Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Life-Course Socioeconomic Position And Hypertension In African American Men: The Pitt County Study, Sherman A. James, John Van Hoewyk, Robert F. Belli, David S. Strogatz, David R. Williams, Trevillore E. Raghunathan

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objectives. We investigated the odds of hypertension for Black men in relationship to their socioeconomic position (SEP) in both childhood and adulthood.

Methods. On the basis of their parents’ occupation, we classified 379 men in the Pitt County (North Carolina) Study into low and high childhood SEP. The men’s own education, occupation, employment status, and home ownership status were used to classify them into low and high adulthood SEP. Four life-course SEP categories resulted: low childhood/low adulthood, low childhood/high adulthood, high childhood/low adulthood, and high childhood/high adulthood.

Results. Low childhood SEP was associated with a 60% greater …

Incorporating Social Anxiety Into A Model Of College Problem Drinking: Replication And Extension, Lindsay S. Ham, Debra A. Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Although research has found an association between social anxiety and alcohol use in noncollege samples, results have been mixed for college samples. College students face many novel social situations in which they may drink to reduce social anxiety. In the current study, the authors tested a model of college problem drinking, incorporating social anxiety and related psychosocial variables among 228 undergraduate volunteers. According to structural equation modeling (SEM) results, social anxiety was unrelated to alcohol use and was negatively related to drinking consequences. Perceived drinking norms mediated the social anxiety–alcohol use relation and was the variable most strongly associated with …

Correlational Relationship Between Jealousy, Self-Esteem, And Locus Of Control In An Undergraduate Population, Rebecca C. Cooley

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Jealousy is a reaction to a perceived threat in a relationship. It can lead to relationship dissatisfaction and even violence. By better understanding which personality traits are linked with jealousy we can better understand this emotion and its expression. The present study investigates the relationship between jealousy, self-esteem, and locus of control. The total number of participants was 180 (95 male, 78 female, 7 missing data) which were recruited from introductory psychology classes. Participants completed a 79-item survey, which contained the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Interpersonal Jealousy Scale, and the Multidimensional Locus of Control Scales: God Control Revision. The correlation …

Factors Influencing Marital Satisfaction With A Specific Focus On Depression, Elizabeth K. Bagwell

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Conceptualizing And Analyzing The Pleasure Travel Decision-Making Process, Wayne William Smith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation explores methodological approaches to the study of the pleasure travel decision-making process. Specifically, this dissertation explores methodological approaches to studying the relative importance of motivations and constraints in the travel decision-making process. Three segmentation approaches were used, principle components analysis, cluster analysis and unidimensional sequence alignment. 522 students from two South-western Ontario, Canada universities participated in this study examining their decision-making in relation to potential travel plans for reading week (February 2005). The results indicate that individuals potentially have a multitude of constraint levels to over-come as part of the initial travel decision-making process. If these base constraints …

Towards A Good Life: One Family's Experiences With Individualized Supports, Alison Baxter

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Individualized funding and supports for people with a disability have emerged in Canada as an alternative to traditional supports such as group homes and day programs. In this thesis, I examine one family's experiences with individualized disability-related supports. From the perspective of an individual with an intellectual disability and her family members, friends, support workers and service providers, the benefits and challenges of individualized supports are profiled. Furthermore, how individualized supports impact upon relationships and community inclusion for this individual is explored along with the experiences of parents, siblings and support workers. As a qualitative study, information was gathered from …

The Development Of Wheel-Induced Feeding Suppression In Male And Female Rats, Olivia Dalton-Jez

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Access to a running wheel causes a feeding suppression in adult rats (Afonso & Eikelboom, 2003) but it appears this wheel induced feeding suppression is not evident in weanlings (Cortright, Chandler, Lemon, and DiCarlo, 1997). This ad lib wheel and food model (ALWF) has been suggested as an animal model of anorexia nervosa (AN). Two characteristic features of AN are the disorder's very specific age of onset and the marked sex difference in incidence, with the majority of cases first becoming evident in females during puberty. It is not clear how much of the genesis of and expression of this …

Prerequisites For Reading Proficiency In Preschoolers, Iuliana Elena Faroga

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The impact of a training program that combined phonological awareness activities with instruction in the alphabetic principle and teaching of basic vocabulary items (Zimmer, 2003) and commonly used words in school (Scarborough, 2003) was evaluated through a repeated measures design with a control group. The intervention targeted low-income preschool English-as-a-second language children (ESL) and low-income English speaking children, as well as middle-class ESL children. The results show that the children participating in the intervention group showed significantly better performance on phonological awareness and trained vocabulary measures than children in the control group. Additionally, ESL trained children demonstrated significantly better performance …

