Psychology Commons^™

Autonomy Through Social Skill Development: A Camp Intervention For Young People With Spina Bifida, Lauren Nicole Zurenda

Dissertations

Spina bifida is a complex condition that presents multiple physical and psychosocial challenges to autonomy development. Pediatric psychology may play a role in promoting autonomy development in this population through the implementation of empirically-supported, developmentally-appropriate, and syndrome-specific interventions. The current study was one attempt to meet the need for such interventions.

This study represents one step in a line of intervention research designed to promote autonomy gains among young people with spina bifida. Its purpose was to evaluate a manual-based curriculum as a part of a one-week long overnight camp exclusively for young people with spina bifida. It was hypothesized …

Socio-Moral Disgust And Its Relation To The Disgust System, David Sparkman

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Treating Major Depression During Pregnancy On The Postpartum Phase, Jamie Kent

Dissertations

Major depression during pregnancy is a risk factor for postpartum depression (PPD). Medically acceptable treatments for depression during pregnancy and postpartum are limited and many women are turning to complementary and alternative treatments. The current project examined whether treatment of major depression during pregnancy reduced the risk for PPD and explored predictors of PPD in this high-risk sample. One hundred twenty women were clinically assessed using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD17), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) at ten weeks, six months, and nine months postpartum following random assignment to one …

Professional And Personal Lives Of Psychologists: Spillover, Family Functioning, And Life Satsiafction, Pedja Stevanovic

Dissertations

Two-wave, longitudinal data from a national, web-based survey of doctoral psychologists was used to examine work life, spillover, family, and personal lives. A measure of spillover, Stressors and Enhancers for Psychologists, was also evaluated. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated two negatively correlated dimensions of work spillover: positive spillover termed family enhancers and negative spillover termed family stressors. This measure was significantly related to a widely used, more general measure of positive and negative spillover and demonstrated high temporal stability. Respondents reported a significantly higher incidence of family enhancers than family stressors at both data collection points. Consistent with previous research, the …

Moving To The Level Of Representation To Explain Variations In Family Child Care Provider Sensitivity And The Effectiveness Of Child-Related Training, Diana Davidson Schaack

Dissertations

Many young children in the United States spend a substantial amount of time in the care of family child care providers. Previous research has found that when providers are sensitive and responsive to children's needs, children are more likely to develop secure attachment relationships with their providers, which, in turn, have been linked to many developmental benefits for young children. Unfortunately, it appears that many children do not experience the levels of caregiving sensitivity that are necessary to develop secure attachment relationships with their providers and that increased child-related training is not always effective at improving provider caregiving behaviors.

Attachment …

Gender Differences In Seeking Help, Jeff Jackson

Online Theses and Dissertations

Gender differences in willingness to seek help were examined in this study. Males often appear to not seek help from others, especially from a professional, like a psychologist. The current study will look at several factors that may prevent males from seeking help. First, males may be unaware of their problems as whole, specifically emotional and relational problems. Next, males often are afraid or unable to open up because they do not think in "emotions." Lastly, males are afraid to appear weak in order to keep their masculine appearance. In this study, participants read several scenarios and determined whether they …

Examining Construct Stability Across Career Stage Cohorts, Deborah L. Kinney

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to evaluate construct stability of the same certification test taken at different points in a test taker's career, taking into account changes is experience over time. A single medical certification exam administration was used to analyze the construct stability of the certification exam across testing cohorts at varied stages in their medical careers. The Rasch model was used for item analysis to calibrate the difficulty hierarchy of the exam items for each cohort. Correlations between the item difficulty hierarchies for each cohort supported the overall construct stability of the certification exam. Individual item function …

Mental Health Services In Appalachia, Miranda Renee Waters

Online Theses and Dissertations

People from rural areas of the country, such as the Appalachian region of Kentucky, continue to struggle with inadequate mental health services. Past research has identified several barriers for mental health services in rural communities such as lack of mental health providers, lack of transportation, and lack of education. The purpose of this study was to examine the severity of a psychological problem and how it could influence Appalachian and non-Appalachians' preference for type of help. It was hypothesized that people from the Appalachian region would recommend seeing a mental health professional when a problem had reached its highest severity. …

Nursing Home Administrators' Personality And Nursing Home Quality: Correlations Between The Predictive Index And Cms Ratings, Kelly Anne Osbaldiston

