Psychology Commons^™

Observed Reductions In School Bullying, Nonbullying Aggression, And Destructive Bystander Behavior: A Longitudinal Evaluation, Karin S. Frey, Miriam K. Mirschstein, Leihua V. Edstrom, Jennie L. Snell

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

This study was a longitudinal extension of a random control trial of the Steps to Respect antibullying program. Students in Grades 3–5 were surveyed (n = 624) and observed on the playground (n = 360). Growth curve models of intervention students showed 2-year declines in playground bullying, victimization, nonbullying aggression, destructive bystander, and argumentative behavior. Grade-equivalent contrasts indicated group differences in all problem behaviors. Problem behaviors in the control group increased or remained stable across grade. Intervention group students reported less difficulty responding assertively to bullying compared with control students. Within both groups, older students perceived themselves to be more …

Fasd Best: Reliability And Validity Study, C. Joe Robbins, Glena Andrews

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

No abstract provided.

The Positive Role Of Negative Emotions: Fear, Anxiety, Conflict And Resistance As Productive Experiences In Academic Study And In The Emergence Of Learner Autonomy, Jaya Kannan, John Laurence Miller

CTL Publications

Although affect is widely recognized as a powerful force in determining students’ academic success, researchers and practitioners have paid little attention to emotional barriers that often impede college success or how instructors may respond constructively when such barriers arise. The purpose of this paper is to initiate discussion of this important problem by offering a model of how an initially resistant, fearful, and/or anxious student can use emotionally unpleasant experiences to transform himself or herself into a more autonomous and successful learner. We offer prima facie support for this model by presenting the results of two cases of first year …

Predicting Child Abuse Potential During Pregnancy, Kylene Krause

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined how mothers' perceptions of their childhood relationships with their mothers, expectations about being a mother, demographic characteristics, and perceptions of social support are related to a woman's child abuse potential during pregnancy. Data were collected during an initial interview with women during their third trimester of pregnancy as part of a larger longitudinal study. One hundred twenty high-risk women between the ages of 18 and 42 were recruited through fliers from public locations and pregnancy-related programs in southeastern Michigan to participate in this study. Results showed that perceptions of a higher quality childhood relationship with one's mother, …

Profiles Of Adolescent Identity Development: Response To An Intervention For Alcohol/Other Drug Problems, Larry F. Forthun, Marilyn J. Montgomery

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

The purpose of this study was to examine identity development among adolescents participating in an after-school alcohol/other drug (AOD) abuse intervention program (8 females and 12 males, ages 14–17) to identify how identity development was associated with intervention success. To achieve this goal we (a) garnered information from two identity interviews conducted during the first week of the intervention and 6 to 8 weeks later; (b) adopted a qualitative, person-centered analytical strategy to identify identity profiles; and (c) examined the intervention response of the adolescents, as recorded in intervention documents, in the different identity profile groups. Analyses revealed five identity …

Empowering Youth Through Research: Adolescents’ Perceptions Of Physical Activity Interventions In Appalachian Communities, Sam Zizzi, James Rye, Elizabeth Vitullo, Nancy O'Hara-Tompkins

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Active participation in evaluation and research projects can empower youth and effect community change. Adolescents along with supervising teachers participating in after-school Health Sciences and Technology Academy clubs conducted research projects to increase physical activity in Appalachian communities. The sample involved 50 adolescents who participated across one of six focus groups. Two primary themes emerged from the focus groups, indicating the impact of the research experiences on students, teachers, and their communities. First, students reported increased public health and research competence as well as feelings of self-worth. Second, the participants reported developing a stronger sense of the barriers to and …

College Students' Attitude Towards The Utilization Of The Sport Recreation Center (Src), Mohd Sofian Omar-Fauzee, Aminuddin Yusof, Sam Zizzi

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The primary aim of this paper is to examine the reasons for using or not using the student recreational center (SRC) among a frequent users and non-users. The second purpose is to use the research findings in order to make same recommendations for attracting stronger patronage amongst student users. Two groups of college students that were identified by user and non-user were invited to attend a separate focus group discussion. A user group consisted of six students (5 male, 1 female) with a mean age of 20.33 (Sd=.82), and the non-user group consisted of eight students (6 male, 2 female) …

An Essential Resource For Neuropsychological Evaluation Of Hispanic/Latino Clients, Monica Rivera-Mindt

Psychology Faculty Publications

Book Reviews: Principles of Neuropsychological Assessment With Hispanics: Theoretical Foundations and Clinical Practice, by Antolin M. Llorente (Ed.). 2008. New York: Springer for Science and Business Media, 234 pp., $59.95 (HB).

