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A Deviance Regulation Theory Intervention To Reduce Alcohol Problems Among First-Year College Students, Angelina V. Leary

Honors Undergraduate Theses

OBJECTIVE: An alcohol-drinking culture exists among first-time-in-college students, where many of these students come to their university relatively inexperienced with alcohol, which may increase alcohol-related consequences. Several interventions exist to combat this campus problem. The current study investigates the use of a Deviance Regulation Theory (DRT) intervention, presented in a web-based manner, to increase alcohol Protective Behavioral Strategies (PBS), such as monitoring drinks, using a designated driver, and drinking water in between alcoholic beverages, among college freshmen. METHOD: College freshmen participants (N = 157) completed web-based surveys examining alcohol behaviors once a week for six weeks. Participants were randomly …

Social Anxiety And Subtypes Of Empathy: The Moderating Influence Of Biological Sex, Samantha K. Berg

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Only a few studies have examined relationships between social anxiety and subtypes of empathy. Findings are mixed. The present study examined social anxiety severity on a continuum and how it related to affective and cognitive empathy in 684 nonpsychiatric adults (77% female). Participants completed an online battery of measures that included: a self-report measure of social anxiety severity (Fear of Negative Evaluation), a self-report measure with subscales for affective and cognitive empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index), and a behavioral measure of cognitive empathy (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task; MIE). After statistically covarying for general anxiety severity, biological sex moderated …

Childhood Experiences And Domestic Violence: The Role That Interpartner Violence Plays In Relationship Functioning And Parenting Behaviors In Adulthood., J'Nelle Stephenson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that approximately 25% of women and 7.6% of men report experiencing violence from their romantic partner during their lifetime. Additionally, in households where interpartner violence occurs, there are between 3.3 and 10 million children in the United States alone. It is important to understand the cycle of domestic violence that can occur, as it can inform us about expected outcomes across time. This study examined mothers' childhood exposure to their own parents' domestic violence. It was hypothesized that childhood exposure to domestic violence would be related to unhealthy intimate relationships and to the development of maladaptive parenting …

“Dad, Do You Want To Play With Me?” The Impact Of Fathers Who Make Time For Play, Michael S. Sitton

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

With an increase in the pace of life in the United States, there comes a recognition of the importance of prioritizing time, especially for fathers. Of the two-thirds of children who live with their father, only a percentage of them have fathers who report regular play time with their children. However, literature in the field does not explain specifically whether or not this play between father and child influences the child’s later risk taking behaviors in high school. Using data from the 2003 Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), waves 3, 4, and 6, this quantitative study sought to …

A Genetically-Informed Study Of The Predictors And The Development Of Delinquency, Albert J. Ksinan

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Although the rates of delinquent behavior have been decreasing since the 1990s, adolescent delinquent behavior continues to take a great toll on society as well as on perpetrators themselves. In this way, it is essential to understand the process of delinquency development. The current dissertation is comprised of three studies that analyzed the predictors and the development of delinquency using genetically-informed designs. The sample used for all studies comes from the Add Health dataset, a nationally-representative data on adolescents followed across 14 years.

The first study modeled the longitudinal development of delinquency in three adolescent cohorts: early, middle, and late …

Longitudinal Associations Between Sleep Functioning And Adolescent Adjustment, Gabriela Ksinan Jiskrova

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

The current dissertation consists of three interrelated studies examining the relationship between sleep functioning and adolescent adjustment. Although links between sleep patterns and internalizing problems and externalizing or problem behaviors in children and adolescents have been established in literature, several gaps remain in this research. This dissertation addressed these by: (a) testing sleep problems, quantity, and chronotype in childhood as predictors of internalizing problems in adolescence (Study 1), (b) testing sleep problems, quantity, and chronotype in childhood as predictors of problem behaviors in adolescence (Study 2), and (c) testing sleep problems and quantity as mediators of the chronotype-adjustment link (Study …

Pathways From Religiosity To Couple’S Satisfaction Through Relational Virtues And Equality In Two Cultures, Ilya A. Okhotnikov

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

To explore relational processes of couple’s satisfaction this study drew on the relational spirituality framework (Mahoney, 2010) in order to test a relational religiosity model to evaluate the effects of public, private, ideological, intellectual, and experiential religiosity that were mediated by relational virtues of commitment, sacrifice, forgiveness, and sanctification and relational equality on couple’s satisfaction in two cultures. Data for this component used convenience samples of English-speaking respondents (hereafter American sample; n = 1,529) and Russian-speaking respondents (hereafter Russian sample; n = 529). Results provided evidence to partially support relational religiosity model; specifically commitment, while a statistically significant intervening element, …

Trauma Training In Educational Settings: Developing A Universal Approach Training Manual, Kerri A. Flatau

