Psychology Commons^™

The Relationship Between Ethnic Identity, Self-Esteem, Emotional Well-Being And Depression Among Lakota/Dakota Sioux Adolescents, Susan M. Pittenger

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Despite conceptual support linking ethnic identity and psychological adjustment among Native Americans, empirical research examining this relationship remains limited. In light of recent developments in the area of ethnic identity research, including alternative conceptual models, improved methodologies, and more sophisticated measures, this study examined the relationship between ethnic identity, self-esteem, emotional well-being, and depression among Native American reservation youth.

The relationship between the predictor variables of American Indian ethnic identity, White-American identity and bicultural identity, and the criterion measures of self-esteem, emotional well-being, and depression were examined for 137 Lakota/Dakota Sioux reservation youth. Participants completed surveys including the Multigroup Ethnic …

Coping Styles Of Parents With Visually Impaired Children Compared To Parents With Fully Sighted Children, Lisa Tackett

Theses

The purpose of this research study was to determine if the coping styles of parents with visually impaired children are different from the coping styles of parents with fully sighted children. These results indicated that there is no difference on coping styles with the parents with the visually impaired children and the parents with the fully sighted children.

The Effects Of Childhood Sexual Abuse Upon Adult Male Attachment/Separation, Conflict Resolution And Psychospiritual Well-Being, Amber Thani Samaroo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Relationship Of Attributional Style, Self-Concept, And Family Functioning To Depression In Children And Adolescents With Learning Disabilities, Charles S. Buchbauer

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Negotiation And Reorganization Of Peer Relationships During Adolescence: The Emergence Of Romantic Relationships And Quality Of Peer Relationships, Melanie Jo Zimmer-Gembeck

Dissertations and Theses

Research suggests that, for adolescent females, the initiation of romantic relationships is a normative developmental task and a task associated with potential difficulties, including physical aggression. Most previous research treats progress in this task as a function of individual characteristics. This study assumes that when girls are negotiating romantic relationships, they have existing intimate friendships with other females, and these friendships are important to how this task is negotiated.

Females who recently graduated from high school provided retrospective and current information on the amount of leisure time spent with members of their social networks, qualities of relationships in later adolescence, …

Language Proficiency And Stress: Impact On Measured Intelligence And Anxiety For Latino Children, Marlene Baldizon De Naclerio

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Predictability Of Everyday Task Performance By Perceived Health, Self-Efficacy And Cognitive Ability, Joan Klinger

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This exploratory research investigated the relationship between a brief neuropsychological measure and everyday functional ability in older community dwelling adults. The association between these two areas is complex, as a specific functional domain often involves several of the cognitive skills typically assessed by a neuropsychological instrument. Whilst there is an extensive literature linking neuropyschological tests to everyday functioning in cognitively impaired older adults, little research has been directed at investigating the relationship between cognitive test performance and everyday competence in non-dementing older people who reside independently in the community. A brief cognitive instrument able to predict coping deficits in instrumental …

Emotional And Sexual Dating Infidelity As A Function Of Gender Relationship Quality And Parental Influence, Melinda Jeanene Swager

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study addressed dating infidelity attitudes and behaviors among college students involved in romantic relationships. Both emotional and sexual components of infidelity were analyzed. A gender difference emerged, with men being more accepting of dating infidelity and engaging in dating infidelity more often than women. Among both genders, however, attitudes were positively associated with behaviors. It was hypothesized that the following variables would predict dating infidelity: relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, family structure, interparental conflict, parent-child relationship quality, and a young adult's knowledge of his or her parent's infidelity. Attitudes were found to predict behaviors. Relationship satisfaction and commitment were also …

A Comparison Of Coping Styles And Body Image Of Abused And Non-Abused Women, Laura Elizabeth Brown

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study compared body image, patterns of coping, and the relationship between these factors in subjects with and without a reported background of childhood incest. Self-report measures of personal experience (Relevant Variable Questionnaire and the Assessment of Coping Interview), body image (the Human Figure Drawing Test (HFDT) and the Body Image Assessment (BIA)), and coping (the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) Coping Scale, and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R)) were administered individually to twenty-two women with reported incest histories and an equal number of women with no reported history of sexual or physical abuse. Significant …

