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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Psychology

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Masters Theses

2015

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Effect Of Maternal Borderline Personality Disorder On Adolescents’ Experience Of Maltreatment And Adolescent Borderline Features, Gretchen Kurdziel Dec 2015

Effect Of Maternal Borderline Personality Disorder On Adolescents’ Experience Of Maltreatment And Adolescent Borderline Features, Gretchen Kurdziel

Masters Theses

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe mental illness characterized by dysfunction and instability across a variety of domains including interpersonal relations, behavior, emotion, and cognitions. The current study assessed maltreatment in the adolescent offspring of mothers’ with BPD, who may be more at risk for experiencing maltreatment compared to adolescents who do not have a mother with the disorder. Participants were adolescents age 14-18 years (M = 15.78, SD = 1.21) who were a part of a larger study examining offspring of mothers with BPD. Groups were divided into adolescents whose mothers’ were diagnosed with BPD (n = …

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The Individual And Relational Role Balance Scale (Irrbs): A Preliminary Scale Development And Validation Study, Jennifer Lynn Bishop Dec 2015

The Individual And Relational Role Balance Scale (Irrbs): A Preliminary Scale Development And Validation Study, Jennifer Lynn Bishop

Masters Theses

During emerging adulthood, young people begin the process of balancing individual and relational role commitments. Whereas development within specific domains, primarily career and relationship (work and love), have been explored separately, it is important to understand how emerging adults divide their attention across multiple individual (i.e. education, employment, athletics, organizational membership) and relational (i.e. friendship, family relationship, romantic partnership) domains during this period and how perceived balance impacts psychosocial functioning in terms of life satisfaction, well-being, and mental health. This study reports on the preliminary scale validation of the Individual and Relational Role Balance Scale (IRRBS) using a college student …

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Gender, Coping Style, And Depression Severity In Emerging Adult University Students, Dennis Allen Donahue Dec 2015

Gender, Coping Style, And Depression Severity In Emerging Adult University Students, Dennis Allen Donahue

Masters Theses

Much research has examined coping styles and their possible positive or negative relationship with psychological health and well-being in various populations. Many studies have identified coping methods that may be associated with lower levels of specific psychological symptomatology as well as those that may predict an exacerbation of distress. The current study replicated some of these findings in a population of emerging-adult college students. Using Tobin and colleagues (1989) hierarchical model of coping and the Coping Strategies Inventory, we examined the potential links between coping style, gender, and depression. Gender was found to be a weak predictor of depression prevalence …

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Mechanisms For Social Influence, Jeremy David Auerbach Aug 2015

Mechanisms For Social Influence, Jeremy David Auerbach

Masters Theses

Throughout the thesis, I study mathematical models that can help explain the dependency of social phenomena in animals and humans on individual traits. The first chapter investigates consensus building in human groups through communication of individual preferences for a course of action. Individuals share and modify these preferences through speaker listener interactions. Personality traits, reputations, and social networks structures effect these modifications and eventually the group will reach a consensus. If there is variation in personality traits, the time to reach consensus is delayed. Reputation models are introduced and explored, finding that those who can best estimate the average initial …

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The Relationship Between Parent Communication Orientations And The Self-Efficacy Of Student-Athletes, Sara Marie Erdner May 2015

The Relationship Between Parent Communication Orientations And The Self-Efficacy Of Student-Athletes, Sara Marie Erdner

Masters Theses

The influence of parent(s)/guardian(s) communication on a student-athlete’s self-efficacy has received limited attention despite its potential implications for the athlete’s sport performance. Student-athlete participants (N = 290) completed measures to report their level of self-efficacy along with the student-athlete perceptions of their parent(s)/guardian’(s) communication orientation. Further, efficacy-enhancing techniques were measured to report frequency-of-use and effectiveness as these strategies were administered by the parent(s)/guardian(s). Significant relationships were found between conformity- and conversation communication and a student-athlete’s self-efficacy. However, these communication orientations did not interact to influence a student-athlete’s self-efficacy. Mean scores are reported to demonstrate which efficacy-enhancing techniques are the most …

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Moderating Effect Of Negative Peer Group Climate On The Relation Between Men’S Locus Of Control And Aggression Towards Intimate Partners, Megan Ryan Schmidt May 2015

Moderating Effect Of Negative Peer Group Climate On The Relation Between Men’S Locus Of Control And Aggression Towards Intimate Partners, Megan Ryan Schmidt

Masters Theses

The present study sought to examine the interactive effects of an external locus of control and interaction in a negative peer group climate on men’s perpetration of physical aggression and infliction of injury towards their female intimate partners. Participants were 206 heterosexual males recruited from the metro-Atlanta community who completed self-report measures of external locus of control, involvement in a negative peer group climate, and physical aggression and infliction of injury against intimate partners during the past 12 months. Negative peer group climate was conceptualized as a peer group that displays behavior which may instigate aggressive norms, attitudes, and behaviors. …

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Central Executive Functioning And Electrodermal Levels In Adults With And Without Clinically Significant Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Symptoms, Megan Carl May 2015

Central Executive Functioning And Electrodermal Levels In Adults With And Without Clinically Significant Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Symptoms, Megan Carl

Masters Theses

Adults diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) demonstrate impaired performance on central executive (CE) functioning tasks (Alderson, Hudec, Patros, & Kasper, 2013a; Boonstra, Oosterlaan, Sergeant, & Buitelaar, 2005; Nigg et al., 2005) and underarousal of the sympathetic nervous system as measured by the electrodermal levels (EDLs) during resting state paradigms (Hermens et al., 2004). CE functioning and arousal are linked in three theoretical models of ADHD. No study to date has examined the degree to which EDLs (arousal) are related to ADHD-related cognitive impairments. This study examined (1) performance associated with central executive functioning and (2) EDLs while increasing CE processing …

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Prevalence And Correlates Of Suicidal Ideation Among Court-Referred Male Perpetrators Of Intimate Partner Violence, Caitlin Wolford-Clevenger May 2015

Prevalence And Correlates Of Suicidal Ideation Among Court-Referred Male Perpetrators Of Intimate Partner Violence, Caitlin Wolford-Clevenger

Masters Theses

Despite the documented association between intimate partner violence perpetration and suicidal ideation, few studies have examined the prevalence and correlates of suicidal ideation in men attending batterer intervention programs. This cross-sectional study examined the prevalence and correlates of suicidal ideation in 294 males court-ordered to a batterer intervention program. Twenty-two percent of the sample reported experiencing suicidal ideation within the two weeks prior to entering the batterer intervention program. Multiple linear regression indicated that depression and borderline personality disorder symptoms, but not intimate partner violence perpetration, victimization, or antisocial personality disorder symptoms, accounted for significant variance in suicidal ideation. These …

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Intergroup Dialogue In Undergraduate Multicultural Psychology Education: Group Climate Development And Outcomes, Joel Timothy Muller May 2015

Intergroup Dialogue In Undergraduate Multicultural Psychology Education: Group Climate Development And Outcomes, Joel Timothy Muller

Masters Theses

We examined group climate and outcomes in 19 intergroup dialogues (IGD) focused on gender, race and ethnicity, religion and spirituality, sexual orientation, or social class at a large, public university in the Southeastern United States. Group members were undergraduate students enrolled in a course in multicultural psychology. Participants completed pre- and post-dialogue outcome measures of: attitudes toward diversity, colorblind attitudes, and ethnocultural empathy. Following each of the eight weekly sessions, participants completed a group climate measure assessing engagement, avoidance, and conflict. Across eight weeks, group members perceived significant increases in engagement and decreases in avoidance, but no significant changes in …

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