Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Many Roads To Social Satisfaction? Social Anxiety, Social Interaction Format, And Social Belonging, Mohamed Mi Ismail

Honors Theses

This study explored how different social interaction formats (face-to-face versus virtual) influence individuals’ belongingness need satisfaction and interaction enjoyment. Furthermore, it also explored how personality variables related to social anxiety (i.e., Interaction Anxiousness, Fear of Negative Evaluation) interact with social interaction format to influence belongingness needs satisfaction and enjoyment. Participants engaged in a conventional face-to-face interaction or a virtual interaction (via Instant Messenger) with a same-sex confederate on a between-subjects basis. Participants then indicated the extent to which the interaction satisfied fundamental social needs (e.g., self-esteem, belonging), their positive and negative mood, as well as how much they enjoyed the …

Racial Differences In Self-Efficacy Expectations For Exercise, Selena P. Smith

Honors Theses

This project examined the link between race and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy pertains to an individual’s confidence in ability to complete or engage in a particular task or activity (Bandura, 1986). Prior research shows that self-efficacy has a great influence on exercise initiation and adherence (Bandura, 1986; Dishman, 1982; Rodgers and Sullivan, 2001). Research also supports that Caucasians are more likely to participate in exercise than African Americans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000).

Participants included 51 females, 31 Caucasians and 20 African Americans, between the ages of 18 and 50 years old. The women were recruited from local fitness gyms, …

The Separate And Combined Effects Of Heredity And Environment Predicting Alcohol Use Disorder Symptoms And Antisocial Personality Disorder Symptoms, Jaylee R. Gill

Honors Theses

The current study examined genetic and environmental influences in relation to alcohol use pathology. The 756 participants (378 adoptive, 378 non-adoptive) came from the 2001-2002 NESARC conducted by the NIAAA. A factorial ANOVA was used to measure the effects that the three grouping variables had on each dependent variable for a total of seven datasets. Results showed that biological parents’ drinking did pose a risk in participants for Loss of Control (p = .000) and Dangerous Behavior (p = .00). Adoption status was correlated with Conduct Disorder (p = .007) and Antisocial Personality Disorder (p = .014). This suggests that …

Psychometric Properties Of The Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale, Amy Storfer-Isser, Monique K. Lebourgeois, John Harsh, Carolyn J. Tompsett, Susan Redline

Faculty Publications

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale (ASHS), a self-report measure assessing sleep practices theoretically important for optimal sleep. Data were collected on a community sample of 514 adolescents (16–19; 17.7 ± 0.4 years; 50% female) participating in the late adolescent examination of a longitudinal study on sleep and health. Sleep hygiene and daytime sleepiness were obtained from adolescent reports, behavior from caretaker reports, and sleep-wake estimation on weekdays from wrist actigraphy. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated the empirical and conceptually based factor structure were similar for six of the eight proposed sleep hygiene domains. Internal …

Seasonal And Diurnal Behavioral Patterns Of Bottlenose Dolphins, Tursiops Truncatus, That Exhibit High Site And Low Site Fidelity To Mississippi Sound, Shauna Marisa Mcbride

Master's Theses

This study examined whether bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) exhibit site fidelity to the Mississippi Sound and how the seasonal and diurnal behavioral patterns of dolphins that exhibit high site fidelity to the Mississippi Sound differ from those of dolphins with lower site fidelity. Opportunistic surveys conducted from July 2006 to April 2010 were analyzed. Statistical analyses consisted of nonparametric tests (Spearman's correlation, loglinear models, and Pearson's chi-square) to compare behavioral patterns of high site fidelity, mixed, and low site fidelity groups. Behavioral patterns significantly differed between site fidelity groups across seasons and diurnal periods. Feeding behavior was observed significantly more …

Anticipated Life Role Salience And Career Decision-Making Difficulties, Emily A. Schedin

Master's Theses

With the dual-earner population increasingly becoming the norm, undergraduate students are forced to consider the ways in which their career choice may affect their future family life, as well as how their family life may affect their career. Research has shown that undergraduate students may alter their vocational aspirations or adjust their future family plans to avoid work-family role conflict thus implying that students are making career decisions based on their prioritization of anticipated future life roles. The present study sought to investigate how the salience of different life roles may factor into the level of career decision-making difficulty (CDMD) …

