Digital Commons Network^™

Preliminary Study Of Specific Symptoms Experienced By Individuals With Bipolar Disorder , Gail Reichman Mancini

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The present study attempted to empirically identify symptoms of bipolar disorder to define a more accurate clinical description. A group of 30 individuals with a formal diagnosis of bipolar disorder, who had joined a support group as outpatients, a comparison group of 30 individuals with unipolar depression from an outpatient support group, and 30 nonpatient adults were administered identical measures of symptoms. Results suggested that individuals with bipolar disorder endorsed symptoms correlated with paranoia to a greater degree than individuals with unipolar disorder or nonpatient adults. In addition, symptoms of hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, global severity and psychoticism, as …

Sticks, Stones, & Stigmas: A Social-Cognitive Account Of Stereotype Threat Mechanisms, Michael C. Philipp

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Stereotype threat effects have been a popular domain of much psychological inquiry over the past decade. A number of psychological dispositions (e.g., high levels of stigma consciousness, high levels of social dominance orientation, and high levels of domain identification), situational factors (e.g., out-group presence and task difficulty), and physiological characteristics ( e.g., levels of circulating testosterone) have been identified as factors that determine one's susceptibility to the performance debilitating effects of negative stereotype activation. Although each of these variables has been found to be important in eliciting underperformance under threat, no attempts have yet investigated the relationships between these variables. …

The Implications Of Anger And School Violence, Ronda Hilbert

Graduate Research Papers

A series of highly publicized school shootings in the Untied States generated the misperception of an epidemic of school violence. Fears of school violence stimulated an ill-advised expansion of zero tolerance school discipline policies and the widespread distribution of profiles or warning signs of potentially dangerous students for use by school administrators. This paper presents that little is known about student threats of violence, although students in special education tend to commit disciplinary violations at a higher rate than regular education students according to some studies. Threats of violence pose a dilemma for educators, who must balance federal requirements, the …

Emotional Intelligence As A Protective Factor For Risk Behavior In Adolescence, Nicole Renee Skaar

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Emotional intelligence is a concept developed by Salovey and Mayer in 1990. Since the first published work on emotional intelligence, others have modified the original idea by adding personality-like traits to the model of emotional intelligence. Consequently, there is a split in the conceptualization of emotional intelligence and the measurement of emotional intelligence; ability model assessment and mixed or trait model self-report assessment. The ability model of emotional intelligence has stood up to tests of discriminant validity over personality traits, unlike the mixed model of emotional intelligence. It is also distinguishable from cognitive intelligence, yet correlates moderately and therefore is …

Comorbidity Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Low Income Urban Youth, Karen Ann Laslie

LSU Master's Theses

Chronic exposure to violence is becoming increasingly common for urban children, placing them at an increased risk of developing psychopathology. For children exposed to chronic violence, two common diagnoses are Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, symptom overlap between these disorders has made differential diagnosis difficult. Most studies looking at the comorbidity between ADHD and PTSD have focused only on maltreated children. This study is the first to look at comorbid rates of ADHD and PTSD for children exposed to chronic violence, not limited to maltreatment. Specifically, this study evaluated rates of PTSD symptoms in children with …

The Psychosocial Vulnerability Model Of Hostility As A Predictor Of Coronary Heart Disease, Karen Grothe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the number one killer for both men and women in the United States today. African Americans are particularly at risk, due to higher prevalence rates and mortality related to CHD (American Heart Association, 2003). Less than half of the new cases of CHD can be predicted with known risk factors (tobacco use, obesity, hypertension), which suggests the possible influence of personality or additional behavioral factors. Hostility is a psychological variable that has been consistently related to health outcomes, particularly to CHD. While the exact mechanism linking hostility to health is currently unknown, a psychosocial vulnerability …

Food Preferences Between Diverse Ethnic Groups In A College Population, Enrique Gallegos Covarrubias

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Obesity and its psychosocial and medical consequences are costing the United States billions of dollars per year. Many factors such as lack of physical activity, changing lifestyles, and unhealthy eating behaviors contribute to the increasing prevalence of obesity. In the present study, food preferences among college-aged students were measured from two different geographical locations (Texas and Iowa). Gender (men vs. women), ethnicity (Hispanic vs. Caucasian), and Body Mass Index scores (normal vs. overweight) were utilized as dependent variables to measure food preferences. Participants were required to rate four menus, which included important nutritional information. Ratings were obtained to measure how …

