Psychology Commons^™

A Forensic Lens On Aces & Trauma, Greta K. Cruz

Master of Arts in Human Services

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have emerged as a critical area of research in childhood development and the prevention of criminal behavior. The framework of this topic continually provides updated information on the impact of criminal behavior on children. Understanding the long-term effects of trauma on mental health, the influence of criminal behavior, and patterns of recidivism across the lifespan when children are exposed to a single form of adversity or multiple forms of adversity. This research aims to synthesize recent empirical data/findings of how specific ACEs, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, exposure to familial violence, and household substance misuse, …

Belonging Is A Verb, Becca Lory Hector

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This essay explores belonging as an active process rather than a fixed state, particularly through the lived experiences of Autistic adults. Drawing from community practices of care, mutuality, and interdependence, it reframes belonging as a collective verb, something created through shared action rather than conformity. By centering Neurodivergent ways of connecting, this piece argues that Autistic models of community offer transformative insights into authenticity, inclusion, and the repair of social harm.

Dissolving Glass, Rachel Heartwood

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

My work is a visual aut-ethnography that explores the profound loneliness of being a neurodivergent person, now amplified by living in a foreign country. This series of photographs represents the deepening of my personal "fishbowl," a metaphor for the isolation of my complex, forever-changing/evolving inner self from the outside world. For me, this feeling is not new; it is a long-standing pattern of being misunderstood, misjudged and under/overestimated by others. Having recently moved to Germany, I've found that the language barrier has increased the opacity on the glass, blurring my ability to understand/be understood by …

Under Pressure: The Effects Of Stress And Cognitive Load On Interrogative Suggestibility, Claudia Cota

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

High-stakes situations, like police interrogations, can impair critical thinking due to stress and cognitive demands, making individuals more susceptible to suggestion. While much research focuses on children, young adults are also at risk for interrogative suggestibility, which can have serious legal consequences. This study experimentally manipulated stress and cognitive load to test whether both factors increase suggestibility in young adults, both independently and interactively, with the highest suggestibility among those experiencing both greater stress and cognitive demands. This was evaluated by examining both condition effects and self-reports of stress and cognitive load. College students (N = 230), aged 18 to …

Are People More Likely To See Actions As Intentional When They Are Forced To Make Their Decisions Quickly? A Replication And Extension Of Rosset (2008), Andrew Elmore

Honors Theses

Rosset (2008) reported evidence of an intentionality bias, which is a key prediction of a model of human cognition that suggests that people learn to override intentional attributions of behavior, a dual-process model of intention attribution. A model that hypothesizes that when people are deprived of the time to develop deliberate thought processes, their default explanation for actions is intentional, and that this default attribution has to be consciously overridden. Rosset’s main method of testing this was by providing test sentences to participants and placing them into two scenarios where they had different levels of time to process the sentences. …

Understanding Mental Health Crisis Response Through The Lens Of First Responders, Ella Gibson

Student Theses

Responses to mental health crises are becoming an increasingly contentious topic as cases of extreme police violence or fatality during a crisis are publicized in the media. Although first responders’ experiences with mental health crisis response have been explored in prior literature, there remains a lack of research that gathers data from multiple first responder roles and compares their experiences across groups. There is also a significant gap in research examining the perspectives of co-response teams. This study sought to gather qualitative data on the experiences of police officers, EMTs/paramedics, and co-response team members, and to explore their perceptions of …

The Personality Profile Of U.S. Vice President Jd Vance, Aubrey Immelman, Logan Butler

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect personality assessment of U.S. vice president JD Vance, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data relating to Vance were collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, and DSM-5-TR.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed in accordance with interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Vance’s primary personality patterns were found …

How Experiencing Eudaimonic Emotions Through Music Shapes Prosocial And Altruistic Behavior: Introducing A Unified Model Of Music-Listening-Induced Eudaimonia (Ummie), Rebecca Tukachinsky Forster, Daniel H. Spitz, Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, Roni Granot

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

This paper introduces the Unified Model of Music-Listening Induced Eudaimonia (UMMIE), which offers an integrated novel theoretical framework to explain how music listening promotes prosocial and altruistic outcomes. Drawing on communication and psychology research, UMMIE maintains that elicitation of eudaimonic emotions can be appraised inwards, towards oneself, and thus contribute to the individual's personal growth, wellbeing, and development, or outwards, by connecting to something bigger than oneself, to humanity in general, which could possibly then lead to enhanced prosocial and altruistic attitudes and behaviors. The model specifies musical, situational, and individual variables that serve as moderators and increase the likelihood …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Parenting Under Constraint: How Histories Of Abuse And Sexual Violence Shape Mothers' Caregiving In A Homeless Shelter, Kiera P. Irvin

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Background: Mothers experiencing homelessness often carry extensive trauma histories, yet little work examines how abuse and sexual violence shape day-to-day parenting inside communal shelter settings. This study explored how trauma histories intersect with shelter structures to influence caregiving and feelings surrounding parenting among homeless mothers.

