Digital Commons Network^™

Experientially-Modulated Neuronal Death In Overconnected Neural Networks, Thomas J. Skrmetti

Open Access Dissertations

This experiment was designed to examine the possible physiological mechanisms underlying the formation of critical periods in development. It was hypothesized that experientially-modulated neuronal death, coupled with an overconnected neural network, and acting early in the developmental sequence, could produce a learning effect similar to that described as a "critical period effect."

A computer-based associative memory model was used to simulate a simple neural network representing the associative cortex. Three different independent variables were manipulated in the experiment. The first was the type of connectivity matrix used when the model was initialized prior to training.

Four different developmental paradigms were …

Great Expectations: A Workshop On Responsible Dating, Rita C. Chrappa

Open Access Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate whether a 50-minute workshop educating students in the areas of rape and rape myths would have an effect on attitudes and knowledge about responsible dating.

Great Expectations is a 50-minute workshop which incorporates both a lecture and an affective component in its approach to educating students. Its focus is on educating students around responsible dating as well as rape and rape myths.

The sample was made up of 150 high school seniors, 75 of whom participated in the workshop and 75 served as a control group. Three measures -- Rape Myth Acceptance, Knowledge of …

Validity Of Tasks Of Executive Functions With School-Aged Children: Potential Efficacy In Discriminating Clinical Groups, Lisa L. Weyandt

Open Access Dissertations

The purposes of the present study were (a) to investigate the performance of three groups of children, those diagnosed with Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, those diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorder, and a matched group of nondisabled children on a battery of neuropsychological tasks purported to measure executive function, and (b) to investigate the validity of tasks used to measure executive function across three age levels. A double-dissociation paradigm was used. Six executive function tasks and two nonexecutive function (i.e., vocabulary) tasks were administered to all participants in a counterbalanced order. Results revealed significant group and age effects. Significant differences were found …

Level Of Satisfaction And Commitment To A Decisional Choice As Mediated By Locus Of Control, Michael Anthony Surrette

Open Access Dissertations

The present study investigated the relationship between an increase in decisional choices and an individual's subsequent level of satisfaction and commitment with their choice. An individual's locus of control was also investigated as a mediating variable between decisional choice and satisfaction. Participants read a brief biographical scenario which described an individual's attempt to get accepted into graduate school. The scenario portrayed the individual getting accepted into either one, three, or five graduate programs from a list of ten. Participants were required to complete two measures of satisfaction (Job in General scale & Kunin's Faces Scale) and one measure of commitment …

Modeling Vessel Mobility: The Gulf Of Mexico Shrimp Fleet, John Michael Ward

Open Access Dissertations

Given the heterogeneous nature of the fishing fleet and the complex behavior of vessels, the traditional marginalist supply models are not well suited for modelling vessel mobility. A discrete choice model is utilized in this analysis to predict the probability that a vessel will enter, exit, or remain in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery based on a myopic profit maximization criteria. The multinomial legit model indicates that fisherman behavior in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery is not influenced by stock variability. The crowding externality as represented by the size of the fishing fleet exhibited a strong negative impact …

Preconscious Factors In Romantic Attraction, Jay T. King

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover whether or not the character and or behavior of parents is a factor in the romantic attraction and mate selections made by adults. The study examined the correlation between the parent's temperament and the partners temperament under two different conditions. The first condition involved a comparison when the participants identified their parent as a nurturant parent. The second condition involved a comparison when the participants identified their parent as a person with whom they had a conflicted parent-adolescent relationship. Four predictions were tested based upon psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theory; 1) adults will …

Correlates Of Sibling Jealousy And Parental Favoritism, Catherine Gray Deering

Open Access Dissertations

This study explores selected situational, relationship, and personality variables in sibling jealousy among college students (n=320). The research is based on a blend of social psychological and family systems theory, building on recent advances in romantic jealousy research. Vignettes portraying sibling and parent-initiated comparison situations were used as a projective technique to elicit sibling jealousy. Results indicate that parent-initiated comparisons produced significantly more jealousy than simple sibling comparisons. Sibling-initiated jealousy was significantly higher in domains of higher relevance or importance to the sample. Comparisons in physical attractiveness, social competence, and athletic achievement produced the highest levels of sibling jealousy. More …

Selected Parameters Of Psychotherapy: A Transtheoretical Investigation, Armenio Santos Costa

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Health Risk Reduction And Psychosocial Adaptation In Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Patients, Terence Edward Fitzgerald

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Multidimensionality Of The Male Sex Role Stereotype: An Exploration Of Subtypes, Gwenyth Hughes Edwards

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Selection Of Signal And System Models By Bayesian Predictive Densities, Petar M. Djuric

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Visualization And Visual Perception: The Novels Of Thomas Hardy, Samuel Walter Best

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Tailoring Nursing Care To The Individual Client: An Analysis Of Client-Nurse Discourse, Sarah Jo Brown

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Therapeutic Education And Class Size On College Students' Belief Systems And Stage Of Change, Karen Elaine Jennings

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Preventive Psychosocial Intervention With Parents Of Very Low Birthweight Infants, Elaine C. Meyer

