Psychology Commons^™

Ages Of Engagement In Risk Taking And Self-Harm: An Investigation Of The Dual Systems Model Of Adolescent Risk Taking, Brittany Dykstra

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Risk taking (RT) and self-harm (SH) are clinically, conceptually, and empirically
related, yet separate constructs, which occur most frequently during adolescence. The current study utilized retrospective reports of college students to determine reported ages of engagement in RT and SH behaviors. Reported ages were compared with predictions for ages of high frequency engagement in RT based on the Dual Systems Model of Adolescent Risk Taking (DSMART; Steinberg, 2010). The sample consisted of 228 college students, ranging in age from 18 to 48 years (mean 22.8), who completed a survey of commonly investigated RT (12 items) and SH (18 items) behaviors. …

Section Abstracts: Psychology

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Psychology Section for the 91st Annual Virginia Journal of Science Meeting, May 2013

The Role Of Appearance In Perceptions Of Personal Trainers 2013., Patrick R. Boerner

Master's Theses

The field of personal training in the United States is believed to have begun in the late 1970‟s and the early 1980‟s (Brooks, 2004). Today, personal training is a healthy profession that, according to the United States Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012), is expected to grow 24% (60,400 jobs) between 2010 and 2020. In comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012) predicts the average growth rate for all occupations within the U.S. to be only 14% during the same ten-year span. Rapid growth within the field of personal training has brought an increased scrutiny on …

Alleviating Obesity Bias: Does Information Content Matter?, Kimberly Mendoza

HIM 1990-2015

Obesity bias has become the most acceptable form of prejudice in American society (Latner, O'Brien, Durso, Brinkman, & MacDonald, 2008). Stigmatization of the obese has tremendous social and economic costs both for the stigmatized population and for society as a whole. Few studies have been done to show effective ways to reduce obesity bias. This study looked to expand the research on effective ways to reduce obesity bias. Using a between-participants experimental design, the present study investigated whether multi-faceted information content about the causes of obesity (including psychological, social, and physiological causes) would be more effective in reducing obesity bias …

Examining Heterosocial And Social Anxiety In Pakistani American And European American Women A Comparative Analysis, Zehra Mirza

HIM 1990-2015

Also, a lower level of heterosocial anxiety was found to be negatively correlated with assimilation to U.S culture, which may have attributed to less heterosocial iv anxiety was found to be negatively correlated with assimilation to U.S culture, which may have attributed to less heterosocial anxiety in Pakistani women.; This present study will examine the psychopathology of Pakistani American females through the context of cultural means. Research in the past has shown that Asian Americans report higher levels of distress as well as higher levels of anxiety relative to their European American counterparts. Thus, social anxiety may manifest itself differently …

The Utility Of Cancer-Related Cultural Constructs To Understand Colorectal Cancer Screening Among African Americans, John P. Meriac, Vetta L. S. Thompson, Alan Bugbee, Jenine K. Harris

Psychology Faculty Works

Data suggest that colorectal cancer could be cut by approximately 60% if all people aged 50 years or older received regular screening. Studies have identified socio-cultural attitudes that might inform cancer education and screening promotion campaigns. This article applies item response theory (IRT) to a set of survey items selected to assess sociocultural attitudes in order to determine how current measures may affect what we know about how these attitudes affect colorectal cancer screening (CRCS). Design and Methods. A survey of colorectal cancer screening, screening attitudes and cultural beliefs was administered to 1021 African Americans - 683 women and 338 …

Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And People’S Abilities To Cope With Stress, Lucile Michel

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Nowadays, it is really important for the researchers to understand the origins of stress, because it has been established that stress is really harmful for the human beings and is the cause to many diseases. Emotional intelligence has been shown to influence various areas of life, while several research studies state that EI has an effect on people’s abilities to cope with stress. Many studies affirm that EI, because of its effect on perceived stress, would have an influence on people’s aptitudes to manage a team, communicating with colleagues, and leadership skills. Because, today, in many workplaces, for interviews, managers …

