Psychology Commons^™

The Role Of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors In The Thalamocortical Circuit During Spontaneous Epileptic Activity, Joy Vashisht Sharma

Theses and Dissertations

Spontaneous epileptic activity resembling spike wave discharges (SWD) characteristic of Generalized Absence (GA) epilepsy was induced in rat thalamocortical (TC) slices by incubating the slices in low-Mg^2- artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF) Extracellular field potentials were recorded in the cortex and thalamus to determine the effects of the broad spectrum metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) agonist, trans- (1S, 3R)-1-Amino-1, 3-cyclopentanedicarboxylic acid (ACPD), ACPD elicited concentration dependent effects on the duration of SWD. At 1 μM ACPD (n=3) there were no significant changes in duration of activity. At 20 μM, 11 of 13 slices displayed a decrease in duration of activity (mean …

Contemporary Couple Enrichment: A Critical And Meta-Analytic Review Of Methodology, Terry L. Hight

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of contemporary couple enrichment using currently-accepted standards of meta-analytic research. Twenty-seven published studies that compared enrichment groups to control groups were included in the analyses. The overall mean effect size (0.32), post-treatment effect size (0.35), and follow-up effect size (0.35) for couple enrichment were heterogeneous, positive, and significantly different than 0. Mean effect sizes for both post-treatment and follow-up did not differ significantly, Moderator variables associated with program type, measure type, nature of dependent variable, quality of methodology, measure reactivity, measure specificity, and researcher allegiance significantly improved homogeneity across effect …

Fears In Children With Chronic Constipation: Reliability And Validity Of The Defecation Anxiety Scale, Elizabeth Page Clawson

Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric constipation can lead to various negative emotional and physical consequences including abdominal pain, painful defecation, toileting fears, anxiety about pain and intestinal dysfunction. In addition, constipation can lead to socially compromising and embarrassing situations due to associated overflow incontinence. These unpleasant physical and emotional symptoms may in tum lead to conditioned avoidance behaviors, which serve to further maintain the cycle of stool retention and constipation. Presently, there have not been any studies directly addressing the role of conditioned aversion in the etiology and maintenance of constipation. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Defecation Anxiety Scale (DAS)- a …

Attorney And Judicial Perceptions Of The Credibility Of Expert Witnesses In Child Custody Cases, Michael T. Foot

Theses and Dissertations

Attorney and judicial attitudes towards expert witnesses in child custody cases were investigated by a cross-sectional research design. Subjects consisted of a sample of 381 of all attorneys and judges in the Commonwealth of Virginia who wished to be certified as guardians ad litem. Subjects were asked to fill out a six page questionnaire immediately prior to a daylong certification training session. The sample was primarily white (85.2%) and male (57.7%). Information was gathered on the subjects' demographic characteristics, experience with and attitudes toward expert witnesses in custody cases, opinions on traditional court and family structures, and knowledge of developmental …

Role Of Perceived Competence In The Behavior Of Socially Anxious Persons In Problem-Solving Groups, Scott D. Bradshaw

Theses and Dissertations

Research finds high-shy persons participate minimally in interactions, withhold ideas from their groups, and negatively evaluate their performance. While commonly true, high-shy persons do not always interact less and it has been suggested (Efran & Korn, 1969) that high-shy persons may dominate a discussion if they can find a "safe" topic. The current study examined whether perceptions of perceived competence can produce this effect and increase the performance level of high-shy persons in a problem-solving group above the performance level of low-shy persons.