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Transtheoretical Model Of Change: Self-Change In Adolescent Delinquent Behaviors, Christine Fiore Lerner

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Dimensions Of Schizophrenic Symptomatology And Their Use In Defining Schizophrenic Subtypes, Robert Louis Dufresne

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Misspecification Of Components And Factors, Joseph L. Fava

Open Access Dissertations

Factor and component analysis are two similar statistical procedures widely-used to reduce a set of p variables to a smaller set of m variables. This reduced set of m components or factors can be interpreted as an overall pattern structure or used in the derivation of factor and component scores. A commonly occurring and potentially serious problem concerns the misspecification of the number of factors and components (m). Misspecifications can take the form of extracting too many or too few factors or components. A series of simulation studies was undertaken to determine the practical effects of such misspecifications …

Individual Differences In Self-Knowledge And The Psychometric Properties Of Self-Report Measures Of Personality Traits And Attitudes, Raymond A. Kilduff

Open Access Dissertations

I evaluated the relationship between self-knowledge and the psychometric properties of self-report measures of personality traits and attitudes. To accomplish this, three sequential investigations were conducted and each investigation was based on data collected in two relatively large community college samples (NI = 351; N2 = 260). In the first investigation, competing measurement models of the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) were systematically examined within a structural modeling framework. A 3-factor correlated measurement model eliminating eight of the original SCS items provided the best fit to the data. A shortened version of the private self-consciousness subscale (PriSC), an indicator of self-knowledge differences, …

Paternal Acceptance And Nurturance Received And Parents’ Acceptance And Nurturance Of Their Children, Michael Hansen

Open Access Dissertations

The relationship of perceived paternal nurturance and acceptance and parents' nurturance and acceptance of their children was investigated. Two-hundred and fifty (250) undergraduate students and their parents participated in the study. Each subject completed an abbreviated version of the Family Data Form (FDF), which was used to obtain individual and family demographic information. The Family Relations Inventory (FRI) was utilized to measure subjects' perceptions of the degree of parental nurturance and acceptance received. In addition, students completed the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS). Interrelationships between students' and parents' perceived nurturance and acceptance were examined through the utilization of a structural equation …

The Development Of Hope And Hopelessness: Structural And Functional Aspects, Anthony Scioli

Open Access Dissertations

Hopelessness was explored from a developmental perspective. The investigation focused primarily on the relative importance of structural vs. functional variables in determining levels of hopelessness in children and adolescents. The two secondary aims of this study were to further clarify the concept of hopelessness, and to assess the construct validity of the Hopelessness Scale for Children (HSC: Kazdin et al., 1983).

Sixty-four children and adolescents scoring either "high" or "low" on the HSC were interviewed. Thirty-two of the subjects were children, 6-10 years of age. One half of these subjects were clinically involved. The adolescent sample also consisted of thirty-two …

Intergenerational Attitudes And Beliefs About Sexual Assault And Sexual Harassment, Susan Williams-Quinlan

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to compare intergenerational attitudes and beliefs about sexual assault and sexual harassment. This study evaluated the relationship between level of similarity in attitudes and beliefs between intergenerational dyads and level of family communication (open, average, problem) and gender composition (same vs. different) of intergenerational (parent-student) pairs. It was predicted that: 1) there would be significantly greater differences in the attitudes and beliefs of parent-student dyads in problem communication families than in average and open communication families, and in average communication families than in open communication families, and 2) across all levels of family …

Assessing Beliefs About Depression And Its Treatment, Eliezer Tzvi Margolis

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is motivated by the clinical problem of determining which of two comparably effective modes of treatment (pharrnacotherapy and psychotherapy) a depressed individual would be most likely to benefit from. A cognitive variable, illness beliefs about depression, is proposed as a promising guide for making such patient-treatment mode matches.

A broad area of literature is reviewed in order to learn how beliefs about depression are and have been conceptualized, and to learn what methods, if any, have been previously used to measure them. The review begins with an examination of the prevailing cognitive paradigm and it's failure to consider …

Retention Of Distributed Versus Massed Response Prevention Treatments In An Animal Model, Paula J. Martasian

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was twofold. One purpose was to examine the efficiency of escape training as a procedure for conditioning fear. The second and main focus was to investigate the efficacy of repeated response prevention treatments and the retention of these treatment effects. Response prevention (RP) has been shown to significantly decrease avoidance behavior in the laboratory setting. However, past research has also shown the return of avoidance behavior over repeated testings. It was hypothesized that increasing the number of RP treatments, and distributing them, would increase the retention of avoidance reduction over repeated testings. It was predicted …

Predicting Termination And Continuation Status In Psychotherapy Using The Transtheoretical Model, Mary Ellen Medeiros

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Family Profiles: Development Of An Eclectic Classification System, Judith Lubiner

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

George Herbert's Temple Of Sanctification, James Frederick Wardwell

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Invariant Image Recognition Using Projections, Majid Moztarebi Farahani

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Levels Of Attributions Of Male Alcoholics, Their Significant Others And Their Therapists During The Course Of Inpatient Alcohol Rehabilitation, Ann Marie Begin

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Language Processing In Deaf And Hearing Subjects: A Question Of Hemisphere, Pamela Hope Zappardino

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.