Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Practice And Feedback On Interview Performance, Kate Williams

All Theses

Performing well in an interview is of crucial importance to a job seeker. While much advice and training exists regarding interview performance, little is known about what parts of training successfully improve interview skills. This study proposes the following research question: does interview performance improve with practice alone or is some type of feedback required? Participants were split into four treatment groups that either 1) did not practice an interview, 2) practiced an interview, 3) practiced an interview and generated their own self-feedback or 4) practiced an interview and received feedback from a counselor. The study isolates the effects of …

Anxiety And Emotion Dysregulation In Daily Life: An Experience-Sampling Comparison Of Social Phobia And Generalized Anxiety Disorder Analogue Groups, Nathan Alan Miller

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recent research suggests the presence of both common and disorder-specific emotion regulation deficits across the anxiety disorders (Turk et al., 2005), including those that may be uniquely characteristic of social phobia (SP; Kashdan & Breen, 2008; Kashdan & Steger, 2006; Turk et al., 2005). The purpose of the present study was to replicate and expand upon this growing literature in important directions. The initial portion of this study involved administration of relevant self-report symptom, emotion, and emotion regulation survey measures to a large undergraduate sample (N = 784). Scores on several symptom measures were used to create a SP analogue …

Service Utilization Among Bereaved Spouses And Family Caregivers, Elizabeth J. Bergman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For family caregivers, response to the death of the care recipient is marked by a high degree of variability. In recognition of this variability, a range of services and interventions is available to assist individuals in the adjustment to bereavement. The present dissertation, consisting of three related studies, was conducted to examine the utilization of bereavement services by family caregivers.

The first study examined the role of psychological distress in the utilization of bereavement services by spousal caregivers in the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) study. The second study examined bereavement service utilization among dementia caregiver participants in the …

Laurate Biosensors Image Brain Neurotransmitters In Vivo: Can An Antihypertensive Medication Alter Psychostimulant Behavior?, Patricia A. Broderick, Helen Ho, Karyn Wat, Vivek Murthy

Publications and Research

Neuromolecular Imaging (NMI) with novel biosensors enables the selective detection of neurotransmitters in vivo within seconds, on line and in real time. Biosensors remain in place for continuing studies over a period of months. This biotechnological advance is based on conventional electrochemistry; the biosensors detect neurotransmitters by electron transfer. Simply stated, biosensors adsorb electrons from each neurotransmitter at specific oxidation potentials; the current derived from electron transfer is proportional to neurotransmitter concentration. Selective electron transfer properties of these biosensors permit the imaging of neurotransmitters, metabolites and precursors. The novel BRODERICK PROBE® biosensors we have developed, differ in formulation and detection …

Predictors Of Depressive And Anxiety Symptoms Among African American Hiv-Positive Women, Nina Katherine Sublette

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

This descriptive correlation study had four purposes: describe depressive and anxiety symptom levels in pregnant and non-pregnant African American (AA) HIV-positive women, examine the association between underlying vulnerabilities and depressive symptoms in HIV-positive AA women, determine the association between underlying vulnerabilities and anxiety symptoms in AA HIV-positive women, and determine the predictors of depressive and anxiety symptoms among African American HIV-positive women. A convenience sample of 80 African American HIV-positive women was recruited from university-based obstetrics/-gynecology and infectious disease practices in a large metropolitan city in the Mid-South. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale …

The Infant And Effects Of Parental Presence In The Operating Room During Induction Of Anesthesia, Deborah Kaplan

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Previous studies have investigated the physiological and behavioral effects of parental presence in the operating room during the induction of anesthesia (PPIA) both on the child and the parent. Since the characterization of anxiety in infants presents a unique challenge due to their inability to communicate verbally, these studies have typically focused on children greater than two years old. In the present study we addressed this understudied population directly by using highly reliable and validated behavioral instruments as well as analyzing sleep patterns and signs of distress in the infants. The hypothesis tested was the same as in the older …

Hypnosis For Relief Of Pain And Anxiety In Children Receiving Intravenous Lines In The Pediatric Emergency Department, Maya Maxym

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Intravenous line placement is one of the most common procedures performed on children presenting to the Emergency Department. Anxiety about needles is widespread, and many children experience high levels of fear and/or pain with their IV line placements. Hypnosis is a behavioral intervention that shows significant promise for alleviating procedure-related pain and anxiety in children. Twenty-five developmentally normal, English-speaking children between the ages of five and fifteen who required IV line placement in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Yale-New Haven Childrens Hospital were randomized to receive either the standard of care or standard of care plus a brief hypnotic intervention. …

Selective Attention To Threat Versus Reward: Meta-Analysis And Neural-Network Modeling Of The Dot-Probe Task., Paul A Frewen, David J A Dozois, Marc F Joanisse, Richard W J Neufeld

