Psychology Commons^™

The Impact Of Commitment, Accountability, And Written Goals On Goal Achievement, Gail Matthews

Psychology | Faculty Presentations

Perhaps you have heard of the Yale (or Harvard Business School) study of goals in which only 3% of the graduating class had specific written goals for their futures. Twenty years later that 3% was found to be earning an astounding 10 times that of the group that had no clear goals. Well, it turns out that this “study” is merely an “urban myth,” as extensive reviews of the research literature by me and by Steven Kraus (a social psychologist from Harvard) as well as investigative reporting by Fast Company magazine revealed that no such study had ever been done! …

Abuse And Dissociation Disorder, Myrtle Godfrey

Graduate Research Papers

Child sexual abuse is widely regarded as a cause of mental problems in adult life. The damage inflicted by child sexual abuse.has an affect on the child's capacity to develop trust, intimacy and sexuality. Sexually abused children not only encounter assaults on their developing sense of sexual identity, but a blow to their interpretation of the world as a safe environment, and their developing sense of others as trustworthy. In addition, childhood sexual abuse is correlated with higher levels of dissociation. (Fleming, J. & Mullen, P. E., 1998). Of the victims that were abused by someone with whom he or …

Introversion : Relationship With Mental Well-Being, Elizabeth A. Balder

Graduate Research Papers

This paper explores connections between introversion and decreased mental well-being. The author sought to discover whether introverts are more vulnerable to depressive symptoms than extroverts. Overall findings show introverts are more vulnerable than extroverts to depression and decreased mental well-being. Introverts are more likely to be compliant and have lower self-esteem than extroverts, and also have less social support than extroverts, which can be detrimental when experiencing depression. Western culture gives preference to extroverted individuals, which pressures introverts to attempt to change their personalities.

The Life And Times Of Young People On Remand: Recommendations For Future Policy In Ireland, Sinead Freeman

Conference papers

The remand population of children and young people continues to rise in Ireland. Despite this growth, little is known about their experiences on remand. This paper focuses on such experiences from the perspective of the young prisoners. It is based on 62 semi-structured interviews conducted with young males and females aged 16 to 21 years on remand in St. Patrick’s Institution, Cloverhill Remand Prison and the Dόchas Centre, Mountjoy Prison. The paper highlights how young people who have yet to be found guilty are frequently detained for long periods in prison and are exposed to punitive conditions. The findings have …

The Case Against Dog Breed Discrimination By Homeowners’ Insurance Companies, Larry Cunningham

State of the Animals 2007

Breed discrimination by insurance companies is on the rise in the United States. Insurers are refusing to write homeowners’ policies for people who own breeds that the insurance industry considers to be dangerous. Their decisions are based solely on the breed of the animal, not the individual characteristics of the particular dog. Dog bites are certainly a public health concern. However, the insurance industry’s approach to the problem is based on faulty assumptions and improper use of dog-bite statistics. The insurance industry has prejudged entire breeds of dogs as being “too risky,” instead of taking a more reasonable dog-by-dog approach …

How Animals Communicate Quality Of Life: The Qualitative Assessment Of Behaviour, F. Wemelsfelder

Sentience Collection

The notion ‘quality of life’ (QoL) suggests that welfare in animals encompasses more than just an absence of suffering; it concerns the quality of an animal’s entire relationship with its environment, of how it lives its life. Judgements of such quality are based on the integration of perceived details of how animals behave over time in different contexts. The scientific status of such judgements has long been ambiguous, but in recent decades has begun to be addressed by animal scientists. This paper starts with a brief review of qualitative approaches to the study of animal behaviour, which tend to address …

Grey Parrots Do Not Always ‘Parrot’: The Roles Of Imitation And Phonological Awareness In The Creation Of New Labels From Existing Vocalizations, Irene M. Pepperberg

Sentience Collection

Evidence exists for a form of imitation, vocal segmentation, by a Grey parrot. Data show that the bird understands that his labels are comprised of individual units that can be recombined in novel ways to create a novel referential vocalization; that is, a novel act. Previous data suggested, but could not substantiate, this behaviour. Such evidence implies that a parrot not only has phonological awareness but also demonstrates true imitation rather than mimicry, and has implications for the studies of both the evolution of communicative competence and the development of robotic speech.

