Psychology Commons^™

The Relationship Of Race And Ethnic Identity To Perceptions Of Multicultural Counseling Competencies, Tonita C. Baines

Dissertations

Multicultural counseling competencies refer to the awareness, knowledge, and skills that are considered important for counselors to possess when working with culturally diverse clients (Constantine, 2002; Constantine & Ladany, 2001). Relatively few studies have looked at factors that may impact a client'sperception of a counselor's multicultural competence. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between a person's race, ethnic identity, and his/her ratings of the importance of 31 multicultural counseling competencies. A total of 304 undergraduate students (152 African-American and 152 White) from a large Midwestern university were surveyed to determine if there was a relationship …

Therapist Stress, Career Sustaining Behavior, Coping And The Working Alliance, Denise Broholm Briggs

Dissertations

Psychotherapists face many challenges in their work and are prone to experiencing stress. Their ability to cope and manage their stress may have the potential to affect their work with clients. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between therapist stress, coping styles, career sustaining behaviors, and therapist perceived working alliance. A sample of 160 psychologists, social workers, therapists, and counselors primarily from the Midwest participated in this study. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, which included a rating of the stress they experienced in their work as a psychotherapist, the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, …

The Effects Of Individual Monetary Incentives With Individual Feedback And Group Monetary Incentives With Group Feedback On High Performance, Kathryn M. Culig

Dissertations

The current study examined how individual monetary incentives with individual feedback and group monetary incentives with group feedback affected the performance of high performers across multiple sessions using 10-person simulated groups. The primary objectives of the study were to examine the effects of individual and group monetary incentives on the performance and satisfaction of high performers. Participants consisted of 11 keyboard proficient college students who performed a computerized data entry task modeled after the job of a bank proof operator. A within-subject ABCB reversal design was used. Each participant was exposed to the following pay and feedback conditions: hourly pay …

A Behavioral Model For The Assessment And Management Of Dehydration In Older Adults, Leilani Feliciano

Dissertations

Dehydration is a serious health concern in the elderly, constituting 1 of the 10 most common causes for hospitalization in this population (Sanservo, 1997). Previous research on dehydration has typically been conducted within nursing home settings (Chidester & Spangler, 1997; Holbren, Hassell, Williams, & Helle, 1999; Spangler, Risley, & Bilyew, 1984) without specific attention to the variables maintaining dehydration for any given individual. A functional behavioral approach to assessment and prevention or intervention for dehydration would involve identifying maintaining variables in the environment that can be altered to produce effective, non-intrusive interventions to increase healthy fluid consumption. The current project …

Development Of An Analogue Of A Response-Class Hierarchy, Daniel B. Shabani

Dissertations

Within the operant conditioning literature, there exists the concept of the functional response class. A functional response class is defined as a collection of responses that all produce the same outcome. If the members of a response class occur in a predictable order, a response-class hierarchy is said to exist. A hierarchy refers to a specific type of response class in which each member of the response class may be temporally determined along various dimensions (e.g., response effort, immediacy of reinforcement, magnitude of reinforcer). The response-class hierarchy has received relatively little conceptual attention over the years and, not surprisingly, there …

Intentional Forgetting Benefits From Thought Substitution, Paula T. Hertel, G. Calcaterra

Psychology Faculty Research

This study provides both experimental and correlational evidence that forgetting in the think/no-think paradigm (Anderson & Green, 2001) is sensitive to the substitution of thoughts about new events forthoughts that are to be suppressed. All the participants learned a list of adjective-noun pairs. Then the adjectives were presented as cues for recalling half of the nouns and as cues for suppressing the other half, 0, 2, or 12 times. Aided participants were provided with substitute nouns, to use during suppression. On a final test that requested recall of all initially learned nouns, aided participants showed evidence of below-baseline forgetting of …

Affective Benefits Of Capitalizing On Personal Positive Events, Daniel B. Goldman

Master's Theses

The present study examined how disclosing personal positive events influenced ensuing positive affect (PA). Forty undergraduate students reported personal positive events either privately or to a friend. All participants made written and vocal disclosures, counterbalanced to control for order effects. We hypothesized that participants who vocally reported positive experiences to a friend would have the highest PA scores subsequent to disclosure. Results from a two-way mixed ANOV A failed to support the hypothesis. Trait optimism was significantly related to positive affect, but its inclusion as a covariate in the ANOV A did not influence the pattern of results. These results …

An Assessment Of An Education Package Intervention Targeting The Appropriate Reporting Of Suspected Child Abuse, Clinton K. Wirtz

Masters Theses

The proper reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect continues to be a concern despite laws requiring professionals working with children to report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect to Children's Protective Services (CPS). This study assesses the efficacy of an education intervention versus the Michigan Child Protection Law (CPL) using 29 undergraduate child psychology students. Videotaped scenarios of simulated child interviews were used in a pretest/posttest between-groups design. Child physical abuse was the focus of the study. The results of the student participants' decisions regarding the videotaped scenarios were compared to the results of 10 CPS employees having …

Alzheimer's Disease And Contrast Sensitivity: Implications For Everyday Functioning, Sandra Neargarder

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Presidential Fellow: Progress At Marc: Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center At Bridgewater State College, Elizabeth Englander

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Psychological Stress And High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein Levels In Overweight And Obese Men, Olivia L. Moses

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background and Purpose. High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), a measure of inflammatory response, is now considered an independent marker for coronary heart disease. Psychological stress also affects the immune system and influences the inflammatory response. Ladwig, et al (2003) found a significant positive association between hs-CRP levels and depression (F=4.9, p^.008) in 726 obese males, even after adjusting for smoking, high blood pressure and age. This study investigated if there was a similar association between increased hs-CRP levels and psychological stress in overweight and obese males.

Method. Sixty-one overweight (n=28) or obese (n= 33) males, ages 20-35, were recmited …

Religious Problem Solving And Coping With End Stage Renal Disease, Eva Bella Martinez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study examined the impact of end-stage renal disease life-related couple/family stressors and strains on marital satisfaction, parental satisfaction, life satisfaction, and depression on end-stage renal disease patients and their spouses, as well as quality of life for patients. Also, it examined the moderating effects of three styles of religious problem-solving on the relationship between the ESRD couple/family stressors and strains and the outcome variables. Data included a sample of two hundred subjects and their spouses. Subjects were recruited from seven dialysis centers in southern California. Both patients and spouses were given survey questionnaires (i.e. Personal History Inventory, Religious Problem-Solving …

Thought Suppression Change In Cancer Patients And Survivors After Writing, Erin O'Carroll Bantum

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Breast cancer is a debilitating and many times fatal disease that will affect approximately 215,990 women in the United States alone this year. Treatment for breast cancer can involve many physically and psychologically straining features. The illness perception theory states that individuals form illness representations to make sense of health threats and illness. These representations contain a number of individual, specific attributes about the illness identity, and cause, time-line, consequences of, and cure/control of the illness. Many women who have experienced breast cancer have also been found to be keeping their thoughts inside. Thought suppression has been linked to many …

The Application Of The Transtheoretical Model Of Change To Self-Care Behaviors In Type 2 Diabetics, Heather N. Mercer

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background. The Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM) has been investigated as a model of health behavior change; however, it has only begun to gain recognition in the diabetic population, and has not yet been investigated as it relates to the full-spectrum of diabetes self-care behaviors.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to compare the pattern of stages of change across four self-care behaviors between intervention and control groups, and examine psychosocial and health outcome variables.

Method. In a cross-sectional design, a sample of 132 adult subjects with type 2 diabetes completed surveys. The survey assessed stages of change among …

Social Welfare Systems And Their Effects On Adolescent Violence, Injecting Drug Use, And Negative Health Behaviors, Elvin A. Hernandez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Youth and young adults who are injection drug users (IDU’s) often live and survive in physical and emotional environments that are associated with negative behaviors and outcomes. Past environmental and social factors, such as participation in social welfare systems or institutionalization in foster care or juvenile hall, have been found to be associated with IDU-involved young adults’ health behaviors when they become older. Social networks, which include drug, sex, or hangout networks, may influence their health outcomes and behaviors. The goals of this dissertation include an investigation of how reported past social welfare participation and institutionalization is associated with IDU-involved …

Reasons For Complementary And Alternative Medicine Usage In Japanese Americans, Theodora Stratis

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has received much research attention in the last several years due to marked increase in usage in the U.S. To date, findings indicate that 34% of adults in the U.S. report using at least one form of CAM for the maintenance of general health and acute symptoms and such use continue to increase (Astin, 1998; Eisenberg et al., 1993). CAM therapies are also used by those who suffer from chronic physical and psychological symptoms not successfully treated by conventional medicine (Testerman et al., 2004). Though researchers have examined who is using CAM and why they …

The Relationship Between Morality, Popularity And Acceptance Among Children, Jonathan Bruce Santo, W. M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

1245 children (mean age = 10.42) participated in the study (681 female). Data collection took place in Montréal, Canada (MO, n = 382) and Barranquilla, Colombia (BA, n = 863), from either high SES (n = 528) or low SES (n = 717). Subjects rated each other for levels of justice, care, popularity and acceptance. Care and justice were found to be strongly related to acceptance (r =0.43 and r = 0.40, respectively) and less strongly related to popularity (r = 0.32 and r = 0.31, respectively). Care and justice were highly positively correlated to each other (r = 0.61) …

The Effects Of Dextromethorphan On Response Acquisition With Delayed Reinforcement, Thomas B. Morgan

Dissertations

The current study examined in 2-h sessions the effects of intraperitoneal injections of dextromethorphan (DM) (0.0, 40.0, 60.0, and 80.0 mg/kg) on the acquisition of lever-press responding in rats that were exposed to a two-lever procedure in which responses on the reinforcement lever (RL) were reinforced with food after a 15-s resetting delay and responses on the cancellation lever cancelled a scheduled reinforcer. Response acquisition was observed at all drug doses. A decrease in RL responses, food deliveries, and the number of subjects that acquired responding was observed at the highest dose of DM. All doses of DM increased latency …

Online Contingency Management Of Writing Productivity, Matthew L. Porritt

Masters Theses

Ten participants from an online community participated in an online writing productivity management program. Social reinforcement and conditioned reinforcers were delivered by the researcher contingent upon meeting self-set writing goals on a weekly basis. Graphic feedback was delivered to participants through a web page, and social reinforcers through email contact. Writing goals increased throughout the program. In all cases, the program increased writing productivity across phases of treatment or goal increases. Results are discussed in terms of rule-governed behavior and the effects of short term goals in context of long term goals.

On The Measurement Of Nicotine Dependence In Adolescence: Comparisons Of The Mftq And A Dsm-Iv–Based Scale, Denise Kandel, Christine Schaffran, Pamela Griesler, Jessica Samuolis, Mark Davies, Rosaria Galanti

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: To compare nicotine-dependent smokers identified by the modified Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire (mFTQ) and a scale based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV), in a multiethnic adolescent sample. Methods: A school survey was conducted on 6th- to 10th-grade students (N= 15,007) in a large urban public school system. Results: The two scales formed two distinct factors. The concordance between the two classifications of nicotine dependence was low. The DSM identified a much larger number of nicotine-dependent smokers than the mFTQ, mostly because smokers met dependence criteria at much lower levels of …

Effectiveness Of A Treatment Approach For Major Depressive Disorder: A Case Study, Lisa Gail Mazzagatti

Theses and Dissertations

This case study assessed the efficacy of a treatment approach for a thirty-seven year old Caucasian female who was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. The intervention utilized techniques from several therapeutic approaches including cognitive-behavioral, psychoeducational and gestalt. The Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) was used as an outcome measure. It was administered at the third, seventh, eleventh, fifteenth, and nineteenth session. Results indicated a decrease in depressive symptomotology over the course of treatment. Client self-report, clinical observations and a client satisfaction survey also supported the overall effectiveness of the treatment approach. The case study presents a psychosocial assessment, literature review, …

Humane Education: The Effects Of Animals In The Classroom On Children's Empathy In Japanese Elementary Schools, Mika Maruyama

Dissertations and Theses

Although humane education, promoting children's kindness toward animals, has been evaluated as a factor influencing children's kindness toward humans later in their life, the effect of a classroom pet hasn't been well studied. The current study investigated the influence of intensified daily interactions with living animals in the classroom on the development of empathy among Japanese children. Specifically, the study examined (a) the effect of introducing animals into the classroom on children's empathic behaviors and attitudes, and (b) the generalization of this animal-directed empathy to humans.

The Relationship Between Sexism, Feminism, And Attitudes Toward Premarital Sex, Larisa Rodgers

Honors Scholar Theses

This paper examines the relationship between gender, sexism, attitudes toward feminism, and the sexual double standard. Students at a university (138 female and 58 male) participated in a survey study, which included six items measuring a sexual double standard, the Neosexism scale, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, and the Attitudes toward Feminism scale. Results show a double standard that is endorsed more by male participants than by female participants. Correlations were found between attitudes endorsing the sexual double standard and high levels of sexism, as well as negative attitudes toward feminism.

Family Violence And Divorce: Effects On Marriage Expectations., Hollie Nicole Dillon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Family violence and divorce can have influential effects on marital expectations. The present study analyzes the effects of gender, family violence, and divorce on marital expectations. Participants were 293 students enrolled in an introductory psychology course at a southeastern university. The mean age of the participants was 19.67 with 62.5 % being female and 37.5% being male. Participants completed the Conflict Tactics Scale to assess the presence of violence in the participant’s family of origin. Participants were also assessed on their parent’s marital status and, if applicable, their age at the time of divorce. This information was gathered via a …

A Survey Examining The Attitudes In A College Population Toward Suicide Attempters., Kandi Shearer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Suicidal behaviors are common and problematic among young populations, and attitudes held towards such behavior likely impact the frequency of its occurrence. The present study was conducted to gain insight into the attitudes held towards suicide attempt victims amongst a traditional college population. Undergraduate students (n = 360) were administered a survey to assess demographics, suicide ideation levels, and perceptions formed after reading a short suicide attempt report. Results indicated that ideation levels had the most impact on perceptions, with ideators being significantly more likely than non-ideators to view suicide attempters as more intelligent, more justified in their actions, more …

Does Joint Attention Mediate The Relationship Between Temperament And Language?, Brenda J. Salley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individual differences in child temperament have been associated with individual differences in language development; similarly, relationships have been separately reported among temperament, language and early nonverbal social communication (joint attention). The present study examined the relationship between temperament and language, in the context of joint attention as an underlying developmental variable mediating this association. Temperament, language and joint attention were assessed in 51 Appalachian 21-month-old toddlers. Results indicate a relationship between aspects of temperamental difficulty, including low executive control and high negative affect, and low language. A relationship was also found between temperament and joint attention, such that aspects of …

Chronic Olanzapine Treatment Eliminates Cognitive Deficits Produced By Neonatal Quinpirole Treatment., Stephanie K. Thacker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the effects of chronic olanzapine treatment on cognitive performance and neurochemical function in a rodent model of schizophrenia. Animals were neonatally treated with quinpirole, a dopamine D₂ receptor agonist, or saline. Quinpirole treatment produces an increase of dopamine D₂ receptor sensitivity that extends into adulthood, known as D₂ receptor priming, similar to a phenomenon that occurs in schizophrenia. These same rats were treated in adulthood for 28 days with olanzapine, an atypical antipsychotic, or saline. Dopamine D₂- primed rats demonstrated significant deficits on a cognitive task that were alleviated by olanzapine treatment. …

Cultural Differences In Body Image Shame Between Mainland American And Indigenous Hawaiian Children, Joshua James Boyd

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The present study investigated the level of body image shame in Mainland United States 4th and 5th grade children to indigenous Hawaiian 4th and 5th grade children using two cards (1 and 6) from the Thurston-Cradock Test of Shame. The hypotheses of this study were:

I. The mainland sample would score higher on overall shame than the Hawaiian sample.

2. The Hawaiian sample responses would reflect a neutral and/or effective resolution of shame and body image in their stories, whereas the mainland sample would present stories demonstrating higher shame themes with less effective resolution.

3. Hawaiian males/females would have lower …

Supportive And Challenging Social Factors In A Decision To Be Sexually Abstinent, Evan Alvord

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Several studies have examined the intrinsic factors, including fear of pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, which motivate adolescents to choose sexual abstinence. Currently, little research has been dedicated solely to the extrinsic/social factors, which may also be influential in the decision to abstain from pre-marital sex. Four social factors were presumed to be especially influential, supporting a decision to be sexually abstinent and four social factors were presumed to be significant, challenging the choice to adopt a sexually-abstinent-untilmarriage life style. The proposed supportive social factors include: (a) Parental influence, (b) Peer influence, ( c) Religious affiliation/membership, ( d) Personal relationship …

Analysis Of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And Its Effects On Child Development, Carmen K. Rossum

Electronic Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the independent study of pediatric Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is to aid in the treatment of young individuals suffering from these disturbing behavioral disorders. Although AD/HD in the past was not credited as a true behavioral disorder, researchers have continued to learn more about this illness and how it is affecting our adolescents. Studies have also shown that adults diagnosed with AD/HD most likely suffered from similar symptoms as a child. AD/HD is not learning disability and with dedication from the patient and those involved in his life, he can lead an extremely successful academic as well as …