Psychology Commons^™

A Social/Cognitive View Of Leaders With Visible Disabilities, George Adkins Jr.

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The present investigation examined the influence applicant disability status has on perceptions of leadership style, leadership potential and leadership behavior. 165 (78 females and 73 males and 14 people choosing not to disclose their age) undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in Psychology courses were randomly assigned to one of three applicant disability status conditions (Non-Disabled, Visually Impaired, and Applicant Needing the use of a Wheelchair) and were asked to provide ratings that reflected their perceptions of the leadership style, leadership skills, and leadership behaviors likely to be exhibited by the applicant on the job. Participants used the Least Preferred Coworker …

Effects Of Cohabitation On Engaged Adult Relationships, Matthew W. Chingren

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

Low premarital intimacy and less-than-realistic marital expectations have been shown to successfully predict lower marital satisfaction and success. This study used an independent groups design to investigate the effect of cohabitation on intimacy and marital expectations among engaged adult individuals. Group I (n=30) consisted of engaged individuals cohabiting with their fiances and Group II (n=82) included engaged individuals not cohabiting. Participants were obtained through a convenience sample. All participants provided demographic data and completed the Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships (PAIR) and the Marriage Expectations Scale (MES). Previously married participants were excluded from MES analysis due to the nature …

Determinants Of Sexual Behaviour, Kevin Lalor, Cathal O'Regan, Siobhan Quinlan

Articles

No abstract provided.

Personality Profiles Of Iditasport Ultra-Marathon Participants, Kristin J. Stuempfle, Sherri Lind Hughes, H. Samuel Case, Deborah S. Evans

Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Each February, competitors convene in Big Lake, Alaska, to participate in the “Iditasport Human Powered Ultra-Marathon”. Who would attempt this challenging race? Personality might be one factor predicting participation. Iditasport represents a unique athletic event with a distinctive social and psychological climate that might be reflected in the personalities of the participants in many ways. This study was designed to identify the personality profile of Iditasport athletes when compared to normative populations and to explore differences between athletes competing in different race divisions.

The Effects Of Social Support On Perceived Mood And Perceived Muscle Tension, Ashley B. Karr

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The researcher examined the effects of social support on stress reactivity following a moderate psychological stressor. The first independent variable (IV), social support, had two levels: alone (A) and pairs (P). The participants in the pairs level took part in the study with a friend. Participants in the alone level took part in the study by themselves. The second IV, period, had two levels: pre-stressor (Pre) and post-stressor (Post). Stress was induced with a mental arithmetic serial subtraction task and was measured by perceived mood state with the Perception of Mood States (POMS) and perceived muscle tension with the Nordic …

"You Are Special": Shame And Grace In Children's Literature, Joy Mauldin, Jesse Lough, Nancy S. Thurston

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Children's literature has a profound influence on its readers. It often comes into the home without regard to its content or the effect it can have on a child. This article addresses the broad strokes of child development, how unprocessed or poorly processed shame can hinder the growth of children, books that can be used in the processing of shame, and therapeutic case studies in which these books have been used.

Guest Editors' Introduction: Psychology And The Church, Mark R. Mcminn, Amy W. Dominguez

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

No abstract provided.

Clergy Interest In Innovative Collaboration With Psychologists, R. Allen Lish, Mark R. Mcminn, C. Richelle Fitzsimmons, Alicia M. Root

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

What forms of innovative collaboration are possible between clergy and psychologists? A total of 117 clergypersons (63% response rate) rated 6 scenarios of collaboration, indicating their level of interest and the extent to which they would like to remain involved with the psychologist. The scenarios were derived from two categories of collaboration articulated by in previous research: mental health services and enhancing parish life. Overall, clergy expressed relatively modest levels of interest in innovative collaboration, though they were somewhat interested in mental health consultation services. Many clergy refer troubled parishioners to clinical or counseling psychologists for treatment, but appear less …

Intention To Pursue Post-Secondary Education, And Related Factors, Among Jamaican Senior High School Students, Teran T. Milford

Dissertations

Purpose of the Study. The proportion of female students in post-secondary schools in Jamaica is approximately twice that of their male counterpart. This is in contrast to the observation that the proportion of male and female students in elementary and secondary schools is about the same. Little or no studies have been conducted to examine factors related to the disproportion of male and female students in tertiary institutions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the perception of senior high school students regarding their intention to pursue post-secondary education, and to determine the extent to which the value …

Columbine School Massacre, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

On 20 April 1999, in one of the deadliest school shootings in national history, two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Jefferson County, Colorado, killed twelve fellow students and a teacher and injured twenty-three others before committing suicide. Eric Harris, age eighteen, and Dylan Klebold, age seventeen, used homemade bombs, two sawed-off twelve-gauge shotguns, a nine-millimeter semiautomatic rifle, and a nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol in a siege that began shortly after 11 A.M.