Online Theses and Dissertations

The approximately two million residents in nursing homes are nearly totally dependent on the care they receive from the nursing homes' staff. The quality of care ranges from excellent to substandard, and the goal of this project is to understand how the top administrators' personality is related to the quality of the facility. Very little research has been done from an organizational psychology perspective on how to improve the care that residents receive in nursing homes. To help address this problem, I examined the relationship between administrator personality factors (measured by Predictive Index) and nursing home quality (measured by the …

Identity, Reality, And Truth In Memoirs From The Iraq And Afghanistan Wars, Travis L. Martin

Online Theses and Dissertations

This research uses trauma theory, memoir theory, narratology, and recent scientific research into the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) to explore developments in the memoir coming from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Specifically, the author examines the works of Shoshana Johnson, Colby Buzzell, and Anthony Shaffer to uncover the ways in which identity, reality and truth present themselves in the destabilized narratives of traumatized subjects.

Travis Martin is himself a veteran of the Iraq War, using his first-hand knowledge as a compass to guide him through intricate memoirs written by his contemporaries. Beginning …

A Multi-Method Assessment Approach To The Detection Of Malingered Pain: Association With The Mmpi-2 Restructured Form, Jaime L. Anderson

Online Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated the utility of the MMPI-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) over-reporting scales (F-r, Fp-r, Fs, and FBS-r) and the Response Bias Scale (RBS) to detect symptom exaggeration among litigants claiming chronic pain. Utilizing the Bianchini et al. (2005) multi-method criteria for Malingered Pain Related Disability (MPRD), patients were classified along a continuum ranging from incentive only to definite malingering. Malingering classification was found to have a significant effect on MMPI-2-RF over-reporting scales, particularly the RBS, Infrequent Symptoms Scale (F-r), and Infrequent Somatic Responses scale (Fs), which supports the use of the MMPI-2-RF in forensic disability evaluations.

Psychosocial Effects On Academic Performance, Aria Zhalet Higgins

Online Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that academic performance can be affected by many variables, such as parental involvement, family rules, family resources and homework. The present study focuses on these variables and their association with academic performance using 3,932 participants from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS). Results showed positive associations between Parental Involvement and Family Resources on Homework, which also had a positive association with Academic Performance; Family Rules had a negative association with Homework, which resulted in a negative association with Academic Performance.

Reality Television And Its Impact On Women's Body Image, Ayarza Manwaring

Online Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found that both print media and television may affect the body image of young women. Tiggerman and Pickering (1996) found that it was not just the amount of television viewed, but the viewing of appearance focused shows that affected body image. Schooler, Ward, Merriwether and Caruthers (2004) came to the conclusion that women's viewing of shows with predominantly white casts lead to greater body dissatisfaction. To date, no investigations have looked at a new and popular genre, categorized as, `reality television'. The purpose of this study was examine the effects of viewing this new genre and its …

Evaluating Changes In Families With Members On Military Deployment, Jill Brink

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With ongoing operations in the Middle East, military families face a large amount of stress surrounding deployment. While many studies have been conducted on soldier mental health, few have been published on the health of their families and even less on their children. The present case studies examine the mental health of military children, the change in family environment, and the social supports dependent spouses use during deployment. Two families are presented in this study. One family represents an Army Reserve family and the other an Air Force family. By comparing scores to standardized scores, it was shown that mental …

Retention Among First Year College Students: An Application Of The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Jose A. Cantt, Guillermo Wated

Modern Psychological Studies

It was proposed that attitudes toward college, subjective norms (pressure from family and important others) and perceived control over the ability to succeed in school influence students' intention to stay in school. Forty-seven students (39 females) completed an 88-item survey. Results indicated that students' attitudes and social pressure were the most important predictors of intention to stay in school. These findings suggest that active family involvement in students' education, as well as the incorporation of information regarding the value of a college education into programs such as freshman experience, could aid efforts in helping students succeed at staying in school.