One hundred and four women, ages 18 to 24, at Virginia Commonwealth University participated. Subjects completed a …

Attachment, Social Support, And Violence In Adolescent Delinquents, James R. Craft

Theses and Dissertations

Attachment relationships between children and their primary caretakers have been hypothesized to contribute to internal working models of subsequent relationships with others. Poor attachment might lead to internal working models which devalue later relationships, making the perpetration of violence against others more likely. One focus of this study was to propose a model which combined parental bonding, adolescent attachment, and perceived family support to predict the severity of violence used against others by adolescent delinquents. A second focus was to test the proposed model in predicting the total number of violent offenses committed by adolescent delinquents. One hundred and forty-five …

Predictors Of General And Dating-Related Conflict Among Parents And Middle Adolescents: The Active Role Of The Adolescent, Bonnie Brodzeller Dowdy

Theses and Dissertations

Current treatments of parent-adolescent conflict and autonomy development neglect the active role adolescents can play in managing conflict. The present study tests a conceptual model based on developmental theory. Dating is postulated as a salient source of conflict for parents and middle adolescents. Adolescents will utilize cognitive strategies to achieve dating-related goals. These strategies include both neutral (talking and selective disclosure) and negative (lying and using friends to cover for you) forms of filtering information parents receive in order to achieve their dating-related goals. General developmental and domain-specific factors were postulated to directly affect as well as moderate the effects …

Adolescents' Perceptions Of The Effects Of School-Based Family Life Education On Utilization Of Parents As A Resource For Problem Solving And For Sex-Specific Information, Bonnie B. Dowdy

Theses and Dissertations

Parental involvement is assumed to be an important component of successful school-based family life education programs. Historically, however, parents have been described as uninvolved in their adolescents’ sexuality education. Few data exist that explain either parents’ non-involvement or adolescents’ perceptions of parents as resources to support healthy sexual development. Existing research adopts a narrow, social control perspective on adolescent sexuality and on evaluation of community-based sexuality education programs. Given the increasing numbers of school-based family life education programs and of national organizations encouraging parental involvement components in preventive programs, empirical research on the interface of school and home-based sexuality education …

Child-Parent Attachment Style And Adult Attachment Style As Predictors Of Psychological And Interpersonal Problems, Lisa Deutsch Nava

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship among perceptions of child-parent attachment, current adult attachment style, psychological symptoms, and interpersonal problems was investigated. Subjects were 94 female undergraduate students at a large urban university in Richmond, Virginia. The modal age of the subjects was 22 years. Subjects were administered a packet comprised of six pencil-and-paper measures: Parental Caregiving Measure, Bartholomew Adult Attachment Style Questionnaire, Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire-Revised, and Inventory of Interpersonal Problems. The results indicated that the set of child-parent attachment and adult attachment style variables significantly predicted fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance and …

Perceptual And Cognitive Abnormality Model Of Hypochondriasis: Psychological Correlates Of Amplification And Misinterpretation, James R. Craft

Theses and Dissertations

Hypochondriasis is a disorder that may affect ten percent of all individuals seeking medical care. This places a great burden on the health care resources that are currently available. Unfortunately, very few of these individuals come to the attention of mental health professionals.

Various models have attempted to conceptualize hypochondriasis. These include the psychiatric model, the psychodynamic model, the social learning and the perceptual or cognitive abnormality model.

The perceptual or cognitive abnormality model suggests that individuals who are hypochondriacal misinterpret and/or amplify normal bodily sensations. These processes lead the individuals to believe they are suffering from a serious disease. …

Sociometric Categorization Of Children: An Empirically Based Method, Robert S. Falk

Theses and Dissertations

The use of sociometric assessment as a method for investigating the social competence of children and the prediction of future adjustment difficulties was reviewed. Recent methods used to form up to five sociometric groups (Popular, Average, Rejected, Neglected, and Controversial) were surveyed.