Alcohol Consumption And Unwanted Sexual Experiences Among College Females: The Mediating Role Of Protective Behavioral Strategies, Kayla Darlene Moorer

Master's Theses

The narrowing gender gap regarding consumption has resulted in more alcoholrelated consequences specific to females. Compared to males, females report more sexual consequences, such as doing something they later regret, as a result of alcohol consumption. For this reason, there is a vital need for researchers to identify active methods that females can engage in while consuming alcohol in order to reduce the risk of unwanted sexual experiences (UWS). Protective behavioral strategies (PBS) have been shown to decrease overall alcohol-related consequences, but further investigation is needed to determine which strategies are most influential in reducing the occurrence of specific alcohol-related …

A Comparison Of Behavioral And Academically-Focused Goals Within The Mystery Motivator: Effects On Disruptive Behavior And Academic Performance, Christina Michelle Hardy

Dissertations

Class-wide group contingencies are effective for decreasing inappropriate behavior and increasing academic performance. An interdependent group contingency, a subtype of group contingencies, sets a specific goal for performance across the class, and a reward is delivered only if the group meets the specified criterion. One interdependent group contingency, the Mystery Motivator, has been designed to target behavioral or academically-based goals; however these goals have guided the type of data collected. There are no published studies, to date, that compare behavioral and academic goals and the effects of each type of goal on both decreasing disruptive behavior as well as improving …

The Development And Use Of A Color Discrimination T-Maze Learning Task In The Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Elizabeth Ann Lamb

Master's Theses

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are becoming increasingly utilized in behavioral studies as a model of human learning and memory. The results of a previous study by Colwill, Raymond, Ferreira, and Escudero (2005) indicated that this species is capable of discriminating between colors and learning to respond to an assigned hue at either arm of a T-maze, indicating a learned association between the neutral stimulus and reward. While this original study showed that this task was appropriate for use in this species, we proposed that it had the potential to provide more data on specifics of the learning process with amended methods. …

Religious Fundamentalism And Death Penalty Attitudes: Towards A New Operationalization Of The Constructs, William H. Whited

Master's Theses

The death penalty has remained a highly debated topic in the United States. Due to the link between public support for the death penalty and its utilization as a sanction, it is important to continue investigating the factors related to differences in death penalty support. Religion has a complicated relationship with death penalty attitudes in that certain religiosity factors are associated with support for the sanction while others are linked with opposition. Religious fundamentalism, for instance, is one variable that has been inconsistently associated with death penalty support in the literature. This discrepancy could be due to the poor measurement …

Ecological Psychology And Media Consumption Among Young Adults: A New Framework, Alice Diana Cade Ferguson

Dissertations

The Pew Research Center (2010, March 1) identified three crucial “new metrics of news” (p. 2) that help to explain the appeal of new, interactive media forms among young adult news consumers. These metrics of Portability, Personalizability and Participation (Pew, 2010) highlight the rapid transformations in technology and user interests that have helped create a new manifestation of what McLuhan called an “age of anxiety” (1967/2001, pp. 8-9) in mass media industries and in mass communication education and scholarship. The purpose of this research is to investigate this very shift in how news is delivered and consumed, with particular attention …

Effects Of Check In/Checkout With A Fading Procedure On The Academic Engagement And Problem Behavior Of Elementary School Students, Leila Mullooly Miller

Dissertations

Though preliminary research indicates Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) is an effective intervention for improving problematic behavior in a variety of populations, the literature is limited in several ways. Several studies have relied on indirect measures of behavior, such as office discipline referrals (ODRs) and teacher ratings, to determine the effectiveness of CICO. However, indirect measures are not always reliable indicators of student behavior change, whereas direct observation is known to be an accurate tool for behavioral measurement. Therefore, the current study evaluated the effects of CICO on levels of problem behavior and academic engagement for a group of four elementary school students …

Further Analysis Of The Competitive Prosocial/Aggression Continuum Task, Alexander Mark Biondolillo

