Psychology Commons^™

Social Construction Of Knowledge In A Semiformal, Long -Term Learning Environment: A Qualitative Study, Alycia Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social learning plays a critical role in cognitive apprenticeship, community of practice, and knowledge production theories. Gunawardena's interaction analysis model, which provides a means of evaluating discourse for social construction of knowledge, is comprised of five phases: (a) sharing and comparing, (b) disagreement, (c) negotiation and co-construction of new knowledge, (d) testing of knew knowledge, and (e) use or phrasing of new knowledge. There is a paucity of research that has empirically explored social construction of knowledge, especially in an extended semiformal asynchronous graduate learning experience. This study explored two research questions: whether social construction of knowledge took place, and …

Leadership As Role And Relationship In Social Dynamics: An Exploratory Study Seeking A Leadership Archetype, Brian W. Bridgeforth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous research on leadership as archetype considered archetype as metaphor and not as it is understood in other literatures as a collectively accepted and defined role within and across cultures. Archetypical theories are posited as useful because they help us understand universal aspects of human behavior; however, empirical research demonstrating archetypical thinking and behavior remains rare. Accordingly, this phenomenological study investigated whether a leadership archetype exists as a shared cognitive template and if so, what characteristics define it. The theoretical framework used to examine the phenomenon of leadership combined leadership theory, philosophy of the mind, Jungian psychology, social constructionist theory, …

Predictors Of Placement Duration For Foster And Adopted Children With Special Needs, Patricia A. Somers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Foster and adopted children with special needs have high rates of placement instability. This has been associated with their increased risk of having special needs, particularly reactive attachment disorder which results from severe disruptions in early relationships. Child welfare agencies report inadequate knowledge of specific placement predictors and assessment measures, although research has shown that placement duration is partly a function of successful parent-child match. Using Bowlby's attachment theory as the theoretical framework, this quantitative study examined the contributions of foster and adoptive parents' own attachment characteristics, the child's type of special need, and the child's age at the time …

The Lived Experience Of Hiv-Positive Tanzanian Orphans, Carol A. Parker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this investigation was to generate a context- specific model of the lived experience of HIV positive Tanzanian orphans. With the advent of anti-retroviral drugs, Sub-Saharan African populations with high burdens of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) face annually accumulating increases in the number of HIV positive children, and ultimately adults. Perinatally infected, these children often become orphans while still young. Extended interviews were performed with a purposive sample of 12 HIV infected orphaned children between 9 and 12 years of age. Half of the research participants lived in an orphanage and half were children living with guardians in …

Spiritual And Religious Diversity: Implications For Counselor Education Programs, Sharon R. Gough

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVC) identifies 9 core competencies for integrating spirituality/religion into practice. Previous research indicates that some mental health professionals have experienced discomfort when considering the balance between religious ideology (RI) and scientific orientation (SO) in their practice. However, no research exists assessing this potential for cognitive dissonance among mental health professionals nor has there been a test of the relative influence of RI/SO on approval of ASERVC competency integration into counselor training. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was first to assess RI/SO cognitive dissonance and, second, to test RI/SO …

Longer Duration Of Epilepsy And Earlier Age At Epilepsy Onset Correlate With Impaired Cognitive Development In Infancy, Martina Vendrame

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

We assessed the impact of age at onset of epilepsy and duration and frequency of seizures on cognitive development in children less than 3 years old. Retrospective analysis was conducted on clinical data and neuropsychological testing of 33 infants with epilepsy. Developmental quotients were calculated and were correlated with age at epilepsy onset, duration of epilepsy, seizure frequency, brain pathology, and types of seizures (with/without spasms) as potential predictors. Infants with longer duration and earlier onset of epilepsy performed worse on developmental neuropsychological testing. Regression analyses showed that age at epilepsy onset and percentage of life with epilepsy were …

Front Matter

Modern Psychological Studies

No abstract provided.

