Digital Commons Network^™

Normative Study Of The Mahan And Ditomasso Anger Scale, Roger Oliver Beardmore

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The present study proposed to advance the treatment of anger disorders by exploring the psychometric properties of the MAD-AS scale, an anger assessment tool. Research sought to build on prior investigation of the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the MAD-AS in an inpatient setting by examining this measure using outpatient subjects. Several important findings were obtained in this study. Research results suggest that the MAD-AS represents a significant improvement over some existing anger measures in terms of its brevity, its ease of administration, and its standardization of scoring. The MAD-AS appears to possess sound psychometric properties in terms of …

Community Integration And Normalization, Janice Eileen Cunningham

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Utilizing archived data for 650 individuals, psychosocial variables were examined to elucidate the effect of deinstitutionalization on success of community integration. Deinstitutionalization has been blamed for a host of societal ills including the burgeoning homeless population and for overcrowding in prisons. Many claim that deinstitutionalization has failed and that the chronically severely mentally ill have not become part of their communities. Utilizing extant data on consumers released from Pennsylvania state hospitals as part of a unique initiative, the psychosocial variables of age, race, gender, length of institutionalization, placement following hospitalization and diagnosis were correlated with homelessness, incarceration, or whereabouts known …

A Study On Various Factors And Their Relationship To Burnout Among Seventh-Day Adventist Clergy, W. Don Edwards

Dissertations

Problem. Few studies have addressed burnout among Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) clergy. Many SDA ministers report experiencing high stress in their ministries and they find it difficult to function optimally under these circumstances. Others experience serious complications that lead them to terminate their work as ministers.

Method. A quantitative research design was used for an ex post facto study of 130 pastors from the Pacific Union Conference. They completed two questionnaires: the Pastoral Services Demographic Data Sheet (PSDDS) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).

Results. This study examined 12 variables and found that 10 variables had a significant …

Clinical And Forensic Outcomes From The Illinois Mental Health Juvenile Justice Initiative, Michael Jenuwine, John S. Lyons, Gene Griffin, Sharon Quintenz, Michelle Shasha

Articles by Maurer Faculty

To address the mental health needs of youths who are arrested and detained in Illinois, an initiative was designed and implemented that identified youths with psychotic or affective disorders, linked them to community services, and monitored their cases. This study assessed whether such linkage is possible and whether it improves clinical and forensic outcomes. METHODS: Under the initiative, court staff refer youths who may have a mental illness to a clinical liaison. If the youth is eligible for the program, the liaison works with the family to develop a community-based action plan. For the analysis presented here, the Child and …

Evaluation Of The Maudsley Addiction Profile (Map) For Use With An American Substance Abuse Population, Hannelore T. Barbieri

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Multi-dimensional instruments in the addiction field developed in the United States as well as in other countries are limited. The Maudsley Addiction Profile (MAP), a brief, multi-dimensional instrument developed in the United Kingdom (UK), is designed to assess the treatment outcome of individuals with alcohol and/or drug (AOD) problems and associated issues. This measure consists of sixty items across the domains of substance use, health risk, physical/ psychological health and personal/social functioning. The MAP, which has been validated on British as well as on several European samples of substance abusers, has been suggested for further validation. The current study was …

Psychosocial Predictors Of Visceral Adiposity, Paula C. Rhode

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Psychosocial factors are thought to influence health through primarily direct physiological mechanisms or the alteration of health related behaviors. Three factors hypothesized to negatively impact health include arousal, life stress, and depressive symptomatology. One recent theorist suggests that the interaction between psychological stress and stress hormones on the neuroendocrine system may result in adverse changes to body composition, most notably the increased deposition of visceral adipose tissue (Bjorntorp, 1993). The current study prospectively examined the relationship between self-reported stressful life events, depressive symptoms and trait arousal on the deposition of visceral fat, as measured by computerized tomography (CT). Subjects were …

Examining Ethnic Faultlines In Groups: A Multimethod Study Of Demographic Alignment, Leadership Profiles, Coalition Formation, Intersubgroup Conflict And Group Outcomes, Katerina Bezrukova, Karen A. Jehn

Psychology

This study used multiple methods to examine the effects of group member demographic alignment on coalition formation, intersubgroup conflict, and individual and group level outcomes in common-goal groups. The study uses a 2 by 2 experimental design, crossing demographic alignment (alignment vs. no alignment) and group leadership profile (split leaders vs. no split) as between-subjects variables. Data from 5 types of measurement were used to analyze the effects of member alignment and leadership profiles. We distinguish between potential group faultlines (aligned demographic characteristics of members) and active group faultlines (members actually divide into subgroups based on the aligned demographic characteristics) …

Socialization Of Boys And Girls In Natural Contexts, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lisa Knoche, Asiye Kumru