Various combinations of raw scores, standard deviation units, standardized scores, and binomial probability scores have been used in classification procedures. lnclusion/exclusion criteria, or cutoff scores, have been based on arbitrary statistical decisions regarding the ”extremeness" of children’s statements (positive and negative nominations) regarding their peers. These aspects of sociometric categorization result in limitations on the validity and generalizability …

Mechanisms Of Tolerance To The Effects Of Clozapine And Pimozide On A Multiple Fixed Interval 60-Second Fixed Ratio-30 Food Reinforcement Schedule In Rats, Heidi Freese Villanueva

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the behavioral and biochemical effects of two neuroleptic drugs. Clozapine (10 mg/kg), an atypical neuroleptic, and pimozide (1 mg/kg), a typical neuroleptic, were administered acutely, chronically (10 days), or in a behavioral tolerance paradigm (9 days of post-session administration followed by 10 days of presession administration) in order to assess the mechanisms of tolerance. Behavioral Effects were measured on a multiple FI 60-second FR-30 operant response schedule; HPLC was used to measure the biochemical effects of clozapine in the blood plasma, frontal cortex and striatum.

Presession administration of clozapine and pimozide both produced initial disruptions of response …

Prediction Of Children's Sociometric Status From Adult Ratings, Robert S. Falk

Theses and Dissertations

Poor peer relations in childhood predict difficulty in adolescent and adult adjustment. Sociometric methods provide a useful way to operationalize social competence. Five groups of children (Average, Popular, Rejected, Neglected, and Controversial), identified by nomination sociometrics, show significant differences on a variety of behavioral and non-behavioral indices. This categorization scheme has value in the identification of children at risk for later maladaptive outcomes, and may be useful in designing preventive intervention programs.

The current study attempted to determine the degree to which diagnostic ratings generated by significant adults can be generalized to the sociometric status of children. Parent and teacher …

Dignity: A Psychological Construct, Walter Watson Tunstall

Theses and Dissertations

A theory was presented which argued that dignity or a per­sonal sense of worth is a distinct dimension of the self­ concept, and it can be distinguished from self-esteem, a re­lated but different dimension of the self-structure. The theory presented an explanation for how a personal sense of worth originates, and why individuals may differ on the degree to which they feel worthy. An internally consistant, alpha= .85, temporally stable, r = .64, 25 item self-report measure of individual differences in dignity, defined as a social process of mutual and reciprocal validation between interactants, was constructed. The Personal Worth Inventory …

Relations Between Parents' Expressive And Instrumental Traits And Expectations And Several Early Adolescent Outcomes, Grayson N. Holmbeck

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine the degree to which parents' instrumental and expressive expectations are predicted by their instrumental and expressive personality characteristics, (2) to determine the degree to which these parental trait and expectation variables predict several selected early adolescent outcomes, and (3) to examine differences between the findings for sons and the findings for daughters.

The subjects were 174 seventh-grade girls and 103 seventh-grade boys and their mothers and fathers. All members of these triads filled out questionnaires and participated in interaction sessions. Data from the parental and child expectations Q-Sort, parental responses to …

An Interactional/Social Psychological Approach To Defiance And Therapeutic Paradox, Glenn Thomas Gould

Theses and Dissertations

This study tested the general hypothesis that a client's compliance or defiance of a therapeutic directive could be accurately predicted by manipulating the variables of incongruence and dependency within the client-counselor relationship. An attempt to control the relationship variables was made by using a no-choice, paradoxical directive to increase levels of relationship incongruence. The manipulation of the client's perception of their counselor's level of experience and expertness was aimed at controlling the dependency variables. The hypothesis that clients would report improvement of their symptom, following the delivery of a paradoxical directive, was also investigated.

The subjects of the study were …

Interpersonal Perceptions As Function Of Personality Styles, Suzanne R. Gascoyne

Theses and Dissertations

One hundred, sixty-nine undergraduates participated in a study that investigated the effects of interpersonal self-perceptions on judgements made about others. Subjects' interpersonal styles were assessed by self-ratings using the Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS). Subjects also rated the interpersonal styles of two video-taped stimulus others using the IAS. In addition, subjects' degree of identification and desire to affiliate with the stimuli were assessed. The general design was a two-group rating comparison (Friendly-Dominant and Friendly-Submissive, and more extreme and less extreme) across two stimulus conditions, Hostile-Dominant and Hostile-Submissive. There were several findings and interpretations were forwarded. Extreme subjects assigned higher, more extreme …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Two Exercise Programs On Children's Self-Concept, Locus Of Control, And Mood, Lynne Blanken Einhaus

Theses and Dissertations

The effects of two physical fitness programs on children's self-concept, locus of control and mood were investigated in this study. It was expected that children who participated in a vigorous running program would demonstrate reduced depression and anxiety but a more internal locus of control and an increase in self-concept than children in a routine exercise group.