Psychology Publications

Two decades of research conducted to date has examined selective visual attention to threat and reward stimuli as a function of individual differences in anxiety using the dot-probe task. The present study tests a connectionist neural-network model of meta-analytic and key individual-study results derived from this literature. Attentional bias for threatening and reward-related stimuli is accounted for by connectionist model implementation of the following clinical psychology and affective neuroscience principles: 1) affective learning and temperament, 2) state and trait anxiety, 3) intensity appraisal, 4) affective chronometry, 5) attentional control, and 6) selective attention training. Theoretical implications for the study of …

Women's Colposcopy Experience And Preferences: A Mixed Methods Study., Dawn R. Swancutt, Sheila M. Greenfield, Sue Wilson

Peninsula Medical School

BACKGROUND: The colposcopy service is a key component in the UK Cervical Screening Programme. Over 120,000 women are referred to the service annually, however up to 25% of women fail to attend their appointment. Little is known about patients' preferences for colposcopic investigation and treatment. This study aims to investigate women's experience of colposcopy, to identify patients' preferences for aspects of appointments within the colposcopy service, and to make suggestions for service improvement. METHODS/DESIGN: This study has been designed as a two stage, mixed method project. Stage one will involve in-depth interviews with new colposcopy patients to ascertain their experience …

From Self-Reports Of Personality To Perceptions Of The Transgressor?S: Perceived Agreeableness As A Predictor Of Post-Conflict Anxiety, Benjamin A. Tabak

Open Access Theses

Following interpersonal transgressions, victims? neuroticism and agreeableness have been previously associated with post-conflict anxiety and forgiveness. However, the perceptions that victims have about their transgressors? personalities have received little attention. The current investigation examined relationships between victims? neuroticism and agreeableness, their perceptions of their transgressors? agreeableness, and postconflict anxiety and affiliative motivation measured via plasma cortisol and oxytocin as well as self-reports of post-conflict anxiety and forgiveness in premenopausal women. Victims who perceived their transgressors as more agreeable reported lower post-conflict anxiety, experienced less plasma cortisol reactivity following a simulated speech to the transgressor, and more self-reported forgiveness. Exploratory analyses …

A Review Of The Tripartite Model For Understanding The Link Between Anxiety And Depression In Youth, Emily R. Anderson, Debra A. Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Although research from numerous investigations indicates that there is substantial overlap in anxiety and depressive symptoms and comorbid diagnoses in youth, these constructs can be adequately differentiated. Clark and Watson [Clark, L. A. & Watson, D., (1991). Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: Psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100: 316-336] proposed a tripartite model to account for the symptom overlap and diagnostic comorbidity between anxiety and depression. This tripartite model posits that anxiety and depression share a common component of negative affect, but can be differentiated by low positive affect associated with depression and high …

Religiosity And Successful Aging, Jessica L. York

ETD Archive

There has been an increasing amount of elderly individuals who have avoided the crippling health and physical problems that appear to vex so much of the older adult population. These successful agers have also learned to cope more effectively with both the normative and traumatic stressors they encounter over time. Successful aging has been defined in numerous ways and studied in a variety of contexts. This study set to define successful aging in terms of anxiety, depression, and subjective well-being, while also examining the relationship of successful aging with religiosity. The fundamental goal of this study was to examine the …

Examining The Social And Emotional Impact Of Substance Use On The Users' Family Members, Steven Phillip Beyer

ETD Archive

Alcohol use is a multibillion dollar problem in the United States that has been linked to higher rates of anxiety, depression and maladjustment within families. Most studies examining the impact of alcohol use in these areas focus on individuals within treatment facilities. This study extended that research to examine the effects of social and emotional effects of alcohol use on a greater sample of the population, the family members of alcohol users. This study examined the relationships between family alcohol use and higher rates of depression, anxiety, and maladjustment. The data was expected to follow one of two general patterns. …

A Mentally Retarded Patient With Schizophrenia, K. Rabia, E.M. Khoo

Research Publications (2006 to 2010)

Schizophrenia is one of the most incapacitating forms of mental disorder that runs a chronic and relapsing course. It typically starts in adolescence or early adulthood and can be life-long. It is more common in people with learning disabilities than in the general population. Its prodromal features include depression, anxiety, suspiciousness, social isolation and bizarre behaviour. It may result in significant functional, social and economic impairments. The care of patients with schizophrenia places a considerable burden on all carers including patient's family, health and social services. Treatment includes pharmacotherapy and psychosocial interventions. In this case report we describe a thirteen-year-old …

Effects Of Father Absence On Adolescent Depression, Sexual Attitudes, And Substance Use, Nicole M. Hurtack

