Psychology Commons^™

Toward A Model Of Team Situation Awareness, Alexis Anne Fink

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Situation Awareness (SA) is a construct that is considered important to safety in dynamic, risky, time-constrained and complex environments, such as military aviation, nuclear reactors and emergency management. Research consideration of SA is complicated by the fact that there is no clearly superior methodology for SA measurement. Typically, SA is considered at the individual level; however, the nature of the SA context often requires more than one individual for safe and effective operations. Team SA is a qualitatively different phenomenon than individual SA. Few models of team SA have been proposed. The primary purpose of this paper was to develop …

Increasing Readiness To Change Among Smokers In A Primary Care Setting, Sheila F. Collicott

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study compared the effectiveness of two brief interventions, direct advice and motivational interviewing, for increasing motivation to quit among male smokers in the pre-contemplation and contemplation stages of change who were primary care patients at an Eastern urban VA medical center. Contrary to expectations, participants receiving motivational interviews did not increase more in readiness to change, motivation, and actions to quit, than those receiving direct advice or a control conversation, nor did they smoke fewer cigarettes per day. As expected, contemplators reported more cutting down and quit attempts than pre-contemplators. Factors that may have limited the effectiveness of interventions …

Caregivers Locus Of Control For Child Improvement, Timothy B. Smith

Faculty Publications

A potentially important variable that has received little attention in the disabilities literature is the caregiver's locus of control beliefs for child improvement as they relate to treatment compliance and actual child improvement. To evaluate the construct's utility in a practice setting, 131 caregiver-child dyads were assessed twice, twelve months apart. Children were an average of approximately four years old at the first assessment, and all of them had mild to severe developmental disabilities. Aspects of caregiver compliance to treatment were rated, and measures of child development status, family functioning, and caregiver locus of control were administered. Results indicated that …

Male Sexual Behavior: Revisiting The Eiu Sexual Experience Survey And Report, Justin W. Freeman

Masters Theses

The EIU Sexual Experiences Survey of 1989 was given to 1693 Eastern undergraduate students in order to determine the incidence rate of sexual assault on campus. The survey report consisted of descriptive findings only, leaving future correlational research to answer any questions that remained. This study designated 664 male survey respondents with the Illinois legal classification system, and analyzed the demographics of the men surveyed to find any correlational relationships. No meaningful correlational relationships were found across the conditions of perpetrator and non-perpetrator for the male survey respondents.

Current Trends In Psychological Testing, Kimberle L. S. Crawford

Masters Theses

Discussions about the adequacy of psychological measurement and assessment can quickly become controversial therefore; I expect some strong reaction to portions of this manuscript. Debates about the usefulness of criticism of psychological testing are longstanding: Even early psychologists such as Cattell and Jastrow disagreed on this issue. To be clear, I do not believe that use of contemporary tests should cease. I share the view that "psychological tests often provide the fairest and most accurate method of making important decisions" (K. R. Murphy & Davidshoffer, 1988, p. xii).

My first purpose, then, is to provide a historical survey of relevant …

Intuition: Theory And Application In Counseling And Psychotherapy, Neva S. Calvert

Masters Theses

This is a comprehensive literature review rendering over 300 references to articles, books, lectures, and websites that pertain to the subject of intuition and its relationship to human consciousness. The scope of this review includes (1) statistical overviews of intuition/intuitive-related websites, book publishing and professional documents; (2) overview of professional intuition/intuitive and counseling/psychotherapy-related documents; and (3) historical and current review of (a) women's, (b) children's, (c) religious, (d) delusional, (e) mathematical, and (f) scientific intuition studies. The author reviews intuition in relationship to (1) Husserlian phenomenology in modem science and psychology; (2) savant syndrome; (3) gaia theory and Native American …

The Relationship Between Burnout And Personality Dimensions In Domestic Violence Staff, Kristi J. Flatter

Masters Theses

An exploratory study was conducted examining the relationship between burnout and personality dimensions. Sixty-nine employees from domestic violence agencies completed survey materials including the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and a demographic and satisfaction questionnaire. A sample of domestic violence agencies was selected to participate from the state of Illinois using a directory listing all domestic violence agencies. Results suggested that symptoms of burnout occur both at a high and moderate (or average) level among this group of human service providers. Only one personal characteristic, age, was found to have a significant relationship with burnout. A …

Acute Gaba-A Receptor Modulation By Diazepam Following Traumatic Brain Injury In The Rat: An Immunohistochemical Study, Cynthia J. Gibson

Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) disrupts ionic balance and produces acute widespread depolarization. Restoration of ionic balance and neuronal function after TBI may be achieved by increasing inhibitory neurotransmission (e.g., stimulating GABA-A receptors). This study used antibodies specific for β2/3 subunits to examine changes in GABA-A receptors in the rat hippocampus 24 hours following moderate fluid percussion TBI. The β2/ 3 antibody primarily stained dendritic processes. No injury related changes were found in the CA1 but extensive morphological dendritic alterations were found in the CA3 region of the hippocampus. Analysis revealed decreased length of immunoreactive processes in CA3 apical dendrites of …

