Psychology Commons^™

Ecopsychology, Transpersonal Psychology, And Nonduality, John V. Davis

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Nonduality is at the core of both transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology and provides a

means of finding common ground between these approaches. However, misunderstandings

and the lack of an adequate conceptual language for nonduality have limited the value

of this concept for ecopsychology. Nonduality is presented as a range of experiences and

stages of development in which particulars are perceived and understood as part of an allencompassing

totality. Specifically, nonduality is understood in terms of a self-identity

in which separating boundaries no longer isolate one from other expressions of Being. A

description of nondual dimensions of Being based on the …

Yamato Kotoba: The Language Of The Flesh, Yukari Kunisue, Judy Schavrien

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This inquiry builds on the work of such thinkers as David Abram and Maurice Merleau-

Ponty; like their work, it addresses the fact that people in the Western developed world,

through their acculturations, sacrifice intimacy with the natural world. The article explores

one remedial measure: the Yamato Kotoba language of the Japanese. This is a language

before the Chinese injection of spoken and written words, one that preserves the earlier

words better suited, the authors propose, to expressing the interpenetrating experience of

the person with—in this case the Japanese—natural setting. Such an intimacy appears, for

instance, in Basho’s Haiku. In …

Modern Materialism Through The Lens Of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Alan Pope

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The suffering that gives rise to and is perpetuated by contemporary culture’s addiction to

materialistic consumption is described surprisingly well by the ancient tradition of Indo-

Tibetan Buddhism. From this perspective, modern human beings exemplify hungry ghosts

trapped in a state of incessant greed and insatiability, which at its core reflects a desperate

attempt to maintain a sense of self that is out of accord with basic reality. The rich Tibetan

Buddhist understanding of the unfolding process by which the hungry ghost negotiates its

project, including its attempts to avoid greater suffering and to seek bliss, serves to elucidate

our …

The Significance Of Positive Perceptions Of Counseling In Willingness To Seek Counseling Help: An Indonesian Study, Jenny Lukito Setiawan

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

This paper describes a study designed to investigate the relationships between perceptions relevant to counseling and willingness to seek counseling. A total of 1,279 undergraduates who came from an urban area in Indonesia volunteered to participate in the questionnaire survey. Results show that those who were potentially highly likely and those who were less likely to seek counseling showed significant differences in most of the areas of perceptions of counseling. Generally, the potential high seekers had better perceptions of counseling than the potential low seekers. The study suggests that those with more positive perceptions are more disposed to seek counseling. …

The Functions Of Music-Listening Across Cultures: The Development Of A Scale Measuring Personal, Social And Cultural Functions Of Music, Diana Boer, Ronald Fischer, Jimena De Garay Hernández, Ma. Luisa González Atilano, Luz Moreno, Marcus Roth, Markus Zenger

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

We examined the functions of music-listening from a cross-cultural perspective. Two studies were conducted to capture personal, social and cultural experiences with music. Young people were sampled; mainly online surveys were used. Study 1 is a qualitative multicultural study that identified seven main functions of music: background, memories, diversion, emotion, self-regulation, reflection of self, and social bonding. In study 2, based on the qualitative data, we developed and validated a scale measuring Ratings of Experienced Social, PErsonal and Cultural Themes of MUSIC functions (RESPECT-MUSIC) in three cultural samples (Latin-American, Anglo- Saxon, and Germanic). A ten-factorial solution was found to be …

\African-Centered Psychology, Education And The Liberation Of African Minds: Notes On The Psycho-Cultural Justification For Reparations, Karanja Keita Carroll, Dereef F. Jamison

Publications and Research

One means through which reparations can be provided to communities of African descent within America is through the creation and institutionalization of culturally enriching after-school programming, African-centered Saturday schools and independent Black educational institutions. Rather than looking to reparations as merely financial compensation for the descendants of the formerly enslaved, we can look to reparations as they relate to the building of educational infrastructures that will impact future generations of African descendants in America. This essay outlines the psychological and epistemological consequences of miseducation that many students of African descent experience within the Eurocentrically orientated education institutions they attend; The …

Trading Places: What The Research Participant Can Tell The Investigator About Informed Consent, Ann Freeman Cook, Helena Hoas

Psychology Faculty Publications

The issues discussed in this article emerged from a study that explored the decision-making processes used by research participants when deciding to participate in human subjects’ research. We discuss the current research and regulatory environment and its influences on participant decision-making. The results of this study create a framework for understanding the challenges of the current informed consent process and offers insights into what may be needed to create an environment that allows research participants to make more enlightened decisions.