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between father absence and depression, sexual attitudes, and substance use on adolescents. Data were collected from forty-nine high school students (28 males, 21 females) from ninth to twelfth grade from a private high school in Pennsylvania. The Beck Depression Inventory-II was used to measure levels of depression. A sexual attitudes and substance use, and family demographic survey were also administered. The results of this study provided no support for the hypothesized relationship between adolescent adjustment and father absence. Father absence did not significantly predicted sexual attitudes, depression or substance …

A Cognitive -Behavioral -Based Workshop Intervention For Perfectionism, Marcus T Lasota

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Perfectionistic thinking, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors can have negative influences on mental and physical health. Overly rigid and self-critical perfectionistic thinking also complicates treatment for people seeking to alleviate mental health and medical concerns. Several researchers have offered suggestions for treating perfectionism, but no empirical treatment studies with follow-up results have been published. Only DiBartolo, Frost, Dixon, and Almodovar (2001) conducted a brief manipulation of public speaking fears related to concern over mistakes and employed a control group. The current study expanded the research literature with the creation and evaluation of a 3-hour cognitive-behavioral workshop for perfectionism. The results indicate …

Learning In The Context Of Math Anxiety, Michelle Melissa Guillaume

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Previous studies have examined the effects of math anxiety on working memory and performance. It has been shown that having a high level of math anxiety not only decreases performance, but also interferes with working memory such that the anxiety competes for working memory resources, decreasing the amount of working memory resources available to work on a math task. Previous research has focused on the semantic memory approach, i.e., testing people on what they already know. The current study took this research one step further and looked at learning, specifically stimulus learning, in the context of math anxiety. A well …

The Treatment Of Selective Mutism: A Case Control Alternating Treatments Design, Jennifer L Vecchio

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This was the first study to examine the differential effectiveness of two behavioral interventions for selective mutism while employing a single-case alternating treatments design with documentation of treatment outcomes, calculation of effect size, and measures of treatment integrity. Participants were recruited via press release to the local media and the Clark County School District. Interested participants were initially screened over the telephone. If the screening indicated that a child met diagnostic criteria for selective mutism and did not meet exclusionary criteria, an assessment was scheduled. Each participant was assessed by the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children for DSM-IV Child …

The Effect Of Math Anxiety On Learning A Novel Math Task, Jeremy Adam Krause

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The focus of this experiment was to assess the effect of math anxiety on learning a novel math task (modular arithmetic). While participants that were low in math anxiety performed significantly better (in terms of reaction time) than participants that were in the medium and high math anxiety groups on repeated problems, the low math anxious participants did not perform differently than the medium and high math anxiety groups on unique problems. This indicates that the low math anxious participants were better able to learn the procedure of modular arithmetic but were not significantly different in their ability to learn …

Reactive Attachment Disorder: Challenges For Early Identification And Intervention Within The Schools, Kimberly K. Floyd, Peggy Hester, Harold C. Griffin, Jeannie Golden, Lora Lee Smith Canter

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Attachment is of key importance in childhood development. The quality of attachment relationship between the child and parent/primary caregiver may have an effect on the child and future relationships and social success (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998). When a child fails to bond with a caring adult, attachment becomes disordered and children may not be able to bond appropriately or at all with other people. This inability to relate and connect with others may disrupt or arrest not only children's social development, but also their overall development. The purpose of this review is to synthesize information and research on characteristics, …

Perceived Family Environment, Locus Of Control, And Anxiety Reported By Females At Risk For Developing Eating Disorders, Lauren Alexis Henrikson

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

"Divided Into Double Parts" Race, Gender, And The Double In Books 1-3 Of Spenser’S The Faerie Queene, Rachel N. Holmberg

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the first canto of Book 1 of Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Archimago divides Redcrosse and Una "into double parts," creating the impression that they are not just divided from each other, but divided from themselves. While this is the first time the phrase "divided into double parts" is mentioned, the theme of division and doubling has already appeared in the text. Indeed, this kind of thematic echo, or doubling, is characteristic of Spenser's work. My dissertation argues that only when we are seeing double, do we recognize the unity in The Faerie Queene . The concept of decomposition allows …

Structural Models Of Comorbid Anxiety And Depression In A Primary-Care Older Adult Sample: Effect Of Medical Illness Severity, Threat, Chronicity, And Progressiveness On Model Fit, William Michael Palmer

Dissertations

Recent research suggests that anxiety disorders may be more common in later life than previously thought. Among other factors, the presence of comorbid mood disorders and medical illness confounds accurate assessment and diagnosis of these conditions in the elderly. There have been few studies, however, examining the structural relationships between anxiety and depression with older-adult samples, and even fewer have considered the effect of medical illness on these relationships. This study examined three established structural models of anxiety and depression, using a clinical sample of older adults seeking treatment in a primary-care setting (N = 2,163). It was hypothesized that …

Automatic Spatial Processing Of Threatening And Positive Information In Participants With High And Low Levels Of Trait Anxiety, Ryan W. Hansen

Master's Theses

The study sought to investigate potential differences in automatic spatial processing of threatening and positive information in anxious and non-anxious individuals. Participants evaluated threatening and positive words and pictures in a memory task in which the stimuli's varying spatial position was incidental to the task. Participants demonstrated increased accuracy with threatening stimuli, and a decreased accuracy when the word location varied between initial presentation and test. The results did not provide evidence that threatening stimuli were associated with an increased degree of spatial processing, or that this relationship would be influenced by trait anxiety.

