Digital Commons Network^™

The Nonverbal Communication Of Pain As Recognized By Alternative Health Care Providers, Jodi L. Pope

Masters Theses

Recognizing nonverbal messages of pain in a health care setting is essential. The nonverbal communication of pain is a communication aspect typically overlooked in modern health care environments. This research surveyed alternative health care providers to determine what nonverbal behaviors they recognize as pain indicators and how they react to those behaviors. Massage therapists and chiropractors from a Midwest county filled out surveys and participated in a focus group. Fifty nonverbal pain indicators, such as guarding body parts, postural inequalities, gait, and clenched fists, among others, were charted. Several other topics such as learning how to determine nonverbal pain indicators, …

Ratings Of Assessment Procedures By Learning Disabilities Teachers And School Psychologists, Raquel A. Williams

Masters Theses

This study surveyed the perceptions of school psychologists and learning disabilities teachers (LD teachers) on the frequency of use and usefulness of the following assessment procedures: Standardized tests, curriculum based measures (CBMs), classroom observations, interview with general education teachers, and analysis of class assignments for initial placement of a child, instructional planning, and evaluation of student progress. Further, this study investigated how proficient the two groups felt in administering each of the five assessment procedures. Fifty four school psychologists and 32 LD teachers completed the questionnaire. Results indicated that school psychologists and LD teachers agreed on the frequency of use …

Personality Correlates Between Fundamentalist And Non-Fundamentalist Individuals As Measured By The Neo Pi-R And The Religious Fundamentalism Scale, Jason Andrew Witt

Masters Theses

The relationship between religious fundamentalism and personality was examined. Over 150 students total, from two Midwestern universities were administered the NEO PI-R and the Religious Fundamentalism Scale. It was predicted that the individuals who scored highly on the RF Scale would score significantly higher on the Neuroticism scale and significantly lower on the Openness scale of the NEO PI-R than the non-fundamentalists. Results of the study confirmed the prediction that Openness would be significantly lower for fundamentalists, F (1, 103) = 11.093, p < 0.001. Results did not confirm the prediction that Neuroticism would be significantly higher for fundamentalists, but showed that Agreeableness was significantly higher for fundamentalists, F (1,103) = 11.127, p < 0.001. Possible reasons for the differences in personality scores between fundamentalists and non-fundamentalists were discussed, as well as suggestions for future research in this area.

Attachment Patterns Between Hearing Children And Deaf Primary Caregivers, Bette L. Witcraft

Masters Theses

This study extends previous research on attachment patterns, formed by infants with primary caregivers who noncontingently or inconsistently respond to the infant's attachment signals, to the population of hearing children of deaf primary caregivers. It was hypothesized that, due to the simple mechanical problem of the deaf primary caregiver's inability to hear the infant's attachment signals, e.g. crying, hearing adolescent children of deaf primary caregivers will demonstrate higher Anger Distress Scale scores as measured by the Adolescent Attachment Questionnaire than a control group. Results support the hypothesis. A sample of 19 hearing adolescents with deaf primary caregivers rated themselves significantly …

Experiences Of Relapse In Smoking Cessation, Natalie Kay D'Abrew

Theses : Honours

Relapse is regarded as a common occurrence, and it is known that smokers make an average of three to four attempts to cease smoking before maintaining smoking cessation. Thus, relapse continues to be a problem for interventions for smoking cessation. This qualitative study explored the experiences of relapse in smoking cessation. Fourteen participants, seven maintainers and seven relapsers aged between 21-80 participated in the study, which was facilitated by a semi-structured interview format. Several themes and sub-themes were generated under the categories of strategies, reasons for relapse, and reasons for cessation. The themes highlighted that there were differences between the …

Research On Faith And Health: New Appoaches To Old Questions, Thomas G. Plante, Allen C. Sherman

Psychology

Does religious faith influence health? Are religious practices associated with altered risks for morbidity or mortality? Do religious or spiritual individuals tend to enjoy better well-being or mental health across the lifespan? Does spiritual or religious involvement change the way individuals adapt to the demands of chronic illness? This volume brings together some of the leading investigators who have explored these intriguing questions. Though research is in its early phases, the chapters that follow review some of what we have learned and begin to trace the outlines of the many mysteries that remain.

