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The Role Of Spatial Attention In The Maintenance Of Visual Working Memory: Modulatory Effect By Task-Relevance Of Spatial Information And Evidence From Alpha Oscillations, Sori Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The close interplay between spatial attention and visual working memory is essential for optimizing our visual experiences. The following studies investigated this interaction, focusing on how spatial attention influences visual working memory processes. In Chapter 2 a dual-task paradigm was used to examine how the relevance of spatial information to the task modulated the effects of spatial attention. The findings showed that shifting spatial attention away from a potential memory target impaired its consolidation in working memory. In Chapter 3, the experiment aimed to amplify these effects to observe clearer facilitatory and inhibitory processes. However, the results only demonstrated that …

Exploring The Denial Of Institutional Racism: Impacts Of Social Identity, Perceptions Of Privilege, And Threat, Kalen Charles Kennedy

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation consists of one correlational and one experimental study grounded in Social Identity Theory, which posits that individuals derive a significant portion of their self- concept from their membership in social groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). One’s social identity plays a crucial role in how individuals interpret intergroup relations. Building on this understanding, I explored factors that may explain the denial of institutional racism among White individuals, focusing on the importance of their racial identity, attitudes towards White privilege, and the perception of social threat. In Study 1, which included 193 White participants, a weak positive correlation was found …

It Takes A Village: Investigating How Community And Cultural Factors Foster Resilience In Latine Immigrant Families, Mara Makasiar

Dissertations (1934 -)

Latine immigrants constitute the largest group of non-U.S.-born individuals in the United States and face heightened risks including poverty, inadequate healthcare, discrimination, and acculturation-related stressors. Despite these challenges, many demonstrate resilience, achieving positive outcomes for themselves and their children. This study investigated how community and cultural factors foster resilience in Latine immigrant families, addressing a gap in understanding protective mechanisms beyond individual and family levels. Using a mixed-methods approach, quantitative analyses (N=89) revealed that immigration-related stress significantly predicted caregiver mental health problems (β = 0.35, p < .01), while financial satisfaction emerged as a protective factor (β = -0.35, p < .01). For youth, ethnic identity predicted prosocial behaviors (β = 0.35, p < .01), and emotion regulation consistently predicted self-esteem (β = 0.40, p < .01) and mental health problems (β = -0.54, p < .01). Contrary to hypotheses, community factors (collective efficacy, religious social capital) and cultural cohesion did not significantly predict outcomes beyond individual and family factors. Qualitative interviews (n=30) provided context, revealing themes of resource access barriers, multifaceted support systems, cultural maintenance, and community involvement. These findings highlight the complex interplay of factors influencing resilience in Latine immigrant families and underscore the need for more nuanced measures of community and cultural influences. The study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of resilience processes in this population, with implications for developing culturally sensitive interventions and policies to support Latine immigrant families' well-being.

The Voices Of Thriving Black Women In Milwaukee: An Exploration Of Narrative Identity And Psychosocial Well-Being, Jessica Krukowski

Dissertations (1934 -)

There is a dearth in research regarding the narrative identities of Black women. Narrative identity is an individual’s internal story that evolves and transforms as one encounters new experiences and adopts new viewpoints. It is a person’s reconstructed past and imagined future, providing one’s life a degree of coherence and meaning. The present study is part of a larger project (N=79) that employed the Modified Life Story Interview; a semi-structured way for collecting one’s self-defining life story. Participants from the larger project also completed measures of psychosocial well-being. For the present strength-based study, only those participants with the highest psychosocial …

Shocking Sentences, John B. Meixner Jr.

Scholarly Works

Harsh recidivist sentencing penalties, like three-strikes laws, have been criticized heavily among both academics and practitioners on a number of different grounds. Most arguments focus on how sentences arising from these penalties are disproportionate—that there is no sensible relationship between the wrong committed and the sentence imposed. Those critiques are valid, but there’s another important problem with recidivist sentencing penalties that has been overlooked: they lead to sentences that are totally unexpected—indeed, shocking—to the defendants who face them. Many recidivist sentencing penalties cause large leaps in sentencing exposure that amount to exponential growth when compared with a defendant’s prior sentences. …

Assessing Functional Abilities In A Memory Disorder Population: A Comparison Of Self-Report, Informant-Report, And Performance-Based Measures, Kevin Andrew Murray