Anxiety Disorders In Children With Williams Syndrome, Their Mothers, And Their Siblings : Implications For The Etiology Of Anxiety Disorders., Ovsanna Leyfer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Genetic factors play an important role in the etiology of anxiety disorders. Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic disorder caused by a deletion on chromosome 7q11.23 and associated with increased prevalence of anxiety disorders relative to the general population and other genetic disorders associated with intellectual disability, can be used in the search for susceptibility genes for anxiety disorders. This study examines the prevalence of anxiety disorders in children with WS, their mothers, and their siblings as well as predictors of anxiety in these groups, in order to facilitate the use of WS in studies of genetics of anxiety disorders. Anxiety …

Paths Toward Impulsive Buying: The Effect Of Credit Use And Debt Avoidance On The Paths Between Money Attitudes And Impulsive Buying Among U.S. College Students, Jacob Prior Sybrowsky

Theses and Dissertations

Money attitudes modeled in the home are an important part of a child's economic socialization. Although not always labeled as such, earlier literature clearly addressed this type of child learning through observation, interaction, and direct familial involvement (Rettig, 1986). Families operate as one of society's most salient economic socializing agents as they provide environments conducive to human development, information networks, role models, and grants and exchanges (Rettig, 1983). The research reported here addresses the economic socialization of children and their money attitudes as emerging adults. The current study investigated the role of money attitudes (power, anxiety, and distrust) by examining …

Anxiety Sensitivity And Retaliatory Aggressive Behavior In Research Volunteers, Joshua J. Broman-Fulks, Michael S. Mccloskey, Mitchell E. Berman

Faculty Publications

An important focus of recent aggression research has been to identify personality variables that influence the expression of aggression. One such variable may be anxiety sensitivity (AS). Individuals high in AS fear unpleasant anxiety-related physiological sensations and perhaps physiological arousal in general. Accordingly, people high in AS are motivated to avoid situations that produce these sensations. With respect to aggressive encounters, an intense attack by an opponent involves significant physiological arousal. High anxiety-sensitive individuals may therefore attempt to decrease the intensity of the interaction by responding in a non-aggressive or conciliatory manner. To test this possibility, 112 community volunteers completed …

Cognitive And Affective Aspects Of Thigmotaxis Strategy In Humans, Janos Kallai, Tamas Makany, Arpad Csatho, Kazmer Karadi, David Horvath, Beatrix Kovacs-Labadi, Robert Jarai, Lynn Nadel, Jake W. Jacobs

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The present article describes the cognitive and emotional aspects of human thiginotaxis (a wall-following spatial strategy) during exploration of virtual and physical spaces. The authors assessed 106 participants with spatial and nonspatial performance-based learning-memory tasks and with fear and anxiety questionnaires. The results demonstrate that thiginotaxis plays a distinct role at different phases of spatial learning. The 1st phase shows a positive correlation between thigmotaxis and general phobic avoidance, whereas there is no association between thigmotaxis and general phobic avoidance during later phases of learning. Furthermore, participants who underperformed in working memory tests and in a spatial construction task exhibited …

Maternal Psychosocial Distress And Breastfeeding And Their Impact On Infant Development, Lauren Heather Switzer

Digitized Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine a hypothesized causal relationship testing whether breastfeeding serves as a mediating pathway variable between maternal psychosocial distress and infant development. A longitudinal prospective study was conducted by telephone interview with 665 mothers and their children. Structured interviews, using standardized measures, were conducted prenatally and again when the children were greater than 24 months old. The hypothesized causal relationship was examined by path analysis, which indicated that, while breastfeeding did not act as a mediator, increased breastfeeding duration was significantly associated with an elevation in infant development score. Findings were similar for both …

An Examination Of Inner Experience: Anxiety, Lessel Lyle Hutchins

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) is used to examine the inner experience of seven individuals who have been diagnosed with at least one anxiety disorder and four control individuals. Idiographic results for each of the 11 participants are provided, including a description of frequent and rare/unique experiences of each participant. These results are followed by between participant nomothetic comparisons. Among the results, it was found that anxious participants experienced more indefinite figure-ground and concrete experiences when compared to controls. Anxious participants are also more likely than controls to engage in negative valence self-evaluations and rate moments as being anxious. There is …