Psychology Commons^™

Defining The Personality Characteristics Of Delinquent Adolescent Recividists, Barbara J. Sulik

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This study was done to provide basic empirical data on the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory with the focus on establishing a personality profile for recidivistic juvenile offenders. The subjects of this study consisted of four groups of male and female adolescents between the ages of 15 and 17 years. The control group (n = 50) consisted of adolescents not adjudicated either delinquent or dependent. The dependent group (n = 50) consisted of adolescents not adjudicated delinquent and fitting the diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder. The delinquent group (n = 50) consisted of adolescents that were diagnosed as conduct disordered and …

Attributional Style, Depression And School Mobility : Assessing The Impact On Academic Achievement, Anne Grey

Theses : Honours

Academic achievement can impact on psychological wellbeing and can have a profound impact on later educational and vocational opportunities. Failure to achieve well academically has been associated with a number of factors including depression, a pessimistic explanatory style and mobility. There is evidence too to suggest that the impact of these variables is greater on younger boys and older girls. One hundred and eight students (54 M, 54 F) from two Catholic metropolitan schools took part in this study into the impact of depressive symptomatology, attributional style and school mobility on academic achievement. It was hypothesised that lower levels of …

Mothers Coping With Multigenerational Sexual Abuse : Case Studies Within Feminist/Ecological Systems Frameworks, Tracey L. Caporn

Theses : Honours

This study aimed to identify the needs of mothers when they were indecisive (immobilized) about believing or protecting their child who had been sexually abused, taking into consideration that they had also been sexually abused in childhood (multigenerational abuse) and that their ecological contexts may have also played a role. Four Mothers were recruited from an agency dealing in abuse issues. Case studies were compiled after recording a qualitative conversational, semi-structured interview (Burgess-Limerick & Burgess-Limerick, 1998), using questions derived from the literature. Discourse analysis identified that abused mothers believe and act to protect their children within minutes to hours of …

Peer Social Networks After The Transition To Secondary School : Adolescents' Perspectives, Angela E. Rowland

Theses : Honours

The transition from primary to secondary school has a considerable impact upon the social and academic lives of adolescents. An adolescent's sense of belonging (SoB) is important for determining school satisfaction and success during this transition. As SoB is partly developed through an individual's peer social network, this study explored the peer social networks for adolescents who have a SoB. Using the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale (Goodenow, 1993a), five females and three males with a high SoB completed sociological maps and participated in interviews in order to determine the structure and function of their peer social networks. …

Predictors Of Young Women's Attitudes Toward Sexual Health Practices, Alison G. Dougall

Theses : Honours

The present study examined whether cognitive (beliefs), affective (emotions) and I or behavioural processes predicted young women's attitudes towards their sexual health practices. For pragmatic reasons, safer sex promotion has largely relied on the provision of factual information to promote behaviour change. Although the importance of emotional and behavioural influences has been indicated, these elements have not traditionally been included in sexual health interventions. In order to examine this issue, Zanna and Rempel's (1988) tripartite model of attitude formation was used. A convenience sample of female participants (N=98) aged 18 to 29 years was asked to rate their attitudes towards …

Cognitive Psychology And Optimal Government Design, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Cynthia R. Farina

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Comparison Of Self- And Significant Other-Rated Expression Of Anger Using The Mad-As And The So-Mad-As, Donna Marie Martin

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The present study proposed to advance the treatment of anger disorders by exploring the psychometric properties of the MAD-AS scale, an anger assessment tool. Research sought to build on prior investigation of the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the MAD-AS in an inpatient setting by examining this measure using outpatient subjects. Several important findings were obtained in this study. Research results suggest that the MAD-AS represents a significant improvement over some existing anger measures in terms of its brevity, ease of administration, and standardization of scoring. The MAD-AS appears to possess sound psychometric properties in terms of its reliability …

Structured Multifaceted Cognitive Behaviorally Oriented Assessment And Treatment Of Nonadherence To Medical Advice : A Case Study, Cheryl A. Patchin

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The incidence of nonadherence to medical advice is estimated to be as high as 98%, with a typical range of 30% to 60%. This case study focused on the assessment and treatment of a patient suffering from uncontrolled essential hypertension, who was inconsistent in her adherence to the prescribed medical regimen and who demonstrated a significant health risk as a result. From baseline (pretreatment) to termination (followup), the patient attended a total of 9 sessions over a 12-week period. Assessment involved clinical interviews and an original self-administered instrument, the Health Behavior Profiling Questionnaire (HBPQ). The HBPQ was designed to assess …

The Matson And Mayville (M&M) Seizure Scale: An Assessment Of Psychological And Environmental Variables Contributing To Seizure Activity In Persons With Mental Retardation, Erik Andrew Mayville