The Relationship Between Perceived Stress Levels And Expectancies Of Mindfulness Meditation, Christina A. Qualls

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Mapping The Zone Of Eye-Height Utility For Seated And Standing Observers, Maryjane Wraga, Dennis R. Proffitt

Psychology: Faculty Publications

In a series of experiments, we delimited a region within the vertical axis of space in which eye height (EH) information is used maximally to scale object heights, referred to as the "zone of eye height utility" (Wraga, 1999b Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception and Performance 25 518-530). To test the lower limit of the zone, linear perspective (on the floor) was varied via introduction of a false perspective (FP) gradient while all sources of EH information except linear perspective were held constant. For seated (experiment 1a) observers, the FP gradient produced overestimations of height for rectangular objects up …

Perception-Action Dissociations Of A Walkable Müller-Lyer Configuration, Maryjane Wraga, Sarah H. Creem, Dennis R. Proffitt

Psychology: Faculty Publications

These studies examined the role of spatial encoding in inducing perception-action dissociations in visual illusions. Participants were shown a large-scale Müller-Lyer configuration with hoops as its tails. In Experiment 1, participants either made verbal estimates of the extent of the Müller-Lyer shaft (verbal task) or walked the extent without vision, in an offset path (blind-walking task). For both tasks, participants stood a small distance away from the configuration, to elicit object-relative encoding of the shaft with respect to its hoops. A similar illusion bias was found in the verbal and motoric tasks. In Experiment 2, participants stood at one endpoint …

Updating Displays After Imagined Object And Viewer Rotations, Maryjane Wraga, Sarah H. Creem, Dennis R. Proffitt

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Six experiments compared spatial updating of an array after imagined rotations of the array versus viewer. Participants responded faster and made fewer errors in viewer tasks than in array tasks while positioned outside (Experiment 1) or inside (Experiment 2) the array. An apparent array advantage for updating objects rather than locations was attributable to participants imagining translations of single objects rather than rotations of the array (Experiment 3). Superior viewer performance persisted when the array was reduced to 1 object (Experiment 4); however, an object with a familiar configuration improved object performance somewhat (Experiment 5). Object performance reached near-viewer levels …

Reproductive Experience And Stress Responsiveness, Jennifer Elizabeth Wartella

Master's Theses

Hormonal fluctuations and maternal behavior associated with pregnancy and postpartum care of pups induce many changes in the female rat. Circulating hormonal surges during pregnancy modify the female brain in preparation for motherhood. Past studies identify the medial preoptic area, the hypothalamus and the basal forebrain as structures dense in hormonal receptors involved in controlling reproductive behavior. The hippocampus and amygdala possess many hormonal receptors. Neurons exposed to pregnancy hormones develop new synapses and increased spine density, changes reflected in behavioral preparations, such as nest building and increased foraging, for the new pups. Following the experience of birth, pup stimulation …

Attention, Memory, And Self-Efficacy Differences Between Adhd And Aging Individuals, Douglas Lee Welsh

Master's Theses

Attention and memory abilities decline with age. Although a similar pattern of attentional and memory decrement has been observed in individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), these two populations have never been directly compared. The present study examined performance on attention, self-efficacy (SE), and memory tasks by ADHD young adults and non-ADHD younger and older adults. ADHD adults displayed lower attentional SE than both non-ADHD younger and older adults, but performed comparably to older adults on an attention task on which non-ADHD younger adults outperformed both groups. ADHD adults and older adults had lower memory SE than non-AD HD …

Prevalence Of Mentoring On Clinical Versus Experimental Doctoral Programs: Survey Findings, Implications, And Recommendations, W Brad Johnson, Christopher Koch, Gregory O. Fallow, Jennifer M. Huwe

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

Previous research suggests that mentorships are quite important in the development of junior professionals in a range of fields, including psychology. Yet some evidence suggests that clinical doctoral students may be less frequently mentored by graduate faculty than other psychology doctoral students. Results of a survey of clinical and experimental psychology doctorates who earned the degree in four distinct time frames from 1945 to the present indicated that clinical PhDs (53%) were indeed less likely than experimental PhDs (69%) to be mentored. Potential explanations for this discrepancy include the nature of clinical training, diffusion in clinical training, and the advent …

Behavioral Contrast: A New Solution To An Old Problem, Sara J. Estle '00

Honors Projects

The effects of component presentation and baseline rates of reinforcement on behavioral contrast were examined in rats. Each rat was exposed to a series of six multiple variable-interval schedules, divided into two three-schedule series. Each series consisted of a standard contrast design (baseline phase, contrast phase, and baseline recovery phase). The presentation of multiple schedule components within these three phases varied as a function of condition. In condition one, rats were presented with the traditional strict alternation of multiple schedule components. In condition two, rats were exposed to randomly alternating multiple schedule components. Each subject was exposed to both high …

Effect Of Structured Work Systems On Task Performance In Children With Autism, Kari Beth Adkins '00