A Multi-Method Approach To Risk Assessment Among Women With Sexual Abuse Histories, Susan Elizabeth Drevo

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

While many empirical works detail the experience of and effects from sexual victimization, the underlying mechanisms that promote a cycle of recurrent victimization are not well understood. The current study replicated a previous study examining the perceptions of the benefits, risks, and personal expected involvement regarding a variety of risk taking behaviors in a sample of 151 college women with and without histories of sexual abuse. The current study further introduced a behavioral task in effort to test the utility of a multi-method approach to risk assessment. T-test analyses revealed that individuals with a history of sexual abuse perceived lesser …

Verbal Behavior Of Mice And Men: Preference For Multiple Schedules Of Reinforcement As An Indicator Of The Evolution Of Verbal Behavior, Adrianne Eileen Lewis

Psychology Theses - Archive

The evolution of verbal behavior in humans is believed to have appeared in the form of a complex operant behavior. According to behaviorists, the development verbal behavior which is exclusive to Homo sapiens could have been the result of an increased sensitivity to environmental stimuli in the form of another person. Previous animal research by Roark and Kopp (2008) found that sensitivity to environmental stimuli (as indicated by a preference to respond to a multiple schedule of reinforcement) and a preference to respond to additional cues could be a precursor to the evolution of verbal behavior in Sprague Dawley rats. …

Competition Between Dorsal Root Reflex And Sympathetic Activity On Neurogenic Inflammation, Ailing Li

Psychology Theses - Archive

Neurogenic inflammation is caused by the inflammatory substances released from the peripheral terminals of afferent fibers. Vasodilation is one of the cardinal signs of neurogenic inflammation. It is thought that neurogenic inflammation is closely related with dorsal root reflex (DRR). DRRs are the antidromic action potentials that can be elicited by noxious stimuli and promote the release of inflammatory substances from the nerve terminals to facilitate neurogenic inflammation, like increase of the vasodilation. Some studies have proved that DRR can propagate bilaterally after being induced unilaterally. However, in our previous studies, we didn't observe significant increase of contralateral blood perfusion, …

Embeddedness Versus Isolation In Dissonance-Induced Attitude Change, Rebecca L. Robinson

Psychology Theses - Archive

The argument is made that embedded and isolated attitudes differ in the magnitude and effects of cognitive dissonance in an induced-compliance paradigm. Individuals who engaged in counterattitudinal advocacy with an embedded attitude experienced increased negative affect but decreased attitude change compared to those who engaged in counterattitudinal advocacy with an isolated attitude. Traditional choice condition effects were also found to be different when the attitude was embedded versus isolated, with the embedded attitude characterized by a reversal of the expected effects typically seen with isolated attitudes. It is argued that induced-compliance dissonance studies have historically been restricted to one-sided isolated …

Religious Orientation And Responses To Anxiety: The Mediating Role Of Trust, Jennifer Rae Jones

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

This research experimentally manipulated death anxiety and examined its effects on social, spiritual, and self-support. Individual level of religiosity was examined as a moderating variable. Various forms of trust were examined as potential mediators of the relationship between death anxiety and sources of support. The participants' ages ranged from 17-48 (M = 22.13 SD = 6.30), including 141 females and 39 males. A marginally significant interaction (p = .09) was found between experimental condition and participant level of religiosity in predicting general support by God, such that intrinsic religiosity predicted general support by God most strongly in the anxiety condition, …

An Animal Model Of Conditioned Placebo Analgesia, Christopher T. Mcnabb

Psychology Theses - Archive

Research on placebo analgesia (PA) has called for the further elucidation of underlying neural mechanisms. Animal models allow for experimental manipulations that are not possible or feasible in human research such as brain lesions. Therefore, an animal model would be ideally suited to expand upon human PA literature; however, there is currently no animal model of PA. This study used a classical conditioning paradigm in an effort to induce an analgesic response to placebo treatment in rats. Thirty eight female Sprague-Dawley rats underwent an L5 spinal nerve ligation (L5 SNL) to induce a chronic neuropathic pain condition. Animals were conditioned …

Creating And Studying "Instant Enemies" And Instant Allies" In Same-Sex Dyadic Interactions, Anna E. Park

Psychology Theses - Archive

The present study was designed to investigate the “instant enemy” and “instant ally” phenomena. Forty-three pairs of unacquainted college students interacted in same-sex and same-race pairs for 10 minutes. In the enemy condition, the dyads consisted of one participant who was liberal and one participant who was conservative. In the ally condition, both participants were either liberal or both participants were conservative. It was expected that dyads consisting of political opposites would behave like “instant enemies,” whereas dyads consisting of participants with similar political attitudes would behave more like “instant allies.” This general prediction was expected to be reflected in …

Evaluation Of A Randomized Clinical Trial Of A Psychoeducational Intervention On Long-Term Quality Of Life, Negative Affect, Progression And Survival In Head And Neck Cancer Patients, Lara Anne Trevino

