Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Stress Inoculation Training In Rotc Cadets, Ashley N. Doss Ph.D

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 1,100 ROTC facilities are housed at university campuses across the United States (Today’s Military, 2017; Guide to Understanding ROTC Programs, 2017). ROTC provides individuals with the ability to dedicate time and service to leadership training and complete studies in a specified degree field. Poor stress management can significantly impair academic performance and persistence. This study was designed to answer the following questions: 1) can Stress Inoculation Training predict academic performance above and beyond personality and psychological variables in freshmen and sophomores enrolled in a military science program?”, and 2) “Can Stress Inoculation Training predict academic retention above and beyond …

Integration And Segmentation Conflict During Ensemble Coding Of Aspect Ratio, Elric Matthew Elias

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The visual system often integrates information that "goes together". Once information has been integrated, summary information (e.g., average emotion or average size) can be extracted; this occurs during ensemble coding. Integration thus allows for fast and efficient generalizations about sets to be made. In contrast, the visual system sometimes segments input that does not go together. For example, the perception of objects can be exaggerated away from natural category boundaries (e.g., a perfect circle is a category boundary; it is neither "flat" nor "tall"). Segmentation allows the visual system to make quick categorical distinctions. Much of the time, integration …

Defining The Relationship: Intentional Decision-Making And Sexual Risk In Adolescent And Young Adult Romantic Relationships, Kayla Knopp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents three manuscripts addressing different sets of findings related to the "defining the relationship" (DTR) talk in adolescents' and young adults' romantic relationships. Paper 1 describes descriptive results from two studies, one utilizing a college undergraduate young adult sample (N = 341) and the other using a nationwide online sample of 15 to 17-year-old adolescents (N = 248). Key findings from Paper 1 indicate that DTR talks were used frequently in the relationships of young people, and were associated with relationship commitment and sexual behaviors. Paper 2 describes more in-depth analyses testing associations between having a …

A Dyadic Perspective On Young Adult Dating Aggression, Ann Lantagne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Guided by the dynamic developmental systems theory (Capaldi, Knoble, Shortt, & Kim, 2012), the present studies examined individual and relationship level risk factors for dating aggression. A series of Actor Partner Interdependence Models (APIM; Kenny, 1996; Kenny & Cook, 1999) were used to assess associations between males' and females' risk factors and dating aggression within 137 young adult couples. Findings indicated that both partners' reports of a number of relationship characteristics were associated with aggression, including negative interactions, satisfaction, jealousy, and anxious and avoidant relational styles. Moreover, there were actor partner interactions between male and female jealousy, anxious styles, and …

Beyond School Engagement: School Adaptation And Its Role In Bolstering Resilience Among Youth Who Have Been Involved With Child Welfare Services, Skyler S. Leonard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Youth involved with the child welfare system are at significant risk of poor school functioning and mental health. Little research has explored how the connection to school impacts known relationships between adversity and youth outcomes. The following project sought to shed light on the role of schools in conferring risk or resilience for youth in contact with the child welfare system, with regard to their mental health. The overall aims of this project were to (1) improve our conceptualization of school adaptation, with particular attention to individual variation along multiple dimensions of school adaptation, (2) examine the relationship of …

Anti-Fat Bias And Attentional Capture, Larissa Catherine Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Explicitly-rated anti-fat attitudes are correlated with weight-based discrimination, which is rampant in society today as many countries grapple with soaring rates of obesity. Early perceptual processes, such as conscious awareness and visual attention, may be biased based on the weight of the perceived or the perceiver, or any number of individual perceiver characteristics regarding weight-biased attitudes and experiences. The three experiments presented used continuous-flash suppression (CFS) to mask body stimuli, thereby hoping to gain insight into attentional capture of unseen images and its relation to anti-fat attitudes. The pattern of findings in the three experiments presented suggest that what makes …

Commitment And Romantic Alternative Monitoring, Lane Laurel Ritchie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines cognitive and behavioral factors involved in the management of potential alternative partners. Two studies are described here, each in a separate paper. The first study investigates perceptions of potential alternative partners as presented in an experimental paradigm (Study 1) and the second study examines links between alternative monitoring and relationship outcomes, measured longitudinally in survey research (Study 2). In the first study, Perceptual Downgrading and Relationship Commitment, I use a well-established paradigm to test a novel series of questions: Do individuals in committed relationships perceive attractive others as less attractive than single people do? This phenomenon …