Honors Projects

A single-subject, alternating-treatments with no baseline design was used to study the effectiveness of work systems in three children with autism. Work systems build on the strengths of children with autism, taking advantage of their visuo-spatial strengths by building on the principles of visual cueing and organization. Individual work systems were developed for each child, and the effects of these systems on on-task behavior, dependence, productivity and organization were studied. Results indicate moderate significance for the effectiveness of work systems in increasing on-task behavior and decreasing dependence in children with autism. Results also revealed substantial evidence for the effectiveness of …

Loneliness And Self-Esteem At Different Levels Of The Self, Kiley L. Bednar '00

Honors Projects

Loneliness is proposed to have three dimensions: isolation, connectedness, and belongingness (Hawkley, et aI., 1999). In an extension of the work by Hawkley and colleagues (1999), these levels are hypothesized to be a function of three unique aspects of self: personal, relational, and collective. Brewer (1996) proposed that self-esteem is experienced differently at each level of self. Personal self-esteem is how a person feels about himself or herself based on his or her individual traits and characteristics. Relational self-esteem is based on whether a person believes that he or she exhibits appropriate behavior in a one-on-one relationship. Collective self-esteem is …

Perception Of Parental Acceptance-Rejection And Satisfaction With Life In Women With Binge Eating Disorder, Nina L. Dominy, W. Brad Johnson, Chris Koch

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

The authors contribute to the validating literature for binge eating disorder (BED) by examining perceptions of parents and satisfaction with life among obese women with and without BED. Participants were female patients, recruited through a private medical clinic, who were assigned to groups on the basis of body mass index (BMI) and scores on the Questionnaire on Eating and Weight Patterns (QEWP; R. L. Spitzer et al., 1992). Groups consisted of (a) obese women with BED (n = 32). (b) obese women who had no eating disorders (n = 51). and (c) nonobese women with no eating disorders (n = …

Influences Of Occlusion, Color, Luminance, And Size On The Perception Of Fragmented Pictures, James M. Brown, Christopher Koch

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

No abstract provided.

Documenting The Benefits Of Undergraduate Mentoring, Chris Koch, W. Brad Johnson

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

No abstract provided.

An Instrument To Assess Self-Statements During Public Speaking: Scale Development And Preliminary Psychometric Properties, Stefan G. Hofmann, Patricia Marten Dibartolo

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Public speaking is the most commonly reported fearful social situation. Although a number of contemporary theories emphasize the importance of cognitive processes in social anxiety, there is no instrument available to assess fearful thoughts experienced during public speaking. The Self-Statements During Public Speaking (SSPS) scale is a 10-item questionnaire consisting of two 5-item subscales, the Positive Self-Statements (SSPS-P) and the Negative Self-Statements subscale (SSPS-N). Four studies report on the development and the preliminary psychometric properties of this instrument.

Antidepressant Drugs Appear To Enhance Cocaine-Induced Toxicity, Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Molecular Mechanisms Mediating Genetic Sensitivity To Cocaine-Induced Convulsions., Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Graduate Bulletin, 2000-2002 (2000), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Graduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.

Differences In Perceived Parental Nurturance Between At Risk High School Male Adolescents And Male Bright Flight College Freshman Students, Elizabeth A. Rudin

Theses

This study investigates differences in perceived parental nurturance between two distinct groups: at-risk high school male adolescents and academically successful male Bright Flight college freshmen. Using the Parental Nurturance Scale (PNS), the researcher measured each participant’s perception of parental care and support. The hypothesis proposed that at-risk adolescents would perceive significantly lower levels of nurturance compared to their college-bound counterparts. Participants included 15 at-risk students from a midwestern alternative high school and 15 Bright Flight freshmen attending a private university, each selected for their contrasting academic and behavioral profiles.

Findings confirmed the hypothesis: Bright Flight students reported notably higher levels …

Secondary Traumatic Stress In Law Enforcement Personnel, William Carl Heusler

Theses

This study was designed to add to the body of empirical knowledge about law enforcement occupational stress utilizing the compassion fatigue/compassion satisfaction model developed by Figley and Stamm. The predictions that intimate contact with trauma victims will increase the risk for compassion fatigue and burnout was evaluated yielding results that established no difference between law enforcement personnel with direct contact and those that had little or no contact with trauma victims. The suggestion that secondary trauma has a cumulative effect on persons exposed over time was also investigated showing that in this population of police officers, a cumulative impact did …

A Comparison Of Body-Esteem In Adolescent Girls Between The Hutterite And Mainstream Western Cultures, Amanda Ann Walgren

Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the cultural basis of body-esteem and negative body image in adolescent females. This study focused on the differences between the culture of the Hutterites, an Anabaptist communal society, and the mainstream Western culture in the same geographic area. The Body-Esteem Scale (Mendelson & White, 1982) was administered to 35 Hutterite and 31 mainstream girls between the ages of 12 and 17. The Hutterite girls were found to have significantly higher body-esteem scores than the mainstream girls. These findings add to the vast amount of research linking body-esteem to cultural factors. Several possible …

Comparison Of Ellis's And Campbell's Models Of Irrational Belief: Toward Resolving Ambiguities In Rational-Emotive-Behavior Theory, Ann C. Jorn

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Intensive Supervision In New Jersey: An Alternative To Incarceration, Michael A. Ramirez

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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