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Children who have experienced trauma(s) may display a wide variety of symptoms, including withdrawal, behavioral challenges, difficulty with focus, learning disabilities, and social/emotional delays (Cole et al., 2005). Each of these challenges can present a barrier to learning. Therefore, in order to provide the highest quality support in the school setting, teachers and other school staff need to be educated and trained on the topic of trauma. Further, they need strategies and tools regarding how to best work with all of their students, including those who have, or may have, experienced trauma. The current study examined the available research, as …

Psychophysiology Meets Computer Science: Predicting The Magnitude Of Participant Physiological Response With Machine Learning, Avonie Parchment

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present inquiry uses methods from psychophysiology and machine learning to reduce overall error in classification models. The field of psychophysiology, though rooted in decades of experimentation, has never reached the same level of precision as some aspects of medical inquiry. In fact, while some medical regression models, when determining some way to classify a patient's illness based on certain symptoms, can result in highly significant results with large effect sizes, equal levels are virtually unheard of in psychophysiology. The present investigation attempts to unravel some part of this mystery and determines some possible reasons for the difficulty in finding …

Fractality Of Body Movements Predicts Perception Of Affordances: Evidence From Stand-On-Ability Judgments About Slopes, Alen Hajnal, Joseph Clark, Jonathan K. Doyon, Damian G. Kelty-Stephen

Faculty Publications

We recorded head motion with one wireless marker attached to the back of the head during quiet stance as participants visually inspected a sloped ramp in order to perceive whether they might be able to stand on the surface. Participants responded with "yes" or "no" without attempting to stand on the ramp. As has been found in dynamic touch (Palatinus, Kelty-Stephen, Kinsella-Shaw, Carello, & Turvey, 2014), we hypothesized that multiscale fluctuation patterns in bodily movement during visual observation would predict perceptual judgments. Mixed-effects logistic regression predicted binary affordance judgments as a function of geographical slant angle, head-motion standar deviation, and …

How Do Angry Drivers Respond To Emotional Music? A Comprehensive Perspective On Assessing Emotion, Seyedeh Maryam Fakhr Hosseini

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Driving is a complicated task that requires the coordination of visual and sensory-motor skills. Unsafe driving behavior and accidents can happen regardless of the level of drivers’ experience. The main cause of the most of these accidents is human error. Emotions influence the way drivers process and react to internal or environmental factors. Specifically, anger elicited either from traffic or personal issues, is a serious threat on the road. Therefore, having an affective intelligent system in the car that can estimate drivers’ anger and respond to it appropriately can help drivers adapt to moment to-moment changes in driving situations. To …

Depression And Anxiety In Current Middle Grade Fiction: Finding Quality, Authentic Portrayals For Use In Bibliotherapy, Tonia Sandersfeld-Miller

Graduate Research Papers

Young adults need a safe environment to learn about mental illness, and librarians must ensure that books being recommended authentically and realistically portray mental illness. The purpose of this study is to analyze the authenticity of fiction titles for middle school students that include content related to depression and anxiety to support recommendations to school counselors for bibliotherapy. The research questions this study sought to address included the following: Do the plots and characters of young adult novels written for middle school students realistically and authentically portray mental illness, and what criteria can be used to determine a novel's quality …

Into The Wild: Factors Mediating The Positive Outcomes Of Wilderness Based Therapy, Layla Moehring

Scripps Senior Theses

Wildnerness therapy is becoming increasingly popular as a treatment for adolescents. It has been established as an efficacious treatment in previous literature, but the mechanisms as to why have thus far remained a mystery. This research is looking at the connection between wilderness therapy and DBT, another evidence-based treatment. This study will examine 156 adolescents, comparing the efficacy of wilderness therapy to traditional inpatient and intensive outpatient. Pre-treatment assessments of suicidal ideation, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance will be taken. It is expected that there will be main effects for each of the treatments, but that wilderness therapy will be …

Aspirations Of Objectivity: Systemic Illusions Of Justice In The Biased Courtroom, Meagan B. Roderique

Scripps Senior Theses

Given the ever-growing body of evidence surrounding implicit bias in and beyond the institution of the law, there is an equally growing need for the law to respond to the accurate science of prejudice in its aspiration to objective practice and just decision-making. Examined herein are the existing legal conceptualizations of implicit bias as utilized in the courtroom; implicit bias as peripheral to law and implicit bias as effectual in law, but not without active resolution. These views and the interventional methods, materials, and procedures they inspire are widely employed to appreciably “un-bias” legal actors and civic participants; however, without …

Evaluating Stigmatizing Attitudes Among Clinicians Toward People With Abdl And Pedophilic Interests, Katlyn Hanson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Because child sexual abuse continues to be covered by mainstream media, the public has become more aware of the paraphilic interest pedophilia. While there is no definitive correlation between an individual with pedophilic interests and offenses against a child, strong public stigmatization toward these individuals remain. Additionally, stigmatizing attitudes have been found toward other paraphilic interests such as fetishes. This is the first study to evaluate and compare clinicians' attitudes toward the paraphilic interest pedophilia and the fetish interest community of Adult Baby/Diaper Lovers (ABDL). Clinicians were randomly assigned to one of three survey conditions assessing their attitudes toward people …