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Seizure activity can be debilitating across a number of physical, social, occupational, and personal domains. Given the deficits in all of these areas frequently present in persons with mental retardation, the control and elimination of seizures is a primary goal for individuals with both mental retardation and epilepsy. Antiepileptic medication can reduce seizure activity. However, this intervention often carries with it a range of untoward side effects that may adversely affect clients over what is typically a long-term treatment regimen. Over the last 20 years, literature has emerged emphasizing the importance of environmental variables in the initiation and maintenance of …

The Role Of Initial Coping Strategies On Subsequent Appointment Attendance In Individuals With Hiv: A Longitudinal Analysis, Deann Morris Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With advances in HIV treatment regimens, HIV has become a treatable chronic illness that requires extensive clinical management (Kelly, Otto-Salaj, Sikkema, Pinkerton, & Bloom, 1998). Nonadherence to HIV medical regimens is a primary reason for treatment failure. HIV medication regimens are complicated and require extensive time and effort from the patient (Friedland & Williams, 1999). Since the effectiveness of HIV medication regimens can be severely limited by poor adherence, much research has been conducted regarding the influence of psychosocial factors in adherence. However, this research has primarily focused on medication adherence and has not investigated psychosocial aspects associated with other …

The Impact Of Gruesome Evidence On Mock Juror Decision Making : The Role Of Evidence Characteristics And Emotional Response, Robert J. Nemeth

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of gruesome evidence on mock jurors? decisions in a simulated capital trial. The first experiment was designed as a replication and extension of Douglas, Lyon, and Ogloff (1997), who found that mock jurors who were presented with gruesome photographic evidence were nearly twice as likely to convict the defendant than participants who did not see the gruesome evidence. In Experiment 1, gruesome evidence was manipulated in two ways: photographic evidence (low gruesome, highly gruesome, or control photographs) and verbal testimony (low gruesome vs. highly gruesome). Neither photographic evidence nor testimony had an …

Time As Motivation: Selected Theories As Compared To Modern Revelation, Jill Judkins

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes that human beings by virtue of living in each new present moment are motivated to develop strategies to secure the best possible outcome in their lived experience. A personal account of the phenomenological experience of time is presented and a brief history is given. The implications associated with being thrown into the present moment make apparent the weaknesses of the current assumptions that the slices of the present moment form a continuity of past and future and create a coherent synthesis of life. The assumption that human beings are intentional, goal-directed, and prone to seek meaning in …

Spinnen-Angst-Fragebogen (Saf) Validierung Der Deutschen Version Des "Fear Of Spiders Questionnaire" (Fsq)., Patrick Pössel, Martin Hautzinger

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Bislang fehlte im deutschen Sprachraum ein Instrument, das erlaubt, differenzierte Daten zum Thema Spinnenphobie zu erheben. Aus diesem Grund wurde der „Fear of Spiders Questionnaire“ (FSQ) von Szymanski und O´Donohue (1995) als ein Screening-Instrument für solche Zwecke übersetzt. Die interne Konsistenz beträgt für den "Spinnen-Angst-Fragebogen" (SAF) r = .94, und die Retest-Reliabilität über einen Monat ist r = .75. Bei der Faktorenanalyse zeigten sich die Faktoren "Vermeidungs- und Hilfesuchverhalten" und "Furcht vor Verletzung" (aufgeklärte Varianz 58.9 % und 8.6 %). Diese Faktorenstruktur ist weitgehend identisch mit der für die englischsprachige Version. Erwartungsgemäß traten hohe Korrelationen mit dem "Spider-Phobia-Questionnaire" (SPQ), geringere …

An Overview Of Bibliotherapy As An Intervention For Young Children, Lisa Ludwig

Graduate Research Papers

Young children can benefit from therapy to deal with disabilities, abuse, normal developmental issues such as famiily problems, and social-emotional issues. One approach to helping children manage psychological issues is bibliotherapy. In its simplest form, bibliotherapy can be described as the practice of using books in treatment, or helping with books (Pardeck & Pardeck, 1993; Pardeck & Pardeck, 1987). The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on bibliotherapy and to examine its possible applications, its effectiveness, and best practices in carrying out the intervention.

A School Psychologist's Role In Decreasing Eating Disorder Prevalence In School-Aged Children, Natalie Muth

Graduate Research Papers

Eating disorders have dramatically increased over the last 20 years, resulting in prevalence rates exceeding other high-incidence medical conditions treated in the educational setting. Chapter 2 presents a review of literature covering eating disorder identification, history, prevalence and epidemiological data. Theoretical perspectives, risk and protective factors, symptoms, and medical complications are also reviewed. Current assessment measures used for screening and diagnosing anorexia and bulimia is additionally presented along with a summary of school-based primary prevention programs. The second chapter concludes with a brief overview of eating disorder treatment.

