Psychology Commons^™

Racial/Ethnic Matching Of Clients And Therapists In Mental Health Services: A Meta-Analytic Review Of Preferences, Perceptions, And Outcomes, Timothy B. Smith, Raquel R. Cabral

Faculty Publications

The effects of matching clients with therapists of the same race/ethnicity have been explored using a variety of approaches across several decades. We conducted a meta-analysis of three variables frequently used in research on racial/ethnic matching: Clients' preferences for a therapist of their own race/ethnicity, clients' perceptions of therapists, and therapeutic outcomes. Across 52 studies of preferences, the average effect size was d = .63, indicating a moderately strong preference for a therapist of one's own race/ethnicity. Across 81 studies of individuals' perceptions of therapists, the average effect size was d = .32, indicating a tendency to perceive therapists of …

Cantankerous Creativity: Honesty–Humility, Agreeableness, And The Hexaco Structure Of Creative Achievement, Paul J. Silvia, James C. Kaufman, Roni Reiter-Palmon, Benjamin Wigert

Psychology Faculty Publications

Creativity research has suggested that creative people are low in agreeableness. To explore this issue, we applied the HEXACO model of personality structure, which offers an expanded representation of interpersonal traits, particularly a distinction between Honesty–Humility and Agreeableness. A sample of 1304 adults completed the HEXACO-60 and several measures of creative achievement and activities. Latent variable models found that Agreeableness had no relationship with creativity, but Honesty–Humility did: people lower in Honesty–Humility had higher creativity scores, consistent with past work on arrogance and pretentiousness among creative people.

The Effects Of Observers’ Expectations And The Probability Of A Change Occurring On Change Detection Performance, Robert A. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The change probability effect is a term coined by Beck et al. (2004) and it suggests that changes that are expected or "probable" are detected more easily than changes that are unexpected or "improbable". This research study investigates the change probability effect and the differences between observers who are looking for changes and those who are unaware that changes may exist. The results suggest that observers who are not expecting a change to occur are more likely to detect an improbable change than a probable change. The findings from this study have real world applications and also have implications for …

The Effects Of Caffeine And Expectancy On Short Term Memory, Sara J. O'Brien

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Although caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world, research on the effects of caffeine on mental performance tasks (especially short term memory tasks) is inconclusive. One possible explanation for this limited understanding is the lack of studies accounting for participant expectancy surrounding caffeine. This study examined the effects of caffeine dosage (0mg, 200mg, and 400mg) and expectancy related to past caffeine use (positive, negative) on short term memory span task. A two-way Analysis of Variance showed that the two independent variables (caffeine dose and expectancy), did not significantly influence the short term memory span score. However, the …

Psychosocial Problems Of Refugees: Understanding And Addressing Needs, Catherine Doren

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Because all refugees have, by definition, left their country due to a “well-founded fear of persecution due to race, political opinion, ethnic origin, religion, or belonging to a particular social group,” it must be assumed that they have experienced trauma, making psychosocial problems ubiquitous among refugees (Bulbul, 2011; M. Carballo, personal communication, 29 September 2011). Research has shown that refugees often experience a range of psychosocial problems, yet research about the potential avenues for ameliorating these problems and their consequences is lacking and must be increased. Through a combination of interviews and a review of the field’s existing literature, it …

Mate-Selection And The Dark Triad: Facilitating A Short-Term Mating Strategy And Creating A Volatile Environment, Peter K. Jonason, Katherine A. Valentine, Norman P. Li, Carmelita L. Harbeson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The current study (N = 242) seeks to establish the relationship between traits known collectively as the Dark Triad – narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism – and mating standards and preferences. Using a budget-allocation task, we correlated scores on the Dark Triad traits with mate preferences for a long-term and short-term mate. Men scoring high on the Dark Triad may be more indiscriminate than most when selecting for short-term mates in order to widen their prospects. Furthermore, those high on the Dark Triad – psychopathy in particular – tend to select for mates based on self-interest, assortative mating, or a predilection for …