Effect Of Classical Music On College Students, Bridget Kiely

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

This paper examined whether or not classical music has a positive or negative effect when it comes to studying school related material. College students were able to sign-up through the Linden Participant Pool. The study used convenience samples to select the participants of this study and given two tests to collect the data: one with music and one without music, and it was a within-participants study. The hypothesis was to detect whether or not classical music is beneficial to a student while comprehending school related material. The participants were also administered a demographic survey, two informed consents, a printed receipt, …

Communication Among Emerging Adult Siblings, Jessica Leigh Paulsen

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The study sought to explore the emerging adult sibling dyad through qualitative
inquiry. By doing so, the collected data bring new meaning to why and how emerging adult siblings communicate. Also, by including both siblings, this study sought to highlight a different perspective of sibling communication. Extant research on the emerging adulthood stage of life is limited. The current study explored the sibling dyad during this phase of life, and three themes emerged: siblings become friends, changes during emerging adulthood, conflict negotiation, and taking a parental role.

Self-Regulation And Physical Activity In Wku Employees, Scott Perkins

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Many Americans do not engage in the recommended amount of physical activity, and thus do not receive the potential physical and mental health benefits from physical activity. Stage of change is a model that categorizes individuals into one of five stages based on behavior and intentions for future behavior. This model is useful for promoting physical activity because it allows for tailoring of interventions to individuals with different physical activity levels and readiness for change. The main purpose of this research was to test if more adaptive scores for Essential Self-Regulation Model (ESRM) constructs are found for persons in higher …

The Influence Of Children's Affective Ties On The Goal Clarification Step Of Social Information Processing, Amanda C. Thorn

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Previous studies have shown that children’s social goals are influenced by
emotion and that emotions can be manipulated using relationships. The present study combines these previous findings by examining the effect of children’s relationships on social goals. Social goals were examined in second and fifth grade children using hypothetical ambiguous provocation situations in which the relationship between the participant and the provocateur was manipulated by inserting the name of a friend, enemy, or a neutral peer into the story. After each situation, children rated the importance of four different social goals, indicating which of the four would be the most …

The Effects Of Gender And Implicit Theories On Science Achievement And Interest In Elementary-Aged Students, Savannah Benningfield

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study set out to determine the relationship between student grade
level, implicit views of science ability, science achievement and science interest.
Differences by grade level were also explored. The study also considered the differences in male and female implicit theories of science ability, science interest, and science achievement. Participants in the current study consisted of a total of 1910 students from six elementary schools from one south-central Kentucky district that participate in Project GEMS (Gifted Education in Math and Science). Data were analyzed by means of analysis of variance and Pearson correlations. Younger students evidenced lower scores on …

Assessment Of Likelihood Of A School Shooting Incident, W. Joseph Wyatt

Psychology Faculty Research

After considering the profiles of several shooters, consideration is given to the efficacy of using a profile to predict future shooting incidents.

Medicalization Of Mental Disorders: 1970- To The Present, W. Joseph Wyatt

Psychology Faculty Research

A thirty-five year escalation of emphasis on biological causation has rendered, for many, medications as the treatment of choice for mental disorders. Non-drug treatment may be cast aside, as a result.

Reborn In Adversity - Memoir Excerpt And Review Of Resiliency Research: Risks And Traits, Alina Patterson

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Reborn in Adversity describes the journey one young girl makes as she seeks to self-actualize amidst multiple risk factors or packages. Raised in an abusive, hypocritical, and assaultive family, the author is faced with crisis after crises along each milestone of life. Once she leaves her abusive family, the risks and crises multiply in magnitude and number. In this journey she exhibits multiple resiliency traits that allow at risk children to rebound from adversity. She does more than rebound, as she is convinced that she has become a “better person” than she would have been had she not been tested …

Synthetic Task Environments And The Three Body Problem, John M. Flach

Psychology Faculty Publications

The challenge for our panel was to address the opportunities and challenges of synthetic task environments for basic research on human performance in sociotechnical systems. In doing this, the classical three-body problem from physics is used as a metaphor to illustrate the contrast between dyadic and triadic semiotic models of cognitive systems. In the context of this metaphor, synthetic task environments offer a means to bring some of the additional complexities of triadic semiotic systems under experimental control where converging empirical methods can help to titrate through the additional complexity to distill basic theoretical insights that will potentially have practical …