Method: Using a qualitative design, four mothers (ages 30–51) residing in a large Midwestern homeless shelter completed approximately 30-minute, semi-structured interviews in a private room onsite. Data were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed with inductive reflexive thematic analysis in Dedoose.

Results: Three interrelated themes were identified. (1) Parenting Under Constraint, in which communal living, limited …

Three Good Things And Family Process, Julia Prouty

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

There is a need for adaptive and affordable prevention/intervention strategies to promote happiness, health, and well-being in families. Three Good Things (3GT) is a free exercise from the field of positive psychology meant to shift an individual’s focus and perceptions towards gratitude. 3GT promotes focusing on gratitude by reflecting on what an individual is grateful for from the past day/week. Persons are encouraged to write down and share their 3GT with another individual. A mindset of gratitude is closely associated with improved happiness, health, and well-being. The exercise of reflecting on 3GT is adaptive to most individuals/families. To date, most …

Religious Security As A Component Of National Security In The Sphere Of Social And Economic Communication, Yevhen Kharkovshchenko, Vitalii Nitsenko, Yevhen Piletskyi, Mariia Nesterova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

National security is proposed to be viewed as a coordinated open system that, in addition to the religious, also includes military, economic, social, and other components. Considering religion as part of such an open system makes it possible to distinguish two mutually directed vectors of communication within religious communities: from church leaders to the faithful and vice versa. This presupposes feedback communication links that allow a denomination to balance interactions among the actors of church–society relations. The concept of “communication” in the context of religious and national security is thus expanded from a narrow understanding of information exchange to an …

The Dark Side Of Synchrony: Investigating Affective Valence As A Moderator Of The Relationship Between Physiological Synchrony And Team Performance, Caroline N. Deal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Team processes are severely understudied, likely given their dynamic nature. Physiological synchrony (PS) may provide a solution, as PS provides a proximal, objective measure of team processes. PS is believed to develop through affect contagion, such that team members who catch each other’s emotions are more likely to physiologically synchronize. Extant research has found relationships between PS and performance; however, many questions remain regarding the nature, scope, and directionality of this relationship. I proposed that PS in the context of a positively valenced emotion would be beneficial to team performance, while PS characterized by a negatively valenced emotion would be …

Cross-Cultural Perspectives On Psychological Research Practices And Opportunities: Do We All Have The (Same) Chance?, Irena Boskovic, Nisali Perera, Henry Otgaar

Psychological Research on Urban Society

The dominance of "WEIRD" (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) authors might indicate significant differences in research practices between them and non-WEIRD researchers or highlight issues such as inequality and publishing bias. In this survey, using a convenience sample of researchers worldwide (N = 72), we examined current research practices and researchers' views on the feasibility of advancements in employed methodologies among and between researchers in both WEIRD and Non-WEIRD countries. Our results showed that research practices are fairly uniform across cultures, by researchers commonly relying on (student) convenience samples, using statistical packages such as SPSS and R, utilizing …

Rape Myth Acceptance, Pretrial Publicity, And Decision-Making: An Examination Of Perceptions Of Victim Credibility And Perpetrator Guilt In A Real-World Sexual Assault Case, Lindsey Strouse

Student Theses

This study explores how the media narratives and political perspective of pretrial publicity (PTP) can influence jurors’ perceptions in sexual assault cases, raising significant concerns about justice in courtrooms. Specifically, it examines whether media framing of a real-life sexual assault case — through varying media narratives, with media that either challenges or endorses rape myths, and media source (liberal vs. conservative) — affects mock jurors’ rape myth acceptance (RMA), views of victim credibility, and judgements of perpetrator guilt. Participants first completed a RMA scale, then read mock news articles varying in media narrative and political affiliations (media source), followed by …

Frozen Mindset: Relationship Beliefs In Blutch’S Peplum, Mckenna Holz

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Blutch’s fictional, peplum style bande dessinée titled Peplum explores the consequences of a relationship influenced by hegemonic masculinity and a desire for the penetrator role. His protagonist Publius experiences three failed relationships because of the delusion of a destiny relationship belief. Publius’ relationship odyssey enlightens him to adopt a growth relationship belief which pushes Blutch’s message of healthy relationship dynamics. Blutch focuses on Publius’ eyes to show this belief transition and uses bande dessinée techniques of rhythm, shading, and mise en page to achieve this visual.