Naturalizing Anthropomorphism: Behavioral Prompts To Our Humanizing Of Animals, Alexandra C. Horowitz, Marc Bekoff

Human and Animal Bonding Collection

Anthropomorphism is the use of human characteristics to describe or explain nonhuman animals. In the present paper, we propose a model for a unified study of such anthropomorphizing. We bring together previously disparate accounts of why and how we anthropomorphize and suggest a means to analyze anthropomorphizing behavior itself. We introduce an analysis of bouts of dyadic play between humans and a heavily anthropomorphized animal, the domestic dog. Four distinct patterns of social interaction recur in successful dog–human play: directed responses by one player to the other, indications of intent, mutual behaviors, and contingent activity. These findings serve as a …

Aquatic Animals, Cognitive Ethology, And Ethics: Questions About Sentience And Other Troubling Issues That Lurk In Turbid Water, Marc Bekoff

Sentience Collection

In this general, strongly pro-animal, and somewhat utopian and personal essay, I argue that we owe aquatic animals respect and moral consideration just as we owe respect and moral consideration to all other animal beings, regardless of the taxonomic group to which they belong. In many ways it is more difficult to convince some people of our ethical obligations to numerous aquatic animals because we do not identify or empathize with them as we do with animals with whom we are more familiar or to whom we are more closely related, including those species (usually terrestrial) to whom we refer …

Critter Psychology: On The Possibility Of Nonhuman Animal Folk Psychology, Kristin Andrews

Psychology Collection

No abstract provided.

Student Research In Psychology Courses, Jason A. Williams

Psychology and Child Development

No abstract provided.

Environmental Intervention Handbook For Resource Managers: A Tool For Proenvironmental Behavior Change, Shawn M. Burn, Patricia L. Winter

Psychology and Child Development

No abstract provided.

High Stakes Testing Effects Dropout Rates, Ann Dodd

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Since the inception of No Child Left Behind, it has been argued that high stakes testing leads to a higher dropout rate. High stakes testing can cause anxiety, stress and fear in students when the results determine whether or not they are able to be promoted to the next grade or to graduate from high school. The dropout rates for the two years before and the three years after the high stake test (WESTEST) was implemented in West Virginia were examined to establish if there had been any effect on these rates. Results indicate no significant difference in dropout rates …

Editors’ Introduction, Harris Friedman, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

Does The Concept Of “Altered States Of Consciousness” Rest On A Mistake?, Adam J. Rock, Stanley Krippner

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Block (2002) has argued that the multiplicity of meanings ascribed to consciousness is due

to the erroneous treatment of very different concepts as a single concept. Block distinguished

four notions of consciousness intended to encapsulate the various meanings attributed to

the term: phenomenal, access, self, and monitoring consciousness. We argue that what is

common to all of these definitions is the implicit distinction between consciousness and the

content of consciousness. We critically examine the term “altered state of consciousness”

and argue that affixing the qualifier “altered state” to consciousness results in a theoretical

confusion of consciousness and its content, that …

The Challenges, Prospects, And Promise Of Transpersonal Psychology, Paul F. Cunningham

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Several substantial critiques remain a source of fractionalizing debate within transpersonal

psychology, including the weakness of its definition, whether it is redundant with Wilber’s

integral psychology, whether it is a scientific field, whether it is too metaphysical, whether it

neglects the problem of evil, and what contribution can it make to mainstream psychology.

This article explicates these and related areas of critique and provides a response that identifies

the essential challenges and future prospects of transpersonal psychology. The article also

emphasizes the field’s unique role as a potential bridge connecting psychological science with

the transpersonal psyche in a way that …

Applying Quantitative Research Methods In Transpersonal Psychology: Introduction To Special Topic Section, Harris L. Friedman, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

Mindfulness In Measurement: Reconsidering The Measurable In Mindfulness Practice, Sharon G. Solloway, William P. Fisher Jr.

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Can an organic partnership of qualitative and quantitative data confirm the value of mindfulness practice as an assignment in undergraduate education? Working from qualitative evidence suggesting the existence of potentially measurable mindfulness effects expressed in ruler measures, a previous study calibrated a mathematically invariant scale of mindfulness practice effects with substantively and statistically significant differences in the measures before and after the assignment. Current efforts replicated these results. The quantitative model is described in measurement terms defined at an introductory level. Detailed figures and appendices are provided, and a program of future research is proposed.

A Third Model Of Self-Construal: The Metapersonal Self, Teresa L. Decicco, Mirella L. Stroink

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This research adds a third model and measure of self-construal to the current psychological literature: the metapersonal self-construal. This model extends previous theory and research, which has established two self-construal orientations to date: the independent and interdependent self-construal. The research presents a series of studies investigating the theoretical and psychometric properties of the third model and measure. Study 1 produced a valid and reliable 10-item self-report scale of the metapersonal self. Study 2 determined the scale to be low in social desirability bias. Studies 3 and 4 examined the convergent and discriminant validity of the three self-construal scales. Investigations among …

Book Review: The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, By Michael A. Singer, Gene Thursby

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

Role Of Trauma In Social-Cognitive Adjustment Strategies And Moral Disengagement Among African-American Urban Youth, Kendell Lamonte Coker