Participants in the Running Group were three fifth grade classes of a public elementary school in Richmond, Virginia (N = 60). Participants in the Routine Exercise Group were three fifth grade classes from a comparable public elementary school in the same district (N …

Use Of An External Inhibition Procedure In The Treatment Of Spider Phobic Subjects, Jerome D. Gilmore

Theses and Dissertations

This research represented an extension of previous work on the therapeutic application of the external inhibition phenomenon, and sought to examine the effects of such a procedure on the verbal- cognitive, motoric, and physiological components of the anxiety response. To accomplish this, subjects were selected and treatment effects evaluated on the basis of changes elicited in each of the three response modalities by a specific fear stimulus, The relative effectiveness of the external inhibition treatment in modifying the multiple components of the anxiety response was examined by a comparison with procedures controlling for expectancy effects and repeated exposure to the …

Some Developmental Components Of The Career Decision Making Process Among College Students, Glenn Thomas Gould

Theses and Dissertations

Current research suggests that there is some relationship between developmental variables, levels of career maturity and career decisions. In this study, the relationships between certain developmental factors and the degree of certainty expressed by college students about their decision to major in a field of study were explored. The variables included the student's decision making stage, decision making styles, levels of autonomy and interpersonal relationships, and degree of career maturity. The relationships between students' status as decided or undecided about a choice of major and the variables were also investigated. The participants of this study were 104 men (n=47) and …

Person-Environment Interaction In Nursing Homes For The Elderly, Stan J. Orchowsky

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a growing interest in recent years in the study of person-environment interaction in the elderly. Several theoretical models have been proposed in the gerontological literature. Each of these models suffers from one or more limitations, including the restriction of requiring that the person and the environment be measured in the same terms, and the difficulty posed by attempting to empirically test the model.

A new model of person-environment interaction in the elderly is proposed here. The model views life satisfaction as the ultimate outcome variable. Feelings of personal control and choice are seen as intervening between life …

The Effects Of Religious Beliefs On Preferences Among Four Types Of Christian Counseling, Suzanne Ruth Gascoyne

Theses and Dissertations

Forty-five participants from Protestant denominations completed surveys designed to investigate the effects of religious beliefs on preferences among four types of Christian counseling. The proponents of the counseling theories were Clyde M. Narramore, Jay E. Adams, Lawrence J. Crabb, and Andre Bustanoby. Participants read a case history of a fictitious client, and four short treatment plans which represented each Christian counselor's approach. Then, they completed questionnaires designed to assess their preferences for the counseling approaches, as well as completing other measures, including a religious fundamentalism scale, the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS), and the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS). It was found …

Interactionist Strategies For Assessing Personality And Behavior Differences Among Female Intercollegiate Athletes And Nonathletes, Frances Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

Thirty six female intercollegiate team athletes and 40 female non-athlete control subjects were studied in a two-experiment investigation designed to explore the personality patterns of female athletes; to measure any differences in performances of the experimental and control groups attributable to changing conditions, i.e., solo, coaction and competitive; and to explore the interactions of personality variables and performance. The previous research on personality, with Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Inventory and female athletes, is not plentiful and frequently in conflict. No previous research could be located that employed controlled competitive conditions with athletes—male or female. In Study 1, the team athletes …

Motivational Differences Between Depressed And Nondepressed Students In Detecting Noncontingency, Gerald D. Oster

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of learned helplessness assigns a mediating role to the recognition that events may be unrelated. However, current representation of individuals as "intuitive statisticians" unveils a lack of these information-processing abilities. This is particuIarIy apparent in the skill required to recognize noncontingent events. Similarly, in a series of experiments on the detection of contingent and noncontingent events, Allo and Abramson (1979) demonstrated that this “illusion of controI” couId discriminate between depressed and nondepressed students.

