Psychology Commons^™

Religious And Non-Religious Spirituality In Relation To Death Acceptance Or Rejection, Victor G. Cicirelli

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications

Meanings of religious and non-religious spirituality are explored, with implications for death acceptance, death rejection, and life extension. In the first of two exploratory studies, 16 elders low on intrinsic religiosity were compared with 116 elders high in religiosity; they differed both in qualitative responses and on death attitudes. In the second, 48 elders were assessed on religious and non-religious spirituality, and compared on attitudes toward death rejection, life extension, and death acceptance. Conclusions were that a sizable minority of elders hold non-religious spirituality beliefs, and these beliefs are related to greater acceptance of life extension and death rejection.

Intergroup Prisoner’S Dilemma With Intragroup Power Dynamics, Ion Juvina, Christian Lebiere, Jolie M. Martin, Cleotilde Gonzalez

Psychology Faculty Publications

The Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma with Intragroup Power Dynamics (IPD^2) is a new game paradigm for studying human behavior in conflict situations. IPD^2 adds the concept of intragroup power to an intergroup version of the standard Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma game. We conducted a laboratory study in which individual human participants played the game against computer strategies of various complexities. The results show that participants tend to cooperate more when they have greater power status within their groups. IPD^2 yields increasing levels of mutual cooperation and decreasing levels of mutual defection, in contrast to a variant of Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma without intragroup …

Altered Spatial Frequency Content In Paintings By Artists With Schizophrenia, Daniel Graham, Ming Meng

Dartmouth Scholarship

While it is difficult to imagine the way someone with mental illness perceives the world, paintings produced by mental illness sufferers with artistic talents offer a hint of this experience. Here we analyze these images in terms of statistics related to low-level visual processing. It is known that art in general possesses regular spatial frequency amplitude spectra, probably due to factors including luminance compression, approximation of natural scene spatial statistics, media, and aesthetics. Whatever the contributions of those factors may be, would the same ones apply for artists with schizophrenia? We find that spatial frequency content in paintings by five …

What's Good About Feeling Bad: Developing A Theology Of Suffering, John C. Thomas

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Working With Divorced Families: Effective Interventions For A Difficult Transition, Naveen Jonathan

Marriage and Family Therapy Faculty Presentations

Gives tips and advice for counseling children of divorce.

Exploring Touch As A Positive Workplace Behavior, Bryan Fuller, Marcia J. Simmering, Laura E. Marler, Susie S. Cox, Rebecca J. Bennett, Robin A. Cheramie

Faculty Articles

Whereas most research has focused on the negative aspects of touch in the workplace (i.e. sexual harassment), this study focuses upon the positive use of touch. In an effort to explain individual differences in the use of workplace touch, three sequential studies are used to introduce the concepts of workplace touch self-efficacy and workplace touch initiation anxiety. In Study 1 we develop scales to assess the constructs. Study 2 provides an initial examination of the construct validity of the measures developed in Study 1. Results of Study 3 indicate that supervisor reports of touch self-efficacy and physiological touch anxiety are …

Political Information And Emotions In Ethnic Conflict Interventions, Cigdem Sirin, José Villalobos, Nehemia Geva

Selected Works Temporary Series

This study explores the effects of political information and anger on the public’s cognitive processing and foreign policy preferences concerning third-party interventions in ethnic conflict. Our study employs an experimental design wherein we manipulate policy-specific information by generating ad hoc political information related to ethnic conflict. The statistical methods of analysis are logistic regression and analysis of covariance. The results demonstrate that both political information and anger have a significant impact on an individual’s cognitive processing and policy preferences regarding ethnic conflict interventions. Specifically, political information increases one’s proclivity to choose non-military policy options, whereas anger instigates support for aggressive …

Judgment And Decision Making In Adolescence, Dustin Albert, Laurence Steinberg

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

In this article, we review the most important findings to have emerged during the past 10 years in the study of judgment and decision making (JDM) in adolescence and look ahead to possible new directions in this burgeoning area of research. Three inter-related shifts in research emphasis are of particular importance and serve to organize this review. First, research grounded in normative models of JDM has moved beyond the study of age differences in risk perception and toward a dynamic account of the factors predicting adolescent decisions. Second, the field has seen widespread adoption of dual-process models of cognitive development …

