Psychology Commons^™

Are All Older Adult Transgressors Treated Equally?, Heather Marie Dahlgren

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research has shown that young adults treat older adults with less blame and more forgiveness when they commit a social transgression. This study sought to understand whether the stereotype of an assumed positive personality and/or a supposed lack of cognitive ability are potential driving forces behind the greater leniency that young adults display toward older transgressors. Seventy-five young adult participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions. Participants’ aging stereotypes were primed with one of four paragraphs that depicted older adults as (a) socially warm and cognitively competent, (b) socially cold but cognitively competent, (c) socially warm but …

Neuropsychological Outcomes In Adults Commencing Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment In South Africa: A Prospective Study, John Joska, John Joska, Jennifer Westgarth-Taylor, Jacqueline Hoare, Kevin Thomas, Robert Paul, Landon Myer, Dan Stein

Psychology Faculty Works

BackgroundInfection with HIV may result in significant neuropsychological impairment, especially in late stage disease. To date, there have been no cohort studies of the impact of highly active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART) in South Africa where clade C HIV is predominant.MethodsParticipants in the current study were recruited from a larger study of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and included a group of individuals commencing HAART (n = 82). Baseline and one-year neuropsychological function was assessed using a detailed battery, and summary global deficit scores (GDS) obtained. Associations with change in GDS were calculated.ResultsParticipants had a median CD4 cell count of 166 at …

Neuroanatomical Substrates Of The Disruptive Effect Of Olanzapine On Rat Maternal Behavior As Revealed By C-Fos Immunoreactivity, Changjiu Zhao, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Olanzapine is one of the most widely prescribed atypical antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia. Besides its well-known side effect on weight gain, it may also impair human parental behavior. In this study, we took a preclinical approach to examine the behavioral effects of olanzapine on rat maternal behavior and investigated the associated neural basis using the c-Fos immunohistochemistry. On postpartum Days 6–8, Sprague-Dawley mother rats were given a single injection of sterile water or olanzapine (1.0, 3.0 or 5.0 mg/kg, sc). Maternal behavior was tested 2 h later, after which rats were sacrificed and brain tissues were collected. …

Gender Role Personalities And Physical Attractiveness, Laura Bailly

HIM 1990-2015

The purpose of the current study was to explore whether personality dispositions can influence perceived physical appearance. Past research demonstrates that gendered and non-gendered characteristics lead to differential preferences for potential romantic interests among males and females (e.g., Cash & Smith, 1982). These previous studies have not, however, measured direct influence on pulchritude. In the present study, gendered and non-gendered personality descriptions were paired with pictures of average-looking individuals of both sexes to determine the influence of gender roles on perceived physical attractiveness. I hypothesized that males would find androgynous females more physically attractive than gender-typed and non-gender typed females. …

Age Differences In Reward Anticipation And Memory, Kristen L. Cushman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Aging research on item- and associative-recognition memory has demonstrated that older adults are deficient in forming associations between two unrelated stimuli. Although older adult performance on tests of item-recognition is similar to younger adult performance, older adults perform worse than younger adults on tests of associative memory (Naveh-Benjamin, Hussain, Guez, & Bar-On, 2003). In addition to the idea that younger adult performance on associative-recognition tests is superior to that of older adults, research has shown that reward cues can enhance motivated learning and item memory performance of younger adults. In an fMRI study that examined the influence of reward anticipation …

The Relationship Between Eating Disorder Symptomology, Critical Body Comments, And Memory Recall, Morgan Littrell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Previous research done in the area of eating disorders suggests many different variables, such as cognitive, biological, and social, that are thought to influence eating disorder development and maintenance. The present study attempts to combine cognitive and sociocultural research findings, memory recall and critical body comments, in an effort to see how, if at all, these two variables affect eating disorder symptomology. Participants for this study were 120 female students that were recruited via Study Board. Participants completed the demographics form, the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 RF, and the Social Hassles Questionnaire. The participants then watched an E-prime presentation of different …