The Relationship Between Children’S Birth Orders And Their Social Competence, Christina Borne, Kimberly Mears

The Corinthian

The significance of sibling ordinal position as a determinant of behavior has long been debated in both past and present literature. A correlation between behavior problems in firstborn children and male children has been suggested. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between birth order and children’s social competence. Data of forty-three head start children with ages ranging from 3 to 5, collected by a larger study over 3 years, were used for analyses. Teachers of these children were given a Social Competence Behavior Evaluation to rate children’s social behaviors in the classrooms. Sibling data reported from …

The Basic Needs Genogram: A Tool To Help Inter-Religious Couples Negotiate, Dr. Jill D. Duba

Counseling & Student Affairs Faculty Publications

The purpose of this of this article is two-fold. First, a brief review of the unique characteristics of inter-religious couples, as well as the common negotiations made in such relationships will be provided. Secondly, salient counseling implications will be presented, with the introduction of the Basic Needs Genogram as a possible technique in working with inter-religious couples. A case conceptualization and discussion will follow.

Perceptions Of Mental Health Stigma And Discrimination In A Mexican American Sample, Jeff D. Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stigma of mental health problems between Mexican Americans and White non-Hispanic European Americans was investigated and measured by attitudes toward seeking help and the amount of social distance desired from individuals with mental health problems. The stigma of mental health has been identified as a barrier to accessing mental health services among Mexican Americans and men in general. Men from both groups access mental health services at a significantly lower rate than women from both groups. This study contributed to research and practice by examining the possible differences in the level of stigma toward mental health problems between Mexican …

Peer And Maternal Relationship Predictors Of Adolescent Romantic Conflict Resolution, Pallavi Visvanathan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the current study was to examine whether change in adolescent conflict resolution in romantic relationships is predicted by adolescents' prior interactions with mothers and friends. A community sample of 191 adolescents (96 female), representative of the U.S. population, their mothers and close friends participated in this study. Data collection began when adolescents were in 10th grade (¬Average age = 15.9, SD = .52) and continued for the next five and a half years. Results indicated that teens engaged in positive problem solving, withdrawal, and compliance far more frequently than in aggressive conflict resolution strategies. Hierarchical linear modeling …

The Provision Of Social Support By Adolescent Youth And Their Subsequent Risk For Secondary Traumatic Stress Reactions, Lindsay E. Smart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During adolescence, peers become increasingly important sources of social support for youth. In addition to discussing the trials and tribulations of daily life, it is possible that youth are having intimate conversations concerning their experiences of trauma. This study examined the types of traumatic experiences disclosed to youth by their friends, youth's experiences of supporting a friend following disclosure of trauma, youth's secondary traumatic stress (STS) reactions to their friends' disclosures, and potential risk factors for the development of STS. The validity of an adult measure of STS, the Secondary Trauma Scale, with an adolescent population was also explored. Utilizing …

Humiliation And Its Relationship To Embarrassment And Shame, Danielle Jean Pulham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to expand our knowledge of humiliation by examining the cognitive correlates of this emotion. Since norm violations may often elicit this emotion, attributions of blame and perceived devaluation of the self from others were investigated as possible cognitions that may both link and distinguish this emotion from close emotion relatives, namely embarrassment and shame.

Participants were presented with vignettes that described a social versus moral norm violation. Blame for the event was manipulated by varying who/what caused the norm violation. Perceived devaluation was manipulated by varying what the observing audience knew about the cause of the norm …

Still Standing, Wendy Joy Rosoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School and killed 12 students and 1 teacher. The days following the shooting were spent questioning their motive and it seems, to this day, some are still confused. If those in charge of the investigation would have stopped pointing fingers and listened to the cries of the shooters and the students, they would see that Columbine was a time bomb. Students tells stories of bullying and torment and many agree that a group of athletes dominated the school.

Most who see bullying see it as entertaining, but …

The Humiliation Experience: Causes, Emotional Correlates, And Behavioral Consequences, Kendall Elyse Mccarley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to provide a comprehensive investigation of the emotional experience of humiliation by examining: (1) the direct effects of self-esteem and narcissism on emotional responses to potentially humiliating events; (2) the direct effects of the emotional correlates of humiliating experiences (i.e. sadness, humiliation, and anger) on the related behavioral reactions to such events (i.e., withdrawal, retaliation, and minimization); and (3) a process model to determine whether or not the emotional correlates of potentially humiliating events mediated the predicted effects of self-esteem and narcissism on the behavioral consequences on those events.