Relational And Overt Aggression In Preschool, Nikki R. Crick, Juan F. Casas, Monique Mosher

Psychology Faculty Publications

This research was designed as an initial attempt to assess relational aggression in preschool-age children. Our goal was to develop reliable measures of relational aggression for young children and to use these instruments to address several important issues (e.g., the relation between this form of aggression and social–psychological adjustment). Results provide evidence that relationally aggressive behaviors appear in children's behavioral repertoires at relatively young ages, and that these behaviors can be reliably distinguished from overtly aggressive behaviors in preschool-age children. Further, findings indicate that preschool girls are significantly more relationally aggressive and less overtly aggressive than preschool boys. Finally, results …

A Model Of Paternal Involvement In Child Care And Household Labor, Jennifer Fancher Bonney

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The current study was designed to test a model predicting fathers' involvement in child care and household labor. Participants were 120 couples of 1-to-4 year old children. The participants were recruited from 12 local daycares. Mothers and fathers independently completed a measure assessing participation in child care and household labor; the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (Schumm et al., 1986); the Male Role. Norms Inventory (Levant et al., 1992); a measure assessing beliefs about the parental role (Bonney & Kelley, 1996); and a demographic questionnaire. The LISREL approach to data analysis was employed. The findings indicate that the following constructs work …

African-American Fathers: Their Role In Children's Social And Cognitive Development, Tammy Sue Smith

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Low-income, African-American fathers were examined regarding their involvement, job satisfaction, sensitivity, parenting attitudes, and gender role attitudes in relation to their children's social and cognitive development. Fathers completed the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1969); the Parental Attitudes Toward Childrearing Questionnaire (Easterbrooks & Goldberg, 1984); the Parent Attitude Research Scale (Bartz & Levine, 1978); and the Bern Inventory (Bern, 1974). Sensitivity was measured by videotaping fathers and children in a free play session. Videotaped interactions were scored according to the CARE-Index procedure (Crittenden, 1988). The children were administered the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 1969) or …

Predictors Of Social Physique Anxiety In Elite Female Youth Athletes, Jeffrey J. Martin, Hermann J. Engels, John C. Wirth, Kari L. Smith

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of social physique anxiety (SPA). SPA, self-esteem, body-esteem, public body consciousness (PBC) and percent body fat (%BF) were assessed with elite female youth athletes (N = 68) competing in either figure skating, soccer or gymnastics. Stepwise multiple regression analyses, controlling for BF%, accounted for 59% of the variance in SPA. Self-esteem entered first, and BF%, followed by body-esteem and PBC. The psychological variables accounted for 57% of the variance with self-esteem contributing the most (R square change = 45%). Contrary to previous research, BF% did not significantly contribute to SPA. …

Beliefs And The True Believer, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the psychological constructs of the True Believer.

A Study Of Self-Esteem Comparing Special Education With Regular Education Students During The Middle School Years, Debra A. Davis

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to compare differences in levels of self-esteem between special education students and a control group of normal students. One hundred sixty-two fifth- through eighth-grade students from Doddridge County Middle School, West Union, West Virginia, were assessed by teachers using the Self-Esteem Index. The students were initially divided into two groups according to their placement in the regular or the special education programs. There was a total of 81 students in each of the groups. The configuration of each group was as follows: 24 learning-disability students, 14 behavior-disorder students, 16 gifted students, nine speech/language-disorder students, …

Parenting For Emotional Growth: Workshop Series For Parents And Other Caregivers, Henri Parens, Md

Parenting for Emotional Growth

The Workshops, like the Lesson Plans, contain many opportunities for the participants and students to learn both didactically and experientially by direct, live observations. Questions and discussions, role-plays, interactional exercises, written and oral lessons and occasional games provide ample opportunity to experience the Workshops contents both intellectually and emotionally.

Workshop Instructors must be cognizant of ethnicity-specific mores and customs of Workshop participants; guidelines are provided to facilitate such ethnic considerations.

A Comparison Of White Male College Students Attending An Urban Black University And An Urban White University: White Racial Identity And Perceived Comfort With Blacks, Cheryl Lorraine Evans

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in White Racial Identity and degree of tolerance for Blacks between two samples of White male undergraduate students attending an urban Black university and those attending an urban White university. The theoretical framework for this study was based in Social Contact Theory as a contributor to racial tolerance and Racial Identity Development Theory as a factor in human growth toward increasing acceptance of diversity. This was a quasi-experimental post-hoc design using intact groups.

