Psychology Commons^™

Perceived And Actual Emotional Control Among Youth: Are There Differential Relations With Anxiety And Aggression?, Brandon Scott

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The perception of and actual ability to control emotional responses during stressful, taxing situations are important to an individual’s well-being. Studies have shown that both low perceived control and a low actual ability for emotional control are related to internalizing and externalizing problems in youth. However, significant gaps in research exist in terms of testing theoretical predictions about how perceived and actual emotional control are associated with anxiety and aggressive behavior problems, particularly among adolescents. The first goal of this study was to examine two objective measures of actual control (i.e., vagal tone and vagal regulation) and their link with …

The Relationship Between Posttraumatic Cognitions And Social Support In The Severity Of Ptsd Symptoms, Ellen Margaret Koucky

Dissertations

Posttraumatic cognitions (PC), perceived social support (PSS), and received social support (RSS) contribute to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but little is known about the way these variables may influence each other in this process. The current study tested the association between PSS and RSS and compared levels of these support types in PTSD-positive versus PTSD-negative subjects. An SEM model investigating the role of PC, PSS, and RSS in predicting PTSD symptom severity was also tested. Results indicate a significant difference in the strength of the association between support types based on diagnostic status and lower levels of …

Motivational Interviewing As An Augmentation To Increase Effectiveness In Cognitive Processing Therapy For Ptsd: An Initial Trial, Leah Blain

Dissertations

Currently, even well-supported cognitive behavioral therapies to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suffer from consistent rates of dropout and non-response to treatment, which represent barriers to dissemination and effective treatment. Research in anxiety disorders, including an initial group-based study with veterans suffering from PTSD, suggests that Motivational Interviewing (MI) may be an effective intervention for addressing issues of ambivalence and increasing readiness to change (RTC), resulting in decreases in dropout and non-response. The present pilot study sought to assess the efficacy of augmenting Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) with 3 sessions of MI in a sample of female interpersonal assault survivors …

Predicting Health Trajectories, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

With data going back to pre-World War II, the HRS paints a picture of how we will age . As people age, men are less likely to have physical disabilities than women, but die earlier. Those with higher socio-economic status and education levels have less physical disabilities as they grow old. Less educated single women are often the least financially prepared for retirement.

Those are the main findings of the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS), described as "the mother ship" of statistics on aging by Michael Hurd, Principal Senior Researcher and Director at the RAND Center for the …

Human Or Natural Trauma: What’S Worse?, Heather Merrell, Rodger K. Bufford, Kathleen Gathercoal

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

No abstract provided.

Combat Disclosure In Intimate Relationships: Mediating The Impact Of Partner Support On Posttraumatic Stress, Christina Balderrama-Durbin, Douglas K. Snyder, Jeffrey A. Cigrang, G. Wayne Talcott, Jolyn Tatum, Monty Baker, Daniel Cassidy, Scott Sonnek, Richard E. Heyman, Amy M. Smith Slep

School of Professional Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Acculturation, Marianismo Gender Role, And Ambivalent Sexism In Predicting Depression In Latinas, Andreana T. Jezzini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores acculturation, the Latina gender role of marianismo, and ambivalent sexism in predicting depression in a community sample of Latinas. A review of existing literature regarding these variables reveals that all three constructs can be both risk factors as well as protective factors. Since marianismo and ambivalent sexism may share similar traits, both may be self-protective coping mechanisms by Latinas in the context of a patriarchal environment with structured gender roles and strong gender disparities. One hundred and thirteen adult Latina participants from various ancestries of origin were solicited from the community using an Internet survey tool. …

Emotion Processes In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Adolescent Depression, Patrice Siapno Crisostomo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficacious treatment for adolescent depression, recent findings indicate that positive treatment effects are reduced among youth with a history of childhood interpersonal trauma (CIT). The processing of emotionally-difficult content has been previously emphasized in therapeutic models for the treatment of depression, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder. The present study evaluated the impact of emotion processes on treatment outcomes in two forms of psychotherapy (CBT and usual care treatment) for adolescent depression. This study observationally coded client emotional involvement, specifically during discussions of trauma-related content, as a potentially critical mechanism of change in …

Physiological And Evaluative Differences Between Internet-Based And In-Person Interview Techniques, Joseph R. Castro