Manager-In-Chief: Applying Public Management Theory To Examine White House Chief Of Staff Performance, David Cohen, Justin Vaughn, José Villalobos

Departmental Papers (PS)

In an effort to examine the causal determinants of performance dynamics for the administrative presidency, we apply empirical public management theory to White House administration to explain managerial performance. Utilizing original survey data that measures the perceptions of former officials from the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations, we conduct quantitative analyses to determine the extent to which a chief of staff’s background, relationship with the president, and internal as well as external management approaches shape overall perceptions of White House administrative efforts. We find that managerial dimensions matter considerably when explaining the dynamics of White House organizational performance.

Examining Effects Of Picture Content On False Recognition In Consistent And Inconsistent Handers., Rosanna G. Scott

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Multiple previous studies agree that inconsistent handers exhibit a memory advantage over consistent handers, oftentimes in reference to inconsistents exhibiting lower false alarm rates. Two recent studies have found contrasting data, demonstrating that, compared to consistently handed individuals, inconsistently handed individuals exhibit a higher false alarm rate in recognition memory following the encoding of pictures of objects, regardless of whether lures are pictures or object names. From this research, it is unclear whether inconsistent individuals have difficulty remembering pictures of all types, or only pictures of objects. In the current study, participants studied pictures without focal objects (i.e., landscapes and …

United States Military Cohesion After The Repeal Of “Don’T Ask, Don’T Tell”, Stephanie E.V. Brown

Honors Projects

The repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was projected by politicians and military personnel alike to have a negative impact on unit cohesion. The findings of this study indicated that overall military cohesion was high, and that many military members found that the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” had no impact on task or social cohesion. However, using the Chi Square test, there were two noted significant associations when observing participant pay grade and perceptions of how the repeal of DADT has affected a unit’s ability to work together to complete tasks get the job done (χ^{2 …}

Separating Component Signals Of Episodic Simulation Using A Catch Trial Design, Adrian W. Gilmore

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Tasks that require mentally simulating events, such as remembering events from one’s past and imagining events from one’s future, have been shown to involve a highly overlapping set of brain regions. Across a growing number of studies, relatively few regions have been found that show differences in activity between remembered and imagined events. However, studies have not disambiguated neural activity related to task orientation: i.e., preparing to remember events from the past or imagine events in the future) from activity related simulating events, per se. The current experiment uses functional MRI and employs a catch trial design to test the …

The Role Of Loneliness And Life Events: Comparing Avoidant And Borderline Personality Features And Their Relation To Depression, Janine Galione

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Personality disorders are theoretically and empirically linked to experiencing high negative affect, such as depression, and individuals with features from some personality disorders, such as borderline: BDL) and avoidant: AVD), are hyper-responsive to rejection. Loneliness has also been established as a vulnerability to the onset of depressive episodes and as an outcome to rejection sensitivity, however the relationship between personality pathology and loneliness is still unclear. The purpose of this study is to compare whether AVD and BDL features might be differentially associated with depression scores by analyzing the interaction with life events and loneliness. We studied a representative, community-based …

Effects Of Ownership Intuitions On Allocations In The Dictator Game, John Christner

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

People’s implicit assumptions about ownership might influence their decisions in Dictator Games: DG), leading to generosity. Two studies tested subjects’ intuitions concerning ownership in fictional situations structurally analogous to the DG. Subjects read a story about a ritual in which an old man: experimenter in DG) provided an endowment that Person 1: dictator in DG) had to allocate between self and Person 2: receiver in DG). Subjects were told that in some instances the ritual was interrupted before completion. As an assay of their intuitions regarding ownership, subjects were asked who owned the endowment and how it should be allocated …