Body Image Distortion In College Females: Effects On Exercise Identity And Commitment, Marie Schroder, Lauren Leslie, Mary Leigh Gregory

Modern Psychological Studies

Body image concerns have been related to behavioral aspects of exercise. This study examined the psychological aspect of exercise on role identity. It was hypothesized that college females who overestimated percentage body fat were more likely to identify exercise as an integral self-concept and commit strongly to exercise than correct or underestimators. Twenty-five undergraduate females, never diagnosed with an eating disorder, completed an Exercise Identity Scale and a Commitment to Exercise scale. Body fat was assessed using calipers at three body sites. Body image distortion is prevalent among normal populations but shows no significant relation to exercise identity and commitment. …

Sex: The Defining Variable In Mate Selection, Shirley A. Forbes, Tanacha Brown, Timothy Adams, Lenore Davis

Modern Psychological Studies

The evolutionary hypothesis of mate selection was tested by combining traits deemed as evolutionarily valued (Cramer, Schaeffer Et Reid, 1996) with pictures showing facial features deemed as physically attractive according to the evolutionary hypothesis (Buss, 1989; Singh, 1995). Traits and pictures not congruent with the evolutionary hypothesis were also presented. Four stimulus persons were presented to ninety-one male subjects and 114 female subjects who were asked to rate their desirability as a mate. The results showed a main effect for stimulus condition, with the physical attractiveness pictures receiving the highest ratings when combined with the valued evolutionary traits, F (3, …

Goals As A Source Of Activation And Suppression, Kristina A. Meacham

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Bilingualism On Mental Flexibility, Melissa A. Luke

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Previously Held Attitudes And Their Accessibility On Rma Scores, The Accessibility Of These Scores, Accurate Memory, Memory Accessibility And Attitude Change, Following A Rape Prevention Program., Jill M. Johansson

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Altruistically Inclined?: The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, And The Origins Of Reciprocity, Alexander J. Field

Faculty Book Gallery

Altruistically Inclined? examines the implications of recent research in the natural sciences for two important social scientific approaches to individual behavior: the economic/rational choice approach and the sociological/anthropological. It considers jointly two controversial and related ideas: the operation of group selection within early human evolutionary processes and the likelihood of modularity—domain-specific adaptations in our cognitive mechanisms and behavioral predispositions.

Experimental research shows that people will often cooperate in one-shot prisoner's dilemma (PD) games and reject positive offers in ultimatum games, contradicting commonly accepted notions of rationality. Upon first appearance, predispositions to behave in this fashion could not have been favored …

The Effects Of Stimulant Medication On Anxiety Behaviors As Observed In Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Kelly J. Kromer

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Specific Parenting Practices Associated With Offspring Anxiety In Young Adulthood, Joan Elizabeth Asseff

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

An Fmri Ssudy Of Imagined Self-Rotation, Sarah H. Creem, Traci Hirsch Downs, Maryjane Wraga, Gregory S. Harrington, Dennis R. Proffitt, J. Hunter Downs

Psychology: Faculty Publications

In the present study, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine the neural mechanisms involved in the imagined spatial transformation of one's body. The task required subjects to update the position of one of four external objects from memory after they had performed an imagined self-rotation to a new position. Activation in the rotation condition was compared with that in a control condition in which subjects located the positions of objects without imagining a change in self-position. The results indicated similar networks of activation to other egocentric transformation tasks involving decisions about body parts. The most significant area of …

Granting Forgiveness Or Harboring Grudges: Implications For Emotion, Physiology, And Health, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Thomas Ludwig, Kelly L. Vander Laan

Faculty Publications

Interpersonal offenses frequently mar relationships. Theorists have argued that the responses victims adopt toward their offenders have ramifications not only for their cognition, but also for their emotion, physiology, and health. This study examined the immediate emotional and physiological effects that occurred when participants (35 females, 36 males) rehearsed hurtful memories and nursed grudges (i.e., were unforgiving) compared with when they cultivated empathic perspective taking and imagined granting forgiveness (i.e., were forgiving) toward real-life offenders. Unforgiving thoughts prompted more aversive emotion, and significantly higher corrugator (brow) electromyogram (EMG), skin conductance, heart rate, and blood pressure changes from baseline. The EMG, …