Questions About The Construct Of Empathy In The Treatment Of Adolescents In The Juvenile Justice System, Matt Zaitchik, Frank Dicataldo, Lois Condie

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Examining The Rapid Non-Classical Effects Of 17 Beta Estradiol On Sexual Advertisement Behavior Of The Golden Hamster (Mesocricetus Auratus), John T. Garretson, Spencer L. Gobbel, Christine M. Lewis, Luis A. Martinez, Aras Petrulis

Modern Psychological Studies

Female Syrian hamsters engage in vaginal scent-marking (VM) to advertise their sexual receptivity. VM is facilitated by estrogen; however, the hormone's mechanism of action is unknown. Classically, estrogen binds to intracellular receptors and promotes gene transcription to eventually affect behavior. Estrogen may non-classically and rapidly affect behavior via binding to membrane localized receptors. In order to determine how estrogen modulates VM, VM levels were examined in 10 female hamsters across several hormone conditions. Levels of VM were assessed across 3 trials in intact, normally-cycling subjects. These trials were repeated following ovariectomy. A final set of trials were conducted in ovariectomized …

Gender Difference In Perceiving Aggression Using The Bobo Doll Studies, Dorothy Altin, Jessica Jablonski, Jennifer Lyke, Marcello Spinella

Modern Psychological Studies

The general conclusion of Albert Bandura's Bobo Doll studies was that the children learned aggression through watching an adult hit an inflatable doll. Other researchers have questioned whether the behavior demonstrated in these studies was actual aggression or just simply imitation. This study examined the perceptions of male and female observers when viewing original footage of the Bobo Doll Studies, specifically if the observers interpreted the child's behavior as aggression or simply imitation and if the sex of the observer or sex of the child in the video affected these ratings. The participants completed both a Likert scale rating of …

“Getting Noticed”: Middle Childhood Incross-Cultural Perspective, David F. Lancy, M. Annette Grove

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Although rarely named, the majority of societies in the ethnographic record demarcate a period between early childhood and adolescence. Prominent signs of demarcation are: for the first time, pronounced gender separation in fact and in role definition; increased freedom of movement for boys while girls may be bound more tightly to their mothers; and heightened expectations for socially responsible behavior. But, above all, middle childhood is about coming out of the shadows of community life and assuming a distinct, lifetime character. Naming and other rites of passage sometimes acknowledge this transition, but it is, reliably, marked by the assumption or …

The Relationship Between Course Syllabi And Participant Evaluation Reactions Across Web-Based And Face-To-Face Courses, David Richard Glerum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A common form of training or education evaluation involves the examination of course participant reactions towards various aspects of the course for summative evaluation purposes. Participant reactions have been examined within the framework of a comparison between online and face to face courses often with a slight positive weight towards online courses (Sitzmann et al., 2006). Past research on this topic has denoted a need for studies examining the relationship between objective course characteristics and participant reactions. This paper seeks to examine the relationship between participant reactions of a sample of geographically disbursed teachers enrolled in a large, national professional …

Learning From Mistakes: Improving Initial Fingertip Force Scaling By Observing Lifting Errors, Gavin Buckingham, Minnie Tang, Paul Gribble, Melvyn A. Goodale

Psychology Presentations

• When lifting objects that are lighter or heaver than we expect them to be, individuals typically misapply forces in a way that reflects their prior expectations of heaviness.

• Because we lift in this predictive way, large and small cubes elicit these characteristic errors even when they are adjusted to have equal mass. Lifters will apply too much force to a large cube and substantially less force to a small cube – errors that are rapidly corrected with repeated lifts (Flanagan & Beltzner, 2000).

• When watching others lift objects, an observer’s motor system automatically reacts in a way …

False Recall In The Deese–Roediger–Mcdermott Paradigm: The Roles Of Gist And Associative Strength, David R. Cann, Ken Mcrae, Albert N. Katz

Psychology Publications

Theories of false memories, particularly in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm, focus on word association strength and gist. Backward associative strength (BAS) is a strong predictor of false recall in this paradigm. However, other than being defined as a measure of association between studied list words and falsely recalled nonpresented critical words, there is little understanding of this variable. In Experiment 1, we used a knowledge-type taxonomy to classify the semantic relations in DRM stimuli. These knowledge types predicted false-recall probability, as well as BAS itself, with the most important being situation features, synonyms, and taxonomic relations. In three subsequent experiments, …

Measuring Cognitive Errors: Initial Development Of The Cognitive Distortions Scale (Cds), Roger Covin, David J. A. Dozois, Avital Ogniewicz, Pamela M. Seeds

Psychology Publications

The ability to assess and correct biases in thinking is central to cognitive-behavioral therapy. Although measures of cognitive distortions exist, no measure comprehensively assesses the cognitive errors that are typically cited in the literature. The development and initial validation of the Cognitive Distortions Scale (CDS), a questionnaire that measures the tendency to make 10 cognitive distortions (e.g., mindreading, catastrophizing, all-or-nothing thinking) as they occur in interpersonal and achievement domains, is described. Across two studies, undergraduate students (n = 318) completed the CDS and other clinically relevant measures. The CDS and its two subscales appear to exhibit good psychometric properties; …

