Psychology Commons^™

Wonderwise 4-H: Following In The Footsteps Of Women Scientists, Amy N. Spiegel, S. Kay Rockwell, Deanna Acklie, Saundra Wever Frerichs, Kathleen French, Judy Diamond

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Wonderwise 4-H: Women in Science Learning Kits, recently included in the National 4-H Curriculum Collection and widely tested by 4-H leaders, have positively affected youths’ perspectives on science, scientists, and scientific work. Adult leaders who used the multimedia, inquiry-based Wonderwise 4-H kits completed a Web survey describing the impact of the kits on youth. It indicated that the kits increased youth’s interest and understanding of science, broadened their view of scientists, and opened their eyes to the possibility of science in their own futures. More information about Wonderwise 4-H and downloadable activities are available at wonderwise.unl.edu.

The Relationship Between Body Image And Weight Maintenance In Community Women Enrolled In Weight-Loss Programs, Amy S. Collings

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Research suggests that poor body image, low self-esteem, and depression may be associated with failure to maintain weight loss (Lean, 2000). However, definitive results are lacking, necessitating further research. Both successful and unsuccessful weight maintainers (N = 148) were recruited from weight-loss programs. Self-report measures on dimensions of body image, depression, and self-esteem were administered at baseline and a three-month follow-up. Results suggest that those with early-onset obesity have more body image dissatisfaction than those with late-onset obesity, which appears to be due to BMI differences between groups with the former having a higher BMI than the later. Other results …

Psychologie Jenseits Postmoderner Kritik, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

Postmodernes Denken formuliert wichtige Einwände gegenüber Vorstellungen von individuellem Wissen, Objektivität und Wahrheit. Statt ihrer wird die gemeinschaftliche (communal) Konstruktion von Wissen betont, liegt der Schwerpunkt auf Objektivität als einer intersubjektiven (relational) Errungenschaft und auf Sprache als einem pragmatischen Medium, das lokale Wahrheiten hervorbringt. Diese Entwicklungen bedeuten nicht notwendigerweise das Ende wissenschaftlicher Psychologie. Vielmehr laden sie dazu ein, eine Reihe neuer Fragen in Hinblick auf die Möglichkeiten traditioneller Forschung und ihrer Bedeutung im kulturellen Leben zu stellen. Wichtiger noch: Eine solche Kritik eröffnet neuartige, theoretisch, methodologisch und praktisch bedeutsame Perspektiven. Anzeichen einer solchen Ausrichtung häufen sich, was zeigt, dass grundlegende …

The Sources Of Higher States Of Consciousness, Steve Taylor

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

In this paper, it is argued that “higher states of consciousness”–or mystical experiences–have two

main sources: they can be caused by a disruption of the normal homeostasis of the human organism

and also by an intensification of the “consciousness-energy” that constitutes our being.

(These are termed HD and ICE states). The author investigates examples of both types of experience,

and compares and contrasts them. It is concluded that the second type of experience is

the only one which is truly positive and which can become a fully integrated and permanent

higher state of consciousness.

Why Does The Universe Exist? An Advaita Vedantic Perspective, Adam J. Rock

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Debates concerning causal explanations of the universe tend to be based on a priori propositions (e.g., Edwards, 1973; Smith, 1995; Swinburne, 1978). The present paper, however, addresses the metaphysical question, “Why does the universe exist?” from the perspective of a school of Hindu philosophy referred to as advaita vedanta and two of its a posteriori derived creation theories: the theory of simultaneous creation (drishti-srishti vada) and the theory of non-causality (ajata vada). Objections to advaita vedanta are also discussed. It is concluded that advaita vedanta has the potential to make a significant contribution to contemporary metaphysical debate in general and …

Russian Soul: A Report From The European Transpersonal Association 2005 Conference In Moscow, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Criminal Prosecution And Civil Remedies For Victims Of Sexual Offenses: Amendment Of The Rape Shield Law, Carol E. Jordan, Elizabeth S. Hughes, Mary Jo Gleason

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

In 2003, the Kentucky Supreme Court adopted the amended KRS 412, effectively making the language of KRE 412 consistent with the analogous Federal Rule of Evidence 412. Now, as in federal court, the provisions of the Rape Shield Law apply in both criminal and civil cases to govern when and how evidence of a victim's alleged sexual behavior or sexual predisposition may be introduced. The article describes the intent of the original Rape Shield Law and the implications of its amended version in both civil and criminal cases.

