Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Breaches Of Homeland Security: Facile Conclusions, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses homeland security breaches involving the United States General Accounting Office’s Office of Special Investigations.

Trends. Facts And Conclusions In The Mideast, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses relations between Israelis and Palestinians, and a United Nations report involving the Jenin refugee camp.

The Influence Of Job Discrimination On The Health Of African-American Males, Jacqueline M. Barnett

Electronic Dissertations and Theses

The goal of the present research was to examine the influence of job discrimination on health. Seventy African American males served as the research participants. The age of the participants ranged from 19-62. The average years of school completed was 12.57. The research included two measures. The Perceive Racism Scale (PRS) and Symptom Checklist 90-revised Scale (SCL-90R). Each of this measures reflect different aspects of psychological distress. The measures were administered in group format, and all participants provided their own answers. Confidentiality of particpants was maintained. The Pearson Moment Correlation showed significant difference between the variables at .01 alpha level. …

The Effects Of Free And Serial Recall Conditions On The Retrival Of Information From Short-Term Memory, Kimberly Ducre

Electronic Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present research was to compare recall of serial lists of verbal materials as a function of the method of learning in terms of free and serial recall. The participants consisted of 166 undergraduate college students ranging in age from 18 - 35 years old. The participants were randomly assigned to conditions of free or serial recall with the restriction that there were an equal number of male and female participants in each condition. The dependent variable recall measured the number of correct responses under each learning condition. The investigator read a list composed of 15 words …

The Effect Of An African/Black Psychology Class On African American College Students' Use Of The "N" Word, Demietrice Monroe

Electronic Dissertations and Theses

The study investigated whether exposure to an African/Black psychology course (African history, culture, and philosophy) has an effect on 60 African American (40 females, 20 males) at Southern University and A&M College usage of the "n" word. The "n" word is defined as "nigger" or any variation of the word. Past terms associated with it are "lazy", "no-good", "dumb", "violent", etc. in reference to persons of African descent. Past research has shown that African American young adults use this word more frequently if they are uneducated of the history of people of African descent. Therefore, the African/Black psychology course is …

Affective Development Of Battered Women Subsequent To Leaving Abusive Partner, Cheryl Harrah

Graduate Theses

The present study consisted of semi-structured interviews of formerly battered women who have been out of the relationship for at least one year. The interviews focused on the women’s narratives concerning their experience leaving the relationship and were coded for affect using an Emotional Adjective Checklist. A total of 10 women were recruited from the campus of The University of Texas of the Permian Basin. While each story was unique, a pattern did emerge whereby the women expressed feelings of fear and relief, followed by depression, numbness, and resolve to survive. Long term emotional consequences of the abuse that persisted …

More Than Just Imaginative: A Qualitative Study Of Values In Literature For Young Children From The 20th Century, Anna L. Cates

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation endeavors to address the issue of proper methodology for character education. Although character education enjoys wide support among teachers, parents, and society at large, the proper manner with which to accomplish this educational objective continues to be debated. Literature-based approaches to character education are among the most popular means of presenting values to students. This popularity has prompted scholars to closely scrutinize the value patterns in literature for young people. In part, the resulting studies have aimed to ascertain the worthiness of literature itself as a medium for introducing discussion about values and related issues. The method used …

The Influence Of Victim And Perpetrator Intoxication On Juror Perceptions Of Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment, Jewel Mack

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Once unnoticed and unreported, sexual harassment claims have risen within the last two decades. Although guidelines published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provide a definition of sexual harassment, researchers continue to examine variables affecting individual perceptions of sexual harassment. In addition to gender differences in perception, the present researcher examined the impact of perpetrator and victim intoxication on perceptions of sexual harassment. Results indicated that female participants were no more likely than male participants to label behaviors as sexual harassment when provided information on intoxication. However, when no information regarding the intoxication status of the perpetrator or victim was …

Test-Relief Reliability Of The Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test With Children Diagnosed With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Julia Pendley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (Bracken & McCallum, 1998 [UNIT]) is a relatively new intelligence test that is administered in an entirely nonverbal way. Research supports the use of this test with special populations such as those with learning disabilities, those who are intellectually gifted, as well as with those who have speech/language impairments (Bracken & McCallum, 1998). One population not accounted for in the test's standardization sample are children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This study investigates the test-retest reliability of the UNIT with children diagnosed with ADHD. Another main focus of this study involves determining the …