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Accurate assessment of daily functioning is critical for deriving a correct diagnosis and facilitating effective patient care. While collateral reports from a reliable informant can elucidate patients’ functional capacities, they may be susceptible to misappraisals of functional status. Similarly, patients with limited insight may be prone to misjudging their functional abilities. Performance-based measures of adaptive functioning may detect subtle declines in daily functioning overlooked by self- and informant-report measures. However, these measures may be limited in terms of ecological validity. The current study investigated the association between a performance-based measure of daily functioning and patients’ and informants’ ratings of …

The Relationship Between Health Anxiety, Health Information Seeking Behaviors, And Healthcare Outcomes, Rima Malkan

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between health anxiety and health information-seeking behaviors (HISB) suggests a possible bidirectional or reciprocal relationship, suggesting that health anxiety leads to HISB and HISB exacerbates health anxiety. The motivations for individuals seeking different types of health information vary and may be impacted by numerous factors that lead to particular health outcomes. However, the impact of these collective variables on healthcare outcomes has not been extensively investigated. The current study aimed to bridge this gap in the literature. The study sample consisted of 133 individuals ages 20-77 years who had varying levels of health anxiety. Results suggested that those …

Do Parents Know Best: The Impact Of Parental Sleep Knowledge And Related Factors On Sleep In Children With Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Rachel Nicole Chavez

Theses and Dissertations

Sleep problems are a common concern reported by parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). The prevalence of sleep disorders in those with NDD have been reported as high as 86% compared to 25% of typically developing children (Horwood et al., 2019, Robin-Shelton, 2016). These sleep problems can have detrimental effects on cognition, development, behavior, emotion regulation, and physical health. Existing research demonstrates a significant relationship between a child’s sleep disturbances and their parents’ sleep quality and level of parenting stress. This study aimed to identify the gaps in parental sleep knowledge and examined how parent sleep quality and parental …

Out Of Left Screen: Factors Impacting Well-Being In Digital And Physical Collegiate Athletes, Jessica Poskus

Theses and Dissertations

Competitive video gaming, or “esports,” has quickly become a popular college extracurricular. Its classification as a varsity sport on many campuses reflects a broader shift in cultural conceptualizations and perceptions of athleticism. As esports continue to evolve in today’s increasingly digital world, new professional leagues emerge, and viewership rivals that of traditional physical sports. Esports can be a gateway for unique opportunities for college students; however, it may also pose some challenges. This study explored differences between digital and physical athletes, who must balance their chosen activity with other collegiate responsibilities, including academic, social, and physical health. Physical sports and …

Daily Stress, Problematic Social Media Use, And Executive Functions: A Daily Diary Approach, Wee Qin Ng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

A growing body of research suggests that daily stress may be a risk factor for problematic social media use. However, findings concerning the relation between stress and social media use are mixed, suggesting the presence of moderators that may buffer the relation between stress and problematic social media use. Further, previous studies have relied on either cross-sectional designs or longitudinal designs that may not fully capture daily experiences of stressors and social media use. To overcome these limitations, the present study utilized a 7-day daily diary study to investigate the within-individual associations between daily stress and problematic social media use. …

Associations Between Self-Reported Levels Of Aggression, Irritability, And Depression In Collegiate Athletes With A History Of Concussion, Amber Mae Bankston

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between history of concussion and symptoms of aggression, irritability, and depression. Furthermore, the relationship between these variables were examined in a small subgroup of participants before and after sustaining a head injury.

Methods: Archival data of NCAA Division II and club collegiate athletes from Florida Institute of Technology was included in the present study. Participants were included in this study if they completed baseline and/or post-trauma neuropsychological evaluations that included the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), and Irritability Questionnaire (IRQ). Athletes’ demographic information along with …

Childhood Adversity's Impact On Criminal Behavior, Isobel Marie Avento

Theses and Dissertations

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, neglect, and family criminal history, have been identified as potential risk factors for negative physical, psychological, and behavioral health outcomes. Emerging literature suggests that ACEs are also among the primary factors leading to delinquency and adult criminal behavior. However, there is limited applied research that provides practitioners with appropriate insight to intervene when ACEs are identified among juvenile delinquents to reduce recidivism risk. This study adds to the existing literature by examining how cumulative ACEs shape criminal behavior of individuals from the onset until its desistance over the span of twenty years. Using …