Negative Associations Between Corpus Callosum Midsagittal Area And Iq In A Representative Sample Of Healthy Children And Adolescents., Hooman Ganjavi, John D Lewis, Pierre Bellec, Penny A Macdonald, Deborah P Waber, Alan C Evans, Sherif Karama, The Brain Development Cooperative Group

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Documented associations between corpus callosum size and cognitive ability have heretofore been inconsistent potentially owing to differences in sample characteristics, differing methodologies in measuring CC size, or the use of absolute versus relative measures. We investigated the relationship between CC size and intelligence quotient (IQ) in the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development sample, a large cohort of healthy children and adolescents (aged six to 18, n = 198) recruited to be representative of the US population. CC midsagittal area was measured using an automated system that partitioned the CC into 25 subregions. IQ was measured using the Wechsler …

The Relationship Between Narcotic Administration And Emergency Department Recidivism, Vanessa A. Casillas, Diomaris E. Jurecska, Mary A. Peterson, Wayne Adams, Kathleen Gathercoal

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

The present study investigated the impact of narcotic administration on quantity and frequency of recidivism by patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) with a primary complaint of chronic pain. This study explored the relationship between narcotic administration, gender, prescribing physician and subsequent ED visits. We analyzed the data from the twelve months of medical records for 80 patients (278 visits) who presented at the ED of a general medical center in a rural area. Results indicated that the number of visits by those who received narcotics was significantly higher than for those who did not receive narcotics. There was …

A Rat Model Of Sleep Deprivation Prior To Traumatic Brain Injury, Steve G. Soehnlen

ETD Archive

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) has been called the "signature injury" of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers undergo a variety of stressors during their tours of duty that could complicate recovery from TBI, one of which is sleep deprivation (SD). In this study, we sought to create a rat model exploring the effects of prior REM sleep deprivation (RSD) on recovery from TBI-induced sensorimotor and cognitive deficits. Rats were deprived of REM sleep before they underwent a controlled cortical impact (CCI) to mimic a TBI. Forelimb sensorimotor function, hindlimb motor function, forelimb motor function, and spatial learning were assessed …

Cross Product Generalizability Of Shopping Site Judgments, Steven G. Given

ETD Archive

The purpose of this study was to examine the generalizability of attribute performance and attribute importance ratings across product classes. Data were collected, with the use of an online survey, from 313 respondents of which 287 were U.S. college students and 26 were close acquaintances of the research team. Seventy-four percent of respondents were male, all respondents had at least four years of internet use experience, and 44 claim to make at least one online shopping purchase per month. Twenty-six web site attributes were selected from the Variegated Inventory of Site Attributes (VISA) (Blake, Hamilton, Neuendorf & Murcko, 2010) to …

The Efficacy Of Hippocampal Stimulation In Preventing Depressive Symptoms, Timothy B. Patrick

ETD Archive

The hippocampus provides negative feedback for the Hypothalamic-Pituitary- Adrenal (HPA) axis. The HPA axis is responsible for producing a response to stressful stimuli. The hippocampus is sensitive to high levels of glucocorticoids (GCs), because of its large number of GC receptors. In times of severe stress, hippocampal function is inhibited and its control over the HPA axis is diminished, leading to hyperactivity of the adrenal glands as well as hypercortisolism, typical of depression. Long-term stress and depression can eventually lead to chronic impairments in cognitive ability, as well as structural damage in the hippocampus. Exercise and environmental enrichment stimulate significant …

Preservice Teacher Awareness Of Risk Factors For Student Suicide, Stacey Heitkamp

ETD Archive

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents in the United States. Given this, it is imperative that those who have regular contact with members of the youth population be able to recognize and identify those youth who are at risk for suicide. Part of the process of identifying suicidal adolescents requires having knowledge about adolescent suicide and about those factors that place certain adolescents at greater risk for completing suicide than others. One group of professionals who are in an optimal position to detect at-risk youth is schoolteachers. Fifty-four undergraduate students who were studying to obtain teaching …

Examining Whether Social Factors Affect Listeners Sensitivity To Talker-Specific Information During Their Online Perception Of Spoken Words, Jessica L. Newell

ETD Archive

McLennan and Luce (2005) found no significant cost associated with changing which talker produced a particular word from the first block of trials to the second (no talker effects) when participants responded relatively quickly (easy lexical decision), and that talker effects emerged when participants responded relatively slowly (hard lexical decision). In a lexical decision task, participants hear words and nonwords and reaction times to correct responses are measured. In the current study, we examined whether social factors would lead to talker effects in an easy lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, participants were told that they have a chance to …

Examining The Effects Of Variation In Emotional Tone Of Voice On Spoken Word Recognition, Maura L. Wilson