Theses and Dissertations

The role of trauma has been implicated in the etiology of juvenile delinquency (Esbensen & Huizinga, 1991; Dulmus, 2003). This is especially pronounced among inner city minority youth. Traumatic experiences can hinder an adolescent's social-cognitive development, prevent the use of adequate coping mechanisms and cognitive processes, such as social problem solving, and lead youth to disengage their moral controls (Ng-Mak, Salzinger, Feldman, & Stueve, 2002). The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of trauma and adjustment strategies among African American urban youth and how moral disengagement can be averted via mediation by the use of social problem …

Reports Of Transpersonal Experiences By Non-Native Practitioners Of The Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony: A Critical Appraisal, Whit Hibbard

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Interviews with 30 experienced non-native practitioners of the Native American sweat lodge

ceremony revealed 184 reports of transpersonal experiences. Interview questions sought to (a)

disclose how practitioners discern or critique their own experiences, (b) consider alternative

explanations for practitioners’ experiences, and (c) critically reflect on the sweat lodge

ceremony per se as a spiritual practice. It was found that practitioners generally (a) interpreted

their experiences as trustworthy interactions with a spiritual reality, (b) did not seriously

consider alternative explanations for their experiences, and (c) neglected to reflect critically

on the sweat lodge ceremony per se as a spiritual practice.

Hiv Dna And Dementia In Treatment-Naïve Hiv-1-Infected Individuals In Bangkok, Thailand, Robert Paul, Bruce Shiramizu, Silvia Ratto-Kim, Pasiri Sithinamsuwan, Samart Nidhinandana, Sataporn Thitivichianlert, George Watt, Mark Desouza, Thippawan Chuenchitra, Suchitra Sukwit, Suwicha Chitpatima, Kevin Robertson, Cecilia Shikuma, Victor Valcour

Psychology Faculty Works

High HIV-1 DNA (HIV DNA) levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) correlate with HIV-1-associated dementia (HAD) in patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). If this relationship also exists among HAART-naïve patients, then HIV DNA may be implicated in the pathogenesis of HAD. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between HIV DNA and cognition in subjects naïve to HAART in a neuro AIDS cohort in Bangkok, Thailand. Subjects with and without HAD were recruited and matched for age, gender, education, and CD4 cell count. PBMC and cellular subsets were analyzed for HIV DNA using real-time PCR. The median …

Book Review The Fall: Evidence For A Golden Age, 6,000 Years Of Insanity And The Dawning Of A New Era, By Steve Taylor, Elias Capriles

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

The Influence Of Gender And Facial Appearance On Voting Practices, Kelsey O'Brien, Amy Reynolds

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

Women’s faces tend to naturally retain more neonate features than men. These features, such as a greater eye height, a smaller nose area, and a wider smile, would cause women to have more immature faces than males. Interestingly, women who have these facial features are often perceived as more attractive than women with mature facial features. These findings imply that women would be judged less competent than men, and that immature-faced women would be perceived as less competent and more attractive than mature-faced females. Given the direction of political leadership in our country, this has interesting implications for females that …

A Meeting Of East And West: Can Eastern-Influenced Therapies Be Effective In The Treatment Of Stress And Mood Disorders?, Paula Pelavin

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

Given that the human brain is plastic and that structural alterations have been seen in monks who meditate on a regular basis, the question arises of whether these two facts are actually related. Furthermore, if this is in fact the case, would it be possible to apply these findings to the public? In this paper I will present the different conditions that induce neuroplasticity as well as give an overview of meditation and the ways that it is practiced nowadays. To this end I will argue that if monks are able to alter the structure of their brains and the …

Crf–Crf1 System Activation Mediates Withdrawal-Induced Increases In Nicotine Self-Administration In Nicotine-Dependent Rats., Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Prologue, Michiko Nohara-Leclair

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Prologue.

The Effects Of Relatedness And Order Of Anagrams On The Ability To Recall, Dana Castrellon, Mai Ozaki, Sarah Staley

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

This paper discusses the effects of the relatedness and order in which words are presented on a person’s ability to solve anagrams. One of the hypotheses was that it would be easier to recall anagrams if they were related and presented in the same order as the study sheet. The other was that a person would more easily recall words if they are related rather than unrelated. Forty-eight participants were recruited and asked to complete two of four anagrams tests. The results of a one-way MANOVA examining the effect of consistency of item order did not reveal statistically significant results. …

Influences On Spelling Ability: Written Vs. Oral Performance, Jake Jadwin, Sara Robards

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

The purpose of this study was to determine if spelling ability was affected by speaking or writing the spellings of the words. We further tested to see if vocabulary ability had any effect on spelling ability as well. Participants spelled two lists of ten words one list, was orally spelled and one list was written spelling. Upon completion of the spelling tasks, participants were asked to complete a vocabulary task. Participants’ results were analyzed and conclusions were drawn based on written and oral performance and vocabulary ability. Our research revealed that participants spelled more accurately when writing the spellings versus …