Psychology Commons^™

Sociocultural Attitudes And Expectations As A Result Of Media Internalization: An Exploration Of Potential Cultural Resiliency Factors Among Mexican-American College Women, Natalie Marie Perez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study involved a final sample of 153 Mexican-American college women who viewed photos of models who exemplify the thin ideal and models who are considered average and overweight according to society’s standards of beauty. The order of the photos was manipulated to determine if subjection to the thin ideal would negatively affect body satisfaction and or affect how the participants judged the models who did not meet the thin ideal. Manipulation did not negatively affect how participants judged the average and overweight models. In addition, upon manipulation, both groups rated themselves as heavier despite group assignment. Finally, acculturation level …

The Occurrence Of Child Maltreatment And Revictimization Among Hispanic Women, Eleni Isis Escorza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The current study examines the prevalence rates of child multi-type maltreatment and adult revictimization among Hispanic women who have witnessed domestic violence and/or experienced sexual abuse or physical abuse as children. A sample of two hundred-forty-three undergraduate, Hispanic, female students completed measures of events occurring in childhood and adulthood, sexual experiences, substance use, acculturation status, and family characteristics. The results indicate that experiencing multiple forms of child abuse is fairly common, especially for women who report a history of child abuse. The results also suggest that experience of abuse as a child is significantly associated with experiencing physical or sexual …

Gender Differences In Advanced Theory Of Mind And Social Competence Among School-Age Children, Cheryl A. Barton

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The present study explored gender differences in the development of theory of mind (ToM) and social competence among school-age children. It was hypothesized that children’s ToM ability related to their social competence. Children, ages 6 to 12-years (N=62; 38 girls, 24 boys) were administered 12 advanced ToM stories and a language assessment. Parents and teachers evaluated the children’s social skills (N=70; 40 girls, 30 boys), - using a 23 item social competence inventory which consisted of positive behaviors and two forms of negative behaviors: relational aggression and overt hostility. Results indicated positive associations between children’s ToM ability and positive social …

Sociocultural Influences On Body Image Across The Lifespan, Jaryn L. Allen

Theses and Dissertations

Body image concerns are prevalent in Western society. Sociocultural theories posit that the media are largely responsible for body image dissatisfaction because they have an omnipresent influence which consistently portrays unrealistically thin females and hyper-muscular males, which are then internalized and used as measures of comparison for the average male or female. This phenomenon has been documented in countless studies with college-age females, but evidence of sociocultural influences on body image satisfaction is not as extensive in males, younger children, or older adults.

This study examined the impact of sociocultural influences on body image satisfaction in two, predominantly Caucasian, populations, …

Context-Dependent Peer Victimization: Are Physical And Relational Aggression Tolerated Differently In Mixed-Sex Versus All-Girl Schools?, Ana María Velásquez, Jonathan Bruce Santo, Lina María Saldarriaga, Luz Stella López, William M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Contextual differences in the association between different forms of aggressive behavior and victimization were studied with a sample of 197 boys and 149 girls from mixed-sex schools and in 336 girls from all-girl schools (M = 10.21 years of age) in two cities in Colombia. Results showed that boys generally engage in more physical than relational aggression, whereas girls engage in more relational than physical aggression. Among boys, the association between aggression and victimization was significant only for the measure of relational aggression, whereas, for girls, victimization was significantly correlated only with physical aggression. This latter association was found to …

The Effects Of Headlight Intensity And Clothing Contrast On Pedestrians' Own Estimated Recognition Distances At Night, Rachel Rosenberg

All Theses

Inadequate pedestrian detection is a crucial contributing factor in fatal nighttime collisions involving pedestrians. Pedestrians typically overestimate how recognizable they are to oncoming drivers and little is known about what affects pedestrians' estimates of how recognizable they think they are. This study explored the extent to which pedestrians believed their conspicuity was affected by headlight intensity and clothing reflectance. Participants in four clothing conditions and in four different levels of headlight intensity walked to and from a parked vehicle until they felt recognizable to the driver. Estimated recognition distances did not change with variations in headlight intensity, suggesting that pedestrians …

The Relationship Between Mood, Emotional Labor, Ego Depletion, And Customer Outcomes Over Time, Eric Mckibben

All Dissertations

This dissertation examined the role of customer service representative mood in predicting emotional labor demands which subsequently predicted ego depletion and customer satisfaction ratings and tip percentage. Organizations require employees to display a positive mood or emotion and generating organizationally mandated positive emotions to display to customers requires emotion regulation which can be quite taxing for employees. Indeed, emotion regulation, a form of self-regulation, has been experimentally linked to a state similar to exhaustion called ego depletion. As such, employee mood, emotional labor and subsequent ego depletion are likely to play a role in customer ratings of satisfaction. A study …

Why The Supreme Court Cares About Elites, Not The American People, Lawrence Baum, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

Supreme Court Justices care more about the views of academics, journalists, and other elites than they do about public opinion. This is true of nearly all Justices and is especially true of swing Justices, who often cast the critical votes in the Court’s most visible decisions. In this Article, we will explain why we think this is so and, in so doing, challenge both the dominant political science models of judicial behavior and the significant work of Barry Friedman, Jeffrey Rosen, and others who link Supreme Court decision making to public opinion.