The Effect Of Regulatory Focus On Idea Generation And Idea Evaluation, Kanexa, Inc., Roni Reiter-Palmon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Regulatory focus, an individual difference characteristic, has been linked to decision making, such that those with a promotion focus show more risk taking and flexibility whereas those with a prevention focus are risk averse and more rigid. The relationship between regulatory focus and creativity has also been investigated, with similar results. However, the focus of these efforts has been on the idea generation phase (e.g., Friedman & Forster, 2001; Lam & Chiu, 2002). This study suggests that the influence of regulatory focus on creativity operates differently for the idea evaluation phase than with the idea generation phase. Furthermore, there are …

Political Information And Emotions In Ethnic Conflict Interventions, Cigdem Sirin, José Villalobos, Nehemia Geva

Departmental Papers (PS)

This study explores the effects of political information and anger on the public’s cognitive processing and foreign policy preferences concerning third-party interventions in ethnic conflict. Our study employs an experimental design wherein we manipulate policy-specific information by generating ad hoc political information related to ethnic conflict. The statistical methods of analysis are logistic regression and analysis of covariance. The results demonstrate that both political information and anger have a significant impact on an individual’s cognitive processing and policy preferences regarding ethnic conflict interventions. Specifically, political information increases one’s proclivity to choose non-military policy options, whereas anger instigates support for aggressive …

Comparative Cognitive Performance Of Orthopedic, Delay, And Intellectual Disability Cases: Accommodations?, Megan L. Rabon

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Many clients who appear for psychological assessment are found to be struggling because of physical or motor performance disabilities in addition to developmental delays or cognitive-processing disabilities. The effects of orthopedic conditions on testing have been known for decades (e.g., Briggs, 1960). Despite the attention to physical disabilities, there are few currently published studies of how developmental delays or motor performance affect performance on cognitive and achievement batteries exclusive of the studies reported in test manuals (e.g., Roid, 2003, on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition, [SB-5]). Often these groups are the smallest among the validation groups. Participants for the …

Speech Production Deficits In Early Readers: Predictors Of Risk, Judith G. Foy, Virginia A. Mann

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Speech problems and reading disorders are linked, suggesting that speech problems may potentially be an early marker of later difficulty in associating graphemes with phonemes. Current norms suggest that complete mastery of the production of the consonant phonemes in English occurs in most children at around 6–7 years. Many children enter formal schooling (kindergarten) around 5 years of age with near-adult levels of speech production. Given that previous research has shown that speech production abilities and phonological awareness skills are linked in preschool children, we set out to examine whether this pattern also holds for children just beginning to learn …

Nmo In Pediatric Patients: Brain Involvement And Clinical Expression, Joaquín A. Peña, María Elena Ravelo, Eduardo Mora-La Cruz, Cecilia Montiel-Nava

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Objective: To analyze the clinical, neuroimaging characteristics and positivity of the acquaporin water channel (NMO-IgG) in pediatric patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO). This disorder could have a variable clinical expression. To address such variability, the term NMO spectrum has been suggested.

Method: We evaluated six pediatric patients, with a median age of 11 years at the time of the study, with the diagnosis of NMO by the Wingerchuck criteria.

Results: All the cases exhibited bilateral optic neuritis (ON). Four patients had abnormalities on brain MRI from the onset,although only three of them developed symptoms correlated to those lesions during the …

Exploratory Factor Analysis Of Human Infant Temperament In The Rhesus Monkey, Daniel B. Kay, Michael Marsiske, Stephen J. Suomi, James Dee Higley

Faculty Publications

The triadic model of human infant temperament, involving Negative Affectivity, Orienting/ Regulation, and Surgency/Extraversion factors, was applied to the rhesus neonate using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Replicating and expanding earlier work in rhesus monkeys, the three factor solution produced latent constructs comparable to human neonatal temperament.

