Digital Commons Network^™

Convergent Validity Of Self Reported Physical Activity With A Seven Day Recall, Benjamin J. Silber

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Accurate assessment of physical activity is important to studies interested in the relationship between physical activity and other variables. Questionnaires are the only feasible means for large-scale sampling but such self-report measures require validation due to their inherent subjectivity. The Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) survey includes exercise items that were validated in the present investigation. A calibration study examined self-reports of exercise with two phone calls to 1,000 participants in which an interview-assisted 7-day physical activity recall was completed by a random sample of AHS-2 participants. Inter-index correlations both within the survey and between the survey and the 7-day physical …

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder-Like Symptomatology In Pediatric Intensivists, Dina Gabriella Cuervo

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Helping professionals, such as social workers, emergency first responders and medical personnel are susceptible to traumatic stress reactions through indirect exposure to trauma via the traumatized population whom they serve. This phenomenon, known as secondary traumatic stress (STS), mimicking the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, can have an impact on a provider’s work with his/her patient or have longer-term effects such as deciding to leave the profession. This study found that physicians’ level of job stress was the strongest predictor of STS and that this relationship was also influenced by resiliency, ego strength and attachment style. Individuals with higher levels …

Diagnosing And Treating Adhd: Discipline Differences, Lisa Marie Lliteras

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

According to Barkley (2005), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common reasons children are referred to mental health workers in the United States and is now one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders associated with childhood. The diagnostic criteria and labels for ADHD have changed over the last several decades, and with each change the prevalence rate for ADHD has increased (Wolraich & Baumgaertel, 1997). This increase in the prevalence of ADHD has led to a need for clinicians from different disciplines to assess and treat ADHD. As such, several guidelines from professional associations have been …

Anger, Fear, And Escalation Of Commitment, Ming-Hong Tsai, Maia J. Young

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Two studies examined how discrete emotions influence escalation of commitment. Study 1 demonstrated that anger was associated with more escalation of commitment than fear in a personnel hiring-appraisal context. In addition, it revealed the mediating effect of risk perception; angry compared to fearful individuals perceived lower risk in their initial decision, which in turn increased the tendency to escalate commitment. Study 2 replicated the pattern of results of Study 1 in a financial decision-making situation. Contrary to conclusions drawn from the results of prior research, the current studies suggest that not all negative emotions alleviate escalation of commitment.

Psychological Profiles In A Female Bariatric Surgery Sample, Aimee L. Donato

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Morbid obesity is an epidemic. Current literature suggests that people with morbid obesity tend to show increased levels of psychological dysfunction. This is especially pertinent to the clinicians who work with morbidly obese patients who seek bariatric surgery as the method for weight control. Surgery should be performed on patients who are psychologically ready to adjust to the stringent post-operative lifestyle.

The purpose of the present study was (1) to compare two groups of bariatric patients (a White group and a non-White group) on pre-surgery measures: specific scales on the Millon Behavioral Medicine Diagnostic (MBMD), the Beck Depression Inventory II …

Are Unfamiliar Neighbours Considered To Be Dear-Enemies?, Elodie Briefer, Fanny Rybak, Thierry Aubin

Sentience Collection

Background: Discriminating threatening individuals from non-threatening ones allow territory owners to modulate their territorial responses according to the threat posed by each intruder. This ability reduces costs associated with territorial defence. Reduced aggression towards familiar adjacent neighbours, termed the dear-enemy effect, has been shown in numerous species. An important question that has never been investigated is whether territory owners perceive distant neighbours established in the same group as strangers because of their unfamiliarity, or as dear-enemies because of their group membership.

Methodology/Principal Findings: To investigate this question, we played back to male skylarks (Alauda arvensis) songs of adjacent neighbours, distant …

Urban Adolescents’ Cognitive Responses To Peer Victimization: Does Psychosocial Adjustment Play A Role?, Amie Bettencourt

Theses and Dissertations

Peer victimization is characterized by acts of physical, relational, and verbal aggression that can contribute to maladjustment. Youths’ responses to peer victimization are guided by social information-processing (SIP) skills that impact their adjustment. Maladjustment can contribute to biases in SIP. Biased processing occurs when youth rely on existing schemas without attending to cues from the immediate social context. These processing deficits contribute to the enactment of problematic responses that may lead to further maladjustment. However, not all youth exhibit SIP deficits. A recent study identified four adjustment clusters based on differences in aggression, anxiety, depression, social acceptance, and victimization within …