Self-Management And Social Skills Training For Persons With Developmental Disabilities: Tools For The Rehabilitation Counselor To Facilitate Success In Community Settings: A Literature Review, Tina M. Anctil Peterman, Charles Edmund Degeneffe

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

People with developmental disabilities often display deficiencies in self-management and social skills in community based settings. Difficulties with self-management and social skills tend to pose particular difficulties for performing valued adult roles. Tools from behavior therapy have the potential to assist rehabilitation counselors in their work with consumers with developmental disabilities to overcome the negative impacts of functional limitations on expressing behaviors needed for success in community-based settings. This article presents a review of the behavior therapy literature regarding self-management and social skills training techniques rehabilitation counselors can use in their work with consumers with developmental disabilities in areas including …

Process, Structure, And Form: An Evolutionary Transpersonal Psychology Of Consciousness, Allan Combs, Stanley Krippner

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

In the spirit of William James, we present a process view of human consciousness. Our approach,

however, follows upon Charles Tart’s original systems theory analysis of states of consciousness,

although it differs in its reliance on the modern sciences of complexity, especially dynamical systems

theory and its emphasis on process and evolution. We argue that consciousness experience

is constructive in the sense that it is the result of ongoing self-organizing and self-creating

(autopoietic) processes in the mind and body. These processes follow a broad developmental

agenda already described by psychologists such as Jean Piaget. Similar constructive transformations

of consciousness appear …

Primal Spirituality And The Onto/Phylo Fallacy: A Critique Of The Claim That Primal Peoples Were/Are Less Spiritually And Socially Developed Than Modern Humans, Steven Taylor

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Many theorists—including Freud, Habermas and Wilber—have suggested that there are strong

parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny, and that the development of the human species has

followed the same basic pattern as the development of the individual from birth to adulthood. I

discuss this view in relation to archaeological and anthropological knowledge of the world’s “primal

peoples.” I look at the spiritual, moral, and social development of primal peoples and find

that, in almost every instance, they are more advanced than these theorists suggest, possessing

characteristics which only occur—ontogenetically—at the higher “fulcrums” of development. I

argue that Wilber’s spectrum model cannot …

Stimulating Fear Reduction: Visual Stimulus, Verbal And Spatial Concentration And Their Effects On Fear, Gregory E. Dixon

Modern Psychological Studies

Studies have suggested that visual stimuli evoking positive emotions may counter the effects of negative emotions. A high level of involvement in a distracting task may reduce the severity of negative emotions. This study combined visual stimuli with level of mental involvement to determine if they had an effect on fear. It was posited that two types of visual stimuli—amusing and spatial—would lower fear, and a high level of involvement with each stimulus would enhance this effect. The stimuli were delivered over the Internet. Fear level was measured using the self-report for the word "afraid" from PANAS. A significant interaction …

Sex, Beauty, And The Relative Luminance Of Facial Features, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

It has been suggested that the consistent luminance difference between the darker regions of the eyes and mouth and the lighter regions that surround them forms a pattern unique to faces. One of the more consistent uses of cosmetics to make the female face more attractive is to darken the eyes and mouth relative to the surrounding skin. The hypothesis that the size of the luminance difference between the eyes and mouth and the rest of the face affects the attractiveness of male and female faces differently was tested in four experiments in which attractiveness ratings were obtained for images …

The Relationship Between Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome And Insomnia: Implications For Treatment, Danae L. Drab

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a sleep-disordered breathing condition that causes disrupted sleep. Although OSAS is most often associated with daytime hypersomnolence, a number of OSAS patients complain of insomnia, i.e., disorders of initiating or maintaining sleep. If the insomnia in patients with OSAS is secondary to the medical condition, then it would be expected to abate with the successful treatment of OSAS. If, however, the insomnia is primarily of a psychological nature, thus considered primary or psychophysiological insomnia, little to no change in insomnia symptoms would be expected after the treatment of OSAS. The present study examined the …

