, little research has explored how these children perceive themselves, others, and their world from their perspective. In addition, even fewer researchers have studied how these children cope. The purpose of this study was to delve into the lives of six children with ADHD as a means of …

Law Enforcement Preferences For Ptsd Treatment And Crisis Management Alternatives, Carolyn Becker, Glenn Meyer, J. S. Price, M. M. Graham, Ashley Arsena, D. A. Armstrong, Elizabeth Ramon

Psychology Faculty Research

Evidence-based treatments (EBT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain underutilized. Analog research, however, indicates that patients may be more amenable to receiving EBT for PTSD than utilization rates suggest. This study sought to extend previous studies by investigating PTSD treatment preferences among law enforcement individuals (i.e., active duty officers, cadets, criminal justice students). We asked 379 participants, with varying trauma histories, to read a police traumatic event and imagine they had developed PTSD. Participants rated the credibility of six treatment options which they might encounter in a treatment setting, and chose their most and least preferred treatments. Next, they evaluated …

Race Stereotypic Crimes And Juror Decision Making: Hispanic, Black, And White Defendants, Joseph Francis Boetcher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A race stereotypic crime is a crime that most people tend to associate with a certain race. This is a type of racial bias that affects juror decision making by undermining the presumption of innocence and lowering the prosecution's burden of proof. Two studies investigated race stereotypic crimes. Study 1 used a new scale to identify race stereotypic crimes for black, Hispanic, and white males. Study 2 used a mock juror paradigm with a realistic stimulus and sensitive measures to focus on the influence of this type of bias on mock juror decision making. Study 1: Participants were 143 undergraduate …

Pretreatment Client Characteristics And Treatment Retention In An Intensive Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment Program, Shauna Elizabeth Fuller

Dissertations (1934 -)

The effectiveness and efficacy of substance abuse treatment is well established. At the same time, clients often prematurely drop out of substance abuse treatment, negatively impacting their chances of achieving favorable outcomes. Investigating variables associated with treatment retention has become increasingly important considering one of the most robust findings in substance abuse treatment outcome research is the positive relationship between the amount of time spent in treatment and post-treatment outcomes (e.g., decreased drug/alcohol use, decreased criminal activity, improved social functioning). This study examined the relationship between pre-treatment client characteristics and treatment drop-out among 273 adults who were admitted to intensive …

Client Characteristics And Treatment Retention In An Outpatient Drug-Free Chemical Dependency Program, Jessica A. Thull

Dissertations (1934 -)

Substance abuse and dependence have detrimental effects at both micro and macro societal levels. Even so, these disorders appear to be amenable to treatment and persons who receive treatment for such problems generally achieve positive outcomes. However, reported substance abuse treatment dropout rates have varied greatly and no consistent "treatment dropout" profile has been detected. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of clients entering an intensive outpatient chemical dependency treatment program and to examine how these variables differed between clients who were retained in treatment to completion and clients who dropped out of treatment prematurely. Additionally, it explored whether …

Qualitative And Quantitative Methods In Occupational-Stress Research, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Edwin Farrell

Publications and Research

The paper examined the ways in which qualitative and quantitative methods support each other in research on occupational stress. Qualitative methods include (a) eliciting from unconstrained descriptions of work experiences, (b) careful first-hand observations at the workplace, and (c) participant‑observers describing “from the inside” a particular work experience. The paper shows how qualitative research stimulates theory development, hypothesis generation, and the identification of job stressors and coping responses. The limitations of qualitative research, particularly in the area of verification, are also described.

Pre-Existing Attitudes About The Legal System: The Thirteenth Juror?, Larissa Angelique Schmersal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The idealized role of the jury is that of a neutral decision maker; however, the degree to which individual verdict preferences represent jurors' pre-existing beliefs about the legal system, theories about issues important to the case at hand, and prior understanding of legal terms remains inadequately explained. The purpose of the current study was to examine the direct and indirect effects of pre-existing attitudes about the legal system upon verdict preferences. Participants were 463 undergraduate students from the University of Texas at El Paso. Consistent with the hypotheses, pre-existing attitudes about the legal system played a role in individual verdicts, …

A Case Study Describing The Experiences Of The Sexually Abused Children And Non-Offending Parents Who Attended The Multi-Disciplinary Investigation Team After Care Clinic, Danielle Dimauro Williams

Dissertations

Purpose. This study examines the experiences of children and their non-offending parents who attended the Multi-disciplinary Investigation Team‘s (MIT) After Care Clinic. The study seeks to understand the ways in which the care provided at the After Care Clinic helped stabilize the child and the non-offending parent. Additionally, this study explores what strategies were effective in stabilizing the families and resulted in their cooperation with prosecution of the perpetrator.

