Psychology Commons^™

Septal Stimulation Inhibits Spinal Cord Dorsal Horn Neuronal Activity, Christopher E. Hagains

Psychology Theses - Archive

Deep Brain Stimulation is a useful technique for relieving chronic pain in patients that have exhausted their options. The septum has been a target for such treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine if electrical stimulation in the medial septum diagonal band of broca (MSDB) would reduce nociceptive neuronal activity in the spinal cord of rats. This interest was addressed using a Grass Stimulator to stimulate the MSDB on one side of the brain while recording mostly wide dynamic range neurons in the lumbar region of the spinal cord. Neuronal activity was initiated by graded mechanical stimulation of …

Performance Differences: A Comparison Between Computer-Based And Paper-Pencil Versions Of A Work Simulation Exercise, Cara L. Fay

Psychology Theses - Archive

Organizations use Assessment Center methods for selection and development of employees. Many organizations that offer assessment services have already made the transition from paper-pencil to computer-based assessments with little research available to justify the appropriateness of this transition. This study examined the differences in performance on four versions of the same work simulation exercise (i.e., in-basket). The content of the work simulation was not altered from one version to another. The study sought to determine if performance on a work simulation exercise changed due to the form in which it was administered. This was tested using four conditions: Paper-pencil, Computer-based, …

Risk Factors For Functional Restoration Non-Completion, Krista J. Howard

Psychology Theses - Archive

Previous studies have shown that the one-year outcomes after an interdisciplinary functional restoration program for patients with chronic disabling occupational disorders vary significantly between those who complete the program and those who prematurely drop-out. Non-completers are 9.7 times less likely to return-to-work at any time, and are 7 times less likely to retain work at one year, relative to those who complete the program. Non-completers are also 7 times more likely to have post-rehabilitation surgery to the original injured area, while also displaying higher levels of healthcare utilization. The present study focuses on identifying the risk factors for non-completion of …

The Effects Of Narcissistic Group Identity And Group-Level Provocation On U.S. Citizens' Attitudes And Behavior Toward Arab Immigrants, Patricia A. Lyons

Psychology Theses - Archive

A measure of Narcissistic Group Identity was developed and tested in a cross-sectional pilot study of 319 university students. Analyses revealed that Narcissistic Group Identity predicted more negative attitudes toward Arab immigrants, compared to Asian, Latino, and European immigrant target groups. A subsequent laboratory study explored the hypotheses that Narcissistic Group Identity would again predict negative attitudes and behavior toward an Arab immigrant target group, and that a group-level provocation would exacerbate the effect. As expected, Narcissistic Group Identity predicted more negative attitudes and higher aggression toward an Arab target group, but did not predict attitudes or behavior toward Latino …

The Evolution Of Problem Solving: An Assessment Of Preference In Concurrent Schedules Of Reinforcement, Melissa Roark

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

In personal problem-solving, an organism emits responses that have been useful in the past to alter its personal contingencies and produce a response that "solves" a problem. In verbal behavior, a human organism emits responses that have previously been useful to alter the contingencies of another human, this producing a response that "solves a problem". Additionally, in verbal behavior, an organism is controlled by its current contingencies rather than its history of reinforcement. It is suggested that personal problem-solving resembles a tandem schedule of reinforcement and that verbal behavior, which has evolved in humans, resembles multiple schedule reinforcement. This study …

Overcoming Fatigue, Randy Borum

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Valuing Diversity And Implicit Racial Bias: A Construct Validation Study, Rebekka Althouse Gordon

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Two studies examined the construct validity of valuing diversity in relation to both explicit and implicit racial bias. In the first study, participants completed three measures: the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale to measure valuing diversity; the Implicit Association Test to assess implicit racial bias; and the Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale to assess explicit racial bias. Results indicated there was a significant relationship between the valuing diversity and implicit racial bias measures as well as between the valuing diversity and explicit racial bias measures. The explicit and implicit racial bias measures accounted for unique variance in the valuing diversity construct. There was …

Gender Differences In The Romantic Commitment Of Swingers: A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis, Rachel A. Vedder

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This research examined whether gender differences in romantic commitment among a swing population are mediated by sexual permissiveness. This study also served as an update to past literature and further exploration into swing culture by using qualitative data„such as examining reasons for entering and leaving swinging, level of involvement in the lifestyle, and safe sex practices. Researchers have found significant correlations between gender and commitment (Cupach & Meets, 1995; Duffy & Rusbult,1985-1986), gender and sexual permissiveness (Hong,1991; LaBeff & Dodder, 1982; Oliver & Hyde, 1993), and sexual permissiveness and commitment (Oliver & Sedikides, 1992; Yela, 2000). However, the role that …