Ability Of College Students To Simulate Adhd On Objective Measure Of Attention, Randee Lee Booksh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Complaints of ADHD symptoms in college students are not uncommon and college students frequently self-refer for assessment of ADHD. Some may seek out a diagnosis to obtain academic accommodations and/or stimulant medication. Diagnosing ADHD in college students is largely reliant on self-report measures, and to a lesser extent, objective measures of attention. The typical college student has easy access to information about ADHD, potentially facilitating efforts to simulate self-reported symptoms. The present study examined the ability of college students to effectively simulate ADHD on objective and self-report measures of attention, and examined the relationship between knowledge of ADHD and ability …

Political Psychology And Personality, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Following a brief overview of historical approaches to personality-in-politics inquiry, this book chapter reviews the current state of the field – specifically, psychodynamic approaches, trait/motivational perspectives, and cognitive models – and argues that Theodore Millon’s personological model offers an integrative framework for assessing personality in politics and building a conceptual bridge between personality patterns and political leadership styles.

Millon’s model accounts for structural and functional personality attributes at the behavioral, phenomenological, intrapsychic, and biophysical levels of analysis and provides a theoretically coherent framework for studying personality in politics consonant with established principles in the adjacent sciences and integrative with respect …

The Effect Of Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Thc) And Cb1 Antagonists On Sucrose And Quinine Palatability: Direct Measurement With The Taste Reactivity Test, Maegan Jarrett

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Anecdotal reports suggest that cannabinoid agonists enhance palatability and that antagonists reduce palatability; however there has been little direct experimental evidence for these claims. The taste reactivity (TR) test is a direct measure of palatability in rats (Grill & Norgren, 1978). In Experiments 1 and 4, the taste reactivity (TR) test was used to evaluate the potential of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to modify both sucrose and quinine palatability. The TR test revealed that THC (0.5 mg/kg) increases the palatability of sucrose solutions at 120 min post-injection, regardless of the sucrose concentration. THC (0.5 mg/kg) also decreased the aversiveness of the quinine …

Gender And Site-Name Recall Of Geographic Sites Varying In Distance., Joshua Sean Godsey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research project was to replicate, refine, and extend research by Zinser et al. (in press) of the site-name, associative memory of male and female college students of nearby to very distant geographic sites. A test booklet included eight schematic aerial maps. The maps were of 20 to 50 geographic sites participants attempted to match with their names. The number of campus buildings, campus city sites, regional cities, U.S. cities, U.S. states, world cities, world countries, and world continents/bodies of water matched correctly were determined. A demographic questionnaire was also presented. Overall, men performed significantly better than …

Size Matters: A Test Of Boldness In Eight Populations Of The Poeciliid Brachyraphis Episcopi, Culum Brown, Victoria Braithwaite

Sentience Collection

Individual variation in behaviour within populations may be explained in part by demographics and long-term, stable individual psychological differences. We examined the relation between boldness (taken as the time to emerge from a shelter and explore a novel environment) and body size in eight populations of the poeciliid Brachyraphis episcopi originating from sites upstream and downstream of waterfalls in four rivers that run into the Panama Canal. The relation between body size and time to emerge from a shelter was positive, with larger fish taking longer to emerge. This relation differed between downstream and upstream sites, being significant in the …

Is Empathy Gendered And If So, Why? An Approach From Feminist Psychological Anthropology, Claudia Strauss

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Difference feminists have argued that women have special virtues. One such virtue would seem to be empathy, which has three main components: imaginative projection, awareness of the other's emotions, and concern. Empathy is closely related to identification. Psychological research and the author's own study of women's and men's talk about poverty and welfare use in the United States demonstrate women's greater empathic concern. However, some cross-cultural research shows greater sex differences in empathy in the United States than elsewhere. This combination of findings (women tend to demonstrate greater empathic concern, but this typical difference varies cross-culturally) requires a complex biocultural …

Measuring Student Well-Being In The Context Of Australian Schooling : Discussion Paper, Julian Fraillon

Wellbeing

This report was commissioned by the South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services as an agent of the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). The report constitutes Phase 1 of a planned two phase process. Specifically this report defines a measurement construct for student well-being; outlines a methodology for measuring student well-being; and provides recommendations for ongoing work in the measuring, reporting and monitoring of student well-being (Phase 2).