Psychology - Theses

A growing trend in job selection is the use of automated online interviews as a cheap and easy tool for gaining many applicants. The use of the Internet for selection interviews may have ramifications on the interviewer's perception of the candidate's personality and performance. It can also affect the candidate's physiological responses and ability to process information. Two types of interviews were conducted, a face-to-face interview and a computer-mediated interview. Comparisons between the two conditions were made for ratings of performance, the accuracy of an observer's estimation of the participant's personality, cognitive interference, and physiological reactivity. There was no difference …

Forgiveness-Granting Communication As A Facework Phenomenon, Ryan Cummings

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study sought to conceptualize forgiveness-granting communication as a facework phenomenon through utilizing the concepts of face concerns, degree of face loss, and facework strategies. Participants from public speaking courses (N = 248) completed a self-report survey questionnaire asking them to recall a recent forgiveness episode. Statistical analyses were conducted to discover the relationship between face and forgiveness-granting communication. The results of this study indicated the following important findings: (a) the greater one’s self-face concern, the less likely one’s forgiveness-granting communication is to be direct; (b) self-face concern positively predicted conditional forgiveness-granting communication; (c) degree of face loss was a …

An Examination Of Online Volunteers' Organizational And Work-Group Identification And Intent To Leave: A Case Study Of Ocef, Wei Huang

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined the relationships among organizational identification,work-group identification and intent to leave of online volunteers in a nonprofit organization—OCEF. A total of 245 participants completed the online questionnaire. Consonant with previous research findings, organizational identification and work-group identification has positive relationships; however, the hypothesis that both organizational identification and work-group identification negatively predict intent to leave of online volunteers was not supported in the present study. Furthermore, the level of organizational identification and work-group identification of online volunteers were high, but did not have difference in this study.

Like Or Dislike: The Emotional Toll Of Being On Facebook, Lauren N. Weathers

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study examined the relationship between affect changes or lack thereof when one logs onto Facebook or Yahoo!. Facebook was specifically chosen for examination in the current study due to its widespread use, its vast effect on society, and its unique features that allow users to obtain information and have social interaction at the same time. Yahoo! served as a control due to the fact that it is a highly popular site that has similar features of Facebook without having the social functions. Both sites allow users to observe news that is pertinent and of interest to them and …

Mouse-Tracking Reveals When The Stroop Effect Happens., Sara Incera, Theresa A. Markis, Conor T. Mclennan

Psychology Faculty Publications

We examined the continuous dynamics of the Stroop task using mouse-tracking. Participants moved the computer mouse to indicate the color of words presented on the computer screen in both congruent (blue in blue font) and incongruent (blue in yellow font) conditions. Mouse-tracking data revealed significant differences in reaction times, spatial attraction, and velocity. In the Stroop effect, word reading and color processing influenced performance, but they did so differently: Word reading influenced the early part of the mouse trajectory, but color processing influenced later parts. The data provide important new information about the real time processing dynamics underlying the effect.

An Investigation Of The Association Between Arithmetic Achievement And Symbolic And Nonsymbolic Magnitude Processing In 5-9 Year-Old Children: Evidence From A Paper-And-Pencil Test, Nadia Nosworthy

Faculty Publications

Recently, there has been a growing emphasis on basic number processing competencies (such as the ability to judge which of two numbers is larger) and their role in predicting individual differences in school-relevant math achievement. Children’s ability to compare both symbolic (e.g. Arabic numerals) and nonsymbolic (e.g. dot arrays) magnitudes has been found to correlate with their math achievement. The available evidence, however, has focused on computerized paradigms, which may not always be suitable for universal, quick application in the classroom. Furthermore, it is currently unclear whether both symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude comparison are related to children’s performance on tests …

Social Media And Relationship Development, Gretchen Kelmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the use of social media to represent romantic relationships among a diverse, national sample (N=831) of Facebook users aged 20-37. Taken together, results from this study indicate that relationship representation via Facebook is associated with various aspects of commitment, including couple identity, prioritization of one’s relationship, and commitment to the future, and was also associated with stability of the relationship over time. Social media relationship representation was also found to be associated with lower levels of sexual infidelity, alternative partner monitoring, and partner’s jealousy, as well as higher levels of perceived social pressure from friends and …