Individual Adjustment As A Predictor Of Improvements In Romantic Relationship Quality From Adolescence To Adulthood, Jamie Novak Shoop

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous work suggests that individuals who experience a poor quality romantic relationship during adolescence are at heightened risk of experiencing poor quality romantic relationships in adulthood. However, this literature has not yet identified factors that may predict which individuals will go on to experience improved romantic relationship quality in adulthood, despite having experienced a poor quality romantic relationship during adolescence. The goal of the current study was to examine whether adolescents' psychosocial adjustment (internalizing and externalizing symptoms, substance use, and self-esteem) predicted improvements in the quality of their subsequent romantic relationships. Data were drawn from a community sample of 200 …

The Cultural Transmission Of Gender Roles In Childhood, Sarah Ariel Lamer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the present work, I summarize extant theories and evidence on how children learn about gender roles and test an ecological framework for gender-role learning (i.e., the Gendered Ecology Model). Existing theory has demonstrated that children begin to form symbolic representations of gender as young as 9 months and acquire basic gender stereotypes about behaviors and activities considered appropriate for each gender by 3 years. Theories have proposed several potential sources and moderators of how children learn about the roles that women and men generally hold. However, no theories have examined these sources from an ecological approach, leaving open the …

Social Support Satisfaction As A Protective Factor For Postpartum Maternal Distress, Amy-Lynn Elisabeth Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social support has been identified as a protective factor for postpartum maternal distress, a prevalent women's health issue, and most research focuses on the amount of support women receive. However, research in this area has failed to explore whether increasing satisfaction with social support may be a worthwhile approach to alleviating postpartum maternal distress, beyond increasing amounts. There is also little known regarding specific aspects of support, like satisfaction with emotional and instrumental support, that might lead to differences in postpartum distress outcomes. In this prospective, longitudinal study, we hypothesized that greater social support satisfaction will be associated with less …

Moral Agency: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Its Scientific Foundations, Makensey Sanders

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a longstanding discussion of what the criteria are to distinguish science from non-science. In section one of this paper, I will focus on four demarcating criteria of a scientific theory: (1) value neutrality; (2) verifiability; (3) falsifiability; and (4) reproducibility. Keeping these criteria in mind, I will turn to the notion of moral agency (focusing on psychopathy, autism, and personal identity) and the question of whether the current way we conceptualize and research it can be deemed as scientific according to the four criteria.

In section two, I will discuss the role psychopathy and autism play in understanding …

A Brief Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Based Intervention For Distressed Graduate Students, Emily Hannah Katt Jacobson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Graduate students report to experience distress at high rates. Research suggests that self-care behaviors such as sleep exercise and mindfulness practice can helpful for mental health and wellbeing. The current study examined the effectiveness of a brief Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) based intervention on increasing self-care behaviors in distressed graduate students at the University of Mississippi (N=7). The intervention was delivered in three 60-minute individual sessions. The effects of the intervention were examined using a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design. Results indicated that five out of seven participants shoincreases in self-reported self-care behaviors after the start of the …

Innovation, Ceos, And Ipos, Zhilu Lin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Part 1, I study if CEOs with innovative ability impose a cost upon their firms. I find that while there is a positive effect of a CEO’s innovative ability on firm innovation, the benefit is only when CEO’s innovative ability is useful for the firm. Further, firms with innovator CEOs spend more on R&D projects but with lower efficiency and hold more cash but with lower cash value compared to firms with non-innovator CEOs. These results suggest that innovator CEOs create an overinvestment problem. In Part 2, I study the effects of talent cycling on IPO long-run performance and …