Using Distributed Network Systems To Model Perception With An Artificial Neural Network, Tide Kansona Takizala

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is difficult to be certain about brain functioning. Until now, most efforts to understand brain computations have only been conducted on a stand alone computer. In order to recreate the brain accurately, members of the Institute of Cognitive Computing Technology (ICCT) were interested in finding out whether or not a biological process could be simulated on a Distributed Artificial Neural Network (DANN). The goal of this investigation was to implement visual perception on a network of computers and compare the computations of the network with those of a human brain. The distributed network was developed as a Local Area …

Intimate Partner Violence And The Justice System: An Examination Of The Interface, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Women entering the court system face a challenging experience, in part, because a courtroom can be an intimidating and difficult place for any person, and in part because women victimized by crimes in which the offender is known to them face distinctive difficulties when they seek the court’s remedies. The interface is also made more challenging for women as the literature offers disparate findings as to the efficacy of criminal justice responses and civil remedies. This article briefly explores the unique characteristics of intimate partner violence cases that influence the interface of these victims with the court system.Areviewis provided of …

Shame And Negative Body Image In Adolescent Females, Erin K. Anderson-Fortier

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Current research in the fields of shame, body image, and adolescent female weight has had little convergence until recently. Biological changes that occur during adolescence, particularly weight gain for females, may result in feelings of shame. Shame is an involuntary reaction to the belief that the self is inherently flawed. Body image begins to form in early childhood, and "is a multidimensional construct that refers to subjective perceptual and altitudinal experiences about one's body, particularly one's physical appearance" (Cash, Melnyk, & Hrabosky, 2004, p.305). Body image may be negatively impacted when the adolescent female's belief that her actual body is …

Psychopathy And The Five Factor Model In A Noninstitutionalized Sample: A Domain And Facet Level Analysis, Scott R. Ross, Catherine J. Lutz, Steven E. Bailley

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study examined the relationship of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality to primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions in a noninstitutionalized sample. Previous investigations suggest that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism are basic personality traits that characterize psychopathy. However, few studies have examined the relationship of the FFM to primary and secondary psychopathic attributes, respectively. In the current study, the relationship of the FFM using the NEO-PI-R to primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions was investigated in a sample of young adults. Previous findings were extended by (1) addressing the relationship of higher and lower order FFM traits (i.e., facet …

The Adaptiveness Of Punishing Behavior: A Baseline Study, Levente Littvay

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study sheds light on the current patterns of punishing behavior. Experimental work with ultimatum bargaining shows that individuals have a high sensitivity to fairness, and when taken advantage of, are willing to endure costs to punish deviant behavior. Third party observers of the unfair behavior asked to represent ultimatum recipients are more hesitant to engage in such punishment. This becomes ever more puzzling when we consider individuals’ high value of their own reputation in similar settings. This leaves both rational choice modelers and political psychologists puzzled. This study presents the baseline model for a research agenda proposing a multi-agent …

Event-Related Potential Evidence For Multiple Causes Of The Revelation Effect, P. Andrew Leynes, Joshua Landau, Jessica Walker, Richard J. Addante

Psychology Faculty Publications

Asking people to discover the identity of a recognition test probe immediately before making a recognition judgment increases the probability of an old judgment. To inform theories of this “revelation effect,” event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded for revealed and intact test items across two experiments. In Experiment 1, we used a revelation effect paradigm where half of the test probes were presented as anagrams (i.e., a related task) and the other items were presented intact. The pattern of ERP results from this experiment suggested that revealing an item decreases initial familiarity levels and caused the revealed items to elicit similar …

A Case Study In The Treatment Approaches And Outcomes Of Adjustment Disorder, Tobiellen Care

Theses and Dissertations

This case study evaluated the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of an adolescent female in a community agency. The client was diagnosed with adjustment disorder mixed with anxiety and depression. A psychosocial history of the client was presented emphasizing the psychosocial stressors that contributed to the adjustment disorder. A review of empirically supported treatment approaches for adjustment disorders was conducted. The Beck Depression inventory and the Trait Anxiety scale were used as outcome measures. Pre and post comparisons of both measures indicated clinically significant decreases in both anxiety and depression. However, further treatment was needed to extend the …

The Self And Autobiographical Memory: Correspondence And Coherence, Martin A. Conway, Jefferson A. Singer, Angela Tagini

Psychology Faculty Publications

Introduces a modified version of Conway and Pleydell-Pearce's Self Memory System (SMS) account of autobiographical memory and the self. Discussion of a fundamental tension between adaptive correspondence and self-coherence; Examination of tension; Application of SMS to personality and clinical psychology.