Training Practices In School Consultation: Twenty Years Later, Terri Owens

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Consultation has long been noted in the literature as a preferred role of school psychologists (Curtis & Zins, 1980; Gutkin & Curtis, 1982). Yet, few studies have examined University training practices in the area of consultation. This study, in part, replicated a study conducted by Meyers, Wurtz, and Flanagan (1981) that examined training practices 20 years ago. Currently, Program Directors from school psychology training programs in the United States were asked to describe how their training program addressed consultation. The number of courses offered in consultation, the methods used to teach consultation, and the models of consultation taught to school …

A Study Of The Relationships Among Secondary Traumatic Stress, Coping, And Years Of Service In Firefighter/Emergency Medical Service Personnel, Lynne S. Sanders

Faculty Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine relationships among stress, coping, and years of service in rescue personnel. One hundred sixteen voluntary subjects employed in Fire/EMS service in a small southern city participated in the study. Subjects completed a demographic questionnaire, The Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS), and The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS).

The incidence of symptomatic stress for the sample was 19.8 percent, higher than the general population but comparable to rates found in other studies of rescue workers. Calls involving children were rated as most disturbing by the subjects. There was no relationship found between years …

Lucky Pennies And Four Leaf Clovers: Young Children's Understanding Of Superstitions, Christy Bryce

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The development of organized, explanatory systems of knowledge is an integral part of human nature; it allows us to categorize objects and events and to make predictions based on our experiences. In our society, the quest for answers to the questions "How?" and "Why?" begins early in life. By the preschool years, children are actively seeking and providing explanations for an abundance of physical and social events, and they are developing knowledge of causal forces at work in the environment (Bullock, Gelman, & Baillargeon, 1982; Rosengren & Hickling, 1999). Paradoxically, at about the same age at which children demonstrate they …

Infant Feeding Styles: Barriers And Opportunities For Good Nutrition In India, Patrice L. Engle

Psychology and Child Development

India has the lion’s share of malnourished children in the world. Poverty and social exclusion contribute to this rate of malnutrition, but care practices also play a role.Breastfeeding is rarely exclusive, sanitation tends to be limited, complementary feeding often begins late, and the quantities are small. In the past, government programs have focused on the supply of food rather than caring practices. A research agenda will include both operational research on the nutrition programs, and formative and intervention research to improve caring practices, particularly those around infant and young child feeding.

The Use Of Play Assessment To Evaluate The Cognitive Skills Of Two-And Three-Year-Old Children, Lisa Kelly-Vance, Bridget O. Ryalls, Katrina Gill Glover

Psychology Faculty Publications

Play assessment is increasing in popularity despite the lack of empirical support. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of play assessment with young children and determine its efficacy in determining cognitive levels of development. Eight 2-year-olds and eight 3 1/2-year-olds were observed playing in an unstructured format. Results indicated that Exploratory Play becomes more complex with age and is displayed more than Pretend Play in an unstructured play session. Children's play primarily consisted of Exploratory Play, Pretend Play and Problem Solving and Planning Skills. Several of the Supple mental Subdomains measured by play assessment were not …

Distributive Justice And Punishment In Team Sports, David Bucur

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Distributive justice outcomes of punishment in an intercollegiate team sport setting were investigated. Male intercollegiate athletes (#=148) participating in the NAIA National Soccer Championship Tournament responded to one of eight scenarios and reported perceived fairness to player, fairness to teammates, deterrence to future player misconduct, and deterrence to future teammate misconduct. The results indicated that athletes perceive consistent distribution of punishment as more fair than conditional distribution of punishment; consistently distributed punishment is perceived to be more likely to deter future misconduct than conditional punishment; punishment, in general, is perceived as more fair when the violation committed is severe as …