ETD Archive

Despite the importance of emotional tone of voice for optimal verbal communication, how emotional speech is processed and its effects on spoken word recognition have yet to be fully understood. The current study addressed these gaps in the literature by examining the effects of intra-talker variability in emotional tone of voice on listeners' ability to recognize spoken words. Two lexical decision experiments, varying in task difficulty, were implemented to analyze participants' percent correct (PC) and reaction times (RTs). Previous research on spoken word recognition using this paradigm has found performance costs resulting from stimuli that mismatch on specific information (e.g., …

Treatment Of Co-Morbid Chronic Pain And Substance Use Disorders, Lisa Ellison

ETD Archive

Chronic pain affects approximately 15 of the adult population with substance use disorders (SUDS) estimated to co-occur in 15 to 28 of the chronic pain population. When these two disorders co-occur, there can be multiple implications for the affected individuals as well as numerous complications for treatment. This study examined the outcomes and program completion rates of two groups of chronic pain SUDS patients who had followed different treatment paths after their admission to the Cleveland Clinic's Chronic pain rehabilitation program (CC-CPRP). Prior to June of 2009, pre-identified chronic pain SUDS patients were advised to complete a separate chemical dependency …

The Impact Of Stress On Pain And Daily Living In Fibromyalgia, Meredith Brooke Wessner

ETD Archive

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a condition that is characterized by widespread pain, which occurs in about 2 of the population, and impacts more women than men. This study sought to: 1) determine if stress, pain intensity, and the interference of pain in daily living predict if FM patients are likely to complete the pain rehabilitation program 2) Explore the interrelationship between stress, pain intensity, gender, and the interference of pain in daily living at admission and discharge. This study examined 142 FM patients admitted to the Cleveland Clinic Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program (CPRP) from January 2007-August 2010 (84.5 female). Logistic regression …

Perceived Difficulty In A Fitts Task, Suzanne M. Grilli

ETD Archive

This study provided a detailed investigation of perceived difficulty (PD) in a Fitts task. The Fitts task has been used to study Fitts's law, which shows that movement time (MT) is related to the information constraints of the movement (Fitts's Index of Difficulty, ID) such that there is a positive, linear relationship between MT and ID and MTs are similar when the scale of the movement requirements vary but ID is equal (scale invariance). According to Fitts's law, Fitts's ID provides an index of objective difficulty does Fitts's ID also provide an index of subjective difficulty? The main goal of …

Perspective Taking In Dyadic Interactions: Influences Of Cooperation And Competition On Third Person Representation Of Movement, Michael H. Summers

ETD Archive

Similar processes between a third person representation and a first person representation may be at work in understanding the limitations of another. These processes may lead to errors in estimating the abilities of another by anchoring those estimates to one's own abilities. A study designed to test how interactive conditions may mediate these processes. It was hypothesized that, due to an increase in interdependence, an individual would show a higher degree of difference between his or her own abilities and those of another when cooperating, compared to non-interactive conditions. It was also hypothesized that competition, due in part to a …

The Impact Of Motivational Systems On Dynamic Inconsistency In Risk Taking, Alexander E. Dorf

ETD Archive

Every day we are confronted with risky decisions in which the rewards and the punishments are not always clear. We like to believe that logic is the primary force behind our decisions, but in reality, emotion plays a very important role. This study examines the impact of participants' Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) on dynamic inconsistencies in a sequential gambling task. Contrary to the hypotheses, neither system predicted deviations following a win or and a loss. However, participants high in BAS were more likely to make negative deviations

Change Detection Ability In Naturalistic Scenes: Are Object Appearances Or Disappearances Easier To Detect When Disappearances Should Be More Noticeable?, Maria J. Donaldson

ETD Archive

Onset primacy is a robust phenomenon in which appearance of new objects in a scene effectively captures observers' attention. The present study explored conditions under which object offsets may also capture observers' attention. We hypothesized that our visual attentional system is programmed by default to look for onsets of new objects. However, our attentional priority may be able to flexibly adapt to the detection of object offsets depending on what types of visual event better fulfills observers' behavioral goals. To test this hypothesis, an experiment was conducted in which participants were biased toward finding offset of an existing object. Results …

Does Environmental Enrichment While Studying Improve Recall?, Jade-Isis A. Lefebvre, Jordan S. Lefebvre, Lionel G. Standing

Modern Psychological Studies

Previous research suggests that studying audio and visual stimuli in two different rooms increases verbal recall, as compared to studying twice in only one room (Smith, Glenberg, & Bjork, 1978). The present study utilized this paradigm, and also separated the room and modality factors as sources of environmental enrichment. In Experiment 1, subjects learned a list of 40 common English words twice, in either one or two different rooms, and were tested in a third room (N = 60). In Experiment 2, subjects learned the same word lists, using either one or two modalities (audition and vision), and again were …