Memory Consolidation In Developmental Disorders, Laszlo A. Erdodi

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The relationship between memory and adaptive functioning was studied in sample of 268 children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n = 83), autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 62), velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS, n = 21), and low birth weight (LBW, n = 38) and neurotypicals (n = 64). Children with ASD and VCFS demonstrated a relative weakness in facial and visual memory, while no between-group differences were found during the auditory verbal learning task of the TOMAL. Learning curve analyses showed that after the first trial of the visual span test, all groups performed at the same level, but the …

A Study Of Academic Achievement Differences Between The Genders, Marissa Housman

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to explore the academic achievement gap between male and female students by comparing grade point averages across genders. Specifically, the researcher hypothesized that such a gap exists and that females would academically surpass their male counterparts in the classroom. Participants consisted of 300 students in grades 5, 8, and 11 from a public school district in suburban New Jersey. Grade point average (GPA) was generated by converting letter grades into numbers (4.0-0.0) and then averaged. A two-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) confirmed the hypothesis that females have a higher average GPA than males, as a whole …

Modulating Emotion To Understand Prosocial Behavior, Nakia S. Gordon

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Reviews the book, Prosocial motives, emotions, and behavior: The better angels of our nature edited by Mario Mikulincer and Phillip R. Shaver

This book serves as a well-organized primer for anyone interested in factors governing prosocial behaviors. Importantly, it also highlights why behaving prosocially is beneficial not only to the recipient but also to the provider, even when that deed is as simple as forgiveness. The broad goal of this book is to integrate what is known about prosocial behavior. The editors do a magnificent job making this edited work tell a cohesive story. In sum, this book does more …

The Relationship Between Adult Attachment And Trauma, Lauren Earls

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Prior research has suggested a complex relationship between childhood interpersonal traumas perpetrated by attachment figures and the experience of trauma in adulthood. Very little is known, however, about how various forms of childhood interpersonal abuse and neglect affect trauma sequelae and adult romantic attachment in women during the childbearing years. Using a sample of postpartum women (N = 104), this study examined the associations between a history of attachment-related traumas (operationalized as childhood interpersonal abuse and neglect) and complex trauma sequelae believed to be unique to victims of interpersonal traumas; the possible role that adult romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance …

Emotional Response Patterns And Emotional Numbing In Adult Female Victims Of Sexual Assault With Ptsd, Tristan A. Robinson

Dissertations

DSM symptoms of emotional numbing appear to have a major impact on the course and outcome of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet the construct definition of emotional numbing itself has not been clearly established. Two opposing conceptualizations of this construct have been proposed in the traumatic stress literature. One holds numbing to be a form of non-effortful emotional avoidance, akin to dissociation, that results in diminished responsiveness to emotional stimuli in general (Foa, Zinbarg, & Rothbaum, 1992; Foa & Hearst-Ikeda, 1996). The other suggests that numbing entails a deficit in responsiveness to positive emotional stimuli but not to negative emotional …

Information Acquisition And Sociality Among Migratory Birds, Zoltán Németh

Dissertations

Information use is a key feature of adaptive behavior: the better informed an individual, the better it is able to adjust its behavior to meet the demands of a variable world. Therefore, most animals attempt to reduce environmental uncertainty by gathering information when it is available. However, tracking unpredictable ecological factors may carry costs as individuals invest valuable time and energy in the process of information acquisition. Social learning (i.e., use of social information inadvertently produced by other individuals) enables the individual to gain rapid and more complete assessment of its novel environment. This process may be particularly important for …

An Examination Of Student-Ahtletes' Perceptions Of Their Academic Abilities, Tiffany Ann White

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A common stereotype in our society is that athletes are not as capable of performing well academically as their non-athlete counterparts; they are “dumb jocks”. Do athletes feel that others have lower expectations of them academically? This is important because previous research in education has shown that expectations play a role in academic achievement (for example, Rosenthal and Jacobson’s Pygmalion effect (1968) and self-fulfilling prophecy research). The current study examined student-athletes’ perceptions of this stereotype. Three areas were addressed: athletes’ perceptions of their peers’ awareness that the student is a student-athlete, perceptions of their instructors and peers academic expectations of …

Examining The Relationship Between Body Work And Muscle Dysmorphia Symptoms, Katharine J. Reynolds

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether men with a large amount of Muscle Dysmorphia symptoms had a more favorable outlook and opinion of body work. Participants in the current study were a convenience sample of men recruited from undergraduate classes at Western Kentucky University and the community of Bowling Green Kentucky and Somerset Kentucky. A total of 215 men completed the study. Participants completed the Muscle Dysmorphia Inventory (MDI) and the Attitude-Behavior Questionnaire (ABQ). Results indicate scores on the MDI were significant predictors of scores on the ABQ. This suggests that men with a high number of …