Dissertations

The Competitive Prosocial/Aggression Continuum Task (COMPACT) (Biondolillo, 2010) was developed in order to create an improved reaction time paradigm for aggression that reduces demand characteristics and increases the scope of research applications available in previous designs by using a behavioral response palette of both aversive and pleasant auditory stimuli to model both aggressive and prosocial behaviors. Initial validation research on the COMPACT demonstrated significant correlations between aggressive responding and several scales of interest; however, such correlations demonstrated smaller effects than the medium-sized effects predicted based on the literature available on similar reaction time paradigms, and pleasant response options on the …

Evaluation Of Behavior Subtypes Of Sexual Addiction: A Latent Profile Analysis Of Sexual Behaviors, Nicole Lea Blazek

Dissertations

Sexual addiction has been characterized as out of control sexual behavior that leads to decreased functioning and negative consequences in a number of areas (Kafka, 2010). The current study aimed to demonstrate whether or not homogenous classes of individuals presenting for treatment and diagnosed with sexual addiction could be identified utilizing a person-centered approach, Latent Profile Analysis, using sexual behavior frequency scales from the Sexual Dependency Inventory-4.0 (SDI-4.0; Green, Arnau, & Carnes, 2013) as indicators. After identifying the distinct subclasses of sexual behaviors, the study examined the nature of the groups through an analysis of external correlates of group membership. …

Examining College Students' Use Of Protective Behavioral Strategies From The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Melissa Ann Bonnell

Dissertations

Previous studies on college alcohol use suggest that approximately 65 - 73 percent of college students drank alcohol within the past 30 days (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2011; Nelson, Xuan, Lee, Weitzman, & Wechsler, 2009). Researchers also suggest that with increasing levels of alcohol consumption, students are more likely to experience alcohol-related consequences such as missing class, involvement with the legal system and expulsion from school. Therefore, prevention efforts have attempted to reduce the associated economic and personal consequences experienced with increased alcohol consumption. Protective behavioral strategies (PBS) such as using a designated driver, setting a predetermined time to …

The Impact Of A Dance Aerobics Program On Middle School Girls' Physical Activity Level, Self-Efficacy, And Decisional Balance, Alexis Suozzi Bridley

Dissertations

Rates of childhood obesity have increased dramatically in recent years. Decrease in physical activity is among the leading causes, with adolescent females at greatest risk for obesity. School-based interventions have shown promise; however, few studies have considered the type of activity on physical activity level. According to the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), intrinsic readiness, self-efficacy, and perceived risks and benefits regarding change contribute to behavior change. Yet no known studies have considered the impact of intervention with a traditionally preferred activity on selfefficacy and decisional balance. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the impact of a 2- week dance aerobics program …

Using Brief Experimental Analyses To Identify Effective Math Interventions For Early Elementary Students, Chelsi Ronatta Clark

Dissertations

athematics difficulties, this study aimed to use a brief experimental analysis (BEA) to identify effective interventions within a response to intervention (RTI) framework. Participants included four lower elementary school students who exhibited marked problems in mathematics. The effects of mathematics interventions to increase mathematic computational fluency and accuracy were assessed during the BEA. The intervention that produced the greatest gains during the BEA was compared to the intervention that produced the least gains during an extended analysis phase. It was hypothesized that: (a) during a BEA of math interventions, students will demonstrate differential responding across interventions; (b) during a BEA …

Dynamics Of Perceptual Organization In Complex Visual Search: The Identification Of Self Organized Criticality With Respect To Visual Grouping Principles, Attila Jozsef Farkas

Dissertations

The current project applies modern quantitative theories of visual perception to examine the effect of the Gestalt Law of proximity on visual cognition. Gestalt Laws are spontaneous dynamic processes (Brunswik & Kamiya, 1953; Wertheimer, 1938) that underlie the principles of perceptual organization. These principles serve as mental short-cuts, heuristic rule-of-thumb strategies that shorten decision-making time and allow continuous, efficient processing and flow of information (Hertwig & Todd, 2002). The proximity heuristic refers to the observation that objects near each other in the visual field tend to be grouped together by the perceptual system (Smith-Gratto & Fisher, 1999). Proximity can be …