Comfort Food: Obesity And Mood Influences On Food Uptake, Gabrielle Patterson, Wind Goodfriend

Modern Psychological Studies

The purpose of this study was to understand the effects of mood (negative vs. neutral) conditions on food consumption and choice, between non-obese and obese people. Mood was manipulated using two film segments; pre-weighed bags of food were offered to participants to eat during the film, which included one fatty choice (popcorn) and one healthy choice (carrots). The amount and type of food consumed was measured directly after each session. Surprisingly, results revealed that people in a negative mood did not consume more or choose fatty foods more often, compared to those who were in a neutral mood. Implications for …

Is Personality Related To The Music I Like? A Study Of Music Preferences And Sensation Seeking, Anna Coker Rhodes, Randy Carden

Modern Psychological Studies

Past research supports the idea that music preferences are significantly predicted by sensation seeking. The current study explored whether disinhibition, thrill and adventure seeking, and openness to experience predict preference for music genre? The data were analyzed using a multivariate linear regression approach. Participants were 103 (27 men, 76 women) undergraduate students at a small, private university in the southeast. The participants listened to fourteen genres of music for twenty seconds each and Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale was administered. The results supported previous research in that high sensation seekers preferred rock or heavy metal music and those lower on the …

The Effect Of Display Rules On Illusion Of Transparency In Children, A. A. Benedetti, C. L. Dawson, S. L. Staranko, E. A. Swanson, J. J. Horton

Modern Psychological Studies

The illusion of transparency, the tendency for people to overestimate how obvious their internal states appear to outside observers, was examined in 25 school-age children. While previous researchers studied undergraduate participants, we aimed to expand the developmental literature by investigating whether children exhibit the illusion of transparency in the same manner as undergraduates. We presented each child with three pleasant-tasting drinks and two unpleasant-tasting drinks. Two undergraduate observers and the children rated facial expressions after each sip. Our results supported our hypothesis with no illusion of transparency for the unpleasant drinks; however, an illusion was found for the pleasant drinks. …

Would New Yorkers Help A Lost Child? 1976 V 2008?, Amanda Verdi

Modern Psychological Studies

To test the notion of urban "stimulus overload" (Milgram, 1970), this study replicates a 1977 "lost child" experiment, with a child (age 9 or 10) asking 146 New Yorkers for help. As expected: (a) The rate of New Yorkers who helped a lost child rose significantly, from 46% in 1977 to 61.6% in 2008. (b) When debriefed and told that the lost child was actually part of an experiment, only 11% of New Yorkers expressed a negative reaction, compared with 55% who reacted positively. In fact, the more helpful one's behavior, the more positive their later reaction to debriefing (r …

Visual Versus Auditory Learning And Memory Recall Performance On Short-Term Versus Long-Term Tests, Katie Lindner, Greta Blosser, Kris Cunigan

Modern Psychological Studies

Our study explored the influence of visual versus auditory learning on recall of a memory test. There were four groups in our study, two of which heard an article, and two of which read an article. All groups were then given a posttest to assess their recall. Two of the four groups took an immediate posttest, and the other two took a delayed posttest 45 minutes after hearing or reading the article. Visual learning outperformed auditory learning in both the immediate post-test condition, as well as in the delayed post-test condition. Overall, our study found that visual learning produced better …

Dating Violence: College Students' Experiences And Intervention Suggestions, Ashley Mcneil Ezell, Karena T. Valkyrie, Casey Tobin

Modern Psychological Studies

The dating violence relationship experiences of students were investigated at a southeast regional university. A third of the 509 participants indicated they were victims of dating violence (n = 173), and almost 25% (n = 124) indicated they had victimized someone they had dated. Weapons included guns, knives, golf clubs, machetes, and tasers. Student participants offered three categories of interventions: Counseling, Improved Campus Security, and Educational Programs. Their experiences and suggestions are discussed.

The Influence Of Aerobic Exercise On State Anxiety In College Students, Emily Carruth, Nadine Taylor

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

Many college students have feelings of state anxiety, a temporary emotional response that is described by subjective, perceived feelings of concern, stress, and apprehension. The present study measured state anxiety across participants separated into a control and experimental group, which performed an exercise routine. Participants were also designated as regular or non-exercisers. Individuals in the experimental group and those who do not normally exercise were predicted to show larger decreases in state anxiety. All participants completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale at three separate sessions over a two-week time span. Results showed no …

Differences In Visual Field Bias In Emotional Attribution Tasks Between Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Typical Development, Rachelle Hansen Brindley, Erica L. Schmidt

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by social deficits in emotional comprehension. Since typical emotional attribution improves when using the left visual field, effects of lateralization on facial affect assessment were compared between children with ASD, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and typical development (TD). The ASD group showed significantly lower percent accuracy, longer response time and slower pulse rate than the TD group. Within the ASD group, there was a significant right visual field bias in emotional attribution tasks, which contrasted with the left visual field bias seen within the TD group. The PDD-NOS group demonstrated no …

Surviving On Remand: A Study Of How Young People Cope In Remand Custody In Ireland, Sinead Freeman