Brain Structure In Older Adult Siblings, Nathaniel Lucena

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Considerable variability exists in patterns of brain aging within and across individuals. Quantifying familial contributions to brain structure in late life may help us understand this variability. We estimated heritability of gray and white matter volumes and cortical thickness in a sample of older adult full siblings: 2-4 individuals per pedigree; N = 75). Estimation of heritability was based on computation of intraclass correlations. Heritability estimates were higher for total cortical thickness compared to volumes. There was no evidence of overall laterality in heritability estimates, or differences between primary sensory and association regions. There was a tendency for lower estimates …

The Management Of Sport-Related Concussion: Considerations For Male And Female Athletes, Tracey Covassin, R. J. Elbin, Bryan Crutcher, Scott Burkhart

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Sport-related concussion continues to be a centerpiece of attention in the field of sports medicine. The benefit to using neurocognitive testing when managing concussion will be documented in this review. In addition to providing critical objective information on the neurocognitive status of the concussed athlete, research data will be provided on the pre- and post-concussion neurocognitive profiles of concussed male and female athletes. Specifically, an overview of research will be presented on the epidemiology of male and female concussion rates, as well as concussion outcomes including symptoms and cognitive function post-injury. Finally, a clinician’s perspective on managing sports-related concussion will …

Hostile Mood And Social Strain During Daily Life: A Test Of The Transactional Model., Elizabeth J. Vella, Thomas W. Karmarck, Janine D. Flory, Stephen B. Manuck

Faculty Publications

Hostility is a multidimensional construct related to cardiovascular (CV) disease risk. Daily hostile mood and social interactions may precipitate stress-related CV responses in hostile individuals. Purpose: Determine whether trait cognitive hostility best predicts daily hostile mood and social interactions relative to other trait hostility factors and explore the temporal links between these daily measures

Transforming The Healthcare Response To Intimate Partner Violence And Taking Best Practices To Scale, Michele R. Decker, Shannon Frattaroli, Brigid Mccaw, Ann L. Coker, Elizabeth Miller, Phyllis Sharps, Wendy G. Lane, Mahua Mandal, Kelli Hirsch, Donna M. Strobino, Wendy L. Bennett, Jacquelyn Campbell, Andrea Gielen

CRVAW Faculty Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent among adolescent and adult women, with significant physical, sexual, and mental health consequences. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine's Clinical Preventive Services for Women consensus report recommended universal screening for violence as a component of women's preventive services; this policy has been adopted by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). These policy developments require that effective clinic-based interventions be identified, easily implemented, and taken to scale.

METHODS: To foster dialogue about implementing effective interventions, we convened a symposium entitled "Responding to Violence Against Women: Emerging Evidence, Implementation Science, and Innovative Interventions," on …

The Social Psychology Of Perception Experiments: Hills, Backpacks, Glucose, And The Problem Of Generalizability, Frank H. Durgin, Brennan James Klein , '14, Ariana Michelle Spiegel , '13, Cassandra Joy Strawser , '13, Morgan James Christopher Williams , '14

Psychology Faculty Works

Experiments take place in a physical environment but also a social environment. Generalizability from experimental manipulations to more typical contexts may be limited by violations of ecological validity with respect to either the physical or the social environment. A replication and extension of a recent study (a blood glucose manipulation) was conducted to investigate the effects of experimental demand (a social artifact) on participant behaviors judging the geographical slant of a large-scale outdoor hill. Three different assessments of experimental demand indicate that even when the physical environment is naturalistic, and the goal of the main experimental manipulation was primarily concealed, …

The Effects Of Check-In/Check-Out And Check-In/Check-Out In Combination With Social Skills Training For Students Who Exhibit Disruptive Classroom Behavior, Aimee Maldonado

Master's Theses

The purpose was to investigate the additive effects of Social Skills Training (SST) to Check-in/Check-out (CICO) on academic engagement of students. Participants were 3 elementary students who exhibited disruptive behavior who were nominated by teachers. The two dependent variables were the level of Appropriately Engaged Behavior (AEB) of the student as well as the student's behavior ratings indicated by teacher responses on the Daily Behavior Report Card (DBRC) with and without SST. A noncurrent multiple baseline across students design was used to examine both dependent variables. Goldstein and McGinnis' program, Skillstreaming the Elementary School Child, was used during SST. The …