Marital Behavior, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, And Wound Healing, Jean-Phillipe Gouin, Jeffrey R. Stowell, C. Sue Carter, Hossein Pournajafi-Nazarloo, Ronald Glasser, William B. Malarkey, Timothy J. Loving, Janice K. Kiecoltglaser

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Animal studies have implicated oxytocin and vasopressin in social bonding, physiological stress responses, and wound healing. In humans, endogenous oxytocin and vasopressin levels covary with perceptions of relationship quality, marital behaviors, and physiological stress responses. To investigate relationships among marital behavior, oxytocin, vasopressin, and wound healing, and to determine the characteristics of individuals with the highest neuropeptide levels, 37 couples were admitted for a 24-hour visit in a hospital research unit. After small blister wounds were created on their forearm, couples participated in a structured social support interaction task. Blister sites were monitored daily following discharge to assess wound repair …

Capuchins (Cebus Apella) Can Solve A Means-End Problem, Anna M. Yocom, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

Three capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) were tested on a 2-choice discrimination task designed to examine their knowledge of support, modeled after Hauser, Kralik, and Botto-Mahan’s (1999) experiments with tamarins. This task involved a choice between 2 pieces of cloth, including 1 with a food reward placed on its surface, and a second cloth with the food reward next to its surface. After reliably solving the basic problem, the capuchins were tested with various alternations of the original food reward and cloth. The capuchins were able to solve the initial task quickly, and generalize their knowledge to additional functional and nonfunctional …

Neural Reuse As A Source Of Developmental Homology, David S. Moore, Chris Moore

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Neural reuse theories should interest developmental psychologists because these theories can potentially illuminate the developmental relations among psychological characteristics observed across the lifespan. Characteristics that develop by exploiting pre-existing neural circuits can be thought of as developmental homologues. And, understood in this way, the homology concept that has proven valuable for evolutionary biologists can be used productively to study psychological/behavioral development.

Willingness Of Individuals To Seek Mental Health Treatment: The Impact Of Gender And Parent Therapy Experience, Amanda Kristin Mcclure

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether parent therapy experience and gender influenced men's and women's attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment. Participants included 207 women and 212 men ages 18 to 30 years attending Western Kentucky University. Participants completed a demographics survey and the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Treatment. Results indicated that more favorable attitudes toward seeking mental health services were exhibited by participants who reported that a parent attended therapy. Additionally, a gender difference in attitudes toward mental health services was uncovered, in that women were found to display more positive attitudes toward …

Social And Educational Functioning In College Students With A Chronic Physical Health Condition, Natalie Truba

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of the current study is to examine the academic and social functioning of college students with a chronic physical health condition (CPHC). For the current study, chronic physical health condition will be defined as follows: “A physical [or mental] health condition that has lasted or is expected to last at least 6 months and interferes with their activities,” (Varni & Limbers, 2008, p. 107). The sample consisted of 174 participants attending Western Kentucky University. Two groups (CPHC vs. Healthy) were comprised based on the participants’ self-reported health status. Participants were solicited through Western Kentucky University’s department of Psychology …

School Counselors' Training, Knowledge, And Perceptions Of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, Amy Reed

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This investigation examined school counselors’ perceptions and levels of knowledge in regard to nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), existing school prevention and protocol, resources and training opportunities available, as well as identified training needs. NSSI is the socially unaccepted, deliberate, self-inflicted harm of an individual’s body to reduce psychological distress with out the intention to die as a consequence (Simeon & Favazza, 2001). As a mental health professional in the schools, school counselors are often salient figures in adolescents’ educational environment. They are also many times the most appropriately qualified individuals to work with self-injuring adolescents in the school setting. While existing …

Conflict Resolution In Mexican-Origin Couples: Culture, Gender, And Marital Quality, Lorey A. Wheeler, Kimberly A. Updegraff, Shawna M. Thayer

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

This study examined associations between Mexican-origin spouses’ conflict resolution strategies (i.e., nonconfrontation, solution orientation, and control) and (a) gender-typed qualities and attitudes, (b) cultural orientations, and (c) marital quality in a sample of 227 couples. Results of multilevel modeling revealed that Mexican cultural orientations were positively associated with solution orientation, and Anglo cultural orientations were negatively associated with nonconfrontation. Expressive personal qualities were negatively associated with control, whereas instrumental qualities were positively related to control. Links between conflict resolution and marital quality revealed that control and nonconfrontation were associated with spouses’ ratings of marital negativity. In some cases, different patterns …

Shared Features And Similarity : Implications For Category Specificity And Normal Recognition, Daniel Kinka

