Psychology Commons^™

Behavior Analysis In Child Welfare: A Preliminary Program Evaluation, Carole Marie Van Camp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Behavior Analysis Services Program provides behavioral services, in the form of parenting classes and individualized assessments and treatments, to children and caregivers receiving child welfare services throughout the state of Florida. The program has many goals, including decreasing placement disruptions and increasing parenting skills. This study was a preliminary evaluation of the program that is now in its fourth year. First, characteristics of both foster children and foster parents that were associated with differential levels of placement disruptions were identified. Results identified several characteristics (i.e., being of a certain age, or having been in care for a certain amount …

Review Of G4m3rs, By Kiyash Monsef, Bryan-Mitchell Young

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Crisp And Fuzzy Signal Detection Theory And Pilot Weather Judgment: Implications For Vfr Flights Into Imc, Joseph T. Coyne

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Weather represents one of the greatest hazards to general aviation (GA), accounting for 15% of the GA accident fatalities. Of the fatal weather accidents 90% are attributed to visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). The situation assessment hypothesis suggests that pilots may inadvertently enter IMC because they lack the sensitivity needed to distinguish between visual meteorological conditions (VMC) and IMC. An alternative hypothesis is that pilots recognize conditions have deteriorated but are motivated by some other factor, such as pressure from passengers. The present study uses Jensen's Pilot Judgment Model and Signal Detection Theory to explain …

A Holistic Model Of The Interplay Of Parent-Adolescent Interaction Varialbes: Outcomes As A Result Of Conflictual Processes, Cliff Blake Mckinney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many variables have been analyzed in order to understand parent-adolescent interactions and outcomes for adolescents. These variables must be integrated into a model that demonstrates the holistic interplay of parent-adolescent interaction variables so that a more comprehensive understanding of parent-adolescent interactions is achieved. Variables included in the model proposed here were parenting, family environment, expectations, conflict, and outcomes. Parenting, family environment, and conflict were associated with outcomes for adolescents. When the variables were analyzed simultaneously with structural equation modeling, however, the relationship of parenting and adolescent outcomes was mediated wholly for male-father, male-mother, and female-father relationships but remained significant for …

An Investigation Into Providing Feedback To Users Of Decision Support, James Pharmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research in several domains has shown that the implementation of computerized decision support aids is often associated with issues of human-automation interaction, which can have disastrous consequences. One often-cited reason for these issues is the poor quality of the feedback that is provided to the operators through these tools. The objective of the proposed investigation is to examine how providing feedback through a decision support tool affects operator knowledge and performance in the context of a fault management task for naval gunfire support. A one-way between-groups comparison was made to investigate differences between providing decision support feedback (logic trace, mission …

Estrogen And Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity, Michael R. Foy, Michael Baudry, Richard Thompson

Psychological Science Faculty Works

During the past several years, there has been increasing interest in the effects of estrogen on neural function. This enthusiasm is driven, in part, by the results of early clinical studies suggesting that estrogen therapy given after menopause may prevent, or at least delay, the onset of Alzheimer's disease in older women. However, later clinical trials of women with probable Alzheimer's disease had contrary results. Much of the current research related to estrogen and brain function is focused in two directions. One involves clinical studies that examine the potential of estrogen in protecting against cognitive decline during normal aging and …

The Role Of Dopamine In Motivational And Receptive Aspects Of Female Mouse Sexual Behavior, Amber Bradshaw Hodges

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A pacing paradigm investigated the modulatory role of monoamines in the mesolimbic dopamine system on copulatory behavior in female mice. Specifically whether there is a distinction between the neural regulatory mechanisms of pacing behavior and receptive behavior was determined. Pacing measures motivational and rewarding components of copulation by the female's contacts and withdrawals from the male, while receptivity is the willingness to engage in copulations and is measured by the number of sexual stimulations received. A pacing paradigm was established and female mice were observed to pace in a similar manner, but at a lesser rate, than female rats.