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Socialization is the general process by which the members of a cultural community or society pass on their language, rules, roles, and customary ways of thinking and behaving to the next generation. Sex role socialization is one important aspect of this general process. The goals of earlier work were to understand how, why, and at what age girls and boys begin to vary behaviorally along such dimensions as "nurturance," "aggression," and "dependency," including determination of how sex-typical dispositions are influenced by cultural factors. This chapter presents a new approach seeking to answer such questions as the following. How are different …

Hepatitis C, Quality Of Life And Cognitive Function : An Exploratory Study, John Caithness

Theses : Honours

Active chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is a viral infection that affects approximately 150,000 Austra1ians. It has various quality of life impacts and the literature suggests some cognitive ramifications. In this Western Australian exploratory study, 13 healthy students from Edith Cowan University made up a control group. One experimental group consisted of 11 people with CHC and mild liver damage, and a second experimental group consisted of 8 people with CHC and at least moderate liver damage. The participants were assessed with a health-related quality of life questionnaire, the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36); a test of cognitive functioning, the …

Body Image, Eating Disturbance And Estrogen Levels Across The Menstrual Cycle, Mei-Chuan Wang

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The principal interest of the current study was to examine estrogen levels across the menstrual cycle related to body image and eating disturbance. Participants were undergraduate female students at a medium size Midwestern university. There were two phases of this study-a between-subjects aspect (N = 119) followed by a within-subjects aspect (N = 41 ). Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCO VA) were used to analyze the first phase data. Results showed that when eating disorders were viewed as a whole. eating patterns were stable across the menstrual cycle; but if looked at separately. symptoms of anorexia were worse when estrogen …

Sequelae Of Political Torture: Narratives Of Trauma And Resilience By Iranian Torture Survivors, Nouriman Ghahary

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.

Dysthymia And Major Depression : Distinct Conditions Or Different Stages Along A One-Dimensional Continuum?, Patrick Pössel

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Until recently researchers have discussed whether dysthymia and major depression represent distinct conditions or rather different stages along a one-dimensional continuum. This study addresses this question by examining the belief systems of normal, dysthymic, and depressed participants. We explored participants‘ beliefs and differentiated between positive and negative as well as between core and peripheral beliefs. Normal participants showed fewer negative beliefs and negative peripheral beliefs than the dysthymic group, whereas normal participants had more positive beliefs and positive core beliefs as well as fewer negative core beliefs than the depressed group. The hypothesized one-dimensional continuum could not be demonstrated for …

Understanding Countertransference With Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder : An Exploratory Quantitative Investigation, Michelle Saxen Hunt

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The present study surveyed 58 psychologists regarding their countertransference (CT) behaviors, CT management ability, empathy, and working alliances when treating patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Common positive and negative CT behaviors were identified when treating their typical patient with BPD. As predicted, results yielded negative correlations between therapists' CT behaviors and their CT management ability, working alliance, and empathy, as well as a positive correlation between therapists' CT management and working alliance, linking CT management to positive treatment outcomes. Therapists' level of experience and theoretical orientation were also examined, finding no significant impact on CT behaviors, CT management, or …

Self-Efficacy, Jennifer T. Gosselin, James E. Maddux

Psychology Faculty Publications

The study of self-efficacy is concerned with understanding this important aspect of self and identity—people's beliefs about their personal capabilities and how these beliefs influence what they try to accomplish, how they try to accomplish it, and how they react to successes and setbacks along the way.

Teachers' Perceptions Of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Incidence And Management, Julie M. Olson

Masters Theses

ADHD continues to be a common diagnosis of school children, and according to the DSM-IV, it affects approximately 3-5% of the population. Teachers are often the primary source of information regarding ADHD diagnoses in school children. A previous study by Glass and Wegar (2000) found that teachers were over-identifying children with ADHD and that medication was preferred as the primary treatment for these students. This study further examines teacher perceptions on the causes, incidence, and appropriate treatment methods of ADHD. In addition, this study also examines the prevalence of ADHD as determined by the ADHD Rating Scale-IV (School Version) (DuPaul …

Personality In Political Psychology, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This chapter outlines the history of personality inquiry in political psychology, examines the current state of personality assessment in politics, and charts a course for the study of personality in politics in the post-cognitive revolution era, informed by contextually adjacent scientific fields such as behavioral neuroscience and evolutionary ecology.