Method. Seven children and their non-offending parents simultaneously attended 12 weeks of trauma treatment with two trauma therapists. The case studies used for this study were based on clinical …

Development Of The Video Suggestibility Scale For Children: Spanish-Language Version, Claudia Ornelas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Video Suggestibility Scale (VSSC). A cross-cultural validation with a sample of 3-5 year old Spanish speaking children was performed to evaluate its psychometric properties (N = 79). The development of the VSSC Spanish language version (VSSC-S) is described. The new version was created using the translation-back-translation process to increase the instrument‟s equivalence. Internal consistencies were satisfactory. Construct validity was assessed by using factor analysis and the Varimax procedure. As expected, the VSSC-S items loaded on two separate factors. Overall, results suggest that the VSSC-S taps into similar constructs …

Perceptions Of Ethical Behaviors: A Survey Of Human Service Professionals, Tammi F. Milliken, Edward S. Neukrug

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

In addition to helpers' moral obligation and professional commitment to treat clients in an ethical manner, enhanced consumer knowledge of ethically correct helping relationships has increased the need to recognize potential ethical dilemmas and have the skills to respond appropriately. This article describes the development and results of an updated survey of human service professionals' perceptions of ethical behavior. The results may be used to assist in the revision of the NOHS Ethical Standards and inform ethics education.

Robert Schultz, Willis Kern

Interviews for WGLT

Robert Schultz talks about the new book he is writing that analyzes the depiction of male roles in American culture through book and film.

Alchoholism And Intimate Partner Violence: Effects On Children's Psychosocial Adjustment, Keith Klostermann, Michelle L. Kelley

Psychology Faculty Publications

It is widely recognized that alcoholism and relationship violence often have serious consequences for adults; however, children living with alcoholic parents are susceptible to the deleterious familial environments these caregivers frequently create. Given the prevalence of IPV among patients entering substance abuse treatment, coupled with the negative familial consequences associated with these types of behavior, this review explores what have been, to this point, two divergent lines of research: (a) the effects of parental alcoholism on children, and (b) the effects of children's exposure to intimate partner violence. In this article, the interrelationship between alcoholism and IPV is examined, with …

An Analysis Of The Current United States And State Of Washington's Mental Health Policies Serving Children And Families, Maile M. Bay

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Due to continued fragmentation and gaps in mental health services and the increase in the prevalence of mental health problems for children, youth, and their families, these populations remain underserved. In 2003, the federal New Freedom Commission (Commission) responded by publishing policies to address these concerns. As directed in 2005, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded planning incentive grants to states to transform their delivery of care.

The study reviewed the federal policy, specifically the recommendations of the Commission’s Subcommittee on Children and Families, and Washington State’s policy and implementation actions of its five-year SAMHSA incentive …

Surviving On Remand: A Study Of How Young People Cope In Remand Custody In Ireland, Sinead Freeman

Doctoral

The fusion of young people to the prison setting has been described as a toxic combination. This is especially pertinent when applied to youth in remand custody. Previous research studies have identified young people on remand as a highly vulnerable prison population and custodial remand to be a particularly stressful prison experience. Despite this, little research to date has examined how young people cope while remanded in custody. This thesis addresses this gap by providing an insight into the issue of coping on remand through the voices of young people in custody in the Irish context. It is informed by …

Building The Evidence Base For Family Drug Treatment Courts: Results From Recent Outcome Studies, Beth L. Green, Carrie Jeanne Furrer, Sonia D. Worsel, Scott W. M. Burrus, Michael W. Finigan

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Results from at least four studies of FDTCs found evidence for their effectiveness in assisting and supporting parents in entering, remaining in, and completing substance abuse treatment so they could be reunited with their children; however, different program models achieved different outcome patterns. The Pima County (Arizona) study found positive effects for treatment completion, family reunification, and reduced times to permanent placement. Two other programs showed consistent positive treatment and child welfare outcomes. Neither of these two sites produced reduced time to permanent placements. The two most successful sites were longstanding FDTCs whose models aligned closely with the core program …