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

The relationship between psychological and physiological factors that impact health is an important consideration for daily life, illness prevention, treatment, and recovery in cancer patients. Psychological functioning may impact overall immune functioning, which may affect efficacy of cancer treatment and disease outcomes. Unfortunately, how psychological variables and quality of life during treatment may impact progression or survival has not been systematically studied. There is a growing body of research suggesting that psychological factors are important predictors of quality of life among cancer survivors. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a randomized clinical trial of …

Sex, Drugs, And Work: The Associations Of Personality Characteristics, Risky Sex, Substance Use, And Work Behavior In Young Adult Restaurant Workers, Robyn D. Petree

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

Personality characteristics among young adult (18 - 29 years old) restaurant workers were examined in relation to substance use, risky sexual behavior, and several work outcomes. High sensation seekers and emerging adults were associated with more alcohol and drug use, lower levels of work engagement, and higher levels of intent to quit. Sensation seeking was also related to shorter job tenure. Emerging adulthood was also related to more days absent from work, more sexual partners, and having more unprotected sex. These findings are particularly important for the restaurant industry, one of the largest employers of young adults who are often …

Measurement Invariance Of The Sf-12 Across Ethnic Groups Among Women In Postpartum, Tamer Farouk Desouky

Psychology Theses - Archive

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine differential item functioning (DIF) as a plausible cause of subgroup variation in the short-form health survey (SF-12). Methods: Cross sectional secondary data analysis of postpartum women (n = 655) who participated in a prospective cohort longitudinal design was conducted. Hypotheses predicted that subgroups would exhibit DIF among items measuring physical health as assessed by the SF-12. If DIF is found then other postpartum related variables, such as social support and parity, will explain DIF through mediation analysis. A Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) model was used to examine DIF among these …

Gender Differences In Emotional Labor, Cara L. Fay

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

This study examined the differences in emotional labor efforts between men and women. Emotional labor refers to the incongruity between experienced emotions and displayed emotions. This "faking" or "acting" that takes place during emotional labor has been found to be correlated with negative work-related outcomes such as job satisfaction, burnout, turnover intentions, and decreased work performance. These outcomes can cost organizations millions of dollars in terms of lost revenue, innovation, and employee-related expenses. Likewise, these outcomes can cost individuals greatly in terms of physical, mental, and emotional well-being. The study sought to experimentally examine how emotional labor differs by gender. …

Testing The Effects Of Civility And Rationality During Political Contact, Jason R. Popan

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

This research project investigated the effects of civility and rationality of contact between self-identified liberals and conservatives on several outcome measures: participants' evaluations of the political ingroup and outgroup; political attitude certainty; perceived amount of difference between political group members (liberal and conservative); and political identification strength. A 2 (civility: high, low) X 2 (rationality: high, low) experimental design was used in both studies. In Study 1, participants encountered fictitious Internet discussion board posts, with manipulated levels of civility and rationality. Findings from Study 1 did not confirm expectations that exposure to civil and rational civil discourse would lead to …

The Experience Of Mental Health Service Use For African American Mothers And Youth, Richard Thompson, Barbara L. Dancy, Tisha R. A. Wiley, Sylvia P. Perry, Cynthia J. Najdowski

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Little is known about African American families’ experiences with mental health services. A purposive sample of 40 dyads of African American youth (aged 13 to 19) and their mothers participated in a cross-sectional qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews that elicited information about their past experiences and satisfaction with mental health services. Though rarely received, group and family therapy were perceived favorably. However, both mothers and youth reported dissatisfaction centered on medication and lack of professionalism, confidentiality, and concern by providers. The failure of mental health services providers to meet basic standards of quality and professionalism may explain the low …

Jurors’ Perceptions Of Juvenile Offenders Tried In Adult Criminal Court, Margaret C. Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Katlyn M. Sorenson, Sylvia P. Perry

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Evolution And Development Of Reasoning And Argumentation: Commentary On Mercier (2011), David Moshman

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

For anyone who loves a strong major thesis—and I do—Mercier’s “Reasoning serves argumentation in children” [this issue] obliges right from the title. And for anyone who loves a carefully structured defense of a provocative perspective—and who does not?—Mercier’s article continues to fill the bill.

The “argumentative theory of reasoning” maintains that “reasoning is a fundamentally social ability” that “has evolved to serve argumentive ends: finding and evaluating arguments in a dialogic context.” There appear to be two distinguishable theses here: first, reasoning serves argumentive ends; second, reasoning has evolved. In their moderate versions, each thesis is true and useful; their …