The chapter offers a comprehensive, generative, theoretically coherent framework for studying personality in politics, consonant with established principles in the adjacent sciences and integrative with respect to accommodating a diversity of politically relevant personal characteristics. The proposed framework attempts to bridge conceptual and methodological gaps between current formulations in the source …

Work And Family Variables As Related To Paternal Engagement, Responsibility, And Accessibility In Dual-Earner Couples With Young Children, Suzanne M. Nangle, Michelle L. Kelley, William Fals-Stewart, Ronald F. Levant

Psychology Faculty Publications

Fathers and mothers (N = 75 dual-earner couples) of preschool-aged children completed questionnaires that examined work and family variables as related to paternal involvement in three areas: engagement (i.e., directly interacting with the child), responsibility (i.e., scheduling activities and being accountable for the child's well-being), and accessibility (i.e., being available to the child but not in direct interaction). Fathers' reports of responsibility and accessibility were significantly predicted by structural variables and beliefs; however, fathers' reports of engagement were not predicted by work and family variables. Mothers' reports of work and family variables did not predict their reports of father involvement. …

Teaching And Learning Online For The First Time: Student And Coordinator Perspectives, Lauren Breen, Lynne Cohen, Paul Chang

Research outputs pre 2011

In recent years the higher education sector has moved towards the flexible delivery of individual units and entire courses. As a result, online delivery methods are becoming increasingly common. In this paper we describe students’ and unit-coordinators’ views concerning teaching and learning online for the first time in an introductory psychology unit. Using an action learning approach, views were ascertained through a focus group, messages posted on the online discussion boards, a survey, and coordinator reflections. The results indicate that the current online design of the unit does little to actively engage students in the learning process. We argue that …

Judging Distance Across Texture Discontinuities, Cary S. Feria, M. L. Braunstein, G. J. Andersen

Faculty Publications

Sinai et al (1998 Nature 395 497 - 500) showed that less distance is perceived along a ground surface that spans two differently textured regions than along a surface that is uniformly textured. We examined the effect of texture continuity on judged distance using computer-generated displays of simulated surfaces in five experiments. Discontinuities were produced by using different textures, the same texture reversed in contrast, or the same texture shifted horizontally. The simulated surface was either a ground plane or a frontoparallel plane. For all textures and both orientations, less distance was judged in the discontinuous conditions than in continuous …

Understanding Grief And Loss With Children From Divorced Families, Angela C. Meyer

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this paper is to present information about how grief and loss affect children from divorced families. Divorce can be just as traumatic as the death of a loved one, and the divorce rate continually increases every year. Two models of grief and how they apply to children of divorce are presented, as well as an explanation the process of grief in relation to divorce. Finally, this researcher identifies prevention and intervention techniques that schools and the whole community can use to aid children through the grief process of divorce.

Prävention Von Depression Bei Kindern Und Jugendlichen (Prevention Of Depression In Children And Adolescents)., Patrick Pössel, Martin Hautzinger

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Depressive Störungen in Kindheit und Jugendalter sind unter anderem durch die hohe Prävalenz und Persistenz depressiver Störungen bis ins Erwachsenenleben, bedeutenden Komorbiditäten mit anderen psychischen Störungen und psychosozialen Problemen von hoher individueller und gesellschaftlichen Bedeutung. Aufgrund dieser Erkenntnisse haben verschiedene Autoren weltweit damit begonnen Präventionsprogramme zu entwickeln und zu evaluieren. In diesem Artikel werden die Probleme der Präventionsforschung und die Effektivität von Prävention bei Kindern und Jugendlichen dargestellt. Den Schwerpunkt bildet dabei ein Überblick über derzeit vorliegenden Programme und deren Evaluationen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Programmen, die in deutscher Sprache vorliegen. Abschließend werden mögliche Entwicklungsrichtungen der zukünftigen Präventionsforschung aufgezeigt.

Depressive …

Universelle, Schulbasierte Prävention Der Depression Im Jugendalter : Ergebnisse Einer Follow-Up-Studie (Universal, School-Based Prevention Of Depression In Adolescence : Results Of A Follow-Up Study)., Gunter Groen, Patrick Pössel, Susanne Al-Wiswasi, Franz Petermann

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Zahlreiche internationale empirische Befunde belegen heute, dass depressive Symptome und Störungen im Jugendalter ein weit verbreitetes, oftmals folgenreiches und ernst zu nehmendes Gesundheitsproblem darstellen. Depressive Jugendliche zeigen in vielen Fällen erhebliche Alltagsbeeinträchtigungen und verschiedene komorbide psychische Probleme. Sie tragen ein deutliches Risiko, auch in ihrer weiteren Entwicklung – bis in das Erwachsenenalter – unter anhaltenden oder wiederkehrenden depressiven Episoden, anderen psychischen Störungen und psychosozialen Beeinträchtigungen zu leiden (vgl. Groen & Petermann, 2002). Neben der persönlichen Leidensgeschichte der Betroffenen ist davon auszugehen, dass bereits depressive Störungen im Jugendalter mit hohen und längerfristigen öffentlichen Kosten zusammenhängen, die etwa durch notwendige Behandlungsmaßnahmen oder …

Recent Jewish Immigrants' Communication In Postville, Iowa: A Case Study, Anna I. Levina