Call It Courage: The Effects Of Perspective, Humility, Locus Of Control, And Social Desirability On Perceptions Of Accolade Courage In Male Student And Military Populations, Chad Breeden

All Theses

Courage - despite millennia of contemplation - is only now seeing efforts at empirical study and definition. Recent studies have attempted to break down the component parts of courage, but do not address why courage appears to only be bestowed on others and rarely to oneself: a phenomenon known as courage blindness (Biswas-Deiner, 2012). This paper examines how individuals attribute courage to themselves and how they attribute it to others. Male military personnel (n =86) and male college students (n =106) read 14 scenarios of varying courage, rating the courageousness of themselves or another person based on the action. Multiple …

Living With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Chalonda Henry

Dissertations

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a commonly diagnosed disorder for both children (and today adults). The literature discusses how ADHD is defined as research continues, the symptoms demonstrated by those diagnosed, how it has been known to affect their main life areas e.g. home, school, social relationships, and how it is assessed, diagnosed and treated. However, reading the literature does not give the reader a sense of the real life perception of ADHD. Children with ADHD and parents of children with ADHD participated in an interview consisting of nine open ended questions. The results were found to be consistent with …

2012 Poll Of Emerging Adults [Thriving, Struggling & Hopeful], Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Joseph Schwab

The Clark University Poll (2012-2015)

Report for the 2012 Clark University Poll titled "Emerging Adults: Thriving, Struggling & Hopeful".

"A great deal of attention—most of it negative—is being paid to emerging adults (ages 18-29) in American society. We frequently hear that they are lazy, selfish, poorly educated, and both reluctant and ill-equipped to take on the responsibilities of adult life. We are told that they are, essentially, doomed: They are sure to have a less prosperous and enjoyable life than their parents did, given the depths of the 2008 recession that occurred just as they were trying to enter the job market and build a …

Self-Reporting, Recognition Of Symptoms And Characteristics Of Anxiety And Depression And Seeking Professional Help, Eliana V. Brito

Graduate Theses

This study examined whether adults (age 25 to 50) self-report symptoms of anxiety and/or depression and whether these individuals accurately identify the symptoms that are associated with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. Do these individuals believe the symptoms associated with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder are severe enough to seek professional help? The participants included 30 females and 20 males. Zung’s Self-Rating Depression (SDS; 1971) and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS; 1965) were administered. A third questionnaire was also developed to help identify if individuals are able to accurately identify symptoms, distinguish between the two disorders, and …

Behavior Based Sales: A Study Of Behavioral Techniques For Sales Performance Improvement, Peder Henrik Seglund

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the impact of a behavior-based sales training package on sales performance for the sales divisions of two different organizations located in separate cities in the Midwestern United States. The independent variable was a package that included: behavior-based sales training; feedback; and reinforcement. The primary dependent variable was sales performance results, which is a measure of the participants’ closing percentage. Secondary dependent variables included income, participant attendance at sales meetings, participant satisfaction, and changes in knowledge (at site 2 only).

The intervention package was implemented at each site over a course of …

Examining Crime Among College-Aged Christians: Are Christian Religious Beliefs Associated With Low Levels Of Criminal Activity?, Paul Rickert

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this correlational study into crime among college-aged Christians in the United States is to determine if indicating higher levels of Christian spiritual growth is associated with lower levels of criminal behavior. A convenience sample of college aged Christians was given an online survey to measure self-reported criminality measured by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports Part I and Part II and self-reported religious convictions as measured by Bufford et al.'s Christ-like Spiritual Growth Scale. This quantitative study then analyzed data generated from 57 respondents and found that reporting higher rates of Christ-like …