Cognitive Bias Modification: Induced Interpretive Biases Affect Memory, T. B. Tran, Paula T. Hertel, Jutta Joormann

Psychology Faculty Research

Previous research has shown that it is possible to experimentally induce interpretive biases using ambiguous scenarios. This study extends past findings by examining the effects of manipulating interpretation on subsequent memory. Participants were trained to interpret emotionally ambiguous passages in either a positive or negative direction. Transfer of the training to novel scenarios was tested. Following training, participants were also asked to recall details from these novel scenarios. The results indicate that the training was effective in inducing the intended group differences in interpretive bias. Importantly, participants exhibited memory biases that corresponded to their training condition. These results suggest that …

Bidirectional Relations Of Religious Orientation And Depressive Symptoms In Adolescents : A Short-Term Longitudinal Study., Patrick Pössel, Nina C. Martin, Judy Garber, Aaron W. Banister, Natalie K. Pickering, Martin Hautzinger

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Religious orientation can be divided into intrinsic and extrinsic: intrinsically oriented individuals “live their religion,” whereas extrinsically oriented individuals practice religion mainly to gain external benefits. In adults, depression has been found to correlate negatively with intrinsic religious orientation and positively with extrinsic orientation. Studies of the relation between religiosity and depression typically have not been longitudinal, conducted with adolescents, controlled for the influence of other factors associated with depression (i.e., negative cognitions), or examined the reverse relation of depression predicting religious orientation. Our four-month longitudinal study of 273 ninth-grade students addressed these issues. Results showed that higher intrinsic religious …

Welcome To The Journal Of Humanistic Mathematics, Mark Huber, Gizem Karaali

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

The Mechanics Of Embodiment: A Dialog On Embodiment And Computational Modeling, Giovanni Pezzulo, Lawrence W. Barsalou, Angelo Cangelosi, Martin H. Fischer, Ken Mcrae, Michael J. Spivey

Psychology Publications

Embodied theories are increasingly challenging traditional views of cognition by arguing that conceptual representations that constitute our knowledge are grounded in sensory and motor experiences, and processed at this sensorimotor level, rather than being represented and processed abstractly in an amodal conceptual system. Given the established empirical foundation, and the relatively underspeci ed theories to date, many researchers are extremely interested in embodied cognition but are clamoring for more mechanistic implementations. What is needed at this stage is a push toward explicit computational models that implement sensorimotor grounding as intrinsic to cognitive processes. In this article, six authors from varying …

The Name Game As Blame Game: The Domodedovo Terrorist Bombing, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the relevance of blame in the context of terrorism.

The Valued Living Questionnaire: Defining And Measuring Valued Action Within A Behavioral Framework, Kelly G. Wilson, Emily K. Sandoz, Jennifer Kitchens, Miguel Roberts

The Psychological Record

A number of cognitive-behavior therapies now strongly emphasize particular behavioral processes as mediators of clinical change specific to that therapy. This shift in emphasis calls for the development of measures sensitive to changes in the therapies’ processes. Among these is acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which posits valued living as one of its primary core processes. This article offers a definition of values from a behavioral perspective and describes the Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ) as a first attempt at assessment of valued living. The VLQ is a relatively brief and easily administered instrument derived directly from the primary text on …

On The Need For Embodied And Dis-Embodied Cognition, Guy Dove

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This essay proposes and defends a pluralistic theory of conceptual embodiment. Our concepts are represented in at least two ways: (i) through sensorimotor simulations of our interactions with objects and events and (ii) through sensorimotor simulations of natural language processing. Linguistic representations are “dis-embodied” in the sense that they are dynamic and multimodal but, in contrast to other forms of embodied cognition, do not inherit semantic content from this embodiment. The capacity to store information in the associations and inferential relationships among linguistic representations extends our cognitive reach and provides an explanation of our ability to abstract and generalize. This …

The Giffords Shooting: Who’S The Fall Guy?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author explores the concept of ‘the fall guy’ from a political philosophical perspective.