A Need For Green: An Approach For Motivating Environmentally Sustainable Practices At The University Of Rhode Island, Mary Vidal, Alyssa Mason

Senior Honors Projects

“Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Meade

Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man details his yearlong experiment to live without creating any environmental impact. As sophomores we were inspired by Beavan’s journey but also skeptical of living a completely no-impact lifestyle as college-students. Although we were motivated to try to live sustainably, our efforts were dormant until our junior year. That year we decided that we would attempt to live up to the standards set forth by Beavan--understanding that some practices would be harder …

It's Not So Simple: The Role Of Simplicity In Science And Theory., C. R. Gregg

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The principle of simplicity (parsimony) has long been invoked as a regulative principle that helps guide theory selection in science. However, it is unclear if there is justification for a globally applicable criterion of parsimony. This paper briefly reviews the salient features of what it means for something to be simple, as well as argues for simplicity as relevant only to a set of background assumptions.

Impairment And Executive Functioning Associated With Symptoms Of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo, Adhd, Anxiety, And Depression, Whitney Lee Muhlenkamp Wood

Psychology - Theses

This study examined the relationships among Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT), ADHD, anxiety, and depression symptom sets in a college sample, and the extent to which these symptom sets predicted executive functioning and functional impairment. Also, this study investigated (a) the extent to which functional impairment and executive functioning (EF) problems were uniquely accounted for by SCT symptoms when controlling for ADHD, anxiety, and depression symptoms, and (b) which high symptom group accounted for the greatest amount of impairment. College students (N = 458) completed a demographic questionnaire and self-report scales of ADHD, SCT symptoms, anxiety, and depression symptoms, as well …

Social Media Use Among Employees: Influences Of Organizational Climate, Job Involvement, And Organizational Commitment, Hannah Murphy

All Theses

How are social networking sites, such as Facebook, affecting employees and their organizations? Social media provide a way of creating communities where employees can share their workplace experiences and insights. The literature suggests that the manner in which these communications occur is dependent on the organizational climate, specifically the organization's values of knowledge sharing and social communications. Based on findings in the preliminary study, the main study of this thesis investigates how an employee's level of organizational commitment and job involvement influence their use of social media. Correlational analyses showed that an employee's level of organizational commitment and job involvement …

Accuracy Of A Bite-Count Based Calorie Estimate Compared To Human Estimates With And Without Calorie Information Available, James Salley

All Theses

Obesity is an increasing health problem in the US, associated with such dangerous health risks as heart disease and diabetes. Self-monitoring in the form of calorie counting is a critical aspect of successful weight loss. However, calorie estimations are subject to several perceptual and cognitive biases, and there are limited tools available to assist these estimations. The present study seeks to assess the accuracy of participants' estimations of the calorie content of meals in the presence or absence of calorie information, and to compare their accuracy with calorie estimations based on bite count. Data were analyzed for 87 participants from …

Conceptual Distinction Between The Critical P Value And The Type I Error Rate In Permutation Testing, Richard B. Anderson

Psychology Faculty Publications

To counter past assertions that permutation testing is not distribution-free, this article clarifies that the critical p value (alpha) in permutation testing is not a Type I error rate and that a test's validity is independent of the concept of Type I error.

Stress And Performance In Uncertainty-Avoiding Individuals: An Introductory Literature Review, Kimberly Stowers

HIM 1990-2015

Uncertainty avoidance as a cultural construct has been known to affect worker stress and performance in organizations, but a review of these findings has not been done up until this point. In effort to clarify the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and stress and performance, a comprehensive literature search was performed. Findings from articles on this topic have been presented. In addition, organizational practices for accommodating uncertainty avoidance and other cultural dimensions have been explored. This review shows that uncertainty avoidance appears to be linked to higher stress, while its relationship to performance appears to depend on other factors. Best practices …

Diagnostic Interaction: First-Person Patient Narratives On Hacking's Looping Effects And The Normative Status Of Psychiatric Nosology, Corinne Jager