The Incorporation Of Emergent Literacy Into Head Start Classrooms, Emily Seeger

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Emergent literacy may be described as the process of learning about the environment that leads to the development of meaning and concepts, including concepts about the functions of reading and writing. Research supports certain practices that promote emergent literacy in young children, and federal legislation outlines requirements for Head Start programs with regard to specific activities that should be promoted to enhance children's emergent literacy skills. This study asked teachers from 318 Head Start programs in the Southeast United States to complete a survey that asked specific questions targeting the emergent literacy practices used in classrooms, as well as familiarity …

The Effect Of Cognitive Load On Illusory Correlation, Jason Simpson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study investigated two theories of illusory correlation in social judgment by examining how varying the level of cognitive load during encoding of social stimuli affected the amount of illusory correlation. If the level of illusory correlation increases in a monotonic relationship with increasing cognitive load, then this type of increase would provide evidence for the distinctiveness-based view of illusory correlation (Hamilton & GifFord, 1976); however, if levels of illusory correlation show a curvilinear relationship, this relationship would provide support for the differentiated meaning view (Haslam, McGarty, & Brown, 1996). Cognitive load was manipulated by having participants perform an auditory …

Faking Integrity Tests: More Than A Mindset?, Christopher Corthern

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Personnel selection procedures often include integrity tests to aid in the attempt to hire the best possible candidates for a given job. Meta-analyses of integrity test validity coefficients have found evidence of incremental validity in the prediction of many performance criteria, but questions remain regarding the nature of the construct they actually measure. The classical interpretation of higher integrity scores being linked with higher job performance is that honest people are more productive. This study surveys another possibility: those that score highly on these measures may possess higher degrees of a problem solving ability related to intelligence that allows them …

Auditory Stimulation And Its Effect On Spatial Temporal Ability, Cynthia G. Edwards

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

This thesis was designed to detect the type of spatial ability most effected by auditory stimulation, as described in the Mozart effect. Previous research has shown enhancement of performance on the paper-folding and cutting subtest of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale IV with failures to replicate in research using other measures. Seventy-five college students enrolled in introductory psychology classes were exposed to one of three types of auditory stimulation, followed by two measures of spatial ability. The Purdue Visualization of Developments test correlates with tests of spatial orientation and require analytical processing, while the Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test is …

A Sampling Of Athletes Attitudes Toward Alcohol And Drug Use In College And Professional Athletes, Gregory A. Andis

Graduate Theses

Athletes of today are looking for every advantage over the competition, often subjecting themselves to harmful drugs. The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of athletes concerning drug use. Subjects for the study were 71 athletes acquired from the local college, university and professional hockey team. A Modified Tricker/Cook Drug Attitude Survey was used to compare each athlete’s response to the other respondents by looking at each of the following categories, sport, country, ethnicity, age, gender, level of education and level of activity. The survey was administered and results were calculated. Results showed that athletes sport, country, …

Male And Female Judges: Does Sex Make A Difference In Decision-Making?, Melissa Echols

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Context Effects And Lexical Ambiguity Processing: An Activation-Based Account, Frazier Orgain

Master's Theses

Many studies have been conducted to test the effects of ambiguous words in sentence processing. There are two views: the modularity hypothesis and the interactive hypothesis that dominate this field of study. The effect of ambiguity has been tested in many ways, including gating, cross-modal priming, naming, and self-paced reading. This utilizes the methods of self paced reading with lexical decision and naming tasks to examine the hypotheses as they relate to the access period of lexical differentiation. Results indicate that context has an immediate effect, after which participants look to other factors to discern meaning of a sentence. Details …

Parents' And Teachers' Acceptability Of Treatments For Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: The Effects Of Presentation And Information Delivery, Jason Donald Gage

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most frequently diagnosed problems affecting school-age children. This disorder can cause significant problems for children who consequently need treatment. Consumers of interventions for ADHD have efficacious treatments to choose from, but such treatment may not be implemented appropriately and effectiveness may decrease. Viewing treatments as 111 acceptable can affect treatment integrity and in turn increase effectiveness. Therefore, it is important that professionals understand how to increase the acceptability of treatments when first presenting treatment options to consumers. The primary purpose of this study was to determine if presenting parents and teachers with additional …

Self-Concept And Behavior: Changes As A Result Of Participation In Outward Bound, Douglas Vail Campbell