An Examination Of Individual And Organizational Factors Related To Emotional Labor, Robin Hughes Gosserand

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Managing emotions in the workplace, termed emotional labor (Hochschild, 1983), is becoming increasingly important as the economy continues to become more service-oriented. Grandey (2000) defines emotional labor as the process of regulating feelings and expressions of emotions in order to achieve organizational goals. The regulation of observable expressions of emotions is known as surface acting, and the regulation of felt emotions is called deep acting. The current study tested a model of emotional labor including factors hypothesized to be related to surface acting and deep acting. Proposed antecedents include perceived display rule demands, commitment to display rules, positive and negative …

The Relationship Between Depression And Feeding Disorder Symptoms Among Persons With Severe And Profound Mental Retardation, Stephen Bradley Mayville

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years, feeding disorders have been described in detail, and various assessment and treatment methods for these disorders have been reported. Within the literature, an emphasis has been placed on functional variables responsible for the onset and maintenance of feeding disorders, yet little has been reported on the relationship between feeding disorders and other forms of psychopathology. Therefore, the relationship between depression and feeding disorders was assessed. Three groups of individuals were compared across subscales and individual items on the Screening Tool for Feeding Problems (STEP) to assess for differences in problematic feeding behavior. Individuals who met diagnostic criteria …

Sexual Harassment, Amy E. Street, Jane Stafford, Tamara A. Bruce

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Race And Prejudice Level On The Influence Of Famous Figures, Lindsay B. Sharp

Kaleidoscope

We hypothesized that varying the race and prejudice level of a famous individual would alter participants' reactions to the individual, evaluation of the individual, and participants' performance on numerous measures of racism. One-hundred and fourteen White undergraduate students participated in a 2 x 2 (race of the famous individual: black or white x prejudice level of the individual's statement: prejudiced or non-prejudiced) independent groups factorial design. Our results showed that, for high-prejudiced famous figures, participants had more negative reactions toward the White individual than toward the Black, and felt significantly guiltier after reading the White individual's statement than after reading …

An Examination Of Personality As A Predictor Of Guard Behavior In A Virtual Environment, Jean M. Catanzaro

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Military personnel need access to realistic training tools that can provide a safe environment in which to acquire skills that will generalize to real world tasks. A virtual environment (VE) is one such tool. The focus of the present study was to evaluate a VE as a training tool for military guards. The first goal was to examine the potential of VE technology to provide effective training for standing watch at a military checkpoint. The second goal was to study a set of personality traits that might predict performance. Participants completed the NEO Personality Inventory and were trained to perform …

Proactive Personality And The Big Five As Predictors Of Motivation To Learn, Jonathan E. Turner

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

In an environment of changing psychological contracts, corporate downsizing, and increases in alternative self-paced training delivery channels, motivation to learn is believed to represent a key variable in employee self-development that distinguishes employees who will thrive from those who will not. Predicting this variable, then, becomes an important step in managing workforce development and helping employees help themselves. Therefore, the efficacy of relevant personality characteristics as predictors of motivation to learn was investigated. Proactive personality and the Big Five factors of personality were hypothesized to be predictive of motivation to learn. These personality variables are relevant because they have been …

The Contribution Of Enactments To Structural Family Therapy: A Process Study, Stephanie Fellenberg

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

In an era where the effectiveness of many forms of psychotherapy has been thoroughly examined, the focus of many researchers has shifted from investigating outcome to exploring therapeutic processes. Process studies serve to identify the active ingredients of therapy—that is, those interventions that bring about in-session changes. This process study examines the relationship between the use of enactments, a structural family therapy intervention, and in-session change as observed over the course of the session. Change was measured by the amount of change that occurred in the core problem dynamic, that is, the most prominent pattern of dysfunctional family …

The Role Of Alexithymia In Ethnic Groups On Eating-Related Attitudes And Behaviors, Lisa M. Newman

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Alexithymia, a term referring to deficits in ability to describe and differentiate emotions, has been studied in a variety of Caucasian medical and psychiatric populations, including patients with eating disorders. Research suggests that alexithymia is more prevalent among the Caucasian eating disordered population than the general population. However, there is little research on the prevalence of alexithymia or its relationship to problematic eating-related attitudes and behaviors in African Americans. This study investigated and compared the occurrence of alexithymia and its effects on eating-related attitudes and behaviors in Caucasian and African American college women using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 and the …

Trastorno Por Déficit De Atención/Hiperactividad: ¿Mito O Realidad? [The Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Myth Or Reality?], Joaquín A. Peña, Cecilia Montiel-Nava

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Introduction: The attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been defined as a disorder of self control characterized clinically by a short attention span, excessive motor activity and poor impulse control.