Examining The Link Between Personality And Laterality In A Feral Guppy Poecilia Reticulata Population, Eleanor Irving, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

This study examined whether variation in the strength and direction of lateralization in a detour task was linked with variation in three common personality measurements: boldness, activity and sociability, in a population of wild guppies Poecilia reticulata. Additionally, the aim was to determine whether any consistent correlations between these behavioural traits, known as behavioural syndromes, were present in the study population. The results revealed that all three personality traits were highly repeatable over time in both sexes. Evidence of a complex syndrome in the form of a correlation between boldness, sociability and activity was found; however, this relationship was only …

Using Mouse Tracking To Examine The Time Course Of An Auditory Lexical Decision Task, Maura Krestar, Sara Incera, Conor T. Mclennan

Psychology Faculty Publications

Mouse-tracking studies demonstrate that hand movements reveal the progression of responses over time during
psychological tasks. In the present study, we examined the time course of cognitive processing during an auditory lexical
decision task. The following predicted results emerged to indicate facilitation for words relative to nonwords: 1) shorter
reaction times; 2) fewer direction changes, and, compared to the ideal trajectory; 3) smaller deviation; and, 4) area under
the curve for words relative to nonwords. We also found predicted differences between words and nonwords in velocity
throughout the trials, providing a greater understanding of the real-time processing dynamics throughout the …

Ecological Psychology And Media Consumption Among Young Adults: A New Framework, Alice Diana Cade Ferguson

Dissertations

The Pew Research Center (2010, March 1) identified three crucial “new metrics of news” (p. 2) that help to explain the appeal of new, interactive media forms among young adult news consumers. These metrics of Portability, Personalizability and Participation (Pew, 2010) highlight the rapid transformations in technology and user interests that have helped create a new manifestation of what McLuhan called an “age of anxiety” (1967/2001, pp. 8-9) in mass media industries and in mass communication education and scholarship. The purpose of this research is to investigate this very shift in how news is delivered and consumed, with particular attention …

Truly Accomplished: Exploratory Study Of Success Map Development, Dorey Chaffee

HIM 1990-2015

The current study examined Truly Accomplished (TA), an intervention designed to help individuals develop personalized systems to measure and improve behavior by utilizing well-established principles and research on motivation, participation and feedback. This study focused on participation during Success Map development (an integral step in the TA process) and the impact of using experts to develop Success Maps in the TA system. Using the context of fitness, 40 female participants were randomly assigned to either complete the regular TA process, developing their own Success Maps, or the modified TA process, using expert-developed Success Maps. A repeated-measures design with one between-subjects …

Therapists' Attitudes Toward Forgiveness: The Relationship Between Forgiveness Conceptualizations And Predicted Likelihood To Assist Clients To Forgive During Treatment, Cameron F. Cannon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research supports the use of forgiveness in psychotherapy; however, little is known about how this process is integrated into treatment. Views on the utility of forgiveness appear to be mixed. Differences in conceptualization appear to exist between interventionists who promote its use and those who argue against it. This study explored the potential relationship between therapists' conceptualization of forgiveness, categorized as either agreeing with popular interventionists or not, and their predicted assistance of client forgiveness, as well as relationships between attitudes toward forgiveness and other potentially related variables Two hundred sixty nine participants recruited from practice-focused graduate training institutions completed …

The Effect Of Motive And Coworker Liking On The Intention To Perform Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Caley M. Foster

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is defined as employee behavior that benefits others yet is not required by the employee’s job description. OCB can be divided into two categories: behavior that is either directed toward individuals (OCBI) or behavior that is directed toward the organization (OCBO). Researchers have posited that there are three different motives behind OCB: impression management, prosocial values, and organizational concern. Additionally, researchers have recognized the importance of coworker relationships within organizations and have suggested that the degree to which one likes his or her coworkers may serve as an additional source of motivation to engage in different …

Clinicians' Perceptions Of The Mental Health Of Gay Clients And The Effects Of Diversity Competency And Modern Homophobia, Joseph M. Longo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Attitudes within the psychological community regarding sexual minorities have evolved over time with a significant history of assigning pathology to lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients. Though attitudes have shifted, prejudice has not disappeared. Modern forms of homophobia are less overt and subtler expressions of contempt, disapproval, or discrimination and are rooted in internal conflict. In mental health training programs, LGB clients have historically received little attention, failing to prepare professionals to competently work with this population; encouragingly, this trend is changing. The present study investigated how mental health clinicians assess the level of mental health of gay male clients …