Relational Resilience, Grace, And The Role Of Divine Forgiveness, Bethanie Pusey

Senior Honors Theses

The constructs of relational resilience, divine forgiveness, and grace have recently grown in popularity within the field of positive psychology, yet their associations have thus far remained unexplored. The present study sought to fill this gap in the literature and determine what relationship exists between these variables while controlling for other related factors such as interpersonal forgiveness, self-forgiveness, spirituality, and general resilience. Participants (N = 247) from a large private Christian university provided responses to both trait and conflict-specific measures. Correlational findings supported significant positive relations between relational resilience and divine forgiveness, interpersonal forgiveness, and self-forgiveness. Relational resilience was …

Clonal Hematopoiesis Of Indeterminate Potential Is Associated With Reduced Risk Of Cognitive Impairment In Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease, Cissy Xiao, Manjula Kurella Tamura, Yang Pan, Varun Rao, Celestin Missikpode, Caitlyn Vlasschaert, Tetsushi Nakao, Xiao Sun, Changwei Li, Zhijie Huang, Amanda Anderson, Md Mesbah Uddin, Do-Kyun Kim, Jonathan Taliercio, Rajat Deo, Zeenat Bhat, Dawei Xie, Panduranga Rao, Jing Chen, James P Lash, Jiang He, Pradeep Natarajan, James E Hixson, Kristine Yaffe, Tanika N Kelly, Cric Study Investigators

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) and dementia disproportionately burden patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The association between CHIP and cognitive impairment in CKD patients is unknown.

Methods: We conducted time-to-event analyses in up to 1452 older adults with CKD from the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort who underwent CHIP gene sequencing. Cognition was assessed using four validated tests in up to 6 years mean follow-up time. Incident cognitive impairment was defined as a test score one standard deviation below the baseline mean.

Results: Compared to non-carriers, CHIP carriers were markedly less likely to experience impairment in attention (adjusted …

Stress, Obesity, Depression, And Codependency As Predictors Of Unmitigated Communion In African American Pastors, Troy Tyrone Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many pastors spend significant time tending to their congregants’ needs while disregarding their own needs. They may not know how to ask for or receive help and may look to others for self-worth and value. Inappropriate self-sacrificing behaviors could result in pastors' compromised emotional and physical health. The purpose of this study was to determine whether stress, obesity, depression, and codependency, individually or in a linear combination, were adequate predictors of unmitigated (UC) among African American senior pastors who pastor congregationally led churches without the benefit of paid support staff. The social cognitive learning theory was the theoretical framework in …

The Relative Strength Of Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance, And Self-Care In Predicting Resilience Among First Responders, Corey Norton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Given the situations confronted daily by first responders, many experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. Anxiety, depression, and substance abuse, often triggered by exposure to traumatic events, can be so debilitating that the first responder can no longer travel, spend time with family, or enjoy hobbies, a self-isolating state of affairs that diminishes quality of life. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the relative strength of emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and self-care in predicting resilience among first responders. Emotion regulation theory described how individuals experience, express, and control their emotional reactions when faced with life and …

The Spiritual Well-Being Scale In The Polish Catholic Setting: Construct, Structure, And Relationships With Psychological Well-Being, Beata Zarzycka, Kamil Tomaka, Michał Grupa, Raymond Paloutzian, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

The population of Poland could be of particular interest to researchers studying religion and spirituality. Catholicism has played a significant role in shaping the country’s culture, history, and tradition and is considered a national religion. More recently, however, the processes of moving away from regular participation in religious services and loosening ties with the institution of the Catholic Church are marked (Polish Public Opinion Research Center, CBOS). The Polish Catholic setting may modify the associations between psychological variables that have been studied in their relationships with spirituality, which have been investigated in religious contexts differing from a Polish Catholic one. …

Behavioral And Neural Evidence For Perceptual Inference Of Position, Sharif Saleki

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Extensive neuroscientific research has advanced our knowledge of the mechanisms involved in the detection and recognition of visual stimuli. However, to guide flexible behavior in a changing world, the brain must also construct stable and coherent perceptual representations from retinal images that are often ambiguous. To resolve ambiguities and uncertainties, the visual system combines its input with other sources of information such as context and prior knowledge to infer the most likely interpretation of a scene. Thus, perception is inherently an inferential process that goes beyond simple detection or recognition of stimuli. Although inference has been studied in many areas …