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-concept is an area of psychology that has received a large amount of attention in recent years. The idea of self-concept subsumes a number of related concepts including identity, self-esteem, and perceived self-efficacy. The clinical implications of self-concept disturbance and possible methods of altering self-concept are discussed. The current study was designed to evaluate several hypotheses about the way in which selfconcept may be changed by investigating the potential impact of Outward Bound on its individual participants. The present study examined the effect of the Outward Bound program, a wilderness educational program, on the self-concept and behavior of a group …

Longitudinal Analysis Of Behavior Patterns In A Captive Chimpanzee Population, Amy Augusta Tirone

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Data collected over an 11 year period were analyzed for behavioral constancy, reaction to environmental change, and the differential influence of environment and genetics in a group of captive chimpanzees using the framework of the Five Factor Model of Personality. Results suggested environment was a more influential factor in behavioral production, although expected reactions of specific individuals were not evidenced. Improvements upon this research include use of a more chimpanzee-specific personality model and more detailed data collection to support more precise conclusions regarding behavioral etiology.

Cross-Sectional Study Of Strength In Sharing: Philanthropy In Girl Scouting, Juergen Barbusca

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

On the morning of September 11th, the world was witness to a tragedy that represented the very worst and the very best of what human beings are capable. Marked by heroic deeds with life-saving consequences, caring acts performed by complete strangers, and charitable giving carried out by a shocked but generous country, the events of September are prime exemplars of America's philanthropic tradition. For some, these humanitarian acts were instinctive, for others more purposeful and conscious, and for still others perhaps an appeal to duty. The response to the immediate and longer-term needs of the victims, their families and communities …

Depression And Anxiety In Roman Catholic Secular Clergy, Sarah Knox, Stephen G. Virginia, John P. Lombardo

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

A nationally selected random sample of Roman Catholic secular priests was investigated using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y. Additionally, a Self-Report Inventory requested information regarding participants' demographics as well as four categories of predictor variables (i.e., Vocational Satisfaction, Social Support, Spiritual Activities, Physical Environment) potentially associated with depression and anxiety. The study yielded a return rate of 64%. Secular clergy reported significantly greater depression and anxiety (both state and trait) than are reported in the general population. Low Vocational Satisfaction was found to be predictive of depression as well as both state …

A Meta-Analysis Of The Alcohol Treatment Outcome Literature: 1993 To 2000, Anthony Phillip Tranchita

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Alcohol misuse is a very common problem with high financial and personal costs. Treatment requires allocation of limited resources for optimal impact. Responsible decision making in this area should be based upon reasoned weighing of research evidence. Miller and colleagues completed a meta-analytic review of all controlled studies published before 1992 to help clinicians do just that. The coding system they employed examined methodological quality, as well as outcome, to obtain a rank­ordering of treatments that seem to have the most quality research support. The current study attempts to extend this work utilizing the same coding on studies published since …

Assessing Toddlers' Problem-Solving Skills Using Play Assessment: Facilitation Versus Non-Facilitation, Leslie J. Mccaslin

Student Work

Play assessment is rapidly emerging in the field of cognitive assessment in young children. One aspect of play assessment involves the identification of the types and levels of problem-solving skills children possess. Information about a child’s degree of problem-solving skills could aid school psychologists in understanding the child’s level of cognitive development. Research in the area of play assessment has not focused as much attention on problem solving as it has on other components of play. More research is needed in order to determine if a free play session or an adult-facilitated session is better for assessing a child’s problem-solving …

Concurrent And Construct Validity Of Alternating Verbal Fluency As A Measure Of Executive Function, Gail A. Mason

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Alternating verbal fluency is a combination task that was designed to assess the cognitive constructs of verbal fluency and cognitive shifting, presumably for increased efficiency. Researchers and clinicians have hypothesized about the added diagnostic benefits and more sophisticated discriminability of alternating verbal fluency as compared with singular verbal fluency tasks.

To date there are no standardized forms of alternating verbal fluency tests, normed data, or a guide for differentiating patient populations. In addition, there are no published studies addressing the construct or concurrent validity of alternating verbal fluency with other tests of executive function. Thus, the purpose of the present …