Dopamine …

Relational, Cultural, Cognitive, And Affective Predictors Of Prosocial Behaviors [Olumlu Sosyal Davranışların İlişkisel, Kültürel, Bilişsel Ve Duyuşsal Bazı Değişkenlerle İlişkisi], Asiye Kumru, Carolyn P. Edwards, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This research examined age group and gender differences in adolescent prosocial acts and the associations between these behaviors and peer and parent attachments, collectivistic values, prosocial moral reasoning, perspective taking, and empathy. In this study 550 adolescents (300 boys, 250 girls) from middle and high schools, and college with ages ranging 11-21.5 years (M=15.07, SD=2.50) were recruited from Ankara, Turkey. Results indicate that adolescents displayed compliant prosocial behavior most followed by emotional, anonymous, altruistic, and public prosocial acts. MANOVA analyses revealed that younger adolescents displayed more public and emotional prosocial acts while older adolescents showed more altruistic and anonymous behaviors …

Designing A Mixed Methods Study In Primary Care, John W. Crewell, Michael D. Fetters, Nataliya V. Ivankova

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND Mixed methods or multimethod research holds potential for rigorous, methodologically sound investigations in primary care. The objective of this study was to use criteria from the literature to evaluate 5 mixed methods studies in primary care and to advance 3 models useful for designing such investigations.

METHODS We first identified criteria from the social and behavioral sciences to analyze mixed methods studies in primary care research. We then used the criteria to evaluate 5 mixed methods investigations published in primary care research journals.

RESULTS Of the 5 studies analyzed, 3 included a rationale for mixing based on the need …

Using Transcendental Phenomenology To Explore The “Ripple Effect” In A Leadership Mentoring Program, Tammy Moerer-Urdahl, John W. Creswell

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Several approaches exist for organizing and analyzing data in a phenomenological qualitative study. Transcendental phenomenology, based on principles identified by Husserl (1931) and translated into a qualitative method by Moustakas (1994), holds promise as a viable procedure for phenomenological research. However, to best understand the approach to transcendental phenomenology, the procedures need to be illustrated by a qualitative study that employs this approach. This article first discusses the procedures for organizing and analyzing data according to Moustakas (1994). Then it illustrates each step in the data analysis procedure of transcendental phenomenology using a study of reinvestment or the “ripple effect” …

The Selfish Nature Of Generosity: Harassment And Food Sharing In Primates, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Animals may share food to gain immediate or delayed fitness benefits. Previous studies of sharing have concentrated on delayed benefits such as reciprocity, trade and punishment. This study tests an alternative model (the harassment or sharing–under–pressure hypothesis) in which a food owner immediately benefits because sharing avoids costly harassment from a beggar. I present an experiment that varies the potential ability of the beggar to harass, and of the owner to defend the food, to examine the effects of harassment on food sharing in two primate species: chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and squirrel monkeys (Saimiri boliviensis). For …

Parenting, Julia C. Torquati

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

How can parents successfully care for their children in the context of homelessness? This is a significant question because families with children represent approximately 40 percent of the homeless population in the United States, and the number of homeless children has been growing since the early 1980s. Negative consequences of homelessness to children’s health, education, and emotional and social development have been well documented. Homeless families in the United States can be considered a subset of limited-resource families, and as such they share some of the same challenges to effective parenting. However, homeless parents face additional challenges, and these challenges …

Caregiving Through A Relationship Lens In Reggio Emilia And A Lab School In Canada, Carolyn P. Edwards, Alex Dougherty

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In recent years developmental scientists have described the tasks of relationship-building that contribute to early development: security and attachment, self-recognition and validation, mutuality and companionship, passionate experience, identification and group belonging, and giving care to others. Relationship-building begins within the family, then, in extending it outside the family, early education can play a key role. This selection contains two parts. The first piece describes the kinds of benefits these widening relationships can provide for very young children and outlines some specific steps that educators in Reggio Emilia, Italy, have taken to ensure the best, most "amiable" environments. The second piece, …

Effects Of A Transdiagnostic Group Treatment For Anxiety On Secondary Depression, Peter J. Norton, Sarah A. Hayes, Debra A. Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Researchers have recently explored transdiagnostic anxiety treatments based on models of anxiety emphasizing a single common pathway across diagnostic categories. Results from a previous study (Norton and Hope, in press) indicated that a transdiagnostic approach was effective for both targeted and untargeted anxiety disorders. Consistent with the tripartite model, the transdiagnostic treatment should also influence symptoms of a broader pathology such as negative affectivity. This follow-up to Norton and Hope found significant decreases in depressed mood for clients undergoing transdiagnostic treatment for anxiety when compared to wait-list control participants. Although not statistically established, severity of depressive diagnoses seemed to generally …

Determining Criminal Motive Using Deductive Profiling: A Feasibility Study, Kelly J. Dupont

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In recent years criminal profiling has gained increasing popularity and attention as a result of media and law enforcement interest. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the field is lacking in essential empirical support. The FBI's Crime Classification Manual, used to train FBI profilers, states in its opening pages that the information provided in the manual is not empirically derived; rather it is based on the collective opinion of those with experience in law enforcement (Douglas, Burgess, & Burgess, 1992). An area particularly in need of research is the relationship between motive and criminal behavior. Understanding motive can be a …

Gender Moderation Of The Relationship Between Hours In Role And Work-Family Conflict: A Test Of Competing Theories, Lucas D. Gray

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Americans' roles as family members and workers have been clashing in recent history. The past fifteen years have expanded the work-family conflict (WFC) literature considerably. Gutek, Searle, and Klepa (1991) proposed and tested two views of how WFC may be affected by sex. The rational view predicts that WFC originates in the role that the person spends more time in. However, the gender role view predicts that the more time a person spends outside traditional gender roles increases conflict. Thus, the two theories make incompatible predictions regarding the relationship between time spent in a role, gender and WFC. The current …

Visual Expectations: Using Machine Learning To Identify Patterns In Psychological Data, Skyler Place

Honors Theses

The goal of this project was to utilize the tools of machine learning to evaluate the data obtained through experiments in psychology. Advanced pattern finding algorithms are an effective approach to analyzing large sets of data, from any domain of science. Consequently, we have a psychological question and hypothesis, and a separate machine learning technique to assess these claims. The realm of psychology that I focused on is visual cognition, and how an individual's knowledge affects how they see the world. This alteration of visual data is a part of perception -when the brain enhances the data coming in from …

Caracterización De La Ceroidolipofuscinosis En Niños Venezolanos [Characterization Of Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis In Venezuelan Children], Joaquín A. Peña, Cecilia Montiel-Nava, W. Delgado, M. L. Hernández, J. J. Cardozo, E. Mora, L. Soto-Faneite

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Introduction: Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL), represents a group of inherited neurodegenerative disorders. Based on the age of the patient at onset, clinical course and ultrastructural morphology it has been identified three clinical types for the pediatric group: 1) Infantile NCL (INCL); 2) Late infantile NCL (LINCL); and 3) Juvenile NCL (JNCL). Other variants or atypical forms represent around 20% of the NCL in different populations. Genetic advances have made possible a better characterization, diagnostic and classification of these disorders.

Case reports: We present the clinical, neurophysiological, neuroradiological, and morphological data from 6 patients with NCL, who were assessed at the …

Memory For Emotional And Nonemotional Events In Depression: A Question Of Habit?, Paula T. Hertel

Psychology Faculty Research

The truest claim that cognitive science can make might also be the least sophisticated: the mind tends to do what it has done before. In previous centuries philosophers and psychologists invented constructs such as associations, habit strength, and connectivity to formalize the truism, but others have known about it, too. In small towns in the Ozarks, for example, grandmothers have been overheard doling out warnings such as, "Don't think those ugly thoughts; your mind will freeze that way." Depressed persons, like most of us, usually don't heed this advice. The thoughts frozen in their minds might not be "ugly," but …

Motivational Processes Involved In Academic Help Seeking And Help Avoidance, Gwen Catherine Marchand

Dissertations and Theses

During middle childhood, help seeking and avoidance are two ways children deal with academic problems. For this study, the dominant view of help seeking as a strategy of self-regulated learning was elaborated to consider it a way of coping framed within the Self-System Model of Motivational Development. This framework allows for the consideration of (1) the opposite of help seeking (help avoidance) as a motivated way of coping, (2) the central role of teachers, and (3) the operation of multiple self-system processes in shaping students' coping behaviors.