Preventing Misuse And Disuse Of Automated Systems: Effects Of System Confidence Display On Trust And Decision Performance, Margaux Price

All Dissertations

Complex decision-making may be aided by forms of automation known as decision-support systems (DSS). However, no DSS is completely reliable and so it is imperative that users know when they should and should not trust it (calibration of trust). Previous research has shown that providing users with information about the DSS's confidence in its own advice ('system confidence') can help improve the calibration of user's trust of automation and actual system reliability on a trial by trial basis. The current study examined how the nature of the presentation of system confidence information affected user's trust calibration. The first study examined …

Does Gamified Training Increase Job Performance? A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Bao Ho, Brooke Macnamara

Intersections Fall 2020

Gamification is the application of game elements such as badges, points, leaderboards, to a nongame area of activity. The corporate setting has burgeoned in incorporating gamification into areas such as recruitment, training, and marketing with established corporations reported to have success in gamifying their business. However, the current literature report mixed results on whether gamified training could lead to an improvement in performance. This article attempts to summarize the current state of gamified training and its effectiveness by conducting a meta-analysis on the subject. Although an effect size was calculated, the result was unreliable due to a lack of papers …

Avataraudiometer: An Online Simulation Platform For Pure-Tone Audiometry, Daniel Weidman, Lauren Calandruccio

Intersections Fall 2020

Simulation education for medical and health professional training bridges classroom learning and training in a clinical environment. Its use has been increasing over the past two decades. Guidance to avoid in-person contact due to SARS-CoV-2 has further increased demand. Pure-tone audiometry is part of an audiometric test battery used to evaluate the auditory system. At Case Western Reserve University, students typically learn to conduct audiometry in COSI 370: Introduction to Audiology. Under current pandemic circumstances, students are unable to gain in-person experience using standard hardware (an audiometer and calibrated headphones). AvatarAudiometer solves this problem via an interactive online tool that …

A Simplified Approach To Quantifying A Child's Bilingual Language Experience, Isabella Beninate

Intersections Fall 2020

There is an increasing need to accurately and efficiently describe a bilingual child's dynamic linguistic experience during audiological evaluations. This report documents an approach at qualitatively capturing linguistic exposure and usage information in a time-efficient manner. A well-known pediatric bilingual survey was administered to 83 parents of bilingual children, obtaining information on the child's exposure (input) to and usage (output) of Spanish and English on an hourly basis (17 time frames) during a typical weekday and weekend. Parents also completed a questionnaire that obtains demographic information of the child and family, parent-rated language proficiency of the child, and a family …

The Influence Of Reduced Speech Signal Audibility On Masked-Speech Recognition For Young Adults With Normal Hearing, Alyssa Liusie, Peter A. Calandruccio

Intersections Fall 2020

Challenging communication environments, in which listeners must recognize and comprehend the target speech of interest amongst acoustic background competition, are prevalent in everyday life. Older adults with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), which occurs due to inner ear or neural pathway damage, are known to have significant difficulty hearing in such environments, and especially those with competing background talkers present (such as in noisy restaurants). Previous work in the Speech and Auditory Research (SpAR) laboratory has indicated that older adults with SNHL have deficits using prosodic contour differences (i.e., intonation differences) between target and masker speech to improve target speech recognition, …

The Effects Of Personality, Conformity, And Online Dating Platforms On The Perceptions Of Sexual Attraction Amongst Young Adults, Anil Nayak

Intersections Fall 2020

The process of dating has changed significantly in the past three decades. This has left people, especially young adults, confused, and unsure of what has changed or how to act. This literature review aims to explain the factors that have caused the "dating game" to change in regards to perceptions of sexual attraction, mainly the shift of personality preferences away from evolutionary characteristics, the decrease in conformity in today's society, and the recent rise of online dating. A brief overview of the timeless evolutionary factors, which have affected attraction for centuries, will set the stage for how these factors are …