Identity As A Source Of Moral Motivation, Sam A. Hardy, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Theory and research regarding moral motivation has focused for decades on the roles of moral reasoning and, to some extent, moral emotion. Recently, however, several models of morality have positioned identity as an additional important source of moral motivation. An individual has a moral identity to the extent that he or she has constructed his or her sense of self around moral concerns (e.g., moral values). This paper reviews theory and research linking moral identity to moral behavior and commitment. Additionally, it suggests several key unanswered questions about moral identity and provides recommendations for future research.

Effects Of Spaced Retrieval On Memory And Quality Of Life In Older Adults With Probable Alzheimer's Disease, Karri S. Hawley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study was designed to explore the effects of spaced-retrieval training on memory and quality of life in older adults with probable Alzheimer’s disease. A total nineteen older adults with probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD) participated in these experiments. Experiment one was designed to determine whether the spacing effect is contributing to the success of the spaced-retrieval intervention. Participants were trained to recall a name-face association using either the adjusted spaced-retrieval method or a fixed interval retrieval method. The results showed a more consistent performance profile for the spaced retrieval group in comparison to the fixed interval group, providing evidence that …

Book Review: Buller Does To Evolutionary Psychology What Kitcher Did To Sociobiology, Harmon R. Holcomb Iii

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Examination Of The Impact Of Acculturation, Stress, And Religiosity On Mental Health Variables For Second-Generation Arab Americans, Mona M. Amer, Joseph D. Hovey

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Integration Of Spiritual And Religious Issues In Racial-Cultural Psychology And Counseling., Timothy B. Smith, P Scott Richards

Faculty Publications

A new movement has begun. Spirituality and religion are being integrated into racial-cultural psychology and counseling. This chapter will review the literature that is the basis of that movement. We first describe the historical forces alluded to by Trimble (2000) that until only recently have minimized the relevance of religion and spirituality to psychological research and practice. We then summarize the potential benefits and concerns about incorporating spiritual and religious perspectives into research and practice that have been suggested in publications of the past 30 years. To demonstrate that religion and spirituality are central to racial-cultural psychology and counseling, literature …

Deference, Denial, And Exclusion: Men Talk About Contraception And Unintended Pregnancy, Scott D. Johnson, Lindy B. Williams

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 men, ages 21-48, who have fathered at least one unintended pregnancy. The goal of the interviews was to explore the experiences of these men with unintended pregnancy, their communication with partners and others, contraceptive beliefs and practices, their relationships with their partners, and the outcomes and consequences of the unintended pregnancies. This essay describes results derived from their comments regarding their contraceptive practices and the pregnancy-outcome decisions, with thematic analysis used to identify prominent themes from participant comments. Two strong themes, "deference" and "denial," and one lesser theme, "exclusion," emerged from participant responses. …

Social Fields, Belief In Psi, And Their Effects On Mental Telepathy, Brandy Mcwhorter

Masters Theses

The current study was designed to explore two major issues involving the existence of mental telepathy. The first goal was the exploration of the relationship between psi ability, specifically mental telepathy, and belief in psi phenomena. In addition, the value of social field theory as an explanation and potential facilitator of telepathic communication was explored. A small group of research assistants attempted to telepathically send 1 of 4 target locations to large groups of participants acting as receivers. The receivers answered a question on a 7-point-scale indicating their level of belief in mental telepathy. Two separate runs of 16 trials …

Religiosity, Role Theory, And Self-Esteem, Melissa R. Mccarthy

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between religion, religiosity, archetypal roles and self-esteem. The sample consisted of 61 students at a Midwestern university. The participants completed a series of surveys including two measures of religiosity, a self-esteem measure, and a Female Archetype Scale. The findings indicated that religions differ on levels of religiosity and female archetypes. In addition, there were correlations between religiosity and archetype, and self-esteem and religiosity. The significant correlations for the feminine archetypes were that were that Sekhmet was positively correlated with intrinsic religiosity, and negatively correlated with extrinsic religiosity and Connectedness; Demeter …

Cover, Copy And Compare Method Versus Copy, Cover, And Compare Method For Teaching Mathematics: A Comparative Analysis, Joel Grafman