Cross-Sensitization/Tolerance Between Wheel Running And Amphetamine And Morphine In Rats, Clint Inkster

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether cross-sensitization/tolerance between wheel running and the drugs amphetamine and morphine is possible in male Sprague Dawley rats. Each experiment compared a non-wheel control group and a chronic wheel access group of rats. Following a 24 day period of wheel access all animals were presented with a drug and saline challenge test (counterbalanced) with either 1 mg/kg of amphetamine (Experiment 1) or 10mg/kg or morphine (Experiment 2). Prior to the challenge tests all animals were habituated to the novel testing environment in two 1 hr sessions (Experiment 1) or one 2 hr session (Experiment …

Pigeons' Memory For Sequences Of Light Flashes When Gap Duration Is Controlled, Dwayne Keough

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In Experiment 1, pigeons were trained at a 1-s dark and a 1-s houselight illuminated delay interval to discriminate between sequences of two and four flashes of light (feeder illumination). These sequences could be discriminated on the basis of the number of flashes, the number of gaps, or the duration of the gap between flashes. A choose-few bias was obtained at extended dark delays, but no biased forgetting was observed at extended illuminated delays. The pigeons may have confused long dark delays with the longer gaps between flashes on few sample trials. In Experiment 2, additional sample sequences were included …

Syntactic Processing In Individuals With Dyslexia: Using Erp To Address The Debate, Hilary Brown

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Behavioural and ERP data were collected from university and college students with and without dyslexia to determine if a deficit in syntactic processing in post-secondary students with dyslexia can be explained by the degree of phonological processing deficits. Participants read and listened to sentences of differing syntactic complexity and working memory load, particularly object relative and subject relative sentences. Slow cortical waves showed greater negativity for the objective relative sentences as the sentence progressed for the control participants regardless of presentation format. The same result was seen for the participants with dyslexia when presented with sentences in an auditory format. …

Listening To The Voices Of Women Living With Hiv/Aids: A Qualitative Study Of Psychosocial Impact And Quality Of Life Issues, Edna Aryee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In spite of the increasing number of women infected with HIV around the world, little is known about the psychosocial experiences of these women. In the mid-1990s, medical advances dramatically altered the experiences of living with HIV/AIDS. The shifting medical climate raised new social and psychological questions such as coping strategies and the possibility of gaining access to resources and services in the community. In this qualitative study, I examined how 5 women living with HIV/AIDS in Southern Ontario deal with their daily psychosocial needs and challenges. Based on a life history methodology, responses of participants were coded and analyzed …

Intuition And Correspondence Between Implicit And Explicit Self-Esteem, Mervyn Lee Whitfield

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Implicit self-esteem has recently been the focus of much research. Implicit self-esteem is distinct from explicit self-esteem and uniquely contributes to the prediction of behaviour. Relatively little is known about the nature of implicit self-esteem, however. This research examines moderators of the relation between implicit self-esteem and self-reports of self-esteem. A stronger focus on intuition was expected to increase the relation between implicit self-esteem and self-reports of self-esteem. Study 1 concerned whether high faith in intuition was associated with self-reports of self-esteem that more closely reflect implicit self-esteem. Implicit self-esteem, explicit self-esteem, and faith in intuition were measured. This study …

'If I Wasn't Friends With These People, I Probably Wouldn't Have Adjusted Too Well': Friendship Development And University Adjustment Among First-Year University Students, Vanessa Buote

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Two studies sought to examine the relationship between new friendship quality and university adjustment. In Study 1, 706 students completed the Openness subscale of the NEO-FF Form S and the Openness to Friendship Scale in August 2005. In November, these students completed the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire and the McGill Friendship Questionnaire-Friends Functions. Results indicated that a significant positive relationship existed between quality of new friendships and university adjustment. Significant differences emerged between commuter and residence students in terms of number of new friendships, openness to new friendships and adjustment. Study 2 consisted of an in-depth qualitative interview with …

Assessing Quality Of Life For Clients Of Langs Farm Village Association: A Case For Inclusion Of The Social Determinants Of Health Approach In Addressing Quality Of Life In A Community Health Centre Setting, Annette A. Penney