Associations Between Individual And Structural Level Discrimination And Psychological And Physiological Stress Indicators During Pregnancy, Özlü Aran, Melissa Nevarez-Brewster, Kimberly D'Anna-Hernandez, Julia Dmitrieva, Curt A. Sandman, Laura M. Glynn, Elysia Poggi Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In the United States (U.S.) pervasive health disparities in prenatal care disproportionately impact marginalized individuals. The present study investigates whether discrimination at the individual and structural levels are associated with indicators of psychological and physiological stress among pregnant Latinx people living in the U.S., including both U.S. and foreign-born individuals. Pregnant participants (n = 109) reported on birthplace, lifetime experiences of racial and ethnic discrimination, perceived levels of stress, acculturation, social support, and provided residential address data and hair samples for cortisol analysis. Regression analysis revealed that individual level discrimination was linked to higher psychological stress during pregnancy ( …

Legends, Lies, & Rewritten Lives: After The Little Bighorn: Forgotten Struggles Of Those Who Walked Away, Thomas B. Davidson

DU Textbooks

This Narrative is about an event that occurred on June 25, 1876, on the banks of the Little Bighorn River in what is now the state of Montana. Seen from a 21st century perch, it tells a story of a contest between the armed representatives of two different civilizations, each of which fought in the manner of its society. The narrative will attempt to balance the truth of what happened while also relating an engaging story, but without drifting into sensationalism. The narrative will go beyond a focus on the meeting of the soldiers from either group to explore the …

Impression Motivations And Mental Health In Collegiate Athletes And Musicians: The Benefits Of Promoting Virtues, Mary L. Inman, Olufemi A. Oluyedun, Erin Moran, Brendyn Mroz, Madison Mccreery

Faculty Publications

This study identifies two key impression-management motivations that arise in public settings: promoting virtues and preventing harm to one’s image. We explored their impact on mental health—specifically, socially-based perfectionism and depressive symptoms. Drawing from regulatory-focus theory, we predicted promotion motivations would predict strong mental health, prevention motivations would predict poor mental health, and promotion motivations would buffer against the negative effects of prevention motivations. Collegiate athletes and musicians (N = 262) completed validated measures of impression motivation, perfectionism, and depressive symptoms. Results revealed that athletes reported lower levels of perfectionism and depressive symptoms than did musicians. Across both groups, …

The Potential Benefits Of Co-Design In Dog-Assisted Treatment Programs For Veterans Seeking Mental Health Care, Parvin (Pary) Bahmanyari, Pauleen Bennett, Tiffani Howell

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

Veterans are more likely than the general population to experience a range of mental health problems. While many veteran mental health support programs are available, veterans may struggle to access and engage with these services for various reasons (e.g., a stigmatized perception of mental health disorders, mistrust). Animal-assisted services have become more popular in civilian and military health care settings where traditional therapies (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy) may not always be effective. Assistance dogs, for example, which live with veterans to provide disability support, have been successfully employed for veteran mental health. Unfortunately, a subgroup of veterans may miss out …

Sex-Specific Associations Between Early Life Unpredictability And Trajectories Of Body Mass Index From Infancy To Adolescence, Emily M. Melnick, Lilybelle K. Deer, Jenalee R. Doom, Hal S. Stern, Curt A. Sandman, Laura M. Glynn, Elysia P. Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective:

Unpredictability in early life is an understudied aspect of early life adversity that provides important signals to the child about their environment. Recent work shows the predictability of patterns of parental signals on a moment-to-moment timescale sculpts the developing brain during sensitive windows, offering a potential pathway through which early life experiences shape child development. Both experimental non-human animal models and observational human research show sex-specific links between early life exposure to unpredictable patterns of parental sensory signals and aberrant offspring development. The impact of predictability of sensory signals on physical health outcomes, such as BMI, remains unknown. Here …

Preparation, Development, And Refinement Of The Interview Protocol In Qualitative Research, David C. Coker, Adebowale Akande

The Qualitative Report

Interview protocols are by far the most common method utilized in qualitative research data collection. Novice and experienced researchers, from working on dissertations to grant proposals or other publications, often lack detailed interview design methods, as many educational programs do not require specific coursework on interview protocols and question development. To improve qualitative research, we make a proposal to incorporate an interdisciplinary approach that operationalizes three stages: preparation, development, and refinement. Preparation involves mapping the extant literature to define broad, narrow, and focused topics to write actionable standards, goals, and objectives. Development uses instructional design and educational psychology to construct …

Examining Barriers To Crisis Service Use Among Black Young Adults, Emily K. Burns

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Black communities face an increased burden of mental illness (Gordon, 2020). This can be linked to factors such as experiences of racism, higher rates of unemployment, financial and food insecurity, and disparities in health care (Gordon, 2020). Despite this, Black communities have historically experienced relatively low rates of suicide (Gordon, 2020). This has been anecdotally attributed to protective cultural values and beliefs about suicide. However, there has been a recent shift in this trend, particularly for Black youth and young adults.