A Multivariate Method To Determine The Dimensionality Of Neural Representation From Population Activity., Jörn Diedrichsen, Tobias Wiestler, Naveed Ejaz

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

How do populations of neurons represent a variable of interest? The notion of feature spaces is a useful concept to approach this question: According to this model, the activation patterns across a neuronal population are composed of different pattern components. The strength of each of these components varies with one latent feature, which together are the dimensions along which the population represents the variable. Here we propose a new method to determine the number of feature dimensions that best describes the activation patterns. The method is based on Gaussian linear classifiers that use only the first d most important pattern …

Insulin, Central Dopamine D2 Receptors, And Monetary Reward Discounting In Obesity, Danuta M. Gredysa

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Frequent False Hearing By Older Adults: The Effects Of Predictive Context In Speech Perception, John Ryan Morton

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Making It Real: The Impact Of A Short-Term Study Abroad Experience On Students’ Ethnocentricity & Views Of Meaning In Life, Erin A. Mueller

CUP Faculty Research

Short-term study abroad experiences have been found to increase cross-cultural awareness and overall student growth and decrease ethnocentrism, though studies are lacking. The benefits of short-term experiences may only surface through qualitative measures, not quantitative. The goals of this study were to assess the impact of a short-term study abroad experience on students’ ethnocentrism and views of meaning in life. Six undergraduate students from Portland, Oregon, studied in Cape Town, South Africa, in the spring of 2012, and participated in this study. They took a 3-credit course, Global Perspectives on Psychology, as well as completed 3 credits of practicum through …

The Negative Feelings That People Want To Avoid: Cultural Differences And Consequences For Compassion, Birgit Koopmann-Holm

Psychology

Previous research has documented cultural differences in the positive states that people desire. Less research, however, has examined whether cultural differences exist in the negative states that people want to avoid feeling ("avoided negative affect"). Using a multimethod approach, we examined cultural differences between Americans and Germans in avoided negative affect and whether they are related to different responses to suffering, or compassion. In Study 1, using survey methods, we assessed whether avoided negative affect differs from related constructs, and based on an existing literature, tested our hypothesis that Americans want to avoid negative affect more than do Germans. As …

Effects Of Online Reputation Mechanisms On Perceived Credibility And Health Decision Making, Drew Link

All Theses

Reputation mechanisms and credibility are methods of adding additional information to forum posts, and are becoming more commonplace in online health forums. These systems provide users of forums additional information which can be used to evaluate the trustworthiness of the information being disseminated in community-run websites. The goal of the following studies is twofold. First, it is necessary to identify which elements of reputation systems and credibility participants use to make assessments of the trustworthiness, perceived credibility, and perceived accuracy of answers to health-related questions on a simulated web forum. Once the reputation mechanisms and credibility systems have been identified, …

Community Embeddedness And Core Self-Evaluations As Predictors Of Job Search And Stress During Unemployment: Perceived Employability As A Moderator, Lauren Ellis

All Theses

The loss of a job is a stressful life event that can cause people to lose economic stability, membership in a community, or a piece of their self-identity. Joblessness is an increasingly salient experience for American workers, as the national unemployment rate hovers between 8% and 9% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). Existing research suggests that unemployment is related to decreased levels of wellbeing. In addition, there is support that job search behaviors are strongly related to self-esteem and that those behaviors can function as a coping mechanism to combat the stress experienced during unemployment.
In the current study, …

Empathy And Threatened Egotism In Men’S Use Of Violence In Intimate Relationships, Jessica H. Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study was undertaken to explore the relationship between self-esteem, narcissism, and empathy with intimate partner violence perpetration among men in 2 samples: college students and inmates. The sample was analyzed both as an aggregate and separately. A negative relationship was hypothesized between intimate violence perpetration and both self-esteem and empathy. A positive relationship was expected between intimate violence perpetration and narcissism. A 2-way interaction was examined between self-esteem and narcissism as a test of threatened egotism, defined as high self-esteem coupled with high narcissism, which was not expected in the current study. Empathy was hypothesized to moderate the …