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In my master’s thesis research I investigated the relationship between participant inclusion in Langs Farm Village Association, a local community health centre, and quality of life. A quality of life survey which I developed based on prior research conducted by the Canadian Policy Research Network (2001) was administered to 130 individuals, 65 participants who attended a program and/or service at Langs (Langs group), and 65 participants who did not (non-Langs group). Results of multivariate ANOVA indicated group differences of statistical significance on four out of eleven subscales of my quality of life survey. Community residents who participated in a program …

Occupational Nepotism Among Law Firms: A Study Of Nepotism Beyond Anecdotal Evidence, Tracy L. Stout

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Although nepotism is not a new subject, there are not many studies addressing the psychological issues associated with the phenomenon, particularly in the workplace. The idea of “new nepotism” has emerged with the notion that some offspring have chosen the same profession as their parents, and have not been forced into a career decision or made an opportunistic decision regardless of their ability to perform. The purpose of this study was to explore workplace nepotism using an empirical research approach. Using a career choice and self-determination theory framework, a survey was devised and sent to 673 practicing attorneys in a …

Phenomenological Analysis Of Experimentally Induced Visual Mental Imagery Associated With Shamanic Journeying To The Lower World, Adam J. Rock

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This study explored ostensibly shamanic journeying imagery by (a) assessing visual images across induction

techniques (i.e., sonic driving, Ganzfeld, relaxation, and sitting with eyes open); (b) determining combination(

s) of induction technique and instructions most associated with religious imagery; and (c) investigating

the origins of visual imagery. Six participants were randomly assigned to factorial combinations of

a 3 x 4 mixed design (levels of instruction x levels of induction) and were administered the Modified Affect

Bridge to explore the origins of mental imagery reported during the experimental conditions.

Phenomenological analysis yielded comprehensive constituent themes. Harner’s (1990) shamanic journeying,

coupled with …

Syncretism In Transpersonal Studies: Introduction To This Issue’S Special Topics Section, Harris L. Friedman, Douglas A. Macdonald

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Transpersonal Education: Problems, Prospects And Challenges, Paul F. Cunningham

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Despite its substantial scientific, academic, and professional achievements, transpersonal psychology has

not been fully incorporated within traditional undergraduate psychology curricula. One reason is conventional

psychology’s prejudiced perception of humanity’s spiritual nature. Other reasons lie within the field

of transpersonal psychology itself, including the lack of agreed-upon general curricular models, absence of

normative educational (student) outcomes, unstructured courses with restricted content coverage, and conceptual

and methodological disagreements among experts. One of the most pressing challenges facing contemporary

transpersonal education is the publication of an authoritative, standard textbook that would

effectively introduce undergraduate students to transpersonal psychology and facilitate the progress of …

Gebser's Integral Consciousness And Living In The Real World: Facilitating Its Emergence Using A Course In Miracles, Cornelius J. Holland, Douglas A. Macdonald

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper discusses certain parallels between the work of Jean Gebser, the European philosopher and student of consciousness, and A Course in Miracles (ACIM), a contemporary spiritual system. More specifically, it 1) establishes parallels between Gebser’s conception of the ego, especially its basis in anger, and the ego according to ACIM, and 2) shows how a forgiveness exercise may lead to a time-free present, called in ACIM, “The Holy Instant.”

Manifest, Hidden, And Divine: Introduction To Sefirot Aikido, Jack Susman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The potential for forging a valuable relationship between two transpersonal systems, Aikido, a Japanese martial art and spiritual tradition, and Kabbalah, a Jewish spiritual tradition, is explored. Aikido is not simply a martial art, rather it is also a way to achieve a sense of the spiritual. However, especially for Westerners, many of its spiritual tenets are elusive, based on abstruse Japanese cultural roots, whereas Kabbalah, as a spiritual tradition more fully explicated for Western audiences, can provide an accessible framework for grasping some of Aikido’s deeper meanings. A blend of these traditions, called Sefirot Aikido, uses Kabbalah to understand, …

Statement Of Transition - Editor's Introduction, Douglas A. Macdonald, Harris Friedman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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An Exploratory Investigation Into The Association Of Neuroticization, Cognitive Style, And Spirituality To Reported Altered States Of Consciousness In Women Experiencing Childbirth, Nikolai Gruzdev, Dimitri Spivak

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This study examined the relation of altered states of consciousness to neuroticization, spiritual experience,

and divergent thinking in a sample of women (N= 102) at late pregnancy and post-delivery. The results

suggest that stress associated with imminent childbirth is linked to higher levels of ASCs and that neuroticization

and spirituality seem to be implicated in the induction of ASCs.

