Psychology Commons^™

The Effect Of Experience Upon The Visual And Haptic Discrimination Of 3-D Object Shape, Anna Clayton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Both our sense of touch and our sense of vision allow us to perceive common object properties such as size, shape, and texture. The extent of this functional overlap has been studied in relation to infant perception (Bushnell & Weinberger, 1987; Gibson & Walker, 1984; Streri, 1987; Streri & Gentaz, 2003), overlap in brain regions (Amedi, Malach, Hendler, Peled, & Zohary, 2001; Deibert, Kraut, Kermen, & Hart, 1999; James, Humphrey, Gati, Menon, & Goodale, 2002), and adult perception (Gibson, 1962, 1963, 1966; Klatzky, Lederman, & Reed, 1987; Lakatos & Marks, 1999; Norman, Norman, Clayton, Lianekhammy, & Zielke, 2004). The current …

Antisocial Personality Disorder And Psychopathy: Characterological And Behavioral Criteria, Megan Kay Null

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current diagnostic criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) have been criticized for being too behavioral and not sufficiently tied to the historical concept of a psychopathic character. Research suggests that clinicians may not find the current diagnostic criteria useful and that a different set of criteria may be more descriptive of the way they conceptualize ASPD. In addition, questions remain as to the relationship between ASPD and psychopathy (PP). The current study examined clinicians' prototypes of ASPD and PP to determine which criteria are most consistent with how clinicians conceptualize these constructs and to determine whether ASPD and PP …

A Preliminary Analysis Of The Motivation To Volunteer At Sporting Events Among College Students, Keunsu Han

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Volunteering makes an important contribution to human society. Increasingly, at recent sporting events, volunteers are a critical part of the overall success of the events. Colleges and universities need to provide opportunities for students to meaningfully experience contributing to society during their college life. The purpose of this study was to enhance the understanding of volunteer motivation among college students at sporting events. In particular, the study focused on the investigation of the demographics of college student volunteers in selected sporting events, the examination of the primary motives that influence their decision to volunteer, and the identification of the major …

The Impact Of Racial Identity Attitudes On The Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Of African American Undergraduate Students, Tamara A. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between racial identity attitudes and career decision-making self-efficacy. Two hundred and forty-three African American undergraduate students completed a demographic questionnaire, the Cross Racial Identity Scale (Worrell, Vandiver, & Cross, 2000), and the Career Decision-Making SelfEfficacy- Short-Form (Betz and Taylor, 1994). Results from a hierarchial multiple regression revealed a significant negative relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and pre-encounter self-hatred attitudes, and a significant positive relationship between internalization multiculturalist inclusive attitudes and career decision-making self-efficacy. The other four racial identity attitudes, pre-encounter assimilation, pre-encounter miseducation, immersion-emmersion anti-white, and internalization afrocentricity, were not significant predictors of career decision-making …

Will Knowledge Of Green Tea Benefits Influence Coffee Consumption?, I-Fang Wang

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many recent studies have focused on the health benefits of green tea consumption. Although there is conflicting evidence, there is a strong trend showing positive effects of green tea to human health. This current study was done to explore whether the knowledge of such green tea benefits will influence the willingness of coffee drinkers to consider switching to green tea consumption. The survey study included a convenience sample of 132 adults who considered themselves regular coffee drinkers. From the statistical analyses of the collected data, results were obtained primarily through frequency distributions and phi coefficients. Data analysis suggested a significant …

Individual Differences And Preference For Therapeutic Factors Among Partial Hospitalization Program Group Clients, Dennis Neil Profitt

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined whether the level of functioning (high vs. low) of individuals in Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) group affected their preference for Yalom's therapeutic factors. Additionally, an attempt was made to replicate past research by reducing Yalom's twelve therapeutic factors to a smaller number of overarching factors. Finally, an attempt was made to extract a new factor structure that differs from Yalom' s factor modet'and reflects the experiences of clients in PHP group. One hundred and fifteen participants who receive PHP treatment from a large community mental health center in western and central Indiana were administered Yalom's Therapeutic Factor …

The Reliability And Validity Of The Behavior Assessment System For Children In A Rural Setting, Melvin Lee Titus

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) is a behavior rating scale for children from the ages of two and one-half to eighteen-years-old. The BASC original standardization was not representative of 4- to 6-years-old children, particularly in the rural Midwest. The standardization also did not adequately sample children with speech/language impairments. The present study assessed the BASC's reliability and validity (construct and criterion) in comparison to a current BASC, Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS) sample. The current BASC study used a sample of rural, 4- to 6-year-old normally-developing children and children with speech/language …

Frequency Of Mental Health Service Use In School-Based Health Centers: School Performance And Family Characteristics, James William Depetro

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public schools and community health organizations have created partnerships to provide mental health services to children. One such collaboration has led to the development of School-Based Health Centers (SBHC). SBHC provide mental health services in an attempt to enhance students' development and performance. The research findings regarding SBHC impact on school performance are mixed (Gall, Pagano, Desmond, Perrin, & Murphy, 2000; McCord, Klein, Foy, & Fothergill, 1993; Weist, Proescher, Freedman, Paskewitz, & Flaherty, 1995; Wolk & Kaplan, 1993 ). The purpose of this research study was to determine if the frequency of use of mental health services at SBHC are …

Body Image, Emotional Regulation, And Binge Eating In Obese Females, Courtney D. Stahl

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with binge eating disorder (BED) tend to endorse significant overconcerns with weight and shape and a greater propensity to eat in response to negative mood states. The primary aim of this study was to examine the impact of body image disturbance on the self-regulation of affect in female obese non-binge (n=46) and binge eaters (n=l09). Groups were similar in age (M=46.3) and race (84% Caucasian). Obese non-binge eaters were significantly less obese (BMI=35.50) than their binge eating counterparts (BMI=38.60). On the Multidimensional Body Self-Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ), obese binge eaters endorsed significantly higher levels of body dissatisfaction, greater feelings of …

Examining The Behavioral And Physiological Components Of Communication Skills Training With Married Couples: Are Differential Effects Mediated By The Topic Discussed And Initial Level Of Marital Distress?, Tara L. Cornelius

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to experimentally examine the effects of the Speaker-Listener technique when the couple was instructed to either (a) discuss an issue within, or (b) outside the marriage, on couples’ initial and long-term levels of marital distress and satisfaction. This study was designed to examine Gottman, et al. (1998) hypothesis that the Speaker-Listener skills training technique may be effective and lead to improved levels of marital satisfaction when the couple is complaining about a third party, but complaining about each other may become divisive and weaken the marital relationship, and that such an effect would …

The Effects Of Task Structure And Group Target Monetary Incentives On Social Loafing, Nelson R. Eikenhout

Dissertations

Social loafing refers to the decrease in individual performance output that occurs when individuals perform a task in groups in which the output is pooled. Pooled output refers to the performance of all group members added together to get a total group output. Therefore, because all group members contribute to a single group outcome, individual performance output is obscured. This study examined the following questions. First, what are the effects of the method of pooling the output (additive vs. disjunctive) on individuals who work on a concurrent task in small groups? Second, what are the effects of group target based …

The Effects Of Individual And Group Incentives On High Performance, Heather M. Mcgee

Dissertations

The present study examined the performance levels of high performers under equally-divided group monetary incentives, individual monetary incentives, and hourly pay to determine: (a) whether the performance levels of high performers would be higher under individual and group incentive pay systems than under an hourly pay system, (b) whether the performance of high performers would be lower under group incentives than under individual incentives, and (c) whether changes in performance would be due to comparative feedback indicating that the participant is a high performer. Participants were eleven college students who performed a computerized work task that simulated the job of …

Role Of Naming In Stimulus Categorization By Preschool Children, Caio Flavio Miguel

Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether children would categorize pictures when taught the relevant listener and speaker behaviors separately. A category-sort test was used to assess emergent conditional relations. Category-sort trials consisted of looking at (Test 1) or tacting/labeling (Test 2) a samplestimulus and selecting the appropriate comparison stimuli. In Experiment 1, 4 children (3- 5 years) were taught to tact pictures of six U.S. state maps as either north or south. An assessment was conducted to determine whether they would (1) correctly categorize or sort when presented with a visual sample and (2) select the …

A Behavioral Account Of Remembering: Precurrent Behavior And Mediation Of Delayed Matching To Sample, David W. Sidener

Dissertations

Although “memory” research and theory often come under the domain of cognitive psychology, these areas may also be seen as being open to radical behavioral interpretations. Delayed matching to sample (DMTS) preparations have often been used to study performance that involves the occurrence of behavior some time after the presentation of a relevant stimulus, or what is typically called short-term memory (STM). The current study involved three experiments that provided evidence for the role of overt behavior in the mediation of DMTS performance in five-year-old children. Experiments 1 and 2 support the assertion that sample-specific, differential mediating behavior (in the …

Negative Stereotypes And Childhood Paternal Relationships As Predictors Of Paternal Identity In African American Fathers, Danielle K. Wright

Dissertations

African American men have been widely ignored in the social science literature. When African American men have been studied, it has primarily been from a deficit model. The purpose of this study was to give voice to the African American father, whether he is working-poor, middle-class, or upper-class, biological or non-biological, residential or non-residential. The intent of the study was to explore how African American men view themselves as fathers and their own experiences of being a parent.

One hundred and one men who identified as African American, were at least 18 years old, and who had at least one …

A Comparison Of The Shopping Preferences Of College Age Apparel Shoppers In Turkey And The United States, William C. Perrine

Masters Theses

This study compared the store attribute preferences of college-age apparel shoppers in Turkey with those of their United States counterparts. The American respondents were selected from a convenience sample of students from a Midwestern university. The Turkish respondents consisted of a convenience sample of undergraduate and graduate students from two urban universities. Ninety-six surveys were given in Turkey and 113 were given in the United States to currently enrolled female and male undergraduate and graduate students between the ages of 17 and 51, yielding 204 usable surveys at a 97 percent response rate. Twenty-one shopping preferences were included in the …

Dietary Exposure To Aroclor 1254 Impairs Radial Arm Maze Acquisition And Performance In Rats, Danielle M. Paris-Larson

Masters Theses

Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is suspected to produce long lasting cognitive deficits in children and adults. This study assessed the effects of dietary exposure to a commercial mixture of PCBs on spatial learning and memory in Fisher 344 rats. Aroclor 1254 (0, 10, 50 ppm) was administered for 28 consecutive days in the daily diet. Seven days after the last dietary exposure, acquisition training began in an eight-arm radial maze. Following 28 days of acquisition training, "working" memory was assessed using a delayed win/shift procedure. Each delay (20 minutes, 2 hours, and 6 hours) was examined on three consecutive …

Pain Catastrophizing And Social Support In Married Individuals With Chronic Pain: The Moderating Role Of Pain Duration, Annmarie Cano

Psychology Faculty Research Publications

In the current study, 96 married chronic pain patients were recruited from the community to test hypotheses about the roles of catastrophizing and psychological distress in relation to perceived support from close others. It was expected that pain duration would moderate the relationship between catastrophizing and perceived support and between catastrophizing and psychological distress. In addition, distress was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between the pain durationcatastrophizing interaction and support. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that pain duration interacted with catastrophizing such that at shorter pain durations, pain catastrophizing was related to more perceived solicitous spouse responses; however no such relationship …

The Life-Long Diminution Of Anxiety Response As A Consequence Of Reproductive Experience, Ilan M. Mcnamara

Master's Theses

Reproductive experience (RE), associated with hormonal fluctuations and enriching environmental stimuli, enhances spatial memory and blunts responses to stress/anxiety. Whereas stress reductions occur during lactation, the persistence of the RE-anxiolytic effects is unclear; and little research has focused on the HP A axis, amygdala, and other anxietyrelated areas. Using an elevated plus maze (EPM), we examined anxiety in nulliparous (NP), primiparous (PP), and multiparous (MP) females (zero, one, or two litters, respectively) at 6, 10, 14, 18, and 22 months of age. Brains were subsequently analyzed for neurodegeneration in dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). RE significantly dampened anxiety (defined by time …

Constructions Of Female Identities In Mary Gordon's The Other Side And Maureen Howard's Before My Time, Neli Gogovska

Theses and Dissertations

In Women's Time Kristeva designates three broad currents of feminist struggle: first, the suffragist movement declaring a universalist view of women's experience regardless of class, age, and cultures; second, the phase of difference, that she regards as "returning to an archaic (mythic) memory as well as cyclical or monumental temporality of marginal movements" (355); and third, a trend that she wholeheartedly supports for their concept that "the dichotomy of man and woman as an opposition of two rival entities is a problem of metaphysics" (366).

This thesis discusses Howard and Gordon as proponents of the second phase because they write …

A Group-Administered Timeline Followback Assessment Of Alcohol Use, Joseph W. Labrie, Eric R. Pedersen, Mitch Earleywine

Heads Up!

Objective: The current study compares retrospective self-reports of quantity and frequency of drinking with the Timeline Followback (TLFB) method administered in groups or to individuals to determine the equivalence of these methods. Method: Two hundred and eleven male college students who reported drinking at least two times per week participated; 118 completed the TLFB in a group setting, and 93 completed it individually. Drinking variables assessed were drinking days, average drinks and total drinks during a 30-day period. Results: Pearson's correlation coefficients revealed significant correlations between single-item quantity and frequency measures and the TLFB on all three variables for the …

Exploring The Relationship Between Race-Related Stress, Identity And Well-Being Among African Americans, Darrick Tovar-Murray

Dissertations

For almost four hundred years, African Americans have been victims of race-related stress. Race-related stress is defined as the encounters between individuals and their environment that surface from racism and strain an individual's resources or threaten his or her well-being. Despite findings on the negative impact of racism on African Americans' well-being, very little research has focused on the relationships between race-related stress, identity and well-being among African Americans.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between race-related stress, identity, and well-being among African Americans. A total of 196 African American community members and college students participated …

Willingness To Accept Forgiveness In Various Religious Targets., Meridith Ann Brewer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three scenarios regarding a target man's moral behavior were used to examine 'religious halo' 'religious boomerang', and a 'halo recovery' effect. Initially, participants rated a male target in response to his religious affiliation. Secondly, participants rated the male target following an act of infidelity. Finally, participants provided ratings of the male target with the knowledge that the target received forgiveness from significant others. Results indicated that participants did not discriminate based on knowledge of the target's religious affiliation but did reject the target following an act of infidelity. New to this research, however, was discovery of a 'halo recovery' where …

Resiliency Factors Associated With Adaptive Conflict Tactics., Jacquelyn Leanne Driggers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined witnessing domestic violence as a child as a predictor of violent conflict tactics in adult dating relationships. A supportive sibling and a close relationship with the mother were examined as resiliency factors. Participants were 129 men and 256 women enrolled in classes at East Tennessee State University. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, a mother-father conflict resolution form of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS), The Parent-Child Relationship Survey (PCRS), The Index of Brother and Sister Relations, and a revised form of the CTS that assessed violence in the participants' dating relationship. Analysis of variance was conducted to assess …

School-Based Prevention Of Depressive Symptoms In Adolescents : A 6-Month Follow-Up., Patrick Pössel, Andrea B. Horn, Gunter Groen, Martin Hautzinger

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Objective: Depressive disorders in adolescents are a widespread problem with extensive psychosocial consequences. We designed a school-based program to prevent the increase of depressive symptoms. We expect the program to reduce dysfunctional automatic thoughts and improve social skills and thus prevent the increase of depressive symptoms. Method: The design includes a training group and a non-treatment control group with pre- and post-measurement and 3- and 6-month follow-ups. We followed 324 eighth graders in both groups. School classes were randomly assigned to one of the two groups. The prevention program, LISA-T, is based on cognitive-behavioral therapy concepts and targets of cognitive …

Sexually Dimorphic Effects Of Prenatal Stress On Cognition, Hormonal Responses, And Central Neurotransmitters, Rachel E. Bowman, Neil J. Maclusky, Yessenia Sarmiento, Maya Frankfurt, Marisa Gordon, Victoria N. Luine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Exposure to stress during gestation results in physiological and behavioral alterations that persist into adulthood. This study examined the effects of prenatal stress on the postnatal expression of sexually differentiated cognitive, hormonal, and neurochemical profiles in male and female rats. Pregnant dams were subjected to restraint stress three times daily for 45 min during d 14-21 of pregnancy. The offspring of control and prenatally stressed dams were tested for anxiety-related and cognitive behaviors, stress and gonadal steroid hormone levels, as well as monoamines and metabolite levels in selected brain regions. Postnatal testosterone levels (measured at 1 and 5 d) did …

Melioration And The Behavioral Addiction Process: An Experimental Analysis, Jared Micah Dinehart

Theses and Dissertations

Melioration can be a factor contributing to behavioral addiction. In this study, 76 university undergraduates operated a "money machine" by selecting between choices that corresponded to maximization and melioration. Participants initially made choices consistent with a strategy of melioration and demonstrated significantly greater variability in choice behavior when visual cues were presented aimed at exposing the internality (or consequence) of the choice situation. Removal of the visual cues resulted in a return to lower responding. Visual cues may aid in interrupting the behavioral addiction pattern by limiting exclusive use of a melioration choice strategy. Methods of restructuring and experimentation with …

Unhappily Ever After: Effects Of Long-Term Low-Quality Marriages On Well-Being, Daniel Hawkins, Alan Booth

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The present study shows that long-term low-quality marriages have significant negative effects on overall well-being. We utilize a nationally representative longitudinal study with a multi-item marital quality scale that allows us to track unhappy marriages over a twelve-year period and to assess marital happiness along many dimensions. Remaining unhappily married is associated with significantly lower levels of overall happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and overall health, along with elevated levels of psychological distress, compared to remaining otherwise continuously married. There is also some evidence that staying unhappily married is more detrimental than divorcing, as people in low-quality marriages are less happy …

Automated E-Mail Messaging As A Tool For Improving Quit Rates In An Internet Smoking Cessation Intervention, John E. Perez

Psychology

Objective: The aim of this study waS to determine whether an automated e-mail messaging system that sent individually timed educational messages (ITEMs) increased the effectiveness of an INternet smoiking cessation intervention.

Design: Using two consecutive series of particiapnts, the authors compared two Web-based style smoking cessation interventions a single-poin-in-time educational intervention and an enhanced intervention that also sent ITEMs timed to participants' quit efforts. outcomes were compared in 199 participants receiving the one-time intervention and 286 receiving ITEMs.

Measurements: Demographic factors, number of cigarettes smoked, nicotine additiction, depressive symptoms, and confidence in ability to quit were measure at entry. Twenty-four-hour …

Pilot Performance And Eye Movement Activity With Varying Levels Of Display Integration In A Synthetic Vision Cockpit, Julie Michele Stark

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The primary goal of the present study was to investigate the effects of display integration in a simulated commercial aircraft cockpit equipped with a synthetic vision display. Combinations of display integration level (low/high), display view (synthetic vision view/traditional display), and workload (low/high) were presented to each participant. Sixteen commercial pilots flew multiple approaches under IMC conditions in a moderate fidelity fixed-base part-task simulator. Pilot performance data, visual activity, mental workload, and self-report situation awareness were measured.

Congruent with the Proximity Compatibility Principle, the more integrated display facilitated superior performance on integrative tasks (lateral and vertical path maintenance), whereas a less …