Strategies For Prevention And Management Of Non-Communicable Diseases Among Community Women In Nigeria: Insights For Family Social Welfare, Abiola Adiat Omokhabi Dr

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

In this study, modifiable risk factors, prevention and management plans for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among women were examined. This study examined published and grey literature that was gathered from a number of sources, such as open data portals on the five major illness categories that make up the NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes, malignancies, chronic respiratory diseases, and mental health. Literature shows that the primary behavioural risk factors for NCDs, including CVDs, diabetes, and cancer(malignancies), can be largely avoided. Inactivity, tobacco use, alcohol use, and unhealthy eating habits (often high in processed sugar, fats, and salt) are a …

Voices From The Classroom: A Qualitative Study Of Teachers' Perspectives On Student Depression, Naomi Brinton, Jacqlyn Zarabba, Linda Mcwhorter, Linda Knauss

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Rising levels of depression among adolescents is an important issue to teachers and school administrators, as teenagers spend the majority of their time in the school environment. By analyzing individual interviews with 15 public high school teachers using a modified grounded theory approach, this qualitative study examines the role high school teachers might play in identifying and referring students who exhibit signs and symptoms of depression. Results provide guidance for high school teachers in connecting students with appropriate services and identifying common barriers and facilitating factors in this process. Specific recommendations are outlined to help aid schools in the identification …

Training Counselors In Clinical Case Formulation: A Proof Of Concept Of The Thematic Mapping Method, Christina E. Jeffrey, Charles Ridley, Nina Quintana, Taylor Parks

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Case formulation, or the way in which clinicians synthesize client information and formulate appropriate treatment directions, is a crucial part of counseling and clinical training. Thematic mapping is a transtheoretical, transdiagnostic strategy of case conceptualization that provides a holistic, complex, multicultural formulation of clients. This proof of concept study evaluated the relationship of a training in the thematic mapping method and case conceptualization quality. Supervisors trained six second-year counselors in the method, along with application to clinical cases, during weekly group supervision. Case formulation complexity, evidence of a systematic approach, level of detail, and goodness-of-fit from client data to synthesized …

Perceptions Of Non-Using College Students’ Likelihood To Use Nonprescription Or Prescription Stimulants, Judith Frazier

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has highlighted the risk of non-users among college students using illegal prescription stimulants due to misinformation and incorrect assumptions. This qualitative study aimed to explore the perspectives of college students who do not use stimulants on perceived risks, social acceptability, opportunity experiences, and likelihood of using stimulants. The study addressed factors that either encourage or discourage students from using stimulants, as well as the internal and extrinsic incentives associated with this activity, using a phenomenological paradigm. Twelve southern Ohioan students who were not users were interviewed using a structured interviewing technique, which …

Comparing Likert And Slider Response Formats In Clinical Assessment, Guyin Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

This study used a within-subjects experimental design to compare various response formats in fitting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models. Participants responded to the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) across four different response formats: the Likert-type scale, three types of slider response formats, and a number-entry response format. We conducted the comparison of different response formats based on item-level scores, factor structure and psychometric properties of the scale, mean comparisons across groups, and individuals’ sum scores. Similar results were observed across the different response formats with respect to factor structure, reliability, and validity of test scores. However, inconsistent …

Methods For Pragmatic Randomized Clinical Trials Of Pain Therapies: Immpact Statement, David Hohenschurz-Schmidt, Dan Cherkin, Andrew S C Rice, Robert H Dworkin, Dennis C Turk, Michael P Mcdermott, Matthew J Bair, Lynn L Debar, Robert R Edwards, Scott R Evans, John T Farrar, Robert D Kerns, Michael C Rowbotham, Ajay D Wasan, Penney Cowan, Mckenzie Ferguson, Roy Freeman, Jennifer S Gewandter, Ian Gilron, Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, Smriti Iyengar, Cornelia Kamp, Barbara I Karp, Bethea A Kleykamp, John D Loeser, Sean Mackey, Richard Malamut, Ewan Mcnicol, Kushang V Patel, Kenneth Schmader, Lee Simon, Deborah J Steiner, Christin Veasley, Jan Vollert

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pragmatic, randomized, controlled trials hold the potential to directly inform clinical decision making and health policy regarding the treatment of people experiencing pain. Pragmatic trials are designed to replicate or are embedded within routine clinical care and are increasingly valued to bridge the gap between trial research and clinical practice, especially in multidimensional conditions, such as pain and in nonpharmacological intervention research. To maximize the potential of pragmatic trials in pain research, the careful consideration of each methodological decision is required. Trials aligned with routine practice pose several challenges, such as determining and enrolling appropriate study participants, deciding on the …