Parenting Style Differences In Black American And White American Young Adults, Sarah Lynette Mcmurtry

Dissertations

Baumrind’s (1967) theory of parenting style influenced over 40 years of parenting research, which found authoritative parenting as the optimal parenting style. Authoritarian and parenting styles have been linked to worse adjustment and achievement for child outcomes (Baumrind, 1967; Steinberg, Lamborn, Darling, Mounts, & Dornbusch, 1994) than children in authoritative-parented homes. In 1972, Baumrind described racial differences in parent-child relations and outcomes between authoritarian Black American and White American parents and preschoolers (1975). In comparison to White American parents, Black Americans exhibited authoritarian parenting that was less rejecting and associated with communication and warmth (Baumrind, 1975; Murry, Brody, & Simons, …

Examination Of The Pediatric Diabetes Routines Questionnaire In Adolescents: Development Of An Adolescent Self-Report Version And Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Jessica Sima Pierce

Dissertations

Previous literature suggests a positive relationship between general child routines and diabetes treatment adherence. However, research examining routines specific to the diabetes regimen is lacking. Recently, the Pediatric Diabetes Routines Questionnaire (PDRQ) was developed as a parent-report measure of diabetes-specific routines for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Though the PDRQ has provided a means to measure routines specific to the diabetes regimen, limitations exist in regard to its use with adolescents. Thus, the goals of this study were to develop and evaluate a parallel adolescent self-report version (PDRQ: Adolescent; PDRQ:A) of the PDRQ and to examine the psychometric …

Mindfulness, Facets Of Big Five Personalities, And Psychological Health, Nicholas J. Schmidt

Dissertations

The concept of mindfulness, nonjudgmentally being aware of one’s environment, whether internal or external, has long been a core component of eastern religions, such as Buddhism, for over 2,000 years. Not until relatively recently, however, has the concept of mindfulness gained attention in Western psychology. As mindfulness has come to be associated with both psychological health and the absence of psychological distress, its practice has begun to be implemented in a number of cognitive behavioral therapies for a wide range of mental disorders.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the possible relationships between facets of measures used …

Effectiveness Of Teacher-Implemented Function-Based Interventions Versus Non-Function-Based Interventions For Preschoolers, Katherine Marie Bellone

Dissertations

Disruptive behaviors occur frequently in preschool classrooms. Children who exhibit early-onset behavioral concerns in educational settings are at greater risk for negative developmental outcomes than their peers. In order to address problem behaviors in the classroom, practitioners may use functional assessment methodology to design an individualized intervention tied to the function of the behavior. Alternatively, practitioners may choose to use an evidence-based practice, not tied to behavioral function, shown to be beneficial through research. Though much research states the need for empirical comparisons between function-based interventions and non-function-based interventions, past comparisons have often been unbalanced, such that the interventions included …

Do Gender, Delinquent Peer Affiliations, And Parenting Practices Moderate The Relation Between Callou-Unemotional Traits And Delinquency, Nicole Rivera-Hudson

Master's Theses

The present study examined how contextual factors differentially influence the relation between the components of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and delinquency for male and female adolescents. More specifically, it considered delinquent peer affiliations and ineffective parenting practices as moderators in this relation with the belief that those moderators would exert a different influence for males and females. The study was conducted with a sample of 238 adolescents (166 males, 72 females) ages 16 to 19 attending a voluntary military style residential program. Analyses demonstrated a general lack of support for the central hypotheses of the present study. There was a significant …

The Predictors Of Calling And The Role Of Career Satisfaction In Working Adults, Kari Ann Leavell

Dissertations

A significant amount of time in adult life is spent working. Individuals enter into their world of work by many circumstances, including feeling called to a given career or viewing their work as a calling. The psychological construct of calling has been shown to have considerable implications for career-related outcomes, including career satisfaction. Further, satisfaction with work has demonstrated a considerable impact on more global areas such as satisfaction with and quality of life, meaning in life, and religiousness. Increased understanding of the construct of calling and its contribution to career development and career-related outcomes can clarify how individuals’ experiences …