The study analyzed the responses of 182 White male undergraduates using three instruments. A Background Questionnaire, designed …

Young Children's Talk At Play: Orientation To Self And Orientation To The Joint Exigencies Of Conversation, Paige K. Parker

Masters Theses

This study employed a conversation analytic approach to determine how children in naturally constructed play episodes use language as an object of play and how children in their naturally occurring talk display orientation to their own individual activities and others' social actions. The participants were thirty-nine kindergarten and first grade students at South Elementary School in Marshall, Illinois. The study is based upon fifteen hours of conversation collected during recess periods. Relevant segments from the corpus were transcribed according to an adapted version of Jefferson's Transcript Notation System (1984). The findings suggested that (1) the groups of children used language …

Parental Quality Ratings Of Early Child Care Experiences And Subsequent School Adjustment, Donna Owens Collier

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate differences in the school performances of children with different early child care experiences. The relationship between parental quality ratings of early child care experiences and subsequent school performance was also examined. The subjects in this study were 99 first grade students from two public elementary schools in Chesapeake, Virginia. The parents of these students were asked to assess broad areas of their children's early care. This assessment resulted in four subscores and one overall score of quality. The school performance scores included two measures of academic achievement obtained from the students' …

The Autistic Child: Intervention Strategies, Kristie Jackson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

With autistic individuals, several intervention strategies have been developed--such as facilitated communication (FC), picture exchange systems, and sensory and auditory integration training--to help them relate to the world around them. Time and technology have indeed brought about many techniques for developing the communication skills of autistic individuals, but the tried-and-true behavior modification therapy (BMT) still proves to be the most effective. If other strategies do work, it is because behavior modification has been incorporated.

Correlates Of Parental Discipline In Adhd Children, Dawn Marie Powers

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study was designed to examine the parenting of an ADHD child in several important ways. First, it was hypothesized that mothers of ADHD children would report employing harsher, more restrictive disciplinary practices and that more negative interaction patterns, specifically resembling the coercive pattern described by Patterson (1982) would be evident in mother/ADHD child dyads. Second, the present study sought to identify the determinants of disciplinary practices and negative interaction patterns that are believed to exist in mother/ADHD child dyads. It was hypothesized that greater parental stress, difficult child temperament, and less ability to regulate self-control will be positively …

Correlates Of The Mmpi-A Immaturity (Imm) Scale In An Adolescent Psychiatric Population, Eric Albert Imhof

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Despite numerous theories of adolescent ego development, there is no objective measure of ego development or maturation targeted for the assessment of adolescents. The Immaturity (IMM) Scale developed for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Adolescent (MMPI-A) was designed to fill this void in adolescent assessment. The present study examined the concurrent validity of the IMM Scale based on sixty-six adolescents (13-18 years old) in an inpatient setting using four prominent measures of maturity, i.e., The Defining Issues Test (DIT), the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT), the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status - Second Revision (EOM-EIS-2), and …

Factors Related To Earthquake Preparedness Among Child Care Professionals: Theory And Policy Implications, Ellen N. Junn, D. Guerin

Office of the Provost Scholarship

With increasing numbers of children enrolled in child care, the safety of the child care environment and the preparedness of personnel to prevent injuries and fatalities in the event of natural disasters becomes an important public policy issue. In this study, earthquake preparedness and its correlates were examined in 25 child care centers located in a southern California community adjacent to the San Andreaas Fault. Extensive survey, interview, and on-site observational data were collected. Findings indicated a wide range of preparedness in child care centers. Half of the child care centers lacked basic essentials required to cope in the aftermath …

Strategic Transfer In Logical Abilities In Children Playing Mastermind And An Analogue, Cynthia J. Kincaid

Masters Theses

Strategy development and the use of strategy as a mechanism of transfer was examined in sixty elementary students while playing the logical deduction game Mastermind and a familiar analogue. In the first couple of two-way ANOVAs subjects showed that they are in fact learning or developing a task-specific strategy that can be applied across the two types of games regardless of which game was in the target position of a transfer paradigm. This suggests that subjects were able to focus on structural similarities rather than surface features and apply what was learned between the game isomorphs. Both the third and …