Objective: The main objective is to describe how methodological difficulties related to the design of epidemiological studies make an important contribution to the group of heterogeneous data which might lead to doubts regarding the validity of ADHD in children. In recent decades the psychiatric definition of this disorder has varied. This has affected the number and combination of clinical signs necessary for diagnosis of ADHD. The variation in the prevalence …

Trastornos De La Conducta Alimentaria. Prevalencia Y Características Clínicas En Adolescentes De La Ciudad De Maracaibo, Estado Zulia, Venezuela [Eating Behavior Disorders. Prevalence And Clinical Features In Adolescents In The City Of Maracaibo, Zulia State, Venezuela], Evelyn Quintero-Párraga, Ana Cristina Pérez-Montiel, Cecilia Montiel-Nava, Dexy Pirela, María Fernanda Acosta, Ninoska Pineda

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Resumen. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo determinar la prevalencia y las características clínicas asociadas a los trastornos de la conducta alimentaria en sujetos masculinos y femeninos en etapa de adolescencia. Para esto, se consideró como base los criterios diagnósticos descritos en el DSM-IV. Este estudio tomó 1.363 adolescentes de una población conformada por 23.831 estudiantes, los cuales fueron seleccionados de manera aleatoria y estratificada, de acuerdo al tipo de institución (públicas o privadas) y los grados correspondientes a la tercera etapa de educación básica y ciclo diversificado. Para recolectar los datos se aplicó la lista de chequeo A.B.A. desarrollada por …

The Relationship Among Gender, Gender Orientation, And Class Participation Of Middle School Students, Rebecca M. Fisher

Masters Theses

Middle school students were observed to examine the relationship among gender, gender orientation, and class participation. Instances of volunteering and verbal participation in class were recorded.

In addition to being observed, participants completed Harter et al.'s (1998) Gender Orientation Questionnaire to identify their gender orientation. A student's gender orientation could be masculine, feminine, androgynous, or unclassified.

Results indicated that male students participated more in class than female students. Also, class participation rates did not differ for girls based on gender orientation. There were no differences between male and female students in solicited participation rates. However, male students participated more than …

Personal And Interpersonal Predictors Of Worry In Male And Female High School Students, Barbara Anne Davis

Masters Theses

This study identified which among several factors would best predict the tendency to worry in male and female adolescents. The potential predictors were divided into two different categories: personal and interpersonal factors. Personal factors included perfectionism, self-consciousness, and locus of control. Interpersonal factors included parental attachment, parenting style, and peer attachment.

Participants in the study completed several scales that measured the predictors. The data were then analyzed to determine the relative contribution of each factor in predicting worry, and to specify the factors that best predict worry. Gender differences in worry levels and in how the factors predicted worry were …

The Effects Of Practice With Decodable Texts On The Reading Fluency Of Low-Achieving First Grade Children, Nicole Forsythe

Masters Theses

This study examined the effect of a reading intervention using practice with decodable text on the reading fluency skills of four struggling first grade students. Participants received guided practice reading short decodable books twice a week for seven weeks. Pre and post-test standardized word reading scores were obtained using the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE). Word reading fluency was assessed after each session by a list of words from the decodable texts. Results showed a marked improvement in each participant's fluency score, with all four participants at least doubling their baseline fluency as measured by words read accurately per …

The Accounts That Defendants Give For Crime: Relationship Between Accounts Given And The Perceived Seriousness Of The Crime, Danielle Bree Trammell

Masters Theses

The present study examined whether the accounts that defendants give (i.e., apology, excuse, or justification) would have an effect on the perceived seriousness of the crime and assigned penalty. The study focused specifically on burglary, a non-violent crime. It also examined how participant characteristics, such as age, gender, political ideology, and history of victimization, affected the perceived seriousness and assigned penalty. This is a growing area of interest, given the societal impact of crime. There is significant disparity in sentencing that exists for perpetrators who are convicted of similar crimes. It is important to examine the possible explanations for this …