The Role Of Distress Tolerance In Aggressive Behavior, Anne Winston Mcintyre

Dissertations

Berkowitz (1989) proposed that the degree of negative affect experienced following a frustrating event determines whether one will respond aggressively, suggesting that one possesses a certain amount of tolerance for distressing emotions. However, little research has been conducted on the relation between distress tolerance and aggression. Moreover, no published study has examined the relation between distress tolerance and behavioral aggression using a multi-modal assessment approach, nor examined the potential mediating role of negative affect in the relation between distress tolerance and aggression. To address this gap in the literature, college students (N = 87) aged 18 to 49 years (M …

The Sexual Assault Severity Scale: A Comprehensive Measure Of Assault Severity, Karyn Crystal Swinson

Dissertations

Many studies in the sexual assault literature have found a significant relationship between sexual assault severity and psychological distress, specifically PTSD and suicidality. However, in the current literature, there is an inconsistent and incomplete definition of the construct of assault severity. The present study aims to create a comprehensive self-report questionnaire, called the Sexual Assault Severity Scale (SASS) that includes assault characteristics, such as victim-offender relationship, substance use, and peritraumatic responses, and cognitive variables, such as posttraumatic schema disruptions and coping self-efficacy in the conceptualization of assault severity. Two models evaluating the relationship between assault severity and post assault distress …

The Role Of Hardiness, Family Hardiness, And Parenting Self-Efficacy On Parenting Stress In Adoptive Parents, Erica Danielle Raisanen

Master's Theses

Adoptive parents are at risk for experiencing a high level of parenting stress (McGlone, Santos, Kazama, Fong, & Mueller, 2002) throughout the duration of the adoption experience. Adoptee background factors have been found to contribute to increased levels of parenting stress and distress in adoptive parents (Brooks, Simmel, Wind, & Barth, 2005; McDonald, Lieberman, Partridge, & Homby, 1991; McGlone et al., 2002). Increased parenting stress has been associated with negative outcomes for both parent and child (Ang, 2008; Deater-Deckard, Smith, & Ivy 2005; Morgan, Robinsion, & Aldridge, 2002). Hardiness, family hardiness and parental self-efficacy are protective factors that have all …

Accessing Learning In The Adult Zebrafish With A Novel Associative Learning Task, David Joseph Jouandot Ii

Dissertations

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is accepted in the developmental and genomic communities as a model organism. However, the capacity for the zebrafish as a behavioral model has yet to be fully acknowledged. The research presented provides evidence validating the novel task, aids in gaining a better understanding of the learning processes, and identifies individual differences. The novel associative learning task differs from any present well established behavioral model and lends itself to future development. The task provides the zebrafish community with a high output behavioral task which is readily replicated and allows one researcher to test between eight …

Effects Of Food Dispersion On Dominance Related Behaviors In Garnett's Bushbaby (Otolemur Garnettii)?, Kyle Daniel Edens

Dissertations

Socio-ecological theorists tie primate social structure diversity to variations in habitats within which primate species reside. This premise permits laboratory researchers to investigate specific factors that influence or relate to social structure formation and maintenance. The focus of the current investigation was three fold. We first aimed to determine the relationships between traditional and non-traditional behavioral measures of dominance, then evidence for dominance hierarchy formation was examined, and various hypotheses were tested to discern if adjustments in the foraging context altered social behaviors in Garnett’s bushbaby (Otolemur garnettii). It was determined that animals likely to displace conspecifics were …

Tactile Behavior In A Group Of Captive Rough-Toothed Dolphins As A Function Of Opportunities To Play With Objects, Kelly Ann Caffery

Dissertations

Cetaceans live in complex physical and social environments that are frequently changing. In contrast, the captive environment for marine mammals is often lacking in stimulation. As a result, enrichment is often used to increase species-typical behaviors and enhance the well-being of the animals. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of enrichment objects on the social behavior of a group of seven captive rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis). Observations of this species in the wild suggest it may have a particular affinity for tactile and object play behaviors. Therefore, these behavior categories were a primary focus …