The Effects Of Gender And Regional Dialect On Performance In Aviation Communication, Erin E. Mccollum

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this study was to analyze the performance effects of gender and regional dialect on air traffic control statement recall. Sixty-one student volunteers participated in the experiment. Thirty-one participants held a pilot’s license and 30 participants had no flight experience. Each participant listened to one CD with 60 ATC statements each representing a male and female voice and New England, Southern, and General American dialect. Participants were asked to recall exactly what they heard. If the participant could not understand what they heard, they requested a repeat. The participant’s performance was recorded to CD and analyzed. Demographic questionnaires …

External Influences Of Children's Socialization To Gender Roles, Sarah A. Chartschlaa

Senior Honors Theses

It is evident in North American society that there are certain roles placed on boys and girls in accordance with their gender. These gender roles are imposed on children from birth and are taught until eventually they are accepted as absolute truth. Newborn babies are carried out of the hospital in either a pink blanket or a blue blanket depending on gender. Gifts of trucks or dolls are given to toddlers depending on the child's sex. Stories about princesses are read to little girls, while stories of dragons and swords are read to little boys. This socialization of gender roles …

Of Parts And Wholes: Self-Similarity And Synecdoche In Science, Culture And Literature, Dirk Vanderbeke

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Editors' Introduction]

The discussion here centers on how self-similarity, or parts resembling a whole, has been a recurring aspect in the most diverse fields of human thinking from antiquity to the present. Primary examples are drawn from physics, biology, cybernetics, alchemy, philosophy, myth and, of course, language and literature. The author argues that self-similar patterns are one of the persistent ways in which the human mind structures its experience and knowledge of the world, and then examines some of the questions that arise when an almost ubiquitous concept, structure or linguistic and literary phenomenon resurfaces in a new guise in …

Self-Esteem Of The Female Adolescent: As Promoted Through The Life Skills Class, Kelsey Sullivan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Wild Justice And Fair Play: Cooperation, Forgiveness, And Morality In Animals, Marc Bekoff

Ethology Collection

In this paper I argue that we can learn much about ‘wild justice’ and the evolutionary origins of social morality – behaving fairly – by studying social play behavior in group-living animals, and that interdisciplinary cooperation will help immensely. In our efforts to learn more about the evolution of morality we need to broaden our comparative research to include animals other than non-human primates. If one is a good Darwinian, it is premature to claim that only humans can be empathic and moral beings. By asking the question ‘What is it like to be another animal?’ we can discover rules …

Cultural Value Orientations, Attributions, And Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors, Patricia M. Flynn

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Discrepancies in breast cancer screening behavior exist among various ethnic groups in the United States (Jacobs & Lauderdale, 2001), with Latino American women reporting particularly low screening rates in comparison to Anglo American women (ACS, 2002). Research indicates that behavior is in part influenced by aspects of culture and relevant psychological processes (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993; Betancourt & Fuentes, 2001). This study was designed to investigate the relations among cultural values, attributional processes, and breast cancer screening behavior among Anglo and Latino women. This study also investigated the influence of acculturation among Latino women in relation to the other study …

The Addition Of A Dissociation Module To Dialectical Behavior Therapy, René Keres

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993a), a manualized treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) was developed before the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - 4th Ed. (DSM-IV, APA, 1994) added dissociative symptoms to the diagnostic criterion for BPD. Hence, the manual (1993b) did not properly address the assessment and treatment of dissociation, a necessity being mandated by the American Psychiatric Association (Oldham et al., 2001) in their treatment guidelines for BPD. Recent studies (Bohus, et al. 2000; Koons et al. 2001) confirm this hypothesis and have shown that DBT is effective with lower levels of dissociation but does not address more …

Attachment Self-Report Questionnaires : Refining The Method, Sheri Rae Curtis

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Attachment theory defines attachment as a context-specific behavioral system (Bowlby, 1969). Specifically, attachment behaviors and cognition become activated when an individual is in an environment that is anxiety provoking or stressful and they cease when that individual obtains relief from such situations. Self-report measures of adult attachment have largely ignored the context-specific requirement of activating the attachment behavioral system focusing instead on the belief that over time attachment representations are stable and enduring styles of relating inter-personally. However research findings in the adult attachment literature have found contextual effects on behavior that cannot be explained by attachment style alone (Green …