A summary is presented in chapter 3 along with implications for school …

The Effects Of A Mother's Incarceration On Her Children, Jane Elizabeth Mayer

Graduate Research Papers

This study examined the effects of a mother's incarceration on her children. Benefits, as well as problems, associated with facilitating a mother-child visitation program were discussed. Guidelines were presented for parents, caregivers, children, and prison staff on a successful mother-child visitation program. Conclusions were drawn from the literature and recommendations were made for the future facilitation of a mother-child visitation program.

The Importance Of Behavioral Interventions And Stimulant Medication Effects On Reducing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Elizabeth Alvarez

Graduate Research Papers

Overall, various avenues of research state that ADHD is a complex disorder that requires treatment by multiple modalities. Most research states that a combination of medication and behavior therapy is necessary to resolve the symptoms. It should be noted that the dose of stimulant medication prescribed to a child with ADHD should be adjusted based on the child's response to a behavioral intervention, as well as the combination of the behavioral and pharmacological treatments. Rapport et al. (1982), as well as others, have found that medication alone will not "cure" ADHD. But with multiple methods of treatment the symptoms will …

Preventing Childhood Depression By Building Resiliency In Children, Sarah Carroll

Graduate Research Papers

This review of literature is a report of the success of programs designed to prevent childhood depression by building resiliency. Research results indicate that prevention programs focused on teaching children and parents coping skills, changing negative thought patterns, social problem solving, teaching the symptoms of childhood depression and how to discuss it with children, and fostering resiliency have reduced the incidence of depression in children (Comer, 1985; Gladstone & Beardslee, 2000; Seligman, 1995).

Additional research needs to address the following questions: a) How does building resilience differ for children from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds? b) . What are the …

When The Wildebeest Gets Your Berries : Adolescent Anger Management, Patresa A. Hartman

Graduate Research Papers

This study presents a review of literature regarding adolescent anger management. Problematic anger is defined as externalizing or internalizing behaviors that occur frequently enough and at a high enough level of intensity to: (1) disrupt one's everyday functioning at school, home, and/or in the community; and (2) impair one's relationships with others and one's own self-concept. The causes can be traced to a myriad of possible sources: cognitive problems; developmental problems; chronic irritability, agitation, volatility, or mood instability; or environmental stressors.

This review of studies regarding adolescent anger management programs leads to the following suggestions for school psychologists: (1) understand …

Searching For Connections Between Domestic Violence And Social Conflict In Northern Ireland, Jeffrey M. Roberts

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

This Independent Problem Analysis explores the connection between domestic violence and social conflict in Northern Ireland. Specifically, it will review selected literature on domestic violence and examine social and cultural attitudes regarding violence in Northern Ireland. It will then analyze whether and how occurrences of domestic violence in Northern Ireland are affected by broader social conflict.

This analysis will begin with an overview of conflict theories that will be used to show depth of understanding in the conflict discipline and to determine a specific direction for the problem analysis. This will be followed by an exploration of factors that combine …

The Effects Of Cross-Level Conflict: The Moderating Effects Of Conflict Culture On The Group Faultlines - Performance Link, Katerina Bezrukova, Karen A. Jehn

Psychology

We examine how task, relationship, and process conflicts arise from group faultlines. We define group faultlines as hypothetical dividing lines that split a group into subgroups based on the group members' attributes (adapted from Lau & Murnighan, 1998). We further link group conflict to performance, and predict different effects for individual performance, group performance, and employee satisfaction. We also examine the moderating effect of the organizational conflict culture on the relationship between group faultlines and group conflict. We define conflict culture as employees' beliefs about the amount and intensity of a certain type of conflict (i.e. task conflict, relationship conflict, …

A Matter Of Life And Death: An Update On Physician Assisted Suicide In Oregon, Janie Steckenrider, Nina Clark

Psychological Science Faculty Works

In 1994, Oregon residents approved the Death with Dignity Act. Immediate implementation was delayed due to legal battles, however, and it did not go into effect until 1997. The debate over physician assisted suicide remains contentious, and has recently received much attention. This article offers a briefhistoiy of the issue and explanation of current activities related to physician assisted suicide.