Empirical Support For Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (Mtfc): A Critical Review, Jennifer Marie Ladner-Graham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC), initially intended as a treatment for chronic juvenile offenders (adolescents having multiple contacts with the juvenile justice system), was designed as an alternative to placement within group facilities. MTFC allows the adolescent to remain in the community while receiving individual and family-based interventions. These interventions are dedicated to decreasing risk factors associated with offending (e.g., poor parental supervision, association with delinquent peers, poor academic performance) and increasing protective factors (e.g., effective parenting practices, healthy relationships with supportive peers, increased school involvement). MTFC has been utilized to meet the needs of a variety of populations (e.g., …

Knowledge, Assertiveness, Competence: Using A Self-Determination Theory Framework To Explain Sexual Satisfaction In College Students, Tanja Seifen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual satisfaction has been shown to be related to many positive factors such as high relationship satisfaction enhanced physical and psychological health and increased overall well-being. Despite making up 27% of the sexually active population in the United States young people (ages 15-24) but are typically not taught about the benefits of sexual satisfaction or how to have a pleasurable sexual experience. Due to their high risk of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancies most education and research on young people’s sexuality focuses on risk behaviors and prevention. The goal of this study was to take a positive outlook …

Gender Roles, Sexual Assertiveness, And Sexual Coercion In Lgbtq Individuals, Lavina Ying Ho

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual violence is a prominent community issue particularly within the LGBTQ+ community. The present study examined the relationships among gender roles sexual assertiveness and sexual victimization as well as sexual perpetration in a LGBTQ+ population. For most severe form of sexual violence victimization in the past year 17.6% reported having been raped. Moderated logistic regression analyses found that both gender roles and sexual assertiveness independently predicted severity of sexual victimization and perpetration. No interactions were found to predict either sexual victimization or sexual perpetration. Specifically the femininity gender role and lower levels of sexual assertiveness predicted greater likelihood for victim …

Is It Racism, Colorism, Or A Pigment Of Your Imagination? A Study On The Invisible Color Line, Yolanda Rodriguez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Participants were 324 self-identified ethnic/racial minority adults recruited from a southern university in the United States and an online community (MTurk workers) primarily ranging in age from 18-30 (78.4%). Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and a measure for each of the variables of interest. A moderated mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS (Hayes 2013) model 8. It was hypothesized that acculturation modality (X) would predict skin lightening behaviors and attitudes (Y) through three mediators (M1: Discrepancy scores M2: Satisfaction with Skin Color and M3: Desire to Change Skin Color). Psychological well-being was predicted to be a moderator (W) of the …

Isolation, Athletic Identity, And Social Support: An Exploration Among Injured Collegiate Student-Athletes, Ally W. Claytor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Season ending and career ending injuries make up a large portion of all injuries (Tirabassi et al., 2016). Among psychological consequences to these types of injuries, isolation is a social consequence that has been identified as occurring after injury (Gould et al., 1997). Isolation is related to loss of identity for an athlete (Mankand et al., 2009). Additionally, low levels of support have been shown to increase feelings of isolation in injured athletes (Mitchell et al., 2014). The purpose of the present study was to explore the experience of isolation as a psychological response to injury among athletes with career …

An Exploration Of Relationships Between Parenting Stress And Primary Headache Disorders, Yelena Louise Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stress is the most commonly reported trigger for headache and stress affects headache both directly through resulting physiological changes and indirectly through its effects on lifestyle and coping behaviors. However one form of stress that has been neglected within headache is parenting. Parenting stress is defined as the imbalance between parents’ perceptions of available resources and their perceived demands of parenthood. Many variables have been established as predictors of parenting stress (e.g. demographic variables child behavior maternal depression) though fewer studies have examined its effects on health. Given that headache and parenthood share similar demographic distributions and risk factors exploration …

Teaching Kids To Say "Ew!": Parent-Child Disgust Transmission, Brooklee Lightsey Tynes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Disgust is one of the six basic emotions but research suggests it is far more complex. As individuals respond to stimuli in different manners this suggests the emotion and its development may be shaped through learning principles and cultural practices (Rozin Lowery & Ebert 1994). It is imperative to understand how children’s disgust responses are shaped though observation classical and operant conditioning demonstrated by their primary caregivers. The current study examined the transmission of the emotion of disgust from primary caregivers to their children. Participants were 17 children (55.6% female) and one of their parents in Mississippi and Nebraska. The …