Factors Affecting The Efficacy Of Feedback Use During Source Monitoring, Stephanie Groft

LSU Master's Theses

The current study considers how individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) affect feedback effectiveness. Participants, selected to have high and low WMC, first watched a video of a crime. Subsequently, a post-test questionnaire was administered concerning events taken from the video and additional information suggested to have occurred in the video. After a 10 minute filler task, participants were given a two-part memory test requiring them to identify the source of the information presented in the test statements. During the training portion of the test, half of the participants received feedback as to the accuracy of their source decisions. …

Exploring The Practice Of Members Of The College Of Forensic Psychologists: A Step Towards Conceptualising Forensic Psychology In Australia, Brooke Harvey

Theses : Honours

Australia is moving towards the proposed National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for Health Professionals, which would entail a unified national registration system for various health professions including psychology. Under this scheme, the Council of Australian Governments has indicated that specialist title in psychology may exist at a national level for the first time. As specialist areas are likely to align with the Australian Psychological Society's (APS) Colleges, forensic psychology is likely to be recognised as a specialty. This raises the question of what model of forensic psychology will be adopted at a national level. Currently the model of forensic psychology …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Women Firefighters' Experience In The Western Australian Volunteer Bushfire Service, Cindy Branch-Smith

Theses : Honours

Recent events have shown how invaluable Australia's volunteer firefighters are to communities, for example, Black Saturday. Volunteer numbers appear to be declining nation-wide and a majority of volunteer fire services report under-representation of women in operational roles. To ascertain an understanding of experiences and issues faced by women in volunteer fire services, the aim of the current study was to explore female volunteer firefighters' experience, and how their experiences impact on their perceptions of themselves as firefighters. A qualitative research methodology was employed, which enabled investigation of issues and challenges related to the firefighting experience. A total of 12 women …

Physiological Correlates Of Aggression In Adolescent Females, Ashley Dibble

Theses and Dissertations

Recently, with the development of new technology, researchers have focused on physiological predictors of aggressive behavior, specifically cortisol and alpha amylase. Gordis, Granger, Susman, and Trickett (2006) found the interaction between cortisol and alpha-amylase significantly predicted parent reports of aggression indicating that low levels of physiological reactivity was associated with higher levels of problem behavior. While this research has provided valuable information about aggressive behavior, a major limitation is the majority of research focuses on males, or has not examined gender differences explicitly. This study expanded on work by Gordis et al. (2006) and other researchers on the HPA axis …

The Evaluation Of Sharper Future: A Community-Based Sex Offender Treatment Program, Lindsay M. Cunningham

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

A program evaluation of Sharper Future’s Substance Abuse Services Coordinating Agency (SASCA) sex offender treatment program was conducted in order to ascertain whether the program is meeting its treatment goals as outlined by the SASCA contract and Sharper Future program goals. The participants of this evaluation were 248 past male Sharper Future clients who had been mandated to treatment at the Sharper Future facilities and were funded by the SASCA program. The data used in this program evaluation was archival, as it existed in the clients’ file as supplied by the Sharper Future clinics that run a SASCA treatment program. …

Technologically Assisted Intervention (Tai): Are Clients Satisfied With Online Therapy?, Jennifer A. Morrow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the level of satisfaction reported by participants of a technologically assisted intervention study (TAI). TAI is a type of teletherapy done through online, live video conferencing. Satisfaction was examined at three different time points, post therapy, 3-months post therapy, and 6-months post therapy. Analyses examined if there were any changes in reported satisfaction over the three time periods. Participants received cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) targeted at reducing symptoms of mild to moderately severe depression. A satisfaction measure was developed for this study, and included quantitative and qualitative items which were analyzed to determine participants' level of satisfaction. …

Fall 2008, Full Issue

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

No abstract provided.