When Rejection By One Fosters Aggression Against Many: Multiple-Victim Aggression As A Consequence Of Social Rejection And Perceived Groupness, Lowell Gaertner, Jonatham Iuzzini, Erin M. O'Mara

Psychology Faculty Publications

Two experiments examined the hypothesis that social rejection and perceived groupness function together to produce multiple-victim incidents of aggression. When a rejecter’s group membership is salient during an act of rejection, the rejectee ostensibly associates the rejecter’s group with rejection and retaliates against the group. Both experiments manipulated whether an aggregate of three persons appeared as separate individuals or members of an entity-like group and whether one of those persons rejected the participant. Consistent with the hypothesis, participants who experienced both rejection and perceived groupness behaved more aggressively against the aggregate (Experiment 1) and evidenced less favorable affective associations toward …

Partners In Play: How Children Organise Their Participation In Sociodramatic Play, Carmel Brennan

Doctoral

In Ireland, early childhood learning and the role of play in children’s lives is receiving unprecedented recognition in national policy documents (Ireland, 1999c, 1999a, 1999b, 2000, 2004, N.C.C.A., 2004, C.E.C.D.E., 2006b). This thesis links learning and play and proposes to contribute to our understanding of both. The purpose of the research is to explicate the significant processes and outcomes of children’s participation in sociodramatic play. It takes a qualitative, ethnographic, interpretive approach which follows logically from the aim and the sociocultural discourse of learning constructed. This sociocultural discourse frames the observation and analysis of sociodramatic play in the study. Three …

Heuristics, Biases, And Philosophy, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Commenting on Professor Cass Sunstein's work is a daunting task. There is simply so much of it. Professor Sunstein produces scholarship at a rate that is faster than I can consume it. Scarcely an area of law has failed to feel his impact. One cannot today write an article on administrative law, free speech, punitive damages, Internet law, law and economics, separation of powers, or animal rights law without addressing one or more of Sunstein's papers. And his work is typically not a mere footnote. Sunstein has changed how scholars think about each of these areas of law. More broadly, …

The Impact Of Collective Animosity And Collective Guilt On The Judgments Of And Preferences For Japanese Products, Amro Maher

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Collective animosity and its effects on consumers' perceptions of and preferences for foreign products from the perpetrators' country of origin has received considerable attention in the marketing literature (Ettenson and Klein 2005; Klein, Ettenson and Morris 1998; Klein 2002; Nijseen and Douglas 2005). Collective animosity however is only one possible emotion that might be experienced towards other groups (Smith 1993; Smith 1999; Mackie, Devos and Smith 2000). Collective guilt is one of these possible emotions that have received considerable attention in the social psychology literature. Collective guilt refers to the distress that one might feel due to moral transgressions performed …

Psychopathy And Adolescent Females: Does Gender Alter The Relation Between Childhood Trauma And Pcl:Yv Scores?, Trevor Barese

Psychology Theses

A growing rate of violence among adolescent females has led to an increased interest in gender differences associated with the assessment and development of psychopathy. This study utilized a sample of 100 youthful offenders, to examine the role of gender in the relation between various forms of childhood trauma and scores on the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV). Correlations were found between certain forms of childhood abuse and elevated PCL:YV scores. Furthermore, gender appeared to alter the predictive power of proposed developmental risk factors commonly associated with psychopathy. The findings indicate possible discrepancies in developmental risk factors between genders. Implications …

Prepartying Promotes Heightened Risk In The College Environment: An Event-Level Report, Joseph W. Labrie, Eric R. Pedersen

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Due to the emergence of research literature examining the prepartying behavior of college students, the present study examines students’ varying drinking rates, blood alcohol levels (BALs), and alcohol-related consequences during two drinking events – one involving prepartying and one devoid of prepartying. Two-hundred and thirty-eight student drinkers completed an online drinking assessment detailing their two most recent drinking occasions involving and not involving prepartying. Participants responded to a series of questions regarding quantities consumed on the drinking day and occurrence of alcohol-related consequences. While men did not differ in drinking or estimated BALs, between the two drinking days, female participants …

Extraordinary Exaltation, Donelson R. Forsyth

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The Internet, with its listservs, web pages, and video-conferencing, provides us the opportunity to join together in a virtual space, but despite technology’s charms there is still nothing like that quaint once-a-year gathering of psychologists known as the Annual Meeting. Leave it to Émile (Durkheim, that is, and a true lover of groups if there ever was one) to describe the importance of a face-to-face ritualized gathering of members, for when all “are once come together, a sort of electricity is formed by their collecting which quickly transports them to an extraordinary degree of exaltation” (1912/1965, p. 262). Durkheim was …

The Political Personality Of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Aubrey Immelman, Pascal De Sutter

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The study was conducted from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon’s model of personality.