Doctoral

The fusion of young people to the prison setting has been described as a toxic combination. This is especially pertinent when applied to youth in remand custody. Previous research studies have identified young people on remand as a highly vulnerable prison population and custodial remand to be a particularly stressful prison experience. Despite this, little research to date has examined how young people cope while remanded in custody. This thesis addresses this gap by providing an insight into the issue of coping on remand through the voices of young people in custody in the Irish context. It is informed by …

A Model Of Responses To Race-Based And Gender-Based Stereotype Threat In Computer Science, Lara Tedrow

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The perception of stereotype threat among computer science students was examined at two universities. A model of stereotype threat was developed and tested among students enrolled in three undergraduate computer science courses at two universities. The goal of this model was to provide an understanding of the underlying mechanisms through which stereotype threat works.

The study tested relationships among the following variables: race-based stereotype threat, gender-based stereotype threat, goal orientation, CS self-efficacy, active coping, behavioral disengagement, effort, and performance. Structural equation modeling was used to test the measurement model and a series of nested structural models. Findings supported the proposed …

Wikipedia, Me, And Ohp, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Qualitative And Quantitative Methods In Occupational-Stress Research, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Edwin Farrell

Publications and Research

The paper examined the ways in which qualitative and quantitative methods support each other in research on occupational stress. Qualitative methods include (a) eliciting from unconstrained descriptions of work experiences, (b) careful first-hand observations at the workplace, and (c) participant‑observers describing “from the inside” a particular work experience. The paper shows how qualitative research stimulates theory development, hypothesis generation, and the identification of job stressors and coping responses. The limitations of qualitative research, particularly in the area of verification, are also described.

Métodos Qualitativos E Quantitativos Na Pesquisa Sobre Stress Ocupacional, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Edwin Farrell

Publications and Research

O presente artigo examina as formas pelas quais os métodos qualitativos e quantitativos se apóiam mutuamente na pesquisa sobre o stress ocupacional. Os métodos qualitativos incluem (a) obtenção de informações a partir de descrições livres de vivências no trabalho, (b) observações diretas, cuidadosas no local de trabalho e (c) observadores participantes que descrevem uma determinada experiência de trabalho a partir do local onde ela ocorre. Mostra, também, como a pesquisa qualitativa estimula o desenvolvimento de teorias, a geração de hipóteses e a identificação de estressores no trabalho e de respostas de coping. As limitações da pesquisa qualitativa, especialmente na área …

Cookie Monsters: Seeing Young People’S Hacking As Creative Practice, Gregory T. Donovan, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

This paper examines the benefits and obstacles to young people’s open-ended and unrestricted access to technological environments. While children and youth are frequently seen as threatened or threatening in this realm, their playful engagements suggest that they are self-possessed social actors, able to negotiate most of its challenges effectively. Whether it is proprietary software, the business practices of some technology providers, or the separation of play, work, and learning in most classrooms, the spatial-temporality of young people’s access to and use of technology is often configured to restrict their freedom of choice and behavior. We focus on these issues through …

How Do People React To Someone Who Has Recently Tested For Hiv? An Experimental Study Of The Effects Of Sexual Orientation And Hiv Status, Stacie A. Wilson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

HIV/AIDS-related stigma remains prevalent in our society despite advances in medical treatment, and appears to be based on fear of the illness and negative attitudes toward gay individuals. Previous literature examining the phenomenon, enactment, and consequences of HIV/AIDS-related stigma has primarily been based on self-report measures examining participants' imagined reactions toward a person with HIV/AIDS (PWHA). The present study attempted to expand on the self-report findings and contribute uniquely to the literature by examining participants' attitudes toward an individual believed to be gay and HIV-positive after a real-life interaction. This study, which involved the use of a confederate whose sexual …

Wisc-Iv And Iva+Plus Pattern Analysis: Assessment Of Attention-Deficit /Hyperactivity Disorder, Kevin K. Tsang

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a challenging practice with no definitive diagnostic test. This study sought to evaluate the use of a pattern of performance method of inference in ADHD assessment that examines an individual's general intellectual ability in comparison to his or her own attention skills. WISC-IV scores, IVA+Plus quotients, and basic demographic information were collected from patient files of children previously evaluated by the Eastern Virginia Medical School Neuropsychology Clinic. Children with and without ADHD were compared by analyzing the following difference or delta score discrepancies: (a) WISC-IV General Ability Index (GAI) minus WISC-IV Working Memory Index, …