Masters Theses

This study compared the fluency and accuracy rates produced when using the Cover, Copy, and Compare and Copy, Cover, and Compare interventions to complete subtraction math problems. Two second grade classrooms consisting of 20 or more students participated in the study. Participants were administered a pretest, Cover, Copy, and Compare worksheet, Copy, Cover, and Compare worksheet, and a posttest. Results revealed significantly higher digits correct per second (i.e. fluency) scores on the posttest and Cover, Copy, and Compare worksheets when compared to the pretest and Copy, Cover, and Compare worksheets with no difference in the errors per second (i.e. accuracy) …

Comparison Of The Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-Second Edition And The Wechsler Intelligence Scale For Children-Fourth Edition, Ryan L. Mitchell

Masters Theses

Past research on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT; Kaufman & Kaufman, 1990) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III; Wechsler, 1991) have shown good reliability and validity between the scales. However, recently, the KBIT-2 and the WISC-IV have been published. The purpose of the current study was to independently evaluate the construct validity of the KBIT-2 with the WISC-IV. The participants in this study consisted of 48 students enrolled in kindergarten through ninth grade from school districts in central Illinois, who were referred for initial or triennial multidisciplinary evaluation. The results were as hypothesized, with high statistically …

Burnout And Job Dissatisfaction Among Practicing Illinois School Psychologists: A 1994 To 2004 Comparison, Nikolaus J. Hoffman

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to identify the primary variables associated with burnout among practicing Illinois school psychologists. More specifically, the purpose was to determine if the same variables that correlated highly with Illinois school psychologists burnout levels in a 1994 study by Niebrugge have held constant over the last decade. Survey materials used in the 1994 study, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory, a School Psychologists Stress Inventory, and a specially designed job satisfaction questionnaire were completed by a random sample of members of the Illinois School Psychologists Association (N = 52). As in the 1994 study, results suggested …

The Effects Of Perceived Authority On Suggestibility In Interrogation-Like Situations: A Pilot Study, Renae Kotas, Derek Dehne

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

The effect of perceived authority on suggestibility was assessed. Two groups of participants were used, one receiving perceived authority and one receiving none. A military student dressed in fatigues administered the procedure to the first group and a civilian student in street clothes administered to the second. The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale was used to assess the suggestibility of each group. No significant difference between the groups was found.

Do Faultlines Hurt Or Help? Exploring Distance, Identity, Task Conflict, And Individual Performance In Diverse Groups, Katerina Bezrukova, Karen A. Jehn, Elaine Zanutto, Sherry M.B. Thatcher

Psychology

We introduce the concept of faultline distance that reflects the extent to which subgroups formed by faultlines diverge as a result of accumulated differences across them (e.g., two members of age 20 are closer in age to two members of an opposing faultline of age 25 than of two members of age 50). We further extend faultline theory by showing how different faultline bases (information-based and social category faultlines) have differential effects on outcomes. Using a sample of 76 workgroups from a Fortune 500 information processing company, we examine the relationships between group faultlines, shared identity, work-related conflict, and multiple …

A Psychologist's Perspective On Capital Juries, Steven J. Sherman

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Toward A Model Death Penalty Code: The Massachusetts Governor's Council Report.

A Context-Dependent Model Of Proximity In Physically Situated Environments, John D. Kelleher, Geert-Jan M. Kruijff

Conference papers

The paper presents a computational model for a context-dependent analysis of a physical environment in terms of spatial proximity. The model provides a basis for grounding linguistic analyses of spatial expressions in visual perception. The model uses potential fields to model spatial proximity. It has been implemented, and when combined with a handcrafted grammar, is used to enable a conversational robot to carry out a situated dialogue with a human. The key concept in our approach is defining the region that is proximal to a landmark based on the spatial configuration of other objects in the scene. The model extends …

An Examination Of The Effect Of Organisational Culture Of The Implementation Of Public-Private Partnership (Ppp) In Ireland, Louis Gunnigan, David Eaton

Conference papers

This paper is concerned with identifying the organisational issues causing difficulty in the use of PPP and assessing the impact of PPP implementation on the organisational culture in the Irish public and private sectors. The authors address this issue by mapping the PPP process for one project type and comparing this process with that carried out in traditional procurement. Process differences through use of PPP are identified and organisational issues that have potential to impact on PPP success are assessed. Whilst the study undertaken is not extensive, it provides insight for initiators of PPP projects into the organisational issues that …