Information concerning Sarkozy was collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles …

The Political Personality Of 2007 French Presidential Candidate Ségolène Royal, Aubrey Immelman, Pascal De Sutter

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Ségolène Royal, candidate of the Socialist Party in the 2007 French presidential election.

The study was conducted from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon’s model of personality. Information concerning Royal was collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided …

Predoctoral Interns' Nondisclosure In Supervision, Shirley A. Hess, Sarah Knox, Jill M. Schultz, Clara E. Hill, Lea Sloan, Susan Brandt, Frances Kelley, Mary Ann Hoffman

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

In interviews with 14 counseling center predoctoral interns regarding a significant nondisclosure in supervision, eight interns reported good supervisory relationships and six indicated that they experienced problematic supervisory relationships. Nondisclosures for the interns in good supervisory relationships related to personal reactions to clients, whereas nondisclosures for interns in problematic supervisory relationships related to global dissatisfaction with the supervisory relationship. In both groups, interns mentioned concerns about evaluation and negative feelings as typical reasons for nondisclosure. Additional reasons for nondisclosure for interns in problematic supervision were power dynamics, inhibiting demographic or cultural variables, and the supervisor's theoretical orientation. Both groups described …

The Line In The Sand: Understanding Customer Sexual Harassment Through A Psychological Contract Framework, Valerie J. Morganson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Research has demonstrated that customer sexual harassment (CSH) is a frequently occurring phenomenon and an apparent barrier to the career development of women (Gettman & Gelfand, 2007; Morganson & Major, 2008). The current study applies psychological contract theory toward understanding how CSH leads to adverse outcomes, which affect individuals and organizations. A sample of 420 working women including both students and full-time non-student workers from various organizations were recruited to participate in this online study. CSH and perceptions of employer obligation did not interact to predict psychological contract breach. As hypothesized, psychological contract breach and CSH interacted to predict affective …

The Relationships Among Religiosity Spirituality Sexual Attitudes Sexual Permissiveness And Sexual Behavior In A College Population, Brandi Colter

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This research examined the relationships among religiosity, spirituality, sexual attitudes, and the sexual behavior of college students. Research has shown correlations among religiosity, spirituality and sexual attitudes (e.g., Chilman, 1983; Werner-Wilson & Jay, 1998; Zelnik & Shah, 1981), religiosity, spirituality and sexual behavior (e.g. Scott, Munson, McMillen, & Ollie, 2006; Thornton & Cambum, 1989), and among sexual attitudes and sexual behavior (e.g. Buss & Barnes, 1986; Hendrick et al., 1985). However, the role that sexual attitudes may play as a mediator between the constructs ofreligiosity, spirituality, and sexual behaviors had yet to be examined. Fishbein and Ajzen's (1980) theory of …

Directed Forgetting Of Live Motion Events: An Investigation Of A New Stimulus Set, Shawn Dickerson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Instructions to forget presented information are often given and it is necessary to further understand how those involved can be affected by what is called "directed forgetting". The purpose of the current study was to investigate if a video stimuli would produce directed forgetting using the list method and a recognition style test. In addition, viewing live motion events has been suggested to be a more relevant modality to examine directed forgetting and thus another purpose of the current study was to utilize video stimuli to create a more valid assessment of this phenomenon. Participants (N=181) were selected through the …

The Effect Of Task Instructions And Working Memory On Syllogistic Reasoning Performance, Clinton S. Comer

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to test the predictions of existing theories of syllogistic reasoning performance as they relate to working memory. One-hundred and twenty undergraduate students from Old Dominion University completed a working memory span test and evaluated 92 conclusions for possible, multiple model syllogisms. Participants were randomly assigned to either a validity or possibility reasoning task. The mean syllogistic performance scores and mean reaction times were compared across the two groups. Working memory span scores were added as a covariate to determine if there were differences in working memory and performance correlations between the two groups. Analyses …

Preventing Weight Gain In First Year College Students: An Internet-Based Intervention, Rachel Gow