An Open Label Study Of The Effects Of Levetiracetam In Children With Autism, Teresa C. Samsock

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This was an open-label study of levetiracetam in children with autism. Many anticonvulsant medications are used for management of externalizing behaviors and mood stability in autism; however, they are not consistently effective and adverse reactions limit their use. The objective of this study was to test the following research questions: (1) to determine whether levetiracetam reduces problematic externalizing behaviors in children with autism, and (2) to determine whether a nootropic effect from levetiracetam may be seen in cognition, memory, and/or language function in children with autism. Evaluations were gathered pre-treatment and during treatment using a battery of cognitive and behavioral …

Hoarding By Elderly People, Gail Steketee, Randy O. Frost, Hyo-Jin Kim

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Although hoarding has been studied in adults, little is known about problems of hoarding by elderly people. This study used a structured telephone interview with elder services providers to investigate hoarding behaviors in relation to functional impairment, cognitive deficits, and physical and psychological conditions in 62 elderly clients. Most elderly hoarders were female, unmarried, and lived alone. Extensive clutter was associated with significant impairment, interfering with basic hygiene, and posing a serious physical threat for many elderly clients. Clients were rarely insightful about their collecting and often resisted change, rendering interventions generally ineffective. Never-married status was associated with more severe …

The Relationships Between Acting Experience, Self-Esteem, And Self-Monitoring, Tamara C. Peters

Modern Psychological Studies

This study is an investigation of whether relationships exist to link acting experience with self-esteem and/or self-monitoring. Participants included 30 undergraduate students with acting experience and 30 without acting experience. The participants completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Self-Monitoring Scale. Individuals with acting experience were expected to indicate having a higher self-esteem than those without such experience. However, no significant relationship between self-esteem and acting experience was found. It was also hypothesized that students who had experience in acting would score higher on the Self-Monitoring Scale than students who had not. A significant positive relationship did exist between acting …

The Relationship Between Adolescent Self-Esteem And Delinquent, Extracurricular, And Employment Behaviors, Tina M. Lane, Ann N. Elliott

Modern Psychological Studies

This study investigated the relationship between level of self-esteem, delinquent behavior, participation in extracurricular activities, and part-time employment in adolescents. The study consisted of 157 ninth and tenth grade students who attended rural Appalachian high schools in Southwest Virginia. Adolescents with higher self-esteem were significantly less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors than adolescents with lower self-esteem. Students with higher self-esteem also participated in a greater number of extracurricular activities. Finally, self-esteem was positively correlated with the number of hours worked by male adolescents, but negatively correlated for female subjects.

Walk In My Shoes: College Students' And Their Parents' Predictions Of Their Own Health Practices If They Were Each Others' Age, Amy B. Clineff, Colleen Frantz, Charles I. Brooks, Jean P. O'Brien

Modern Psychological Studies

College students and their parents completed a survey of their present health practices. They then completed the same survey for health behaviors they thought they would practice if they were either between the ages of 18 - 22 (for the parent respondents) or 45 - 55 (for the student respondents). The results generally showed the students predicted they would lead healthier lifestyles if older than their parents actually do, and the parents would lead less healthy lifestyles if younger than their children actually do. This distortion of each others' health practices, however, depended to some extent on the specific health …

Occupational Ego Identity Statuses In College Students, Nicole Surething, Kathleen Crowley-Long

Modern Psychological Studies

The purpose of this study was to investigate college students who were in the process of deciding on a career, and to then classify them according to the identity statuses described by Marcia (1980). The occupational identity statuses used were achieved, foreclosed, moratorium, diffused, and finally undecided was used for participants not meeting the full criteria for the other statuses. Participants, from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, were given the Deltas Identity Status Inventory for Occupation. A total of 159 participants completed the survey, 109 females and 50 males. The participants included 66 freshmen, 41 sophomores, 34 …

Deception In Research: How College Students View Deception, David Devries

Modern Psychological Studies

This study asked college students to evaluate the use of deceptive techniques in psychological research. Ninety-two undergraduates evaluated via a three-point Likert Scale four classic deceptive studies in psychology. Students were asked to rate each study as to how deceptive and harmful it was, how valuable it was, and the cost-benefit to science of the study. Respondents generally believed these studies worth doing; however, around 20 percent felt the cost to the subjects was too high.