Does The Type Of Crime Determine If An Image Of A Certain Criminal Is Pictured?, Amanda Vance

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

People have culturally been inclined to visualize a perpetrator simply based on the description of the crime. This experiment seeks to determine if a generalized criminal is expressed by the survey group for each crime. Simply put, it will identify if there exists a similar stereotype for each crime described. Each participant completed a questionnaire to identify their demographics. Next was given five crimes which were about robbery, shooting, rape, stolen identity, and murder to read over with the victim and location information omitted. Participants were asked to visualize and describe the perpetrator in each crime scene. The results concluded …

Family Variables As Predictors Of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Outcome, Gina R. Sillo

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The current study sought to investigate the importance of family variables as they potentially predict treatment outcome for adolescents at two intensive outpatient drug treatment programs. A growing body of research has demonstrated that family dynamics serve to influence drug using behaviors and substance abuse treatment. More specifically, empirical support has suggested that the quality of family relationships is an important factor serving to influence affective treatment. The current investigation considered two primary domains of family influence: family cohesion and family conflict. Results revealed that the study variables comprising these domains were not found to be associated with adolescent treatment …

Happiness And Punishment, Christopher J. Buccafusco, John Bronsteen, Jonathan S. Masur

All Faculty Scholarship

This article continues our project to apply groundbreaking new literature on the behavioral psychology of human happiness to some of the most deeply analyzed questions in law. Here we explain that the new psychological understandings of happiness interact in startling ways with the leading theories of criminal punishment. Punishment theorists, both retributivist and utilitarian, have failed to account for human beings' ability to adapt to changed circumstances, including fines and (surprisingly) imprisonment. At the same time, these theorists have largely ignored the severe hedonic losses brought about by the post-prison social and economic deprivations (unemployment, divorce, and disease) caused by …

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 …

Evaluating Children’S Advocacy Centers’ Response To Child Sexual Abuse, Theodore P. Cross, Lisa M. Jones, Wendy A. Walsh, Monique Simone, David Kolko, Joyce Sczepanski, Tonya Lippert, Karen Davison, Arthur Crynes, Polly Sosnowski, Amy L. Shadoin, Suzanne Magnuson

Sociology

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) play an increasingly significant role in the response to child sexual abuse and other child maltreatment in the United States. First developed in the 1980s, CACs were designed to reduce the stress on child abuse victims and families created by traditional child abuse investigation and prosecution procedures and to improve the effectiveness of the response. According to several experts (Fontana, 1984; Pence and Wilson, 1992; Whitcomb, 1992), child victims were subjected to multiple, redundant interviews about their abuse by different agencies, and were questioned by professionals who had no knowledge of children’s developmental limitations or experience …

The Effects Of Defendant Race, Psychological Expert Witness Race, And Racially Salient Psychological Expert Testimony On Juror Decision Making, Lily Cheyanne (Manick) Munavu

Dissertations

The present study examined the effects of defendant race, psychological expert witness race, the racial salience of a psychological expert witness's testimony, and modern racism on juror decisions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions that varied the race of the defendant (Black or White), the race of the psychological expert witness (Black or White), and the racial salience of the expert witness testimony (racially relevant or not racially relevant). Participants were asked to review the case documents of a criminal case in which the defendant was charged with battery and robbery. Participants rendered verdicts for both charges, …

Attachment Pathologies Among Incarcerated Sex Offenders, Kelly J. Hunsicker

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Attachment theory underscores the central role of how individuals form and interact within interpersonal and intimate relationships and emphasizes the importance of harmony between caregiver and infant as a foundation for healthy interpersonal relationships. It is believed that amongst the sex offender population that a pathological attachment style will be found which has implication on the types of treatment that would work best for this difficult population. The current research endeavor aggregated empirical research on attachment styles among incarcerated sex offenders. The results suggest a relationship between pathological attachment and sex offender populations.

Recently Arrested Adolescents Are At High Risk For Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Steven Belenko, Richard Dembo, Doris Weiland, Matthew Rollie, Christopher Salvatore, Alexandra Hanlon, Kristina Childs

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Adolescent offenders may be at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). With previous research and interventions focused on incarcerated adolescents, data are needed on STD prevalence and risk factors among newly arrested youth released to the community, a far larger subgroup.Participants were recruited from all arrested youth processed at the Hillsborough County, Florida Juvenile Assessment Center during the last half of 2006 (506 males, 442 females). Participants voluntarily providing urine samples for drug testing as part of standard protocol were also consented to having their specimens split and tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea, using an FDA-approved nucleic acid amplification …