Economic Inequality Is Linked To Biased Self-Perception, Steve Loughnan, Peter Kuppens, Juri Allik, Katalin Balazs, Soledad De Lemus, Kitty Dumont, Rafael Gargurevich, Istvan Hidegkuti, Bernhard Leidner, Jennifer Yuk-Yue Tong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

People’s self-perception biases often lead them to see themselves as better than the average person (a phenomenon known as self-enhancement). This bias varies across cultures, and variations are typically explained using cultural variables, such as individualism versus collectivism. We propose that socioeconomic differences among societies—specifically, relative levels of economic inequality—play an important but unrecognized role in how people evaluate themselves. Evidence for self-enhancement was found in 15 diverse nations, but the magnitude of the bias varied. Greater self-enhancement was found in societies with more income inequality, and income inequality predicted cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement better than did individualism/ collectivism. These …

Perceptions Of Fairness, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Healing Images: A Historical Outline Of Their Use In Western Medical And Psychotherapeutic Traditions, Anees A. Sheikh

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

The ancient literature of numerous cultures abounds with accounts of spectacular cures resulting from the imaging process. These accounts are now being corroborated by a growing body of clinical and experimental evidence. The effectiveness of mental imagery in the treatment of a wide variety of problems has been convincingly documented (Sheikh, 1983). This paper outlines the use of imagery in Western medical as well as psychotherapeutic traditions. It concludes with a discussion of the reasons that make imagery an excellent healing agent.

Can Beck’S Theory Of Depression And The Response Style Theory Be Integrated?, Patrick Pössel

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

There are obvious similarities between the cognitive constructs of Beck’s cognitive theory (1976) and the response style theory (Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991). Different propositions of Ciesla and Roberts (2007) and Lyubomirsky and Nolen-Hoeksema (1993, 1995) concerning associations of two response styles, brooding and reflection, with constructs of Beck’s cognitive theory (schemata, cognitive errors, cognitive triad, automatic thoughts) were tested. Model comparisons were based on a 4-week study in which 397 participants completed self-report instruments at two time points. A model allowing schemata to influence brooding and reflection which influence the other cognitive variables of Beck’s cognitive theory fits the data …

Contextual Cueing Effects In Visual Threat Detection, Molly M. Liechty

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Contextual cueing is the implicit association of objects ( or "cues") in a visual scene due to repeated exposure, either spatially or semantically. Associations between objects in a visual scene have been shown to aid people in detecting a specific target more quickly and easily during a visual search. The goal of this study was to investigate whether an individual could utilize a "distractor" as a contextual cue during a visual target search. Twenty undergraduate participants performed a luggage screening task during which they were connected to an eye tracker and screened 375 x-ray luggage images across three trial blocks …

Examining The Roles Of Attachment Theory And Sensitivity To Reward And Punishment In Predicting Driving Behavior Among Young Adults, Elaine M. Murphy

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Drivers under the age of 25 years old have the highest per capita fatal-crash rate. They are also over represented in particular risky driving behaviors, such as speeding, safety belt non-use, and impaired driving. Although researchers have used many different theories to explain driving behaviors of young adults, two theories which have received less attention, attachment theory and reinforcement sensitivity theory, were used as a theoretical framework in the present research. Reckless driving has been found to serve as an anxiety buffering function that can reduce stress among insecurely attached individuals (Taubman - Ben-Ari et al., 1999). Having a secure …

Open Creativity: The Broadcast Search Approach To Creative Problem Solving, V. Krishna Kumar

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Loss Of Neighborhood Secondary Schools: How The Distance A Student Lives From Their School Can Affect Their Academic Achievement, Gillian Armstrong

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the distance a student lives from their school influences their academic achievement. In detail, this study has correlated the distance in miles a student lives from his or her school with their grade point average at the end of their freshman and junior years. Data has been collected from 100 participants at two private high schools in southern New Jersey, Our Lady of Mercy Academy and Saint Augustine College Prepatory School. Both schools are grades ninth through twelfth. Both schools are Catholic schools but you do not have to be Catholic …

Identity And Psychological Needs Among National Guard Service Members And Undergraduates, Bradley Antonides