Partners In School: An Innovative Parent-Teacher Consultation Model For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Gazi F. Azad Phd, Steven C. Marcus Phdd, Susan Sheridan Phd, David S. Mandell

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Little research examines the best ways to improve communication between parents and teachers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and its effect on child outcomes. The present study tests an innovative parent-teacher consultation model, entitled Partners in School. The goal of Partners in School is to improve parent-teacher communication aboutevidence-based practices (EBPs), and subsequently, outcomes for children with ASD. Participants were 26 teachers and 49 parents of children with ASD from a large urban public school district. Parents and teachers completed measures of their communication and child outcomes prior to and after receiving consultation through Partners in School. Results …

The Effect Of Early Life Photoperiod Manipulation On Cocaine-Induced Behavioral Sensitization In Male And Female Japanese Quail, Shannon Elizabeth Eaton

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Estrogens seem to play a role in the locomotor activating effects of cocaine. Japanese quail provide a good model for hormonal manipulation as alterations of their photoperiod controls hormone levels. The current study aims to examine the role of early life photoperiod manipulation in cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization in quail. It was expected that if quail were raised on a short photoperiod, they would have a reduction in gonadal hormones and this reduction in hormones would affect the acquisition of cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization. Quail were raised on an 8L:16D or a 16L:8D light cycle. Following 2 days of habituation, quail were …

Cocaine Choice: A Novel Procedure For Investigating Neuronal Activation Mediating Cocaine Preference, Jonathan Jenn-Sheng Chow

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Cocaine use disorder is a significant health problem, negatively impacting individuals afflicted. While preclinical self-administration research has provided invaluable insight into the neurobehavioral mechanisms that underlie cocaine abuse, cocaine use outside of the laboratory occurs within an environment where other goods are also available ubiquitously. Although there is an ever-increasing literature investigating drug vs. non-drug choice in rodent models and how alternative goods can compete with the subjective value of cocaine, the neurobiological mechanisms that are associated with cocaine preference remains largely unknown. Additionally, current drug vs. non-drug choice studies use procedures that confound preference with intake, such that preference …

Neural Correlates Of Nonverbal Social Communication In High-Risk Infants, Casey E. Swick

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study was to replicate and extend a study by Grossmann and colleagues (2008), examining infant neural responses to gaze in 5-month-olds, to older and high-risk infants. Participants were 9-month-old infants (5 preterm, [3 female]; 12 full term [7 female]) who underwent fNIRS while viewing gaze paradigms. Findings revealed that hemisphere predicted peak oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO₂) across groups and conditions, with higher activation in the left hemisphere across groups. Interaction of group by condition predicted peak HbO₂ value, with an increase in activation in the high-risk group during the averted condition. Participants as random …

Master Of Science In Experimental Psychology 2018, Nova Southeastern University

College of Psychological Services / College of Psychology Postgraduate Student and Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Consistency Of Health Behaviors And Relations To Bmi In First Year College Students, Laura Nicholson

Master's Theses

Existing research suggests that individuals with erratic schedules (e.g., shift workers) may be at greater risk for weight gain. This may be due, in part, to the inconsistent timing of health behaviors, such as sleep. Little is known, however about the relevance of the consistent timing of health behaviors among other populations, including college students who are risk for weight gain. The current study examined the consistency of three health behaviors (i.e. sleep, eating occurrences, and physical activity) and relations with body weight among first year college students at a large Midwestern university. Daily diary methods were used to collect …

The Neurobiological Correlates Of Savoring, Ian James Kahrilas

Master's Theses

Personality traits pertaining to positive emotion may be a key factor in deriving vitality from our lives. Positive affectivity refers to one's disposition to experience intense and frequent episodes of positive affect, while savoring capacity refer to one's ability to regulate positive affect. Both traits have been positively associated with happiness, self-esteem, prosocial behaviors, improved health outcomes, as well as attenuated depressive symptomatology and neuroticism. The late positive potential (LPP) is an electroencephalography (EEG) component that is theorized to index a visual cortical/amygdala pathway that is involved in evaluating the affective salience of stimuli. LPP is sensitive to the emotional …

Using Physiological Measures To Measure Changes In Cognitive Load Associated With Automaticity And Transfer, Joanna Verden