Mediating And Moderating Factors In Associations Between Physical And Relational Victimization And Social And Academic Competence Among Urban Adolescents, Lisa Ulmer

Theses and Dissertations

Peer victimization is prevalent among school-aged youth and is associated with difficulties including decreased academic and social competence. Although relations between victimization and academic and social competence have been examined, fewer studies have considered how underlying processes linking these constructs are related or whether relations differ for adolescent subgroups. The current study’s purpose was to examine potential mediating and moderating effects in associations between physical and relational victimization and academic and social competence. Participants included a predominantly African American sample of 271 adolescents participating in a longitudinal violence prevention project. Path models showed significant negative associations between teacher-rated physical victimization …

The Relationship Of Social Support To African American Caregivers' Help-Seeking For Emotional Problems, Joseph Pickard, Megumi Inoue, Letha Chadiha, Sharon Johnson

Social Work Faculty Works

This study analyzes whether social support serves as a link to or substitute for formal services among African American female caregivers seeking help with emotional problems. It also analyzes other determinants of help-seeking. It relies on data from the Black Rural and Urban Caregivers Mental Health and Functioning Study and is guided by a modified version of the behavioral model of health services use. Using hierarchical binary logistic regression, analyses reveal that only age, stress, and support from fellow church members are statistically significantly associated with the likelihood of help-seeking. These results support the linking hypothesis, suggesting that the social …

Age-Typing Across Occupations When, Where, And Why Age-Typing Exists, Michael Dennis Reeves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study sought to determine the direction and degree to which occupations representative of all major occupational categories are viewed as age-typed (i.e., more appropriate for older or younger workers). The 60 occupations examined were the 12 most common and familiar occupations in each of five occupational categories used by the U.S. Census Bureau. I randomly assigned 365 participants to one of three survey conditions. Participants rated the feature centrality, proportional representation, normative age, and optimal performance age of 20 of the 60 occupations and the age-type of 20 different occupations. Results showed that participants reliably rated the occupations …

The Role Of Rumination In The Function, Content, And Affective Quality Of Self-Defining Memories, Mary Gover

Psychology Honors Papers

Rumination is a response to a negative mood that is characterized by an intense self focus, specifically on one’s negative feelings and the challenges or problems these feelings may pose (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991). Numerous studies have stressed the maladaptive nature of this response style and several have begun to investigate its role in autobiographical memory recall (Lyubomirsky, Caldwell, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1998; Lyubomirsky & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1995; Nolen-Hoeksema, Parker, & Larson, 1994). However, rumination research has yet to focus on self-defining memories which have an added relevance and importance to an individual (Singer & Blagov, 2004). The present study investigates rumination’s role in …

“Senioritis:” An Analysis Of Academic Motivation And Burnout In College Students Through The Lens Of Positive Psychology, Chelsea Manning

Psychology Honors Papers

The current study re-examined Chickering’s (1967) Student Development theory, which suggests student development decreases as academic conditions become constant and the novelty of the academic environment fades. Additionally, the researchers examined whether the need to present a GPA after graduation could be associated with academic motivation, importance, or effort (the academic variables). Through the lens of positive psychology, the researchers also investigated whether a decrease in academic motivation, importance, and effort was detrimental to student happiness and well-being. Major findings among the 43 total participants were: 1, an overall difference in academic variables between freshmen and seniors did not exist; …

Elementary School Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Classroom Accommodations: The Effects Of Disability And School Type, Sarah Holland

Psychology Honors Papers

The purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes of elementary school teachers toward the inclusion of a student with either a moderate intellectual, physical, or behavioral disability. Participants were from eight different elementary schools; two magnet schools, one charter school, and five public schools from one school district. Participants were provided with a vignette describing one of three disability types and then rated 25 accommodations made for that student. Teachers’ attitudes toward these accommodations were measured by the three adapted subscales of the Adaptation Evaluation Instrument (AEI; Schumm & Vaughn, 1991), which addressed how desirable teachers believe each …

Rituals In Unmarried Couple Relationships: An Exploratory Study, Kelly Campbell, Luciana Silva, David W. Wright

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study provides an understanding of rituals enacted in unmarried couple relationships. One hundred and twenty-nine individuals involved in unmarried relationships reported on their rituals in an online, open-ended questionnaire. A typology of 16 ritual types was developed, 12 of which have been shown to be common in marital relationships. Four new ritual categories, unique to unmarried relationships, emerged from the data: Gift-giving, helping each other/being supportive, future planning/daydreaming about the future, and family involvement. Implications for future research on couple rituals conclude the study.

Introduction, Mika Ishino, Gale Stam

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.