Theses and Dissertations

This study measured identity style and identity status within military and academic populations (N = 286) to investigate whether low levels of identity commitment predict dissatisfaction in meeting basic psychological needs. Analysis of identity style and identity status subscales examined the reliability of traditional measures of identity in an atypical emerging adult population. Group comparisons based on participant characteristics (identity commitment, work experience, age, combat experience) explored differences between and within institutions. Results supported the reliability of traditional identity measures in a non-traditional population. A diffuse identity status and diffuse identity style both significantly predicted lower reported levels of psychological …

Picture Recognition Of Food By Macaques (Macaca Silenus), Peter G. Judge

Faculty Journal Articles

Pictorial representations of three-dimensional objects are often used to investigate animal cognitive abilities; however, investigators rarely evaluate whether the animals conceptualize the two-dimensional image as the object it is intended to represent. We tested for picture recognition in lion-tailed macaques by presenting five monkeys with digitized images of familiar foods on a touch screen. Monkeys viewed images of two different foods and learned that they would receive a piece of the one they touched first. After demonstrating that they would reliably select images of their preferred foods on one set of foods, animals were transferred to images of a second …

Speed-Storming Organizational Creativity: Brainstorming + Speed-Dating = Speed-Storming, V. Krishna Kumar

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Increasing Students Self-Esteem Through The Implementation Of The Bucket Filler Lesson Plans, Jenna Norton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which positive psychology can impact the educational system. Twenty-three second grade students enrolled in Berlin Community School, located in Berlin New Jersey participated in this study. All students were enrolled in a regular education classroom and assumed to be learning at the appropriate age group level. The Piers-Harris 2 Self-Concept Scale was used to measure student's self-esteem as a pre-test and a post-test assessment. The experimental group received the implementation of the Bucket Filler Lesson plans in hopes that their self-esteem would improve upon completion of the lessons. The …

Inspiring Change: The Roles Of Women And Their Communities, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

'Change' is a word often employed (and frequently abused) by politicians, industrialists, artists and leaders of various domains as a rallying call. Its effects can be profound on those discontented with the status quo and perhaps uninviting for those already contented with the way things are.

Perceived Community Cohesion And The Stress Process In Youth, Karen T. Van Gundy, Nena F. Stracuzzi, Cesar J. Rebellon, Corinna Jenkins Tucker, Ellen S. Cohn

Psychology

Using survey data from two youth samples, one rural and one urban, we examine the role and significance of perceived community cohesion in the stress process. In particular, we assess the extent to which community attachment and detachment are related to depressed mood, problem substance use, and delinquency net of social statuses, stress exposure, and personal attributes. In addition, we explore the degree to which those dimensions of community cohesion explain or condition the links between the above stress-process components (e.g., social statuses, stress exposure, and personal attributes) and well-being. We find remarkably similar results across samples: community attachment is …

A Kinder, Gentler Nativism?: Review Of Alison Gopnik, The Philosophical Baby, David Moshman

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Review of Alison Gopnik, The philosophical baby: What children's minds tell us about truth, love, and the meaning of life.

In its historic philosophical and psychological formulations, nativism highlighted innateness. Development was deemed nothingmore than a genetically driven process ofmaturation; learning, in turn, was nothing more than the filling in of superficial content. In this determinist view, neither development nor learning could be deemed active, creative, or constructive processes, and nothing genuinely new could result.

The nativists who have increasingly populated the literature of developmental psychology since the 1980s, however, are neonativists. Neonativists fully accept modern views of immature organisms …

Addressing Work-Related Traumatic Stress Nebraska - Resilience Alliance Facilitator Manual, Acs-Nyu Children's Trauma Institute

Other QIC-WD Products

Child welfare staff are first responders; just like police officer and fire fighters, they are asked to respond to emergency situations with very little information, and by doing so often put themselves at risk. In addition to the very real physical risks involved with responding to a report of suspected child abuse or neglect, there are equally real psychological risks involved with taking care of children and families that have experienced abuse, neglect, family and community violence, and other traumas. Unlike police officers and fire fighters, however, child welfare staff get very little public recognition for the hard work they …

