Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Seeds Of Mistrust: The Relationship Between Perceived Racism, Hiv Conspiracy Theories And Hiv Testing Attitudes, Joshua Brevard

Theses and Dissertations

Although the number of HIV infected peaked in the late 1980’s, HIV remains a major concern within the African American community (CDC, 2008). African Americans are disproportionately affected, comprising 14% of the U.S. population but representing 44% of new HIV infections in 2009 (CDC, 2011). It is vital to identify barriers to positive health behaviors like consistent condom use and HIV testing. This study focus on factors impacting attitudes towards HIV testing, including mistrust of the healthcare system, measured by support for HIV conspiracy theories (Thomas & Quinn, 1991). It also examined the prevalence of HIV conspiracy beliefs among African …

Examining The Effects Of D-Amphetamine On Discounting In Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (Shr), Daniel Joseph Peterson

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This experiment examined d-amphetamine’s effect on discounting of delayed and probabilistic outcomes in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), a purported animal model of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), with two control strains. Stimulants such as d-amphetamine are commonly administered in humans diagnosed with ADHD, thus resulting in increases in self-controlled responding on delay tasks. However, very little has been done examining the effects of d-amphetamine on delay tasks using the SHR strain, a purported animal model of ADHD. Recent research has also suggested that responses on delay and probability discounting procedures are mediated by the same underlying mechanism in animal models (Green, …

Training Practicum Students In Child-Directed Interaction (Cdi) And Incidental Teaching (It): Efficacy Of Immediate Bug-In-The-Ear Feedback, Alicia C. Faller

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

With the rate of Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorder rising, the demand for applied behavior analytic services has also increased. This has caused considerable concern in the area of training for direct care professionals. Intervention fidelity relies heavily on the adequacy of the training procedures implemented with the direct care staff. In the present study, two undergraduate practicum students were recruited through a public four-year university in Virginia and received training in Child-Directed Interaction (CDI) and Incidental Teaching (IT). The training program was multi-faceted and included performance-based immediate feedback via a Bug-in-the-ear (BIE) device. The study took place in two …

The Effects Of Caffeine And Rapid Eye Movement (Rem) Sleep Deprivation On Free Operant Responding Under A Vi 30-S Schedule Of Reinforcement, Curtis Allen Bradley

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Past research has shown that the effects of 96 hr of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Deprivation (REMSD) on positively reinforced behavior is dependent upon the schedule of reinforcement maintaining the behavior. One one hand, lean schedules of reinforcement after REMSD maintained low rates of behavior. On the other hand, rich schedules of reinforcement after REMSD maintained behavior at baseline levels. Other research has shown that the use of stimulants reversed the effects of REMSD on operant tasks. The current study investigated the effects of caffeine on rats’ lever pressing after 96-hr REMSD. During baseline, doses of vehicle were administered 15 …

Developing A Measure Of Student Resume Quality In Student Affairs Assessment: An Application Of Generalizability Theory, Oksana Naumenko

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis investigated the assessment of student résumés by a career services office. Specifically, the dependability of assessment scores was examined prior to making inferences regarding the value added by a career office’s résumé appointment program. Systematic errors in performance assessment ratings of student résumés were examined to determine the overall dependability of the assessment scores and the precision with which raters score student performance. The absolute dependability of scores was excellent when rubric elements were fixed. Recommendations regarding training and measurement tool improvement were provided given information regarding rater precision around rubric element scores. Such evidence adds to the …

Student Engagement In The Assessment Context: An Examination Of The Cognitive Engagement Scale-Extended Version (Ces-E), Ashley Brianne Charsha

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Increasing pressure on institutions of higher education to demonstrate what students are learning has resulted in an increase in assessment testing. Because these assessments are often low-stakes for students, educators often question whether inferences based on the resulting student scores are valid. Not unexpectedly, questions often arise regarding the extent to which students are engaged on low-stakes assessments. Additionally, how their level of engagement impacts their performance is also questioned. These questions are empirical in nature. Before such questions can be examined, a psychometrically sound instrument of cognitive engagement appropriate for the assessment context must be identified. This study sought …

Assessing Intervention Fidelity In A Randomized Field Experiment: Illuminating The Black Box, Jeff John Kosovich

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The inner workings of an intervention can be thought of as a black box when they are not investigated directly. Typically researchers do not fully illuminate the black box and make assumptions about the presence of underlying processes instead. The current study utilizes an adapted five-step framework for the systematic intervention fidelity assessment of a motivation-based field experiment. The five-step framework is applied to a previously implemented study of student motivation in an introductory psychology course. Data irregularities necessitated the introduction of a new method for calculating differences in achieved relative strength indices. The intervention was found to be implemented …