Pretreatment Client Characteristics And Treatment Retention In An Intensive Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment Program, Shauna Elizabeth Fuller

Dissertations (1934 -)

The effectiveness and efficacy of substance abuse treatment is well established. At the same time, clients often prematurely drop out of substance abuse treatment, negatively impacting their chances of achieving favorable outcomes. Investigating variables associated with treatment retention has become increasingly important considering one of the most robust findings in substance abuse treatment outcome research is the positive relationship between the amount of time spent in treatment and post-treatment outcomes (e.g., decreased drug/alcohol use, decreased criminal activity, improved social functioning). This study examined the relationship between pre-treatment client characteristics and treatment drop-out among 273 adults who were admitted to intensive …

Client Characteristics And Treatment Retention In An Outpatient Drug-Free Chemical Dependency Program, Jessica A. Thull

Dissertations (1934 -)

Substance abuse and dependence have detrimental effects at both micro and macro societal levels. Even so, these disorders appear to be amenable to treatment and persons who receive treatment for such problems generally achieve positive outcomes. However, reported substance abuse treatment dropout rates have varied greatly and no consistent "treatment dropout" profile has been detected. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of clients entering an intensive outpatient chemical dependency treatment program and to examine how these variables differed between clients who were retained in treatment to completion and clients who dropped out of treatment prematurely. Additionally, it explored whether …

Depression Among The Oneida: Case Studies Of The Interface Between Modern And Traditional, Mark R. Powless

Dissertations (1934 -)

Depression, defined by a EuroAmerican biomedical diagnostic criterion, using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition, Text Revision is prevalent among First Nations peoples. However, some studies suggest that the term depression may hold little heuristic value outside of its EuroAmerican conceptualization. This study utilized qualitative methods to understand how depressive symptoms are conceptualized and experienced by traditional Oneida people. A vignette was presented and in-depth interviews of seven traditional healers, culture and Oneida language experts were conducted to: (1) gain a basic understanding of traditional views of mental health, (2) acquire multiple conceptualizations of someone who presents …

The Primary Prevention Of Sexual Violence Against Adolescents In Racine County And The Community Readiness Model, Theresa A. Dewalt

Dissertations (1934 -)

Sexual violence affects tens of thousands of people annually in the United States. The majority of sexual assault victims are under the age of 18. Victims of sexual violence often experience severe, long-lasting ramifications, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, interpersonal problems, suicidal ideation, self-harm behaviors, and eating disorders. As a result of these effects, it is imperative that communities provide effective primary prevention of sexual violence programs. However, it is challenging to effectively implement sexual violence primary prevention strategies for a variety of reasons. One challenge is because it is difficult to construct a prevention program that changes the …

Effects Of Individual Secularity, Institutional Secularity And Campus Activity Involvement On College Student Suicidal Ideation And Attempts, Christopher Daood

Dissertations (1934 -)

Using undergraduate data from a recent study on the Nature of College Student Suicidality, this paper explored the impact of campus activity involvement, individual secularity and institutional secularity as risk and/or protective factors for college student suicidal ideation and attempts. Results revealed that students who participated in at least one campus activity and students who affiliate with a Christian faith were less likely to seriously consider suicide in the last twelve months. Gender differences were found in the relationship between institutional secularity and serious consideration of suicide, with non-secular institutions serving as a protective factor for women, but not men. …

Teaching Women With High Body Concerns To Become The Teachers: A Two-Pronged Cognitive Dissonance Intervention, Rachael E. Kroening

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Women with high levels of body dissatisfaction have repeatedly demonstrated significant improvements in body image following cognitive dissonance-based interventions. The current research project consisted of a two-pronged intervention. One intervention closely replicated previous studies by using the process of cognitive dissonance to improve body image among female college students. The second aspect of the study required the women to develop and implement a body image intervention with 3rd-4th grade children. The goals of these intervention included improving body image among college women and increasing positive body image in young children through a peer-led intervention. Seven female college participants with high …

Processing The Therapeutic Relationship, Clara E. Hill, Sarah Knox

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

The authors propose that if therapists and clients process their therapeutic relationship (i.e., directly address in the here and now feelings about each other and about the inevitable problems that emerge in the therapy relationship), feelings will be expressed and accepted, problems will be resolved, the relationship will be enhanced, and clients will transfer their learning to other relationships outside of therapy. The authors review theories supporting the idea of processing the therapeutic relationship, discuss the relevant empirical literature in this area, and provide their conceptualization of the construct of processing the therapeutic relationship based on the theory and empirical …