Beyond Mind Ii: Further Steps To A Metatranspersonal Philosophy And Psychology, Elías Capriles

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Some of Wilber’s “holoarchies” are gradations of being, which he views as truth itself; however, being is

delusion, and its gradations are gradations of delusion. Wilber’s supposedly universal ontogenetic

holoarchy contradicts all Buddhist Paths, whereas his view of phylogeny contradicts Buddhist Tantra and

Dzogchen, which claim delusion/being increase throughout the aeon to finally achieve reductio ad absurdum .

Wilber presents spiritual healing as ascent; Grof and Washburn represent it as descent—yet they are

all equally off the mark. Phenomenologically speaking, the Dzogchen Path is “descending,” but not in

Washburn’s or Grof ’s sense—and “transpersonal” is not a synonym of “sanity.” …

Online Story Comprehension Among Children With Adhd: Which Core Deficits Are Involved?, Kate Flory, Richard Milich, Elizabeth P. Lorch, Angela N. Hayden, Chandra Strange, Richard Welsh

Psychology Faculty Publications

Children with ADHD have difficulty understanding causal connections and goal plans within stories. This study examined mediators of group differences in story narrations between children ages 7-9 with and without ADHD, including as potential mediators both the core deficits of ADHD (i.e., inattention, disinhibition, planning/working memory) as well measures of phonological processing and verbal skills. Forty-nine children with ADHD and 67 non-referred children narrated a wordless book and completed tasks assessing the core deficits of ADHD, phonological processing, and verbal skills. Results revealed that, although no shorter than those of non-referred children, the narratives of children with ADHD contained fewer …

Cognitive Errors, Individual Differences, And Paternalism, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Legal scholars commonly argue that the widespread presence of cognitive errors in judgment justifies legal intervention to save people from predictable mistakes. Such arguments often fail to account for individual variation in the commission of such errors even though individual variation is probably common. If predictable groups of people avoid making the errors that others commit, then law should account for such differences because those who avoid errors will not benefit from paternalistic interventions and indeed may be harmed by them. The research on individual variation suggests three parameters that might distinguish people who can avoid error: cognitive ability, experience …

A Holistic Self-Identity Model, Jacquelyne R. Joens

Graduate Research Papers

Parents, educators, business leaders, political leaders, and mental health professionals all appreciate the impact positive self-esteem has on a person's ability to strive and grow. Self-esteem is a complex, multifaceted component of human existence. It is possible to identify and observe the result of a healthy self-esteem or even the outcome of a damaged self-esteem, but the term self-esteem may be antiquated and no longer exemplary of a complete picture of self. This paper examines research and attempts to define a multi-dimensional model of self-esteem, a Holistic Self-Identity Model, which will help to bring into focus the concept of self-identity …

Impact Of Participation In A Cognitive-Behavioral Substance Abuse Program On Recividism , Kristen Spates

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The present study utilizes archival data from a cognitive-behavioral substance abuse program for offenders. Substance abuse often is linked to criminal involvement and it was expected that treatment of substance abuse problems would result in a decline in recidivism. The study includes all adult male offenders who completed the Offender Substance Abuse Prerelease Program (OSAPP) through Volunteers of America, from January of 2001 through September of 2003. Participants are described in terms of their severity of substance abuse problems and risk of recidivism. It was expected that differences in program participation, as measured by changes from pre test to posttest …

Descriptive Study Of The Planning, Implementation, And Outcome Of A Parent School Involvement Program, Carol Mack

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Research verifies a positive impact on academic achievement based upon parental involvement with children's educational needs and school programs. It takes a sense of partnership between parents and schools to achieve positive educational outcomes for children. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the development, implementation and outcome of a Parent School Involvement Project involving parent-training workshops. While no statistically significant relationship could be found between improvement in student homework completion rates and parent attendance at school-sponsored parent training workshops, parents, faculty, and administration were united in their belief that the program was a positive and promising approach to …

Relationship Between Discontinuation Of Anti-Depressant Medication During Pregnancy And Development Of Postpartum Depression, Maria Palombo Murphy

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a serious and potentially debilitating disorder that frequently goes undetected due to stigma and a lack of understanding about its course and etiology. The factor of particular interest to this study concerns the relationship between discontinuation of anti-depressant medication in pregnancy and the development of PPD. The study examined how the variables of pregnancy mood, child care stress, emotional support, instrumental support, marital satisfaction, history of depression, baby temperament, birth experience, and medication status affect symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD) in a sample of 202 patients at the six-week postpartum check-up. In addition to a demographic …