The Journey Of Psychotherapy: Understanding Therapeutic Technique Through Ultralight Thru Hiking, Emma Bossier

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

This paper explores several principles of ultralight backpacking as metaphors for developing one’s therapeutic technique. The tenets of ultralight thru hiking, when interpreted through a clinical lens, offer early clinicians insight into the importance of moving through fear and leaning into exploration, discomfort, and authenticity while on the journey of becoming a therapist. The experiences of numerous thru hikers are synthesized into five principles: Don’t Pack Your Fears, Be Present for the Journey, Slow Simplicity, Embrace the Suck (and The Stink), and Trail Legs. These principles do not define ultralight as carefreeness but rather offer a metaphor for the careful …

The Developmental Cohort Model Of Interpersonal Process Groups: A Clinician's Guide For University Counseling Centers, Lauren Caldas

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

The purpose of this paper is to outline a clinician's manual that guides providers in the development, facilitation, and maintenance of long-term interpersonal process groups (IPGs) within university counseling centers (UCCs). This manual also presents a new model: The Developmental Cohort Model (DCM), which utilizes a stepped model throughout a traditional student's college timeline. I will present this manual in the context of the Developmental Cohort Model (DCM), but it can certainly remain useful for any type of IPG. Research suggests that group therapy is an effective way to increase access to mental health care (Burlingame & Strauss, 2021) and …

A Religious Etiology Of Genito-Pelvic Pain And Pain With Penetration, Emily L. Carlson

Theses and Graduate Projects

Pelvic pain during penetration (PPDP) has been described using various diagnostic terms, including vaginismus, dyspareunia, and vulvodynia. The most recent and comprehensive classification is Genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder (GPPPD) which is characterized by psychological distress associated with pain during or in anticipation of vaginal penetration (DSM-5-TR; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2022). The etiology of PPDP is multifactorial, involving a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and relational factors. Religious and cultural influences may play a significant role in shaping individuals’ experiences of sexual pain. This study investigated the etiology of PPDP in relation to the religious influences among women raised in Judeo-Christian …

The Impact Of Mental Health Courts On Public Attitudes Held Toward Justice-Involved Individuals With Mental Illness, Maeve Porter

Student Theses

Prior research has established that mental health court programs play an important role in reducing recidivism and mental health symptoms of defendants. However, there is a lack of understanding of the stigma that justice-involved individuals may encounter upon release from mental health court into the community, and the extent to which the general public is aware of mental health court programs. The present study sought to address public perceptions regarding mental health courts, their efficacy, and their participants based on the awareness and availability of these specialized courts in two similar states (New York and New Jersey), one in which …

The Impact Of Alternatives To Incarceration And The Motherhood Identity On Mothers And Their Children: A Qualitative Study, Chloe Blau

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The U.S. prison system population increasingly includes women, a significant proportion of whom are mothers, often incarcerated for non-violent crimes. Some research suggests that alternative to incarceration (ATI) programs can help these women to continue supporting their children while serving their sentences and receiving services that may decrease recidivism. However, few studies have explored the lived experiences of women in these programs. This dissertation investigates the impact of participating in ATI programs on mothers and their relationship to their motherhood identity, their ability to mother, and their relationship with their children. Using a qualitative approach to better understand how women …

Autism Awareness Training For Law Enforcement Officers: A Pilot Study, Kaylie Holke, Meghan Cosier, Elissa Green Kaustinen, Cathy Scherer, Andrew Wall

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to pilot a research-based autism training session for law enforcement officers (LEOs), test the Police Self-Efficacy for Autism (PSEA) scale as a measurement tool for the session and provide a preliminary examination of brief training. Design/methodology/approach

This study utilized a pre-post survey approach in which participants completed the PSEA scale pre- and post-training to measure the relationship between the training and self-efficacy scores. Findings

Results show a positive relationship between brief autism-specific training and officers’ self-efficacy scores across items and subscales. All four subscales and seven of thirteen items demonstrated statistical significance. Originality/value …

Gamete Size Is Essential For Understanding Sex And Sexual Selection In Humans, Animals, Plants, And Algae But Configurations Of Sex-Linked Traits Are Practically Important For Understanding Sex, David A. Frederick

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

"First, I briefly highlight recent discussions of sex and how they contrast with a gametic central understanding of sex in the executive order. I then provide some background on why gametes have been central to defining sex across species in evolutionary biological sciences. Understanding this perspective is important because it helps understand the competing frames people are using when they talk of sex as binary instead of as a spectrum or a multidimensional configuration of traits. The gametic central framing is essential for understanding sex and sexual selection across species, whereas the multidimensional configuration framing is practically useful in medical, …