Theses : Honours

This study investigated the ability of two physiological measures, galvanic skin response and heat flux, to reflect changes in cognitive load using a variation of the dot counting task developed by Lassaline and Logan (1993). Concurrently, the robustness of the dual processing theory of automaticity was evaluated via disruption. The utilised task was designed to create a shift from controlled to automatic processing via practice, followed by a return to controlled processing via the introduction of a 6-digit memory recognition task designed to increase working-memory load and disrupt automaticity. As reaction time has previously been demonstrated to be a reliable …

Modeling Oculomotor Variability During Slow Cabin Decompression Using Infrared Technology, Jennifer E. Thropp, Paul W. Buza

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Slow cabin decompression is highly perilous due to its gradual and thus generally inconspicuous nature. In an applied approach to studying its effects upon oculomotor performance, experienced pilots performed a simulated flight task during slow decompression inside a high-altitude chamber while an infrared-based head-mounted eye-tracker measured oculomotor and pupillary changes at approximately 5% decrements in blood oxygen saturation. Saccade angle, saccade duration, saccadic velocity, microsaccade rate, fixation duration, and pupil diameter varied systematically in response to manipulation of blood oxygen saturation level, including recovery upon return to normoxia. Changes in these oculomotor variables can serve as biomarkers for early hypoxia …

An Investigation Of Creativity's Perceived Impact On Psychological Well-Being, Diana-Gabriela Boicu

Modern Psychological Studies

This study aimed to investigate creativity’s influence on psychological well-being, due to identified contradictions in predominantly quantitative previous research. For a greater understanding, a phenomenological qualitative design has been used. Reflecting Ryff’s (1989) Scale of Psychological Well-being within semi-structured interviews, data was collected from 11 art students from the University of Bedfordshire. Inductive thematic analysis revealed the following themes: Creative compass, Social Interactions, Volition, Perceived achievements and self-attitude, Self-efficacy and lifestyle. Positive implications have been found on all dimensions of psychological well-being, apart from autonomy. The qualitative method of enquiry has allowed for an exploration of this effect and of …

Factors That Affect Help-Seeking: Examining Racial Differences Between Whites, Asians, And African Americans, Sierra P. Saykeo, Eva Lawrence

Modern Psychological Studies

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that impact intentions to seek mental health services as well as to explore how they may vary based on race. A total of 172 participants were asked to fill out questions that measured variables related to help-seeking. Results indicated that Asians had significantly higher levels of self-stigma, lower levels of benefits of self-disclosure, and lower intentions to seek help than both Whites and African Americans. Multiple regression analyses showed that self-stigma was a significant predictor of intentions for all three groups, while benefits of self-disclosure was only significant for Whites and …

A Single Campus Study Of The Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program, Brittany F. Hollis

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Sexual assault is a serious public health issue that is especially problematic on college campuses. To combat sexual violence on college campuses prevention programs have been instituted by many universities. One such prevention program, the Green Dot program, works to teach students what constitutes sexual violence and how to prevent it by increasing bystander intervention. The current study examined the effectiveness of Green Dot at a large southeastern university. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as the theoretical framework. TPB examines how efficacy, attitudes, and norms influence behavior. Students were recruited to participate in the Green Dot program …

Acute Exercise Effects On Error Processing In Adult Adhd, Mia K. Bates

Honors Papers

This study investigated the effect of 30 minutes of stationary biking on ADHD performance on a combined flanker/go/no-go task. We had 22 people with ADHD participate and 27 controls. We did not find any effect of exercise on correct response time, error rates, or error-related positivity (Pe) amplitude. We also did not find a decrease amplitude in baseline error-related negativity (ERN) or Pe of the ADHD group. We did find an a marginal increase in the amplitude of ERN in both groups after exercise (t(19) = 1.72, p = 0.10, Cohen’s d = 0.37). We also found an increase in …

Gender Nonconformity And The Stereotype Content Model, Ari M. Rosenblum

Honors Papers

A recent increase in transgender visibility has highlighted gaps in the social psychology literature about attitudes and biases. There is a relatively large body of literature that examines people’s reactions to gender role violation, but little that examines reactions to gendered trait violation. To assess negative attitudes towards transgender and gender nonconforming people, this experiment asked participants to make attitude judgements (warmth and competence) about a series of gender stereotypic and counterstereotypic face-voice pairs. This procedure was based on the paradigm used to construct the Stereotype Content Model, which categorizes stereotypes/prejudice into four categories (paternalistic, contemptuous, envious, admirable). Participants also …

Human Essence: Toward A Relational Reconstruction, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

This chapter opens with a social constructionist perspective on human essences. As proposed, essences are not given in nature, but constructed within cultural traditions. Thus, the major challenge is not that of “getting it right” about the essence, but generating accounts that may contribute to society. A criterion of reflective pragmatism is proposed in which questions of contribution and critique prevail. In this light the chapter places in critical light the bio-cognitive and neurological explanations of human nature, especially focusing on the ideological and political implications of these orientations. In contrast, discussion opens on relational conceptions of human essence. Several …