In extending their research, the concept of "contrast effects," on animal Iearning phenomenon, was introduced as a competing motivational framework to account for differences between …

Relationship Between Personality And Value Structure, William B. Pettus

Theses and Dissertations

Humankind has been interested in the study of individual differences throughout recorded history. Plato discussed the issue of individual variations in aptitudes and suggested having tests for selecting those persons most suited for the military, artisans and rulers (Tyler, 1965). Hippocrates proposed a two-fold classification system of body builds which he called ”habitus apoplecticus” and ”habitus phthisicus” (Tyler, 1965). The nineteenth century German astronomer, Bessel, discovered discrepancies among individuals in recording the time of the passage of stars across the meridian at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. This source of error, due to individual differences, became known as the ”personal …

Stages Of Adult Development For Women Religious And Married Women, Ellen Rufft

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the stages in the adult development of single women living in religious communities and compare these stages with those of married women. Specific research questions about each five year period from age 21 to 50 were answered by this study.

Questionnaires were sent to 200 women religious and 200 married women between the ages of 36 and 50 who live in the Pittsburgh area and are white, middle-class, and Catholic. In addition to requesting biographical information, these questionnaires asked participants to specify which five year period in their lives they experienced certain …

Components Of State Anxiety For Varying Levels And Dimensions Of Trait Anxiety, Dennis C. Donat

Theses and Dissertations

Recent research has provided support for a multidimensional view of trait anxiety to supplant the former unidimensional approach. Unidimensional measures of general trait anxiety have been found to be inadequate as predictors of state anxiety reactions across a wide variety of situations. As such, they are poor measures of general trait anxiety. The present investigation was conducted to examine the possible utility of a single anxiety trait score, summed from the subscales of the Stimulus - Response Inventory of General Trait Anxiety (S-R GTA), a multidimensional measure of trait anxiety, in supplementing the ability of individual subscale scores to predict …

An Investigation Of Identity And Self-Esteem In Traditional Married Women During Their Middle Years, And The Impact Of The Life Planning Seminar, Susan E. Ellett

Theses and Dissertations

There is contradictory evidence as to whether the middle years are problematic for women. The research indicates that the middle years, particularly the empty nest period, are traumatic for some women, but for others a time of relief. More recent research suggests that for women who do find the middle years problematic, certain types of group experiences may be helpful. The purpose of this study was to investigate this time of life for a specific population of women, traditional married women who have devoted their time primarily to raising a family. This study examined identity and self-esteem in these women …

Effects Of Cognitive Set On The Physiological, Subjective, And Behavioral Responses To Fearful Stimuli, Jerome D. Gilmore

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the effects of cognitive set on the physiological, subjective, and motoric responses of fearful and non-fearful subjects exposed to specific fear stimuli. High, moderate, and low mutilation fear subjects were given instructions designed to persuade them that they were or were not afraid of mutilation stimuli. The extent to which instructions differentially affected subjects in the three fear groups and produced differential effects on responses in the three modalities was examined. The degree to which the physiological, self-report, and behavioral channels responded concordantly was also investigated.

A series of hypotheses were derived which generally indicated that high-fear …

Age Differences In Attributions Of Causality: Implications For Intellectual Assessment, Thomas R. Prohaska

Theses and Dissertations

The present investigation was designed to test the hypothesis that failure experienced by the individual in a testing situation is moderated by causal attributions and these attributions influence subsequent test measures. The effect of manipulating cause (lack of effort or Lack of ability) to response-independent failure and its relationship to scores on the Reasoning, Hidden Patterns, and Paper Folding Test, in younger an older person's was investigated. The same measures were assessed in a group that experienced the same response-independent-failure but with no explanation offered as to the cause for the failure, a group that was not given any information …