Relationships Between Facial Emotion Perception And Psychosis Proneness: Persons With Schizophrenia And Controls, Dustin Chapman

Psychology and Counseling Theses

It is well documented that individuals with schizophrenia demonstrate deficits in emotion processing. Though study is established in this area, the same can not yet be said for controls or at risk groups like those with a family history of schizophrenia, those with a genetic predisposition, or those high in schizotypy who are at higher risk for schizophrenia. In the proposed study I attempted to elucidate the relationships between schizotypal symptoms and facial emotion perception. The study of schizotypy and emotion perception may provide insight into the etiology of schizophrenia through better understanding of the symptom constellations and deficits that …

Relationships Among Person And Environment Variables And Turnover Intention In Adults With Multiple Sclerosis, Wanda Shull

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The organization and management literature presents a large base of research on the concept of turnover intention, i.e. the point at which a person decides to leave employment. What is known is that turnover intention is the precursor to employee turnover, yet very little research exists in the rehabilitation field to address this concept in terms of persons with chronic illness and disability. This study examines this variable in the population of adults with multiple sclerosis (MS). Employing multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to analyze three blocks of variables and their impact on turnover intention, the results show that groups …

Neuropsychological And Emotion Processing Abnormalities In Bipolar Disorder I And Ii, Carol Randall

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bipolar disorder illness is marked by emotional lability and mood disturbance, as well as various neuropsychological deficits, and the neuroanatomical correlates of many of these deficits are beginning to be identified. Numerous studies have implicated specific cortical and sub-cortical abnormalities in areas associated with executive function, memory, motor function, and the processing of emotion. Although a large body of research has been devoted to the investigation of cognitive and emotion-processing deficits in bipolar disorder, relatively few studies have been devoted to the investigation of how these deficits differ among bipolar disorder subtypes. This is surprising in light of known symptomatological …

The Influence Of Perspective And Gender On The Processing Of Narratives, Jeremy A. Houska

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The overarching aim of this research was to examine potential boundary conditions to situation model construction (Experiment 1) and narrative-based persuasion (Experiment 3). Variables such as narrative perspective (i.e., 2nd or 3rd person) and matched characteristics with the reader (i.e., participant-protagonist gender match) were first examined using situation model updating (Experiment 1) and behavioral measures (Experiment 3) as dependent measures. It was expected that situation model updating would be more likely for narratives written in the 2nd person perspective and with a participant-protagonist gender match. It was uncertain, however, for health promotion narratives, whether these manipulations would increase the likelihood …

Exploring The Phenomena Of Inner Experience With Descriptive Experience Sampling, Janell M. Mihelic

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study provides a survey of the phenomena of normal, everyday inner experience using the Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) method. Results demonstrated that five types of inner experience (sensory awareness, feeling, unsymbolized thinking, inner seeing, and inner speech) occurred in approximately one-quarter of sampled moments and that there were significant individual differences regarding the frequency with which subjects experienced these phenomena. Three new dimensions (richness of inner experience, the number of experiences present, and the overall valence of the experience) along which inner experience could be characterized were identified and used reliably to characterize moments of experience. Finally, although there …

Use Of Task-Value Instructional Inductions For Facilitating Engagement And Conceptual Change, Marcus L. Johnson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this study, 166 undergraduates from an Educational Psychology subject pool were randomly assigned to different task value instructional inductions (utility, attainment, and control) to determine whether inducing students with differing task values would be effective and result in different degrees of engagement for a learning task, as well as result in different degrees of conceptual change on the topic of the causes of the common cold. It was hypothesized participants would adopt characteristics that were consistent with the task value with which they were induced, that the participants in the utility, attainment, and control conditions would differ in their …

The Advisor-Advisee Relationship: A Qualitative Study Of Advisee Perspectives, Paula M. Emke-Francis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Attempts to understand the nature and course of advising relationships in clinical psychology doctoral training have been limited in number and scope. Furthermore, they have almost universally applied theoretical models derived for the explanation of different types of relationships, with very little empirical inquiry aimed at examining the advising relationship as it actually exists. The present study sought to better understand advisory relationships in clinical psychology doctoral training and propose a theoretical model related to the dimensions of the relationship that emerged.