Participants, ranging in age from …

Multicultural Events Within Group Supervision: Minority Experiences And Supervision Satisfaction, Jacqueline Renee Moreno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current investigation utilized a mixed-methods design. In Phase I, 76 ethnic minority graduate students in psychology and counseling Master's and doctoral programs completed surveys that explored their general experiences in group supervision as well as the occurrence of multicultural events, and positive and negative factors of the reported events. Surveys also assessed supervisees' perspectives of their supervisor's multicultural competence level, group supervision satisfaction, and their own racial identity and multicultural competence. In Phase II, 20 volunteers from the first phase participated in qualitative interviews that explored in more depth the multicultural event they more briefly discussed in the survey …

Cortisol Reactivity Across The Day At Child Care: Examining The Contributions Of Child Temperament And Attachment To Mother And Lead Teacher, Lisa S. Badanes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous work has shown that full-day center-based child care is associated with increased physiologic stress for many young children (e.g., Tout, de Haan, Campbell, & Gunnar, 1998; Watamura, Sebanc, & Gunnar, 2002). Specifically, increasing cortisol from morning to afternoon at full-day child care in contrast to decreasing cortisol across the day for these same children at home has been repeatedly demonstrated for toddlers and preschoolers. Factors that have been related to rising cortisol across the day at child care include the child's age (rising cortisol at child care between 2 and 5 years, but not for infants or older children, …

Mitigating Risk For Anxiety Among Preschool-Age Children Living In Poverty: Evaluating The Impact Of Adult-Provided Social Support On Autonomic Stress Reactivity, Brian Cory Wolff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Poverty increases children's exposure to stress, elevating their risk for developing patterns of heightened sympathetic and parasympathetic stress reactivity. Repeated patterns of high sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal place children at risk for anxiety disorders. This study evaluated whether providing social support to preschool-age children during mildly stressful situations helps reduce reactivity, and whether this effect partly depends on children's previously assessed baseline reactivity patterns. The Biological Sensitivity to Context (BSC) theory proposes that highly reactive children may be more sensitive than less reactive children to all environmental influences, including social support. In contrast, conventional physiological reactivity (CPR) theory contends …

Creating An Indian Space In The City: Development, Maintenance, And Evolution Of Cultural Identity And Cultural Connectedness Among Multiple Generations Of Urban American Indians, Nancy Marie Lucero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the cultural identity and cultural connectedness of multiple generations of American Indians whose families had been living continuously in an urban area for 40 to 50 years. The intent of the current study was to better understand how members of this group developed and maintained their cultural identities while living away from a tribal community and as a small percentage of the population of a large and culturally diverse metropolitan area. The study also sought to identify what constituted cultural connectedness--a term used frequently amongst urban Indians that appears to encompass factors of importance to being American …

Informational Social Support And The Stress Involved In Surviving A Reduction-In-Force, Woodstock Leben Koch-Wain

Theses Digitization Project

This study looked at companies experiencing severe economic downturns and reductions-in-force (RIF) to help mitigate financial short fallings. While employing a smaller work force intially saves capital, the psychological ramifications of such a process can be detrimental for those employees released (i.e., leavers) as well as those that remain (i.e., survivors). This study examined the effectiveness of informational versus emotional or instrumental social support in mitigating stress amd also considered the effectiveness of procedural justice.

Modulation Of Memory Formation Following Violations Of Conditioned Expectations, Dennis Antonio Amodeo

Theses Digitization Project

Increment in attention to the conditioned stimulus (CS) leads to an increased rate of acquisition of new associations involving CS. While the neuroanatomical basis of the phenomenon is largely understood, little is known about the synaptic mechanisms underlying memory formation for prediction error. The current experiment tests the overall hypothesis that this specific form of memory depends on N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activation.

Role Of Dorsostriatal D1 And D2 Receptors In Modulating The Kappa Opioid-Mediated Locomotor Activity Of Preweanling Rats: Importance Of Synergistic Activation, Sergios Charntikov

Theses Digitization Project

Infusions of the nonselective dopamine agonist R( - ) propylnorapomorphine (NPA) into the dorsal striatum of preweanling rats atteuates kappa opioid-mediated locomotor activity. The purpose of this thesis was to ascertain which dopamine receptor subtype (D1 or D2) is responsible for this effect. It was hypothsized that a) D1, but not D2, receptors in the dorsal striatum underlie NPA's ability to attenuate the kappa opioid-mediated locomotor activity of preweanling rats, and b) microinjectng SKF38393 (a D1 agonist), and not quinpirole (a D2 agonist), would attenuate kappa opioid-mediated locomotion.