Developmental Aspects : Metacognition And Problem Solving, Roseanne Gibson

Theses : Honours

Mathematical problem solving has been the focus of recent curriculum reform. Researchers have investigated factors that appear to influence mathematical problem solving: one of these factors is metacognition. This study identified metacognitive aspects and investigated the relationship of metacognition and age in the context of mathematical problem solving. Twenty four children were randomly chosen: eight children from years two. four and six. The children were given the same non-routine problem to solve. A semi-structured interview and observation protocol were developed and used to determine students' metacognitive aspects. There was an extensive descriptive analysis of metacognitive aspects and a systematic quantification …

Memory Development And Aging, Jane M. Berry

Psychology Faculty Publications

And so, over a century ago, William James (1890) anticipated much of what has captured the attention of memory researchers in the ensuing years, particularly those working from the information processing perspective. I use this quote to open my Introduction to Psychological Science lecture on memory development across the lifespan because it alludes to different memory systems and stores, as well as individual and developmental differences in memory processing. In that lecture, questions of which memory processes and stores are most age sensitive are addressed, with the assumption that developmental changes in memory are not necessarily due to chronological age …

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders In Adults And Insecure Attachment, Shirley Lee Bates

Graduate Theses

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and disorders in adults and lack of secure childhood attachment. An additional hypothesis was that obsessive-compulsive individuals would most closely fit an avoidant pattern of adult attachment. A group of obsessive-compulsive adults, a group of adults with other emotional symptoms, and a normal group of adults representing the general population were measured using the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory, the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Attachment Style Questionnaire and Bartholomew’s Four-Group Model of Attachment. Results did not confirm a relationship between insecure childhood attachment and obsessive-compulsiveness. However, obsessive-compulsive subjects …

Predictive Value Of Apgar Scores When Developmental Rates Are Established: An Elimination Of Corrections For Prematurity, Daniel M. Phillips Iii

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relationship between Apgar scores and developmental delay after eliminating corrections for prematurity. Developmental assessments were taken at six and twelve months-of-age using the Clinical Adaptive Test (CAT) and the Clinical Linguistic and Auditory Milestone Scale (CLAMS). From these assessments, a rate of cognitive-developmental growth was established. Developmental rates then were used to predict developmental age when the infants were 17 months of age. The subjects were 52 preterm infants (gestational age< 32 weeks), who had moderate to severe I-minute and/or 5-minute Apgar scores. One- and 5-minute Apgar scores, grouped by moderate to severe range separately, were compared to developmental age assessments utilizing developmental rates and two existing methods of correction. No significant differences were found in CAT, CLAMS, and combined CAT/CLAMS developmental assessment means based on Apgar group. The Developmental Rates method, however, was significantly correlated with and predicted developmental outcome at 17 months of age. These findings suggest that Developmental Rates are a more accurate method of developmental age assessment and prediction.

Hardiness And Sensation Seeking As Potential Moderating Variables In The Stress-Illness Relationship, William N. Campbell Jr.

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

One hundred and fifteen undergraduate psychology students participated in a study designed primarily to investigate the personality styles characterized by "hardiness" and "sensation seeking" as potential moderators in the stress illness relationship. Subjects completed inventories measuring life-event stress, perceived stress, and illness experienced during the previous year, as well as questionnaires measuring hardiness, sensation seeking, and maladjustment. Correlation analysis revealed significant positive relationships between life-event stress and illness and perceived stress and illness as well as a significant negative relationship between hardiness and maladjustment.

Multiple regression analyses showed that life-event stress, perceived stress, and the two measures used together significantly …

Empowering The Marginal Student: An Innovative Skills-Based Extra Credit Assignment, Ellen N. Junn

Office of the Provost Scholarship

A simple extra-credit assignment explicitly rewarded marginal or failing students for improving their learning and study strategies. The instructor approached individual students who were at risk for failing the course following the midterm exam and gave them the option of earning extra-credit points for regularly documenting a variety of effective learning and study skills. In contrast to control groups of matched marginal students and of nonfailing students, those attempting the extra-credit assignment improved their test performance from midterm to final exam. They were more likely to earn at least a grade of C and less likely to drop out of …