Let’S Make It A Game: Utilizing An Escape Room To Study Variables And Interventions That Impact The Development Of Psychological Safety, Kimberly N. Williams

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

To thrive in today’s competitive markets, organizations must harness the insights of all members. This requires employees to feel comfortable collaborating and sharing diverse knowledge—a process enabled by psychological safety. Although extensively studied over the past two decades, how and when psychological safety develops remains unclear. This research addresses these gaps by exploring temporal changes in psychological safety and examining the role of team inputs, processes, and interventions in shaping psychological safety perceptions at individual and team levels. This study utilized a quasi-experimental design with repeated and independent measures in a sample of 74 medical and physician assistant students. Within-subject …

Acculturation And Attitudinal Disposition Of People From India Living In The United States Toward Mental Health Services, Santhosh Jose Adhikarathil

Dissertations

Acculturation experience and attitudes toward seeking mental health services among Asian Indian Americans, an ethnic minority group, are predominantly underrepresented in current literature despite their increasing number in the United States. The purpose of this study was to assess the acculturation experience of Asian Indian Americans and their attitude toward seeking mental health services, and to explore the relationship between acculturation levels and attitudes toward seeking mental health services. I used a quantitative research design to conduct this study. I employed an online survey through Qualtrics. The participants (n = 568) constituted a probability sample recruited from Indian-based Christian churches …

Systemic Inflammation And Neurocognitive Deficits In School-Age Children With Sickle Cell Disease., Elizabeth A. Gillooly

Theses and Dissertations

Sickle cell disease (SCD) causes inflammation that contributes to poor clinical outcomes, including cerebrovascular disease (CVD). CVD can take several forms in SCD, including neurocognitive deficits without visible cerebral infarction. The role of chronic inflammation in cognitive development in SCD has received little attention to-date. We aimed to study novel markers of systemic inflammation: neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and the systemic inflammation index (SII) to describe developmental trends and relationships to cognitive outcomes in SCD at early elementary school-age. Sixty-one children with SCD and no history of stroke were identified who completed an early elementary school age cognitive …

Motivating Physical Activity With Fitness Tracking And The Interpersonal Context, Sapphire H. Lin, Sonny Rosenthal, Rich Ling

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Many societies have aging populations. Getting older people to exercise can help them achieve a higher quality of life. Fitness tracking and social support can buttress that goal. This study tested the effects of fitness tracking and spousal influence on the physical activity of older adults. In a 2 (blinded vs. feedback) × 2 (individual vs. dyad) between-group experiment, 240 participants received a fitness tracker with a visible or blinded display. They participated in the three-month experiment either individually or with their spouses. Participants who received feedback met daily step counts of 7500 and 10,000 more frequently than those without …

A Content Analysis Of Counseling Psychology Literature: Resilience Against Oppression Among People Of Color, David C. Stanley Jr., Rawan H. Atari-Khan

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

The researchers analyzed articles from two flagship counseling psychology journals (i.e., Journal of Counseling Psychology and The Counseling Psychologist) to examine current understandings of resilience. There were 54 articles included in the final analysis that spanned the years 1997–2022. The researchers conducted a content analysis to identify, analyze, and report patterns across counseling psychology journals with regard to how resilience has been defined, the racial/ethnic groups that were of focus, and the forms of oppression that were studied or addressed. Five themes were generated that are a direct representation of the topics within previous literature on resilience in the field …

Evaluating The Efficacy Of And Preference For Interactive Computer Training With Student-Generated Examples, Sylvia C. Aquino, Stephanie Hood, Tara A. Fahmie, Richard Tanis

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Designing effective and preferred teaching practices for undergraduate students are common goals in behavior analytic training programs. A preliminary study by Nava et al. (2019) showed that undergraduate students generally rated peer-generated examples of the principles of behavior analysis as more preferred, relatable, and culturally responsive than traditional textbook examples. However, peer-generated examples did not result in any improvement in performance on concept knowledge assessments. The current study extended the study by Nava et al. by embedding peer-generated examples within interactive computer training (ICT) to provide opportunities for active responding, prompt fading, automated feedback, and practice with examples and nonexamples. …