Examining The Effects Of Political Information And Intervention Stages On Public Support For Military Interventions: A Panel Experiment, Cigdem Sirin

Selected Works Temporary Series

This study examines the formation and continuity of public support for military interventions as a function of political information levels and intervention stages using a panel experiment. The results demonstrate that politically informed individuals express less support for a military intervention at the beginning of that intervention compared to uninformed ones. However, as the intervention proceeds and casualties are incurred, the support of politically uninformed people decreases at a higher rate than does the support of the politically informed. As such, politically informed individuals demonstrate more stable levels of support across intervention stages. In addition, success or failure of an …

Indicators Of Age, Body Size And Sex In Goat Kid Calls Revealed Using The Source–Filter Theory, Elodie F. Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Sentience Collection

The source–filter theory is an important framework recently applied to the study of animal vocalisations, which links the mode of vocal production to call parameters. Vocalisations can be good indicators of a sender’s characteristics, such as identity, body size, age, and even hormonal status and affective states. For these reasons, applied vocal communication research would greatly benefit from adopting the source–filter theory approach to identify key call parameters linked to physical and physiological characteristics of domestic animals. Here, we introduce the source–filter theory through a detailed analysis and interpretation of goat contact calls during development. In mammals, vocal development is …

Vocabulary Development In Greek Children: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison Using The Language Development Survey, Christina F. Papaeliou, Leslie Rescorla

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

This study investigated vocabulary size and vocabulary composition in Greek children aged 1; 6 to 2; 11 using a Greek adaptation of Rescorla's Language Development Survey (LDS; Rescorla, 1989). Participants were 273 toddlers coming from monolingual Greek-speaking families. Greek LDS data were compared with US LDS data obtained from the instrument's normative sample (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). Vocabulary size increased markedly with age, but Greek toddlers appeared to get off to a slower start in early word learning than US children. The correlation between percentage word use scores in Greek and US samples was moderate in size, indicating considerable overlap …

"I Would Feel Uncomforable If My Child's Teacher Were Gay": Examining The Role Of Symbolic Homophobia And Political Affiliation, Michael Moore, Amy Moors

Modern Psychological Studies

Symbolic homophobia is a general negative disposition towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, which is demonstrated in symbolic forms of prejudice rather than overt actions. Stigma towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals has transformed from overt forms of prejudice to slightly less blatant more subtle forms in recent years (Schafer & Shaw, 2009). Based on previous research, it is has also been shown that conservatives will have higher levels of symbolic homophobia. (Linneman, 2004), Thus, in order to assess the more nuanced forms of prejudice in relation to political affiliation, Study 1 created a scale to assess symbolic homophobia. …

Using Toys To Support Infant-Toddler Learning And Development, Gabriel Guyton

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

Being mindful of the basic principles of child development and the role of play, teachers can intentionally select toys to meet young children's unique needs and interests, supporting learning.

Examining The Effects Of Political Information And Intervention Stages On Public Support For Military Interventions: A Panel Experiment, Cigdem Sirin

Departmental Papers (PS)

This study examines the formation and continuity of public support for military interventions as a function of political information levels and intervention stages using a panel experiment. The results demonstrate that politically informed individuals express less support for a military intervention at the beginning of that intervention compared to uninformed ones. However, as the intervention proceeds and casualties are incurred, the support of politically uninformed people decreases at a higher rate than does the support of the politically informed. As such, politically informed individuals demonstrate more stable levels of support across intervention stages. In addition, success or failure of an …

Front Matter

Modern Psychological Studies

No abstract provided.

Challenges Of Reentering Society For Incarcerated African-American Men, Monica L. Ricci, Carolyn Mcnamara Barry

Modern Psychological Studies

African-American men are at the greatest risk for incarceration. Upon their release from prison, they face tremendous challenges to successful reentry, which explains in part their high recidivism rate. In the current paper, we review the existing literature on the challenges faced by African-American ex-offenders as they strive for successful reentry into society, namely challenges to secure employment and living arrangements, social support assets and challenges, as well as broader community-level challenges of reentry. Policy solutions are then identified to offset these obstacles. Lastly, the limitations of existing literature and future research directions are addressed.