This was accomplished via semi-structured interviews with 18 clinical psychology Ph.D. candidates from training programs across the United …

Factors Affecting The Institutional Perception Of Alumni Of The University Of Arkansas, Anthony Mcadoo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alumni relations programs are a foundational component to institutional advancement and are often the unit that regularly communicates news and information about the institution to its alumni. Alumni relations professionals can strategically position a higher education institution among its alumni by including and emphasizing information that is found to have a positive impact on the opinion of alumni. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the factors that impact alumni opinion of the University of Arkansas, loyalty to components of the University and overall current opinion. This study utilized secondary data from the Alumni Attitude Study® …

Do They Work? Developmental Courses In Mathematics And English At Sitting Bull College, D'Arlyn A. Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the characteristics and impact of developmental courses on students enrolled in developmental mathematics and English courses at a small mid-Western tribal college. This was a quantitative, descriptive study of the courses and the students over a six year timeframe.

All students who enrolled in developmental mathematics and English courses at Sitting Bull College during the summer of 2003 through the spring of 2009 were included in this study. There were 289 students in the Foundations Math and English courses in this timeframe.

Females made up 60% of the students studied who had …

Perceived Levels Of Empowerment In Parish Nursing, Jean C. Bokinskie

Theses and Dissertations

Parish nursing is a community-based subspecialty practice of nursing. The parish nurse (PN) melds spiritual care with nursing practice to wholistically address the needs of parishioners and faith communities. PNs work with other health care providers and organizations, as well as lay and professional church leaders to successfully develop, organize, and lead health promoting and spiritually healing activities. Empowerment of PNs is necessary to achieve positive outcomes of PN directed initiatives. Empowerment occurs through supportive and nurturing environments, as well as access to resources, information and power. However, multiple professional demands, interpersonal conflicts, and lack of adequate resources have created …

The Effect Of Victim Status And System Threat On Rape Myth Acceptance, Kristine M. Chapleau

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study examined how rape myths are used to protect the perpetrator, particularly high-status perpetrators. Participants read a date-rape scenario. The status of the victim and perpetrator were manipulated as well as the threat the victim posed to the perpetrator as depicted by whom the victim would tell about the rape. Participants with a strong system justification orientation reported lower rape myth acceptance when a low-status victim decided to tell no one about a high-status perpetrator raping her compared to when she decided to report him to the police. This suggests that rape myth acceptance is malleable and that the …

Normal And Abnormal Personality Traits Are Associated With Marital Satisfaction For Both Men And Women: An Actor–Partner Interdependence Model Analysis, Catherine B. Stroud, C. Emily Durbin, Seema D. Saigal, Lynne M. Knobloch-Fedders

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Research has demonstrated associations between relationship satisfaction and personality traits. Using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model, we explored associations between self-reported relationship satisfaction in couples (n = 118) and various measures of normal and abnormal personality, including higher-order dimensions of PE/Extraversion, NE/Neuroticism, Constraint (CON), and their lower-order facets. We also examined gender differences and moderators of associations. Consistent with the Vulnerability Stress Adaptation Model, self- and partner-reported NE and PE were related to satisfaction, and their lower-order traits demonstrated differential associations with satisfaction. Further, abnormal personality traits specific to the interpersonal domain and personality disorder symptoms demonstrated effects. Relationship …

Student Leader Lmx Relationships As Moderated By Constructive-Developmental Theory, Shelly Mumma

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examined how the quality of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) relationships was moderated by the Constructive-Developmental stage or Order of Consciousness of both leader and follower. Using student organization presidents and officers on a small, private, liberal arts college campus in the Midwest, the researcher used a sample of 37 students to study the impact developmental stage had on the leadership relationship. Using the Leader Member Exchange-Multi-Dimensional Measure (LMX-MDM), four dimensions of LMX were examined. The four dimensions were Affect, Contribution, Loyalty and Professional Respect. There was no significant relationship between Order of Consciousness and quality of LMX relationship. While …

The Influence Of Childhood Abuse On Longitudinal Course Of Recovery In Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Kee-Hong Choi

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Background: Empirical outcome studies have identified specific symptomatic, cognitive, emotional and functional sequelae of childhood abuse in people with severe mental illness (SMI). These findings illuminate the need for an integrated understanding of biological, psychological, environmental, and developmental aspects of SMI. Purpose: The purpose of the present study includes the following: 1) to examine reliability and validity of the comprehensive child abuse rating system in a sample of individuals with SMI, 2) to examine the influence of childhood abuse severity on recovery of psychotic symptoms, neurocognition and social-cognition, and social functioning in people with SMI during 12 months of inpatient …

Precursors And Risk Factors Associated With The Development Of Traumatic Stress After Childbirth, Jennifer Runnals