Master's Theses

Patients with category-specific visual agnosia (CSVA) often exhibit a disproportionate difficulty recognizing objects from biological categories due (in part) to the fact that exemplars from biological categories tend to be visually and conceptually more similar. Similarity is often conceived of as a pairwise property (i.e., in terms of distance in a psychological space matrix), but may be more accurately conceived of as a setwise property (i.e., in terms of shared features). The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of shared features on similarity in normal observers, while controlling for distance in structural space. Behavioral and electrophysiological results …

Do We Know What We Know? Self- Assessment Across The Lifespan, Courtney Clare Lee

Master's Theses

Self-knowledge can play a critical role in navigating physical, cognitive, and social changes in late life. To protect and preserve one's sense of self against these changes, individuals may engage in self-enhancing and self-serving biases in areas important to self-esteem. The importance attached to these areas may change with age, and self-knowledge of these psychological processes may vary with age. We investigated self-enhancing biases and metacognitive awareness of abilities in adulthood. Participants ranging in age from 20 to 80 completed a series of tests assessing the better than average effect across a variety of age-relevant domains as well as objective …

An Investigation Of Interpersonal Disruptions And Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Mental Health Therapists, Rachael Ann Robinson-Keilig

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Mental health therapists who work with victims of trauma are often exposed to vivid descriptions of traumatic events and strong emotional expressions from their clients. Research within the last fifteen years has started to explore the impact of this indirect form of trauma exposure on therapists who treat trauma clients.

The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of interpersonal and sexual disruptions as symptoms of secondary traumatic stress/vicarious trauma among practicing mental health therapists, to understand how various therapist characteristics predict interpersonal and sexual disruptions, and to explore the role that gender and prior trauma history play …

Initial Development Of A Healthy Living Curriculum Within Family Behavior Therapy For Substance Abuse, Holly B. Lapota

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A mother referred for child maltreatment and substance abuse treatment after her son tested positive for methamphetamines at birth participated in an in-home Family Behavior Therapy-Healthy Lifestyle intervention to eliminate substance use, improve parenting behaviors, lose weight, and develop better exercise habits. Twenty sessions were completed in 6 months that targeted familial communication, self-control, goal setting with contingency management, job getting skills, and stimulus control techniques. Upon termination from treatment, the participant’s self-report and urine testing was consistent with substance cessation, and she evidenced substantial improvements in her level of stress, family communication and relationships, and child maltreatment potential. She …

Use Of Task-Value Instructional Inductions For Facilitating Engagement And Conceptual Change, Marcus L. Johnson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this study, 166 undergraduates from an Educational Psychology subject pool were randomly assigned to different task value instructional inductions (utility, attainment, and control) to determine whether inducing students with differing task values would be effective and result in different degrees of engagement for a learning task, as well as result in different degrees of conceptual change on the topic of the causes of the common cold. It was hypothesized participants would adopt characteristics that were consistent with the task value with which they were induced, that the participants in the utility, attainment, and control conditions would differ in their …

The Effect Of Victim Status And System Threat On Rape Myth Acceptance, Kristine M. Chapleau

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study examined how rape myths are used to protect the perpetrator, particularly high-status perpetrators. Participants read a date-rape scenario. The status of the victim and perpetrator were manipulated as well as the threat the victim posed to the perpetrator as depicted by whom the victim would tell about the rape. Participants with a strong system justification orientation reported lower rape myth acceptance when a low-status victim decided to tell no one about a high-status perpetrator raping her compared to when she decided to report him to the police. This suggests that rape myth acceptance is malleable and that the …

Are Vicarious Traumatization Symptoms Present In Physicians?, Janice Kathee Mcnamara

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Research has shown that professionals who serve trauma victims often suffer PTSD symptoms transferred to them through vicarious exposure. This study focused on determining if physicians, a previously unexamined population, experience vicarious traumatization also. Twenty-two male and 15 female physicians from twenty states ranging in age from 32 to 70 with a mean of 20 years experience in diverse medical fields completed and returned survey packets initially mailed to 400 physicians randomly selected from public listings across 20 states. Packets contained a demographic questionnaire and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (Weiss & Marmar, 1997), which addressed psychological symptoms of PTSD, …

Examining The Inner Experience Of Left-Handers Using Descriptive Experience Sampling, Aadee Mizrachi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research suggests that there are anatomical asymmetries of the human brain in relation to hand preference. In addition, left-handedness has been related to a wide range of psychological and physical problems. Despite these relationships, little is known about the inner experience of left-handers. The present study used Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) to explore the inner experience of 6 left-handed participants. Descriptive Experience Sampling is a nonquantitative sampling method designed to explore and describe inner experience. Undergraduate psychology students were recruited from UNLV to participate in the study. Recruitment consisted of three phases: screening, qualification, and sampling. Students who reported writing …