Lesbian Subjective Distress To Violations Of Trust As A Function Of The Butch/Femme Paradox: Evolutionary And Social-Cognitive Hypotheses, Sarah Carver-Steil Mcnay

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis investigated both evolutionary and social-cognitive hypotheses regarding butch and femme lesibans' subjective distress to imagining a romantic partner's emotional and sexual infidelity. Findings from this study, that conform to findings from other research indicate a need to conduct more research and to continue to develop existing theories of sex-based behavior in lesbian romantic pair-bonds.;Summary.

An Emerging Integration Of Universal And Culturally Specific Psychologies And Its Implications For The Study Of Psychopathology, Gregory T. Smith, Nichea S. Spillane, Agnes M. Stairs

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

There is an emerging consensus among researchers on the need to integrate universal and culturally specific psychological perspectives. Important tasks in this process have included identifying the appropriate level of generality for putatively universal processes, how to understand culturally different processes in light of shared universal capacities, and the development of transparent scientific means for investigating cultural differences. In this chapter, the authors discuss each of these issues. It appears to be true that many psychological processes appear to reflect culturally-specific instantiations of universal capacities. The authors then consider implications of this emerging integration for psychology, by applying it to …

National And European Identities Of Bulgarian And Dutch Students, Velichko Valchev, Fons J. R. Van De Vijver

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

The present study explored the adoption of national and European identities and the perceptions of own nation and Europe in Bulgarian and Dutch students. A questionnaire developed by Georgas et al. (2004) was administered to 256 students in Bulgaria and 190 students in the Netherlands. The majority of participants in both countries (88% in Bulgaria and 85% in the Netherlands) endorsed both national and European identity; European identity was secondary to national identity. There were marked cross-national differences in the way own country and Europe were perceived. Bulgarian students perceived larger differences between the two identities than did Dutch students. …

South Asians In Scandinavia: Diasporic Identity Processes, Rashmi Singla

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

This chapter1 probes selected social-psychological aspects for South Asian young adults in Denmark and is a follow up of a Danish project conducted in the mid-nineties. The diasporic conceptualizations in respect to human centeredness and cultural processes in migration combined with life course perspective, provide the theoretical framework for this study. In-depth interviews were employed, and information was analyzed through meaning condensation and subsequent categorization of the narratives. The results show the reinterpretation of the self, “others” and home in the diasporic families, for the parental as well as the young generation. The chapter also depicts the young adults’ diasporic …

Predicting Opposition Towards Immigration: Economic Resources, Social Resources And Moral Principles, Alice Ramos, Jorge Vala

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

This study analyses the predictors of opposition towards immigrants of “different ethnic groups” and “poor countries” in 5 European countries (Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, France and United Kingdom), using data from the European Social Survey 1 (Jowell & the Central Coordinating Team, 2003). Besides Portugal, a country that has moved from being one of net emigration to being a new host country for immigrants, the other countries were selected according to their main policies of immigrants’ integration. Opposition towards immigration (OTI) is analysed using three theoretical models: a) the economic self-interest model that proposes that opposition towards immigration may be due …

An Examination Of Acquiescent Response Styles In Cross-Cultural Research, Ronald Fischer, Johnny R. J. Fontaine, Fons J. R. Van De Vijver, Dianne A. Van Hemert

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Response styles constitute a formidable challenge for cross-cultural research. In this article, three different response styles are discussed (acquiescence, extremity scoring, and social desirability). Acquiescence responding (ARS) is then integrated into a larger classical test theoretical framework, which allows for an examination of the various roles that ARS may play in cross-cultural research. A new meta-analytical method is proposed to examine the prevalence and nature of ARS. Preliminary evidence suggests that ARS has only a small, but systematic effect on survey responses. The meaning of ARS is explored through correlations with nation-level indicators. Implications for future research are discussed.

Acquiescence And Extremity In Cross-National Surveys: Domain Dependence And Country-Level Correlates, Tobias K. Van Dijk, Femke Datema, Stephanie C. M. Welten, Fons J. R. Van De Vijver

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Likert-type rating scales are susceptible to response styles, such as acquiescence and extremity scoring. Although it is widely acknowledged that response styles can seriously invalidate findings of cross-cultural research, their theoretical underpinnings are hardly explored. The current study analyzed domain-dependency and country differences in acquiescence and extremity scoring in a large dataset of the International Social Survey Program. The hypothesis that response styles are more likely in domains with a high personal relevance compared to domains with a low personal relevance was tentatively confirmed. Correlations with various cultural, psychological, and economic variables were investigated. We found that acquiescence was negatively …