Exploring Faultlines, Conflict, Satisfaction, And Stress In Groups Of Peacekeepers, Katerina Bezrukova, Karen A. Jehn, Martin Euwema, Nicolien Kop

Psychology

We explore group faultlines in peacekeeping troops on missions between 1995 and 1999 in Bosnia. Group faultlines are defined as hypothetical dividing lines that split a group into subgroups based on demographic characteristics (e.g. age, gender, etc.), culture, norms, work attitudes, and behavior of peacekeepers. In particular, we examine how potential faultlines become active faultlines and then result in task, relationship, and cultural conflict within a group of peacekeepers. We link these types of conflict to peacekeepers' satisfaction, perceived performance, and level of work stress. We test our hypotheses on survey data from a sample of 907 Dutch military peacekeepers …

Environmental Factors That Predict Adolescent Smoking Behavior: The Influence Of Parent, Peer, And Sibling Smoking, Christopher J. Hogan

Theses and Dissertations

The majority of adult smoking begins during adolescence, and in order for prevention programs to be optimally effective it is critical to understand the influences of smoking initiation during this developmental period. However, little research has focused on how environmental factors, such as parent and peer smoking. influence smoking initiation exclusively within a rural population. The current study surveyed students from 23 middle schools in rural Virginia and New York State at the end of the sixth grade and then one-year later at the end of the seventh grade. Logistic regressions were used to predict changes in levels of adolescent …

Identifying And Building On Strengths Of Children With Serious Emotional Disturbances, Michael Orval Taylor

Dissertations and Theses

The aim of this study is to explore strengths assessments and the participation of parents in assessment of strengths and functioning of their children challenged by serious emotional disorders. The children in this study have a high level of exposure to mental illness, domestic violence and substance abuse in their biological families. These children are living with family members or foster families in the community, with the majority at continuing risk of placement outside of their homes and communities due to serious emotional and behavioral problems.

The research questions investigated are the concordance of families and professionals in assessment of …

Vigilance Or Tolerance?: Ambivalence And Attitude Accessibility In Response To Terrorist Threats, Julie Tison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research explored the cognitive processes underlying the Response Amplification Effect (RAE), which is ambivalent people's tendency to judge the object of their ambivalence (typically, a stigmatized other) more extremely than a comparable control target. Being in a state of ambivalence is known to be uncomfortable. This discomfort may be dealt with by implementing changes in the accessibility level of attitudinal elements. It is suggested that cognitions compatible with the side of the ambivalence made salient by the current situation will be super-activated and that incompatible elements will be sub-activated, thus leading to amplified reactions congruent with the current context. …

Urban Youth Reimagine Trauma: Making Meaning Of Experiences With Chronic Community Violence Through The Arts, Stephanie Urso Spina

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The impact of participation in the "Creating Original Opera" (COO) program was investigated among two consecutive (1999 and 2000) cohorts of eighth grade inner-city students living in a context of chronic community violence. Four research questions were posed: (1) What are these students' experiences of violence? (2) What strategies, if any, do they employ to cope with violent events? (3) What, if any, of the above change over the duration of the project? (4) How might those changes relate (or not) to participation in the opera program?

Data collection included a series of three semi-structured interviews with randomly chosen students …

The Student Worry Questionnaire-30: Further Examination Of Gender Differences, Janet A. Carter

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The construct of worry has captured the attention of researchers in recent years and has been implicated in several psychological disorders. Initially, the lack of validated instruments hampered the study of the worry construct. Several such instruments have been developed in recent years, but two instruments have predominated in the literature concerning the construct of worry-the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (Meyer, Miller, Metzger, & Borkovec, 1990) and the Worry Domains Questionnaire (Tallis, Eysenck, & Mathews, 1992). While both appear psychometrically sound, these instruments focused on different and distinct aspects of the worry construct. Some researchers (Davey, 1993; Starcevic, 1995; Tallis …

Cognitive And Somatic Item Response Pattern Of Orofacial Pain Patients Compared To Fibromyalgia Patients And A Non-Pain Control Group, Morten Hadsel

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Previous work has suggested that chronic pain patients report psychological distress through higher endorsement of somatic rather than cognitive signs of anxiety and depression. The present study compared female Non-Pain (11=52), Orofacial Pain (n=3 17) and Fibromyalgia (n=50) groups. on SCL-90-R Somatization, Anxiety and Depression raw scores and cognitive-somatic symptom patterning of the Anxiety and Depression scales. Comparisons were also made amongst orofacial pain diagnostic subgroups and subgroups based on Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) classification groups. The Somatization. Anxiety and Depression scores were higher in the OroFacial Pain and Fibromyalgia than Non-Pain group and higher in the Dysfunctional than Adaptive …

Discounting And Reciprocity In An Iterated Prisoner’S Dilemma, David W. Stephens, Colleen M. Mclinn, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

The Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma (IPD) is a central paradigm in the study of animal cooperation. According to the IPD framework, repeated play (repetition) and reciprocity combine to maintain a cooperative equilibrium. However, experimental studies with animals suggest that cooperative behavior in IPDs is unstable, and some have suggested that strong preferences for immediate benefits (that is, temporal discounting) might explain the fragility of cooperative equilibria. We studied the effects of discounting and strategic reciprocity on cooperation in captive blue jays. Our results demonstrate an interaction between discounting and reciprocity. Blue jays show high stable levels of cooperation in treatments with …