Psychology Commons^™

Business Psychology: Building An Interdisciplinary Bridge From The Ground Up, Raymond L. Forbes, Brenda Jones, Kristan Jones

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This paper describes the building of an innovative multi-disciplinary, outcomes-based, master’s degree program that integrates the fields of Business and Psychology. Historically, Business and Psychology have ranked among the top five majors chosen by undergraduate students. The program is theory-to-practice oriented and teaches the traditional disciplines of business including: economics, finance, marketing, human resources, strategy, and management from a human perspective. The Business Psychology program primarily emphasizