Psychology Commons^™

Narrative Art Therapy For Families That Have A Child With A Life-Threatening Illness, Andrea A. Seitz

Art Therapy | Master's Theses in Print

Researchers have recognized the importance of meaningful collaboration between family medical and family therapy practitioners. A report published this year (2005) by the American Academy of Pediatrics spells out the need for pediatricians to be cognizant of the entire family’s needs when treating a child. Given the demands on pediatricians it seems almost impossible for them to provide psycho-social support needed by families. Therefore, a partnership between an MFT and a physician is a more realistic alternative. This proposal will offer an intervention model for working with families who have a child with a catastrophic illness. The treatment modality. Narrative …

Intelligence Correlates Of Transcendent Beliefs: A Preliminary Study, Nicole Lukey, Imants Barušs

Psychology

In previous research, Barušs and Moore had identified a material-transcendent dimension of beliefs about consciousness and reality that underlies the Western intellectual tradition including the academic study of consciousness. At one pole, materialists believe that reality is entirely physical in nature, whereas those tending toward the transcendent pole believe that reality cannot exhaustively be captured in physical terms. More recently, Jewkes and Barušs had found a number of personality correlates of transcendent beliefs including a tendency toward curiosity and a rational approach to the world [1]. These previous results prompted the present study in which 39 undergraduate psychology students at …

The Validity Of The Brief Version Of The Fear Of Negative Evaluation Scale., Kerry A Collins, Henny A Westra, David J A Dozois, Sherry H Stewart

Psychology Publications

The Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale [FNE; J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 33 (1969) 448] is a commonly used measure of social anxiety. A brief version of the scale (FNEB) is available for convenient administration. Despite being widely advocated for use, the psychometric properties of the FNEB have not been evaluated with clinically anxious samples. The present study addressed the reliability and validity of the FNEB in a clinical sample of individuals with either social phobia (n = 82) or panic disorder (n = 99) presenting for treatment. Factor analysis supported the construct validity of the FNEB. The validity of the …

Care For Pastors: Learning From Clergy And Their Spouses, Mark R. Mcminn, R. Allen Lish, Pamela D. Trice, Alicia M. Root, Nicole B. Gilbert, Adelene Yap

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Pastors and their spouses face unique challenges because of the nature of pastoral work, and yet most manage these challenges successfully. Five studies are presented which help distinguish between intrapersonal, family, and community forms of care. Pastors rely heavily on intrapersonal forms of coping such as spiritual devotion, hobbies, exercise, and taking time away from work. The marriage relationship is also quite important for most clergy and spouses. Relationships outside the immediate family are not commonly identified as coping resources. Implications are discussed.

The Universality Of The Conceptual Understanding Of Leadership, Lisa P. Gaynier

ETD Archive

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Meritocracy Beliefs On Women’S Well-Being After First-Time Gender Discrimination, Mindi D. Foster, E. Micha Tsarfati

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study examined how meritocracy beliefs may buffer women from the negative psychological effects of an acute situation of gender discrimination. Although some research indirectly suggests that believing the meritocracy exists may increase well-being, group consciousness theories (e.g., Bartky, 1977) suggest that disbelieving the meritocracy exists will enhance psychological adjustment to gender discrimination. Women who reported little past experience with discrimination, and either believed or disbelieved the meritocracy exists were exposed to either a laboratory situation of discrimination or a non-discrimination failure (control) condition. Consistent with group consciousness theories, women experiencing discrimination reported greater well-being if they disbelieved the meritocracy …

The Effects Of Divorce On Children And Adolescents, Rachelle A. Haker

Graduate Research Papers

This research paper focuses on the effects of divorce on children and adolescents. Based on a review of literature, there are many short-term and long-term effects including emotional, behavioral, and physical issues. Children and adolescents vary in adjustment to divorce depending on multiple factors such as communication, conflict, and parental adjustment. The stages that children and adolescents of divorce go through depend on one's developmental stage and gender. Counselors can greatly influence how children and adolescents adjust to divorce.

Becoming A Better Me : An Examination Of Character Education At The Elementary Level, Lori D. Dobbin

Graduate Research Papers

The first day of school can be a difficult adjustment for many students. Some . students struggle with new settings and new rules. Each student enters the classroom with personal morals and values. These morals and character traits greatly influence the student's academic and social progress. This paper reviews character building and its unique ability to alter the perception of the student's world. The paper looks at the deficits of character and introduces possible solutions to restoring character in elementary-aged children. A closer look at the history of character education lays the foundation for a better understanding of character.

The Effects Of Ppa And Nicotine Gum On Cessation Rates And Post Cessation Weight Gain In Women., Theodore Cooper, R. Klesges, M. Debon, S. Zbikowski, K. Johnson, L. Clemens

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Hash Browns For Breakfast, Baked Potatoes For Dinner: Changes In Food Attitudes As A Function Of Motivation And Context, Stephen Crites, Shelley Aikman

Departmental Papers (Psych)

Two studies investigated whether participants' motivational state and the context in which attitude reports are made influence food attitudes. Specifically, these studies examined whether hunger and the time-typicality of foods (i.e. match or mismatch between the time when a food is typically eaten and the time the attitude is reported) interact to influence reported attitudes. Study 1 suggests that hunger leads to more positive attitudes toward foods that are typically eaten at the time the attitude report is made (e.g. breakfast foods in morning) compared to foods not typically eaten at the time the attitude report is made (e.g. breakfast …

Impact Of Nutrition Knowledge On Food Evaluations, Stephen Crites, Shelley Aikman

Departmental Papers (Psych)

Objective: This study explored whether nutrition knowledge interacted with evaluations of a food’s healthiness to influence food attitudes (ie, global evaluations). Since attitudes guide behavior, understanding factors that impact food attitudes is one way to understand food selection and why factors such as nutrition knowledge have only a modest impact on food selection. We hypothesized that the relation between health evaluations and food attitudes would be stronger for people high in nutrition knowledge. We also explored the macronutrient composition of foods, and how it related to attitudes and health evaluations.

Design: Survey employing multilevel analyses to examine within- and between-subject …

Epipregnanolone And A Novel Synthetic Neuroactive Steroid Reduce Reduce Alcohol Self-Administration In Rats., Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Play Therapy, Melissa A. Hardman

Graduate Research Papers

Play therapy techniques are valuable tools for a variety of professionals who work with children. One need not be a registered play therapist to implement play techniques when working with child clients. There are many types of clients that would benefit from play therapy. There are several different theoretical approaches, but the researcher chose to focus on Adlerian Play Therapy, Client-Centered Play Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy, and Psychodynamic Play Therapy. The paper considers the best location to implement play techniques, by urging the counselor to be aware of the setting's location within the building, ease of cleaning, available space, and …

Antidepressant Efficacy And Behavioral Comparisons Of Two Animal Models Of Depression, Stephanie Ebner

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

The current study examined the validity of the chronic mild stress and learned helplessness models of depression in addition to testing the efficacy of the tricyclic antidepressant imipramine. Thirty-six male albino rats were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: control, chronic mild stress (CMS), and learned helplessness (LH). Half of the animals in each condition received IP injections of imipramine at 10 mg/kg/day, and the other half received equal volumes of isotonic saline. All animals were weighed daily throughout experimentation. The CMS animals were chronically stressed for a period of five weeks after which learned helplessness was induced in the …

Children Of Incarcerated Parents And The Role Of The Elementary School Counselor, Megan A. Petersen

Graduate Research Papers

Of the 72 million minor children in the United States, 2 million of those have a parent who is currently incarcerated. The dynamics of a child's life are greatly altered when a parent is incarcerated, and many children struggle as a result. Without some form of support or intervention, they are five times more likely than other children to become incarcerated themselves. Elementary school counselors must be aware of the characteristics of children of incarcerated parents, while working to address their needs across numerous levels and contexts.

The Temporal Context Model In Spatial Navigation And Relational Learning: Toward A Common Explanation Of Medial Temporal Lobe Function Across Domains, Marc W. Howard, Mrigankka S. Fotedar, Aditya V. Datey, Michael E. Hasselmo

Psychology - All Scholarship

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) has been studied extensively at all levels of analysis, yet its function remains unclear. Theory regarding the cognitive function of the MTL has centered along 3 themes. Different authors have emphasized the role of the MTL in episodic recall, spatial navigation, or relational memory. Starting with the temporal context model (M.W. Howard and M. J. Kahana, 2002), a distributed memory model that has been applied to benchmark data from episodic recall tasks, the authors propose that the entorhinal cortex supports a gradually changing representation of temporal context and the hippocampus proper enables retrieval of these …

Implementing Lexical And Creative Intentionality In Synthetic Personality, Erik Vick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Creating engaging, interactive, and immersive synthetic characters is a difficult task and evaluating the success of a synthetic character is often even more difficult. The later problem is solved by extending Turing's Imitation Game thusly: computational construct should be evaluated based on the criteria of how well the character can mimic a human. In order to accomplish a successful evaluation of the proposed metric, synthetic characters must be consistently believable and capable of role-appropriate emotional expression. The author believes traditional synthetic characters must be improved to meet this goal. For a synthetic character to be believable, human users must be …

Cognitive Vulnerability In Anxiety, Emotional Dysregulation, And Bulimia Nervosa, Rachael Motley

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Bulimia Nervosa (BN) is an eating disorder that is characterized by recurrent cycles of binge eating and compensatory behaviors (e.g. purging). Individuals suffering from BN usually report feeling anxious or depressed before the onset of their eating problems, and disordered eating may represent an attempt to cope with negative emotion. The anxiety associated with BN may arise from several pathways including body dissatisfaction, idealized images of thinness, and negative life events (Polivy & Herman, 2002). There are also other factors that contribute to the development of BN including difficulties with emotion regulation (e.g. alexithymia). We propose that certain individuals are …

Child Sexual Abuse In Sub-Saharan Africa: Child Protection Implications For Development Policy Makers And Practitioners, Kevin Lalor

Reports

No abstract provided.

Assessing Male Body Image: Development And Validation Of The Appearance Inventory For Men (Aim), Daniel Agliata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite evidence suggesting that appearance dissatisfaction among men is on the rise, a void in appropriate forms of body image assessment for males remains. The current study reviews the literature on male body image, identifying the shortcomings and limitations of prior research, and introduces a psychometrically sound, male-specific body image assessment. An initial item-generation study was used to poll 253 males to inquire about their concerns, emotions, behaviors, and related body image topics to be sorted and synthesized into items for scale inclusion. The newly developed Appearance Inventory for Men (AIM) was then administered to 330 males and submitted to …

Speeded Retrieval Abolishes The False Memory Suppression Effect: Evidence For The Distinctiveness Heuristic, C. S. Dodson, Amanda C. Gingerich

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

We examined two different accounts of why studying distinctive information reduces false memories within the DRM paradigm. The impoverished relational encoding account predicts that less memorial information, such as overall famililarity, is elicited by the critical lure after distinctive encoding than after non-distinctive encoding. By contrast, the distinctiveness heuristic predicts that participants use a deliberate retrieval strategy to withhold responding to the critical lures. This retrieval strategy refers to a decision rule whereby the absence of memory for expected distinctive information is taken as evidence for an event’s nonoccurrence. We show that the typical false recognition suppression effect only occurs …

Differential Effects Of Alzheimer's Disease And Huntington's Disease On The Performance Of Mental Rotation, Tara T. Lineweaver, David P. Salmon, Mark W. Bondi, Jody Corey-Bloom

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

he ability to spatially rotate a mental image was compared in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 18) and patients with Huntington's disease (HD; n = 18). Compared to their respective age-matched normal control (NC) group, the speed, but not the accuracy, of mental rotation abnormally decreased with increasing angle of orientation for patients with HD. In contrast, the accuracy, but not the speed, of rotation abnormally decreased with increasing angle of orientation for patients with AD. Additional analyses showed that these unique patterns of performance were not attributable to different speed/accuracy trade-off sensitivities. This double dissociation suggests that …

Factors Affecting Clergy-Psychologist Referral Patterns, Mark R. Mcminn, Steven J. Runner, Jennifer A. Fairchild, Joshua D. Lefler, Rachel P. Suntay

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Recent research on clergy-psychologist collaboration has resulted in helpful principles for clergy and psychologists working together, but very little is known about what specific characteristics in clergy are appealing to psychologists and vice versa. Two experimental survey studies are reported, both exploring characteristics that enhance or hinder collaboration. In Study 1, Southern Baptist pastors rated the likelihood of referring to a counselor who was identified as either a Biblical Counselor or a Christian Psychologist, and was identified as either being excellent in interpersonal skills or as using scripture and prayer in counseling. Pastors demonstrated a preference for counselors using scripture …

Reducing Playground Bullying And Supporting Beliefs: An Experimental Trial Of The 'Steps To Respect' Program, Karin S. Frey, Miriam K. Hirschstein, Jennie L. Snell, Leihua Van Schoiack Edstrom, Elizabeth P. Mackenzie, Carole J. Broderick

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Six schools were randomly assigned to a multilevel bullying intervention or a control condition. Children in Grades 3–6 (N = 1,023) completed pre- and posttest surveys of behaviors and beliefs and were rated by teachers. Observers coded playground behavior of a random subsample (n = 544). Hierarchical analyses of changes in playground behavior revealed declines in bullying and argumentative behavior among intervention-group children relative to control-group children, increases in agreeable interactions, and a trend toward reduced destructive bystander behavior. Those in the intervention group reported enhanced bystander responsibility, greater perceived adult responsiveness, and less acceptance of bullying/aggression than those in …

Book Review: Predators, Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders By Anna Salter, Wendy A. Walsh

Sociology

No abstract provided.

Suicide Attempt And Characteristics Of Religiously Affiliated Puerto Rican Adolescents And Young Adults, Saúl Rivera

Dissertations

Problem. Recent research has identified several risk factors associated with attempted suicide among the general population. Puerto Ricans, in general, and Puerto Rican Seventh-day Adventists (SDAs), in particular, may face unique challenges that are related to their familial, social, and religious environment that may affect the suicidal attempts among this group. Therefore, this study examined family-related factors, history of being abused, religiosity factors, sexuality factors, gender, substance abuse, age, and socioeconomic status factors among a sample of religiously affiliated Puerto Ricans (73.2% SDAs) living on the island.

Methodology. The data for the study came from the Avance PR study. Avance …

Objects, Meanings, And Connections In My Life And Career, David E. Leary

Psychology Faculty Publications

On the wall of my home-office in Richmond, Virginia, are pictures of St. Francis of Assisi, William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and William James. This may seem an odd collection to others. To me, it seems natural and right. Though I didn't plan the collection - each picture having gone up at a separate time - I see now that these four objects represent central meanings and connections in my life. Apparently even a relatively reflective academic can be too busy living his life to spend much time ruminating on the relations that hold it together. Yet I find …

An Exploratory Study Of Arts Participation And Wellbeing In Regioinal Western Australia: A Quantitative Study Of Denmark In The Great Southern Region, Julia Anwar

Theses : Honours

This thesis explores the belief that engaging in the arts has a positive influence on wellbeing, not just for individuals considered disadvantaged or "at-risk", but also for the wellbeing of society and communities. An attempt was also made to determine how the benefits of participation in the arts compares to the possible benefits derived from other forms of community participation. An examination into the current literature on arts participation and its links with wellbeing, as well as social impact research was combined with a quantitative survey derived and adapted from wellbeing indicators. The survey was conducted via telephone interviews with …

Relationship Between Executive Functioning And Parental Demographics In Autistic Probands, Philip Menard

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Caregiver Interventions For Behavioral Symptoms In Alzheimer's And Dementia Patients, Heather M. Lindner

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

As people are living longer, the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia is rising dramatically. While preventative and treatment methods are being developed for these complicated disorders, attention also has been directed towards caregivers, because they play a vital role in the way the patients’ symptoms are handled and how well the patients adjust overall. Caregivers are almost always family members who lack formal training in caring for dementia patients. The purpose of this research was to see whether caregivers who follow interventions suggested in the literature experience fewer or less intense behavioral problems on the part …