Honors College Theses

What is the interaction between a psychiatric patient and their diagnosis? How do they respond to being classified? A number of philosophical theories attempt to explain the interaction between the diagnosed patient and their classification. Ian Hacking develops an account of interaction which holds that objects of human science classification are influenced by the awareness of the classification in a way that changes both the classification and its object. Hacking thinks that psychiatric patients are “interactive kinds” whose awareness of their classification causes changes in the individuals' experience of themselves, and thus changes in their classification. Hacking claims that these …

Picture Superiority Effect In Prospective Memory: Examining The Influence Of Age And Attention Load, Nicole Fink

All Dissertations

The picture superiority effect (i.e. better memory for pictures than words) is well established in retrospective memory, but the examination of the picture superiority effect in prospective memory has been underrepresented in the literature. Understanding if pictures lead to better prospective memory than words has the theoretical benefit of increasing our understanding of what particular factors lead to spontaneous retrieval and the practical benefit of informing the design of memory aids. Additionally, I examine if there are differences in ongoing task and prospective memory task performance between age groups (old and young) and under different loads of attention (non-divided and …

Evaluation Of A Short-Form Of The Berg Card Sorting Test, Christopher J. Fox, Shane T. Mueller, Hilary M. Gray, Jacob Raber, Brian J. Piper

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Psychology Experimental Building Language http://pebl.sourceforge.net/Berg Card Sorting Test is an open-source neurobehavioral test. Participants (N = 207, ages 6 to 74) completed the Berg Card Sorting Test. Performance on the first 64 trials were isolated and compared to that on the full-length (128 trials) test. Strong correlations between the short and long forms (total errors: r = .87, perseverative response: r = .83, perseverative errors r = .77, categories completed r = .86) support the Berg Card Sorting Test-64 as an abbreviated alternative for the full-length executive function test.

Personal Factors That Influence Meaning And Prioritizatin In Work-Nonwork Roles, Lindsay Ware Benitez

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The importance an individual places on one role over another is captured by a person’s identity salience, which can affect how work and nonwork roles are viewed and how one allocates time and resources to these roles. Within the literature there is a need to further understand what personal factors may influence the development of a person’s identity salience and ultimately contribute to the choices people make surrounding work and nonwork domains. The present study was designed to assess the impact of four higher order values that contribute to a person’s identity salience. Also examined was the potential impact of …

Competency-Based Versus Task-Based Job Descriptions: Effects On Applicant Attraction, Candace Leann Hawkes

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

In order for organizations to attract applicants, they need to ensure they are using attractive recruitment materials. Previous research has failed to examine the effect of varying types of job description formats on applicants’ level of attraction to an organization. This study examined applicants’ attraction to organizations based on competency-based and task-based job descriptions. A total of 258 participants were from a Southeastern university, representing three different majors. The job descriptions were individualized based on academic major. Participants read both competency and task-based job descriptions and rated their attraction to each organization. The Big Five and Love of Learning measures …

A Resource Management Perspective On Work Design, Whitney Lane Huskey

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Chronic, negative, uninterrupted stress, specifically in the workplace, can lead to a variety of health issues as well as decreased job satisfaction and increased intentions to turnover within an organization. An important part of managing this negative stress is identifying the specific factors that contribute to it. The present study focuses on the negative consequences of occupational stress by identifying the work design characteristics that influence an individual’s perception of resource drain or gain and, ultimately, occupational stress. It is hypothesized that positive task characteristics, knowledge characteristics, social characteristics, and work context associated with the work environment will negatively correlate …

Odor Sensitivity And The Presence Of P-Cresol, Jessica Mi Mckinney

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Olfactory function declines throughout the different stages of kidney disease. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients have experienced improved olfactory function after dialysis, leading some researchers to suspect uremic toxins as the cause of olfactory decline (Raff et al., 2008; Bomback & Raff, 2011). It is thought that p-cresol is the specific uremic toxin to cause a decline in olfactory function because it is not easily filtered out of the blood during dialysis (Meijers et al., 2010). The study sought to set up a control group for future studies by demonstrating p-cresol is not in the blood of healthy participants and …