Self-report, teacher-report, and school record data from 765 3rd through 61 h grade …

Identificación Y Diagnóstico Clínico Del Trastorno Por Déficit De Atención-Hiperactividad, Cecilia Montiel-Nava, Joaquín A. Peña

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

¿Cuál Tratamiento Para Cuál Niño? Comorbilidad Y Déficit De Atención-Hiperactividad, Cecilia Montiel-Nava, Joaquín A. Peña

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

School Schedules And How They Impact Student Perceptions Of Stress, David C. Flocco

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Exploring Blackness As A Site Of Resilience In Street Life Oriented Young Black Men Living In The Inner-City, Andraé́́ L. Brown

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Effects Of Alcohol Abuse, Coping Resources And Psychosocial Development On Learning Disabled And Non-Learning Disabled College Students, Maryalice Thomas

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Analysis Of Demographic Variables And Levels Of Stress In Law Enforcement Officers, Kathleen M. Jansen

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Employment in a law enforcement profession exposes an individual to potential stressors not experienced in most other professions. Sporadic efforts have been made to design stress management programs to assist officers in coping with the demands of their jobs. Much of the previous research on law enforcement stress has focused on examining the effectiveness of various coping skills; however, the training has focused on teaching a healthy lifestyle. This study seeks to add to the existing research by examining what elements of the job are perceived as the most stressful and what demographic variables, if any, may influence an individual's …

Psychologists' Skepticism And Knowledge About Dissociative Identity Disorders In Adolescents, Nancy E. Madden

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Professional skepticism about DID and lack of knowledge about DID has been documented in the adult literature on dissociative pathology (Hayes and Mitchell, 1994). Although 100% of adult DID cases are thought to have originated in childhood as sequelae of trauma, to date no studies about professional skepticism of and knowledge about DID have been done with psychologists who specialize in assessing children and adolescents. This study was designed to investigate the beliefs about DID and knowledge of DID that has been garnered by psychologists who specialize in assessing and treating adolescents. This study consisted of a convenience sample of …

Relationship Between Cognitive Distortions And Psychological Disorders Across Diagnostic Axes, Bradley Michael Rosenfield

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The purpose of this study was twofold: First, the study sought to determine whether or not cognitive distortions correlated with the number and severity of psychological disorders across diagnostic axes. Second, the study endeavored to assess further the validity and reliability of a promising new self-report measure, The Inventory of Cognitive Distortions (ICD), by correlating this instrument with clinical diagnoses as determined by the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III. The sample was selected from a heterogeneous adult outpatient population. Participants meeting inclusion criteria presented for psychological treatment or assessment. Excluded were participants who had less than an eighth grade education, or …

Relationship Between Self-Reported Weight Management And Perceived Norms Of Weight Management In Scholastic Wrestlers, Sara J. Camaerei

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Wrestling is unique in that it is the only sport that requires opponents to be matched by weight. Because two athletes at an almost equal weight compete against each other, wrestlers participate at the lowest weight class possible, which frequently leads wrestlers to engage in unhealthy and dangerous weight loss practices. Social norms theory suggests that much of an individual's behavior is influenced by perceptions of how members of a social group think and act. If these perceptions are inaccurate, and over-estimates of the unhealthy behaviors of others occur, an individual is likely to engage in such behaviors himself. One …

Caregivers' Relationship Satisfaction And Perception Of Competency As Predictors Of Quality Of Life For Als Patients , Jessica Stewart Allen

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

In addition to the physiological impact of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), patients and spousal caregivers experience significant emotional and psychological reactions to the disease and its course. As there is no effective treatment and no cure for this debilitating, fatal neuromuscular disease, treatment should include psychological interventions to improve patients' disease experience. External factors impacting psychological well-being of patients must be identified to allow for effective and relevant intervention. The current study examined the relationships between level of care provided to patients, caregivers' relationship satisfaction, and caregivers' perceived competence, and whether these factors predict patient quality of life (QOL). It …