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

For this paper the author researched Iowa's immigration history and modern day Postville, a small town that represents a tossed salad of cultural, religious, and linguistic diversities. The author analyzed the current effect of immigration as well as the process of integration and assimilation into the small town through the eyes of its immigrants. The major emphasis is placed on Postville located in northeast Iowa. For 150 years Postville was an all-white, all-Christian farming community of 1,000 souls, most of European ancestry. Today the population of Postville has doubled and of the 2,000 people who reside in Postville almost one …

Depression And Cognitive Changes In Dementia Of The Alzheimer’S Type And Normal Aging, Emily A. Carr

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Past research has identified a relationship between depression scores and memory functioning in "normal" populations. However, findings in the dementia of the Alzheimer's Type (DAT) population have been inconsistent, at best. The purpose of the present study was to further investigate whether Depression affects cognitive functioning in individuals with DAT to the same extent as it affects those without DAT. Depression and cognitive functioning was investigated in two groups of subjects: individuals diagnosed with DAT (N = 27), and older normal controls (N = 24). Cognitive functioning was operationalized as scores achieved on recent memory measures. Each group was assessed …

Young Children’S Responses To Conflictual Adult Conversation, Jessica A. Cartozian

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study evaluated relationships among children's cognitions following exposure to scripted conflictual interactions between adults. Thirty- five mother-child dyads were assessed using self-report measures, and continuous measures of behavioral and physiological distress (cardiac function, skin conductance). Four hypotheses were investigated: Exposure to conflict would be related to greater distress following the conflictual script; attributional errors would be related to greater distress; child distress would be positively correlated with parental conflict at home; maternal psychopathology would be positively related with distress responses to the stimulus. All hypotheses were found to be non-significant. Explanations for non-significance include the normative sample, the …

Culture From Chaos: The Formation Of Social Norms From The Dynamic Self-Organization Of Individuals' Attitudes And Behavior, Jerry G. Cullum

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Top-down models of culture provide a useful although limited understanding of cultural content, formation, and change. Previous theorizing using bottom-up models help to explain why cultures exist and explain some of their content. Dynamic social impact theory (DSIT; Latane, 1996) expands on previous bottom-up models by proposing a concise mechanism for cultural content transmission and the dynamic outcome of this process. Furthermore, the catastrophe theory of attitudes (Latane & Nowak, 1994) suggests that the level of involvement of an issue will modify attitude change and therefore modify DSIT's predictions. The present study expanded on previous research to offer a more …

Selected Influences On The Smoking Behavior Among Female And Male College Students Of The University Of Northern Iowa, Evelyn Adom-Boateng

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study primarily, was to investigate and identify the influence of the four focus areas (media, family, peer, and psychological coping technique) on the smoking behavior among female and male college students of the University of Northern Iowa. A description of differences in the influences of the focus areas on the smoking behavior on gender was included in the study. A non-random (convenient) sample of 100 students was drawn from the various Departments and Schools from five colleges in the University (57% males and 43% females).

The Sample responded to a 44-item self-report (survey) questionnaire. Overall means …

Psychosocial Predictors Of Dietary Fat Reduction: The Role Of Stress And The Transtheroetical Model In A Dietary Intervention, Jennifer L. Francis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Dietary fat is related to cardiovascular disease and numerous intensive, controlled clinical trials have successfully reduced dietary fat in symptomatic populations. However, there has been less success in large, community-based studies with healthy or mildly at-risk populations. Little is known about predictors associated with actual change in dietary fat intake and this is an important omission because dietary interventions are more likely to be successful if they are based on factors known to influence behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychosocial predictors of dietary fat and dietary fat reduction through the framework of the transtheoretical model …

Mediators Of Weight Loss In An Internet-Based Intervention For African American Adolescent Girls, Marney A. White

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary aim of this study was to assess the process variables involved in a weight loss program for African-American adolescent girls. This internet-based intervention compared a behavioral treatment program to an educational treatment program; it was hypothesized that participants randomized to the behavioral condition would lose more weight at 6 months than those in the educational condition. Several process variables have been identified as affecting success in in vivo weight loss programs for adults and children, including program adherence, self-efficacy, and social support. The current study sought to broaden the understanding of these process variables as they pertain to …

Adherence To Medical Regimens In Low-Income Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: The Influence Of Perceived Control Constructs, Erin L. O'Hea

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Individuals with Type 2 diabetes often do not adhere to their treatment regimens (e.g., exercise, diet, medication, glucose monitoring). Non-adherence results in poor metabolic control, further morbidity and mortality, and increased health care utilization and costs. One common thread among many health-behavior-theories that attempt to explain non-adherence behaviors is the importance of perceived control. This psychosocial variable has most often been conceptualized as ‘health locus of control,’ which refers to the belief that one has the ability to influence or change one’s health outcomes. Inconsistent findings have been reported regarding the relationship of health locus of control and medical regimen …