Theses and Dissertations

A prospective study of pregnant women was undertaken to provide an estimate of rates of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder after childbirth that takes into account pre-existing trauma; to explore risk factors associated with the development of traumatic stress after birth; and to better understand incidence and risk factors associated with fear of childbirth, which is thought to contribute to postpartum Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Ninety participants in their last trimester of pregnancy completed questionnaires that included depression, trait anxiety, PTSD, anxiety sensitivity, childbearing fear, and self-efficacy for labor. Four weeks after delivery 73 of these women completed questionnaires concerning delivery, posttraumatic stress …

Multiple Mechanisms Of Consciousness: The Neural Correlates Of Emotional Awareness., Jayna M Amting, Steven G Greening, Derek G V Mitchell

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Emotional stimuli, including facial expressions, are thought to gain rapid and privileged access to processing resources in the brain. Despite this access, we are conscious of only a fraction of the myriad of emotion-related cues we face everyday. It remains unclear, therefore, what the relationship is between activity in neural regions associated with emotional representation and the phenomenological experience of emotional awareness. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and binocular rivalry to delineate the neural correlates of awareness of conflicting emotional expressions in humans. Behaviorally, fearful faces were significantly more likely to be perceived than disgusted or neutral faces. Functionally, …

Examining The Interrater Reliability Of The Comprehensive Inventory Of Mental Health And Recovery And Rehabilitation Services (Cimhrrs), Robert W. Johnson

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation is one step in the continuing development, evaluation, and validation of the Comprehensive Inventory of Mental Health and Recovery and Rehabilitation Services (CIMHRRS). The CIMHRRS is an instrument to guide comprehensive assessment of programs that provide integrated services to people with serious mental illness (SMI).

The project described in this dissertation evaluated three key aspects of its performance in real world application: practical feasibility, internal consistency and reliability, and ability to distinguish between different programs. Investigators utilized a combination of principles and methods, associated with psychometric scale development, field methods, and program evaluation. Using a structured site review …

Evaluation Of Psychological Recovery In Patients With Major Medical Illnesses, Kelly Marie James

Theses and Dissertations

The OQ-45.2 (Outcome Questionnaire-45.2) is a measure of psychological distress that examines patients' emotional states and level of functioning in society. This measure was administered at admission and discharge to inpatients at a level II trauma center with in- and outpatient populations in addition to the BBHI-2 (Brief Battery for Health Improvement-2) and FIM (Functional Independence Measure). Results suggested that patients demonstrated psychological improvements from admission to discharge. In addition, the OQ-45.2 was found to correlate with nearly all subtests of the BBHI-2. Finally, diagnosis, length of stay, and number of psychotherapy sessions were not predictive of improvements on the …

Social Relationships And Mortality Risk: A Meta-Analytic Review, Timothy B. Smith, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, J. Bradley Layton

Faculty Publications

Background: The quality and quantity of individuals' social relationships has been linked not only to mental health but also to both morbidity and mortality. Objectives: This meta-analytic review was conducted to determine the extent to which social relationships influence risk for mortality, which aspects of social relationships are most highly predictive, and which factors may moderate the risk. Data Extraction: Data were extracted on several participant characteristics, including cause of mortality, initial health status, and pre-existing health conditions, as well as on study characteristics, including length of follow-up and type of assessment of social relationships. Results: Across 148 studies (308,849 …

Counterterrorism Intelligence Analysis: Language As Threat, Vulnerability, And Risk, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the role of language in describing possible membership in or connection to al Qaeda.

Change Trajectories And Early Warning System To Identify Youth At Risk For Negative Psychotherapy Outcome, Philip Legrand Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

The field of mental health treatment is making efforts to better serve all psychotherapy clients, but especially the 5–10% of clients who deteriorate in treatment (Lambert & Ogles, 2004) and the 30–60% who drop out prematurely (Pekarik & Stephenson, 1988). These efforts involve collaboration between research and practice. Both research and practice have been treatment focused for much of their history, primarily examining treatment efficacy or effectiveness, and never quite settling on the generalizability or applicability of specific treatments. The patient-focused research paradigm has shifted the focus from treatment outcomes on the group level to outcomes on the individual client …

Adolescents' Perceptions Of Bullying Involving Male Relational Aggression: Implications For Prevention And Intervention, Brian C. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Recent bullying research contradicts the stereotypes that only females use relational bullying and confirms that males use this type of bullying equally or more than females. No existing research could be found which examined differences in how each gender interprets relational bullying. Using a survey adapted from research on the rape myth and four video clips, researchers sought to examine gendered difference in the perception of relational bullying by males among adolescents. Two video clips depict scenes of cross-gender bullying and two clips depict scenes of male to male bullying. In total, 314 students in grades 8-12 participated in the …