Play Patterns And Gender, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lisa Knoche, Asiye Kumru

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This cross-cultural analysis examines the gendered patterns of play seen in children worldwide. Play is a culturally universal activity through which children explore themselves and their environment, test out and practice different social roles, and learn to interact with other children and adults. Early in life, children identify themselves as a “girl” or a “boy,” and this basic self-categorization lays a foundation for their developing beliefs about with whom, what, how, and where they will play. Children play an active role in their own and their peers’ “gender socialization” (the process by which they come to acquire the knowledge, values, …

Confession, Coercion, Procedural Error And The Juror, Kimberly Anne Jenkins Coffman

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current research examined whether mock jurors make differential assessments of guilt of defendants based on inclusion or exclusion of confession evidence and type of coercion to determine if jurors' behavioral reactions to confession evidence could be predicted. Hypotheses addressed effects of various factors on jurors' decisions of verdicts regarding defendants' guilt or innocence and their certainty of these verdicts: inclusion of confession evidence, type of coercion used in obtaining confessions, admissible or inadmissible presentation of confession evidence, and influence of potential predictor variables. Predictor variables assessed included participants' Belief in a Just World, Spheres of Control, New Authoritarianism, and …

Job Satisfaction Among Psychologists In A Managed-Care Environment, Walter R. Vyhmeister

Dissertations

The problem. The efforts of managed care to balance resources, cost, and quality of services have created new issues among mental health professionals, affecting their careers and having the potential to affect their job satisfaction. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate how managed care has impacted career satisfaction among professional psychologists.

The method. The present investigation examined 21 factors in the prediction of job satisfaction among licensed psychologists. A sample of 1,000 licensed psychologists located in California, Oregon, and Washington was randomly selected from the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology. Three hundred seventeen participants …

West Virginia Children's Perceptions Of Guns And Violence : Examining Rural/Urban Differences Using The Attitudes Towards Guns And Violence Questionnair (Agvq), Randal Brooks Staats

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

With the recent acts of violence that students have committed while at school, the media, the public, and researchers have investigated why students are displaying these aggressive and violent behaviors. Why are children displaying these acts of violence (e.g., television, video games, lack of family support, etc.)? With everyone pointing a finger as to why children are displaying these acts of violence, a new measure called the Attitudes Towards Guns and Violence Questionnaire (AGVQ) was developed to determine a student's perceptions towards guns and violence. The purpose of this study was to examine whether a significant difference could be found …

Putting Quality Functional Assessment Into Practice In Schools: A Research Agenda On Behalf Of E/Bd Students, Mary M. Quinn, Robert A. Gable, Jim Fox, Robert B. Rutheford Jr., Richard Van Acker, Maureen Conroy

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

The discipline provisions of the IDEA place emphasis on gaining an understanding of why the student is motivated to engage in problem behavior and to consider, when appropriate, positive behavioral interventions, strategies, and supports to address the behavior. These legislative mandates bring center stage a range of new duties and responsibilities for the IEP team. This article discusses the problems that school divisions across the country are encountering when implementing these requirements and recommends a course of research to address these issues.

Studying The Relationship Between Parental Involvement And Sternberg's Triarchic Theory Of Intelligence, Liliana Munoz Bailey

HIM 1990-2015

Extensive research has been conducted in the area of intelligence. Most of the research in this area has been focused on cognitive abilities. However, little research has been explored other type of intelligence and the environmental factors. The intent of this study was to investigate Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence and parental involvement. According to this theory an individual’s intelligence is composed of three main domains: cognitive, creative and practical. Every individual possesses these abilities to a greater or lesser degree. Yet, little is known of what factors could lead to the difference in these types of abilities in individuals. Parental …

Sex-Role Identity And Perceptions Of Good Managers As A Function Of Gender And Level Of Management---Good Female Managers, An Oxymoron?, Shirley Cresci

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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