Theses and Dissertations

The transition to college has been identified as a critical period for increases in overweight status. Overweight college students are at-risk of becoming obese adults, thus prevention efforts targeting college age individuals might be one key to reducing adult obesity rates. The current study developed and implemented an intensive, 6-session, internet intervention. This intervention was evaluated with first year college students assigned randomly to one of four treatment conditions: 1) no treatment, 2) 6-week weight and caloric feedback only, 3) 6-week internet intervention, and 4) 6-week combined feedback and internet intervention. As expected, the combined intervention group had lower BMI …

Person-Supervisor Fit: Implications For Organizational Stress, Organizational Commitment, And Job Satisfaction, Hilary Schoon

All Theses

Traditional fit literature has focused on person-organization fit. However, Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman, and Johnson (2005) recently introduced the idea of person-supervisor fit in a meta-analysis on fit. Person-supervisor fit was hypothesized to be the degree of similarity between personality dimensions, values, and goals. This paper first defines fit and then reviews the literature on the topics that apply to person-supervisor fit. This study was conducted with supervisors (faculty members) and subordinates (graduate student teaching and research assistants) from different departments in one university to determine the relationship between person-supervisor fit with subordinates' organizational stress, subordinates' organizational commitment, and subordinates' job satisfaction. …

Book Review Of Juris Types: Learning Law Through Self-Understanding, Richard E. Redding

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Reluctant Virginity: The Relationship Between Sexual Status And Self-Esteem, Dina Dimauro

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify group differences between sexual status (reluctant virgins, satisfied virgins, and non-virgins) in college students. Specifically, this study explored differences between groups in self-esteem (global, social, and body), dating (length of relationship and number of dating partners), and the beliefs in the double standard mediating differences in self-esteem. It was hypothesized that reluctant virgins would have lower self-esteem and shorter relationships than satisfied virgins and non-virgins. There was modest support for the stated hypotheses: reluctant virgins had lower social self esteem (M= 114.4) than non-virgins (M= 138.5). Reluctant virgins …

Effects Of In-Home Positive Behavior Support Training On Parent Perceptions Of Parent-Child Relationships And Maladaptive Behavior, Elisha K. Kamalu

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of the positive behavior support program Family HOPE conducted in homes of families of children with disabilities. Graduate students conducted an 8-10 week collaborative method of training for parents of children with disabilities to reduce problem behaviors of their child with a disability. The Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) and Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised (SIB-R) were given to both experimental and control group families to investigate the program effects on parents' perceptions of limit setting, parental support, frequency and severity of problem behaviors. Results indicated that there was not a significant pre-post difference for either group …

An Exploration Of The Relationships Among Religious Orientation, Object Relations, And Positive Adjustment, Scott Robert Brown

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Many studies have found positive relationships between religion and mental health. This study explored the relationships between Religious Orientations, Positive Adjustment, and Object Relations. Intrinsics live by their religion, whereas Extrinsics use their religion for other ends (Allport & Ross, 1967), and Questers explore religion (Batson & Schoenrade, 1991a, 1991b). Positive Adjustment, a latent variable, consisted of Life Satisfaction (Pavot & Diener, 1993), Hope (Snyder, Harris, et al., 1991), Optimism (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994), and Flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975b, 1982). Object Relations refers to an individual’s interpersonal dynamics and attachment style (Rizzuto, 1979; Winnicott, 1971) and were posited to play …

The Neuropsychological Endophenotype Of Specific Language Impairments And Autism Spectrum Disorders: Category Or Continuum?, Heather M. Anson

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The primary goal of this investigation was to illuminate variables of the specific language impairment (SLI) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) neuropsychological endophenotypes and to clarify the nature of overlap between SLI and ASD. Group differences in cognitive functioning, epidemiological factors including proband comorbidity and health problems, and familial data in 39 SLI children and 89 ASD children who presented for clinical evaluation at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit were examined by retrospective chart review.

Cognitive data revealed that ASD probands performed more poorly on tests of perceptual-motor functioning and had higher rates of pragmatic language deficits than SLI …

Work-Related Outcomes Of Financial Stress: Relating Perceived Income Adequacy And Financial Strain To Job Performance And Worker Well-Being, Lindsay Ellen Sears

Dissertations and Theses

With the onset of globalization, the economic contexts and working conditions within many countries are changing, presenting new challenges' for governments, organizations, and workers. Amid these challenges, concerns about personal finances are prevalent among employees and detrimental to workers' health, well-being, and families. Research on how this financial stress affects employees at work is lacking.

In this thesis, I propose an appraisal-based model of financial stress whereby actual income and expenses are related to perceptions of income adequacy to afford wants and needs. These adequacy perceptions are, in turn, related to financial strain, representing a heightened negative affective state regarding …