The Benefits Of Bibliotherapy: Textsets And Accompanying Guides For Students And Teachers, Angela Lee Maurina

All Graduate Projects

In this project, bibliotherapy (the use of literature in helping children cope with emotional problems or change) was investigated. Its history, with a specific focus on past and current uses in professional clinical and educational practice, was researched and outlined. In addition, a review of the psychological social and emotional needs and development of fourth through eighth graders ( early adolescence) was conducted. A summative argument supporting the use of bibliotherapy as a tool to meet the specific needs of early adolescents in the classroom setting was put forward. Limitations were noted. Upon completion of the research, an implementation guide …

Supporting The Successful Transition Of Youth With Disabilities Between Secondary School And Postsecondary School, Megan A. Conway, Kelly B.T. Chang

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

No abstract provided.

Varied Initial Requests And Their Effectiveness Using The Door-In-The-Face Technique, Darin Challacombe

Psychology Faculty Publications

Predictability of compliance using a varied initial request with the door-in-the-face technique is examined. It is hypothesized that a larger initial request will produce less compliance than a smaller initial request respective of the desired request. The experimenter approached students at Fort Hays State University and presented them with a request pattern: a door-in-the-face style request asking participants to volunteer for community service with the size of the initial request being the variable of interest. The results show that although there was a significant result of overall compliance, the variable of size for an initial request showed no significance.

Parent-Teacher Collaboration For Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role Of Teacher Training, Amber Hays '05

Honors Projects

Over twenty years of research has demonstrated that collaborative relationships between parents and teachers are invaluable in enhancing the educational success of all students and are especially meaningful when students have ASD (e.g., Ruble & Dalrymple, 2002). However, collaborative relationships are often difficult to develop because many educators remain uninformed about ASD (Helps, Newsom-Davis, & Callias, 1999) and untrained in working with parents (Lazar & Slostad, 1999). The present study evaluated the ability of an intervention to (a) encourage more positive attitudes toward parent-teacher collaboration, (b) increase general knowledge about ASD, and (c) boost comfort, competence, and confidence levels with …

Ethanol Effects On Reward Value Judgment Following Infusions Into The Amygdala: Implications For Emotional Processing, Stephanie M. Brewer '05

Honors Projects

Alcohol, when delivered systemically, leads to impaired performance on a variety of tasks, including emotionally-laden or reward value tasks. It is also known that lesions to the amygdala produce emotional or reward value deficits. However, it is unknown whether the emotional deficits observed after alcohol ingestion are due to alcohol's direct effect on the amygdala. The present study examined the effects of alcohol when infused directly into the amygdala on emotional memory and judgment. Eight male Long-Evans rats were trained on a behavioral task to associate one sweetness level with a reward and another sweetness level with no reward. Once …

Concepts Of Addiction: Assessing The Beliefs Of Addiction In University And Treatment Center Populations, Krystle M. Balhan '05

Honors Projects

This study sought to identify differences in the beliefs about addiction between a sample of university students (N=81) and a sample of clients diagnosed with substance abuse or dependence from a drug/alcohol treatment center (N=14). It was hypothesized that treatment center clients would present beliefs that correspond to the disease concept of addiction (Jellinek 1960), while members of the university sample would express more personal or environmental attitudes towards addiction. To assess these potential differences, a survey questionnaire based on the Addiction Belief Inventory (ABI) was administered to both samples (Luke, Ribisl, Walton, and Davidson, 2002). Results of t-tests showed …

An Investigation Of The Influence Of Hope On The Relationship Between Racial Discrimination And Depressive Symptoms Among African American College Students, Jennifer L. Vanderzee '05

Honors Projects

The relationship between perceived racial discrimination, hope, and depressive symptoms among African American college students was investigated. The first supported hypotheses were that racial discrimination, hope, and hope's two components, agency and pathways, would each significantly affect depressive symptoms. Hope and pathways, but not agency, were each found to moderate the relationship between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms and the moderation models were found to explain as much or more variance the models examining direct effects. Also, the interaction of pathways and racial discrimination explained more variance than any of the other models. These results suggest that hope and pathways …