To Move Or Not To Move: The Impact Of Instruction On Planning And The Role Of Inhibitory Control, Sarah Anne Marrs

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of instructing 7- and 8-year old children to plan their moves prior to beginning Tower of London (TOL) problems and the degree to which inhibitory control ability was related to performance on the TOL. Half of the sample received explicit instructions to plan their moves while half of the sample did not. The results indicate that the two groups of children do not differ significantly in their TOL performance. Thus, prompting children to use more efficient problem solving strategies may not result in improved problem solving ability. Contrary to previous …

Effects Of Chronic Marijuana Use On Circadian Rhythms, Sleep, And Cognitive Performance, Lauren Nicole Whitehurst

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Marijuana use has been linked to various circadian related activities like sleep and cognitive performance (Bolla et al., 2002; 2008; Budney et al., 2002; Cohen-Zion et al., 2010; Iverson et al., 2005; Meier et al., 2012; NIDA, 2012; Pope & Yugulen-Todd, 1996; WHO, 2013). Animal literature suggests a connection between marijuana use and altered circadian rhythms; however, the effect has not yet been studied in humans (Acuna-Goycolea et al., 2010; Sanford et al., 2008). The present study seeks to examine the effect of chronic marijuana use on circadian function in humans and extend the knowledge surrounding marijuana’s effect on neurocognition …

The Initial Development Of A Measure Of Cultural Competence In School Psychology: The Madison Assessment Of Cultural Competence In School Psychology (Maccs), Nicholas Anthony Curtis

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

School psychology training programs are under increased pressure to train students in a way that emphasizes cultural competence. However, there is not currently an accepted instrument that can measure the cultural competence of students specific to the discipline of school psychology. The current study proposes and explores several adaptions of a proposed instrument to measure cultural competence in school psychology. Adaptions were selected to address problems observed in collecting similar data in a school psychology program. A first study was unsuccessful due to sampling issues; however, a second study was more successful. A sample was selected to exaggerate training differences …

Supporting The Well Being Of University Student Survivors Of Cancer, Janice Lewis

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Young adult survivors of cancer present a unique set of needs and developmental factors to consider when working to support their well being (physical, mental, emotional, and social health). The experiences of these individuals can vary in many ways. This variety might include variables such as: age of diagnosis, type of cancer, type of treatment, resources available, family support, etc. The intent of this project is to examine and review the needs of young adult university student cancer survivors and address important considerations for professionals working to support their well being. Interviews with cancer survivors and a supportive professional were …

Developing Competency In Counseling Survivors Of Sexual Assault, Grace Meyer

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

The purpose of this research project is to explore how novice counselors develop competency in working with survivors of sexual assault and rape. The project contains a review of current literature on aspects of sexual assault that are important to be aware of when counseling survivors. This includes a definition of applicable terminology, the contemporary prevalence of sexual assault in the United States of America, unique aspects of working with survivors of sexual assault, and a review of symptoms and typical problems commonly presented by this population. This research project also includes firsthand accounts of the experiences of three clinicians …

Hypnosis And Mindfulness For The Treatment Of Anxiety Disorders: Empirical And Applied Perspectives, John Lawrence Clarke

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

The abundance of diagnosable anxiety disorders that are present in our culture today provides a convenient rationale for further investigating the types of treatments, especially non-pharmaceutical, that clinicians have to offer. Hypnosis and mindfulness are two noninvasive techniques that share some important structural and practical similarities. With the recent increase of interest in mindfulness in psychotherapy it is important to acknowledge what these traits are and how these methods complement one another in both theory and practice. It can be concluded as a result of the following literature reviews that both hypnosis and mindfulness as separate techniques have received some …

Cries Of The World And Joys Of The Heart: A Primer For New Counselors In Community Mental Health Clinics, Patrick Lincoln

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Abstract I am neck-deep in the middle of my internship experience, working as a counselor in a community mental health clinic (CMHC). My internship instructor, when asked by a former professor, “What do you wish you had learned that you didn’t in this program?”, answered, “I wish I had known how hard it was going to be.” At first, I scoffed at my instructor’s response. I knew how hard this was going to be. Now, however, I find myself uttering these same words to those close to me. I have told friends that I feel like I was trained to …

Small Steps And Long Strides: Personal Reflections And Insights On Becoming Multiculturally Competent, Sharon D. Lockaby

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

With a history of attention being paid to multicultural counseling competencies as important attributes for a counselor to have to work with diverse clients, new counselors are challenged to prepare for working with these clients. Lee (2006) found that multiculturally competent professionals possess the awareness, knowledge, and skills to work with diverse communities. New counselors need to develop the knowledge, skills and awareness to competently work with diverse clients. There are multiple training methods suggested to support the development of these counseling competencies including Contact Hypothesis, cross-cultural interaction and cultural immersion. This article focuses on one graduate student’s background and …

Current Needs And Response To Suicidal Behavior At The Elementary School Level: A Survey Of Virginia School Psychologists, Kelsey R. Cutchins

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

While minimal information on suicidal behavior at the elementary school level is available, a review of the existing literature demonstrates the erroneous belief that children lack the developmental maturity to understand the concept of death and suicide. To better understand prevalence rates of suicidal behavior in elementary school-aged children, interventions offered to those children, reported levels of practitioner competence, and overall preparedness of elementary school personnel in appropriately addressing suicidal behavior demonstrated by their students, the researcher surveyed 155 Virginia school psychologists. Results from the online survey revealed that while suicidal behavior in elementary school-aged students is rare, school-based professionals …

Students’ Attitudes Toward Institutional Accountability Testing In Higher Education: Implications For The Validity Of Test Scores, Anna Zilberberg

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Recent calls for an increase in educational accountability in K-16 resulted in an uptick of low-stakes testing and, consequently, an increased need for ensuring that students’ test scores are reliable and valid representations of their true ability. Focusing on accountability testing in higher education, the current program of research was comprised of two stages: (1) collecting validity evidence for a self-report measure; (2) investigating the relationship between students’ attitudes and other related constructs. The analyses subsumed under the first stage yielded a revised psychometrically sound self-report measure of students’ attitudes toward accountability testing in higher education (SAIAT-HE-revised) consisting of three …

Effects Of Negative Keying And Wording In Attitude Measures: A Mixed-Methods Study, Chris M. Coleman

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Researchers often collect data on attitudes using “balanced” measurement scales—that is, scales with comparable numbers of positive and negative (i.e., reverse-scored) items. Many previous measurement studies have found the inclusion of negative items to be detrimental to scale reliability and validity. However, these studies have rarely distinguished among negatively-worded items, negatively-keyed items, and items with negative wording and keying. The purpose of the current study was to make those distinctions and investigate why the psychometric properties of balanced scales tend to be worse than those of scales with uniformly positive wording/keying. A mixed-methods approach was employed. In Study 1 (quantitative), …

A Unified Approach To Well-Being: The Development And Impact Of An Undergraduate Course, Kimbelry Erica Kleinman

Dissertations, 2014-2019

With the rise of positive psychology, there has been a burgeoning literature on the construct of well-being. Unfortunately, as is the case with much psychological research, the literature is not assimilated and integrated into a broad model for understanding psychology and human nature writ large. Connecting such research to a deep theoretical and philosophical model is particularly important with a construct like well-being because it both is a complicated and central construct for the field. There were two main objectives to the study. First, the goal was to develop a college student course on well-being that was conceptually grounded in …

Wired To Bond: The Influence Of Computer-Mediated Communication On Relationships, Jennifer Lynn Cline

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The purpose of this study was to examine young adults’ use of social media, qualities of their interpersonal relationships, and the intersection of the two. This primarily qualitative research study set out to investigate the qualities of relationships under the theoretical umbrellas of attachment, existentialism, and neuroscience. In particular, this grounded theory study examined how relationships might differ in on-line and face-to-face interactions, and answered the broad question, “What is the impact of increased engagement with others through computer-mediated communication, which involves less sharing of physical space and real time, on one’s perception of others and self?” The research design …

Measuring Motivation For Coursework Across The Academic Career: A Longitudinal Invariance Study, Makayla Grays

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Students must be sufficiently motivated in order to achieve the intended learning outcomes of their college courses. Research in education and psychology has found motivation to be context-dependent. Therefore, students’ motivation is likely to differ from one semester to the next according to which courses students are taking. However, there are also instances in which motivation levels may not change over time. In order to determine whether motivation for coursework changes across the academic career (and, if so, what variables may be related to that change), it is imperative to use a measure of motivation that is theoretically and psychometrically …

The Effects Of Item And Respondent Characteristics On Midpoint Response Option Endorsement: A Mixed-Methods Study, Kimberly Rebecca Marsh

Dissertations, 2014-2019

As the demand for accountability and transparency in higher education has increased, so too has the call for direct assessment of student learning outcomes. Accompanying this increase of knowledge-based, cognitive assessments administered in a higher education context is an increased emphasis on assessing various noncognitive aspects of student growth and development over the course of their college career. Noncognitive outcomes are most often evaluated via self-report instruments associated with Likert-type response scales, posing unique challenges for researchers and assessment practitioners hoping to draw valid conclusions based upon this data. One long-debated characteristic of such assessments is the midpoint response option. …

Emotion Regulation In European American And Hong Kong Chinese Middle School Children, Kayan Phoebe Wan

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This study explored emotion regulation strategies in middle school European American (N = 54) and Hong Kong Chinese (N =89) children. Based on Gross’s theory (1998), the Survey of Emotion Regulation Strategies was designed to study children’s perceived effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies (deep breathing, thinking positively, situation avoidance, talking and suppression) in three fictitious scenarios associated with sadness, anger, and fear. Five mixed ANOVAs were conducted to evaluate the effect of culture, gender and the type of emotion on each emotion regulation strategy. The results demonstrated that American children considered deep breathing more effective in dealing with anger than …

Implementing Dialectical Behavior Therapy For Adolescents In An Acute Inpatient Psychiatric Setting, Thomas Andrew Field

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Although evidence-based practices (EBPs) have been identified in the literature, insufficient information exists about how to successfully implement them. As a result, implementation efforts have been met with failures. Little is currently known about what affects the success of implementation efforts for best practices such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) in an acute inpatient psychiatric setting (AIPS). A longitudinal multiphase mixed methods case study examined an implementation effort to provide DBT-A in an AIPS over a 24-month period. The process of implementation was investigated through in-depth interviews, a focus group, and field observations. Six categories were identified that …

South Asia: Potential For Development, Ishrat Hussain Dr.

Faculty Research - Talks, Speeches, & Discourse

South Asian economies have grown rapidly during the last two decades recording an average growth rate of 6 percent annually. The rate had accelerated in the early 2000s to 7 percent before coming down in 2008, and 2009. Before the global financial crisis in 2008, India's growth rate was a staggering 9 percent and Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka around 7 percent. Consequently, the Incidence of poverty declined to 10 percentage points or more in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Relationship Between Gender Identity And Flirting Style, Michael Gray

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between gender identity and flirting styles. Data analysis on a sample (N=227) revealed the existence of a relationship between gender identity and the sincere style and between gender identity and the physical style, but not between gender identity and the playful, polite, and traditional styles. Masculine and Androgynous individuals are more likely than Feminine or Undifferentiated individuals to employ the physical style. Androgynous individuals are more likely to employ the sincere style than masculine or undifferentiated individuals. Feminine individuals are more likely to employ the sincere style than masculine individuals. Further analysis found that there …

Giving Voice To Those Who Use A Machine To Speak: A Phenomenological Study Of Augmentative And Alternative Communication Devices, Tiffany Leigh Campos

Student Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the phenomenological experience of using an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) device. Using qualitative methodology, I interviewed non-verbal users on how they feel about using these machine as their voice. The average interview length was 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Seven factors that non-verbal people spoke about emerged from this study which are: expenses, the positive feeling of using an AAC communication device, the quality of their communication using an AAC communication device, the stress when using an AAC device in public, how people look at the machine in public, medical issues, …

Who's Responsible? Personal Beliefs, Civic Engagement And Environmental Attitudes, Brooke Vavricka

Student Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines whom individuals hold responsible for environmental protection, controlling for environmental civic engagement and demographic measures. Using the General Social Survey 2010, I test the hypotheses whether political ideology affects beliefs about personal responsibility and government responsibility on environmental protection. Results of this study find political ideology to be the most significant predictor of environmental responsibility, while race and education were also found to be significant predictors. Environmental civic engagement did not necessarily predict individual environmental responsibility.

Social Media And Medical Students: What Are They Thinking?, Alexandra Gomes, Gisela Butera, Terry Kind, Katherine C. Chretien

Himmelfarb Library Faculty Posters and Presentations

This poster provides a review of interim results from a qualitative study on first year medical students' attitudes and perceptions of their definition of medical professionalism in social media. Included in the study is an evaluation of changes in perspective since becoming a medical student and after participating in an E-Professionalism and Social Media instructional session.

Impact Of It On Human Resources Of Pakistani University Libraries, Muhammad Sajid Mirza, Khalid Mahmood

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The core objective of this paper is to study the impact of IT on human resources serving in the university libraries of Pakistan. To achieve this objective a questionnaire survey of 82 university libraries from public and private sector was conducted. Respondents were asked to express their opinion about 10 statements to measure their perceptions about impact of information technology on human resources. A five point Likert Scale was used to rate the statements. Descriptive (Min., Max., Mean, Median, Mode, SD) and inferential (t-test) statistics was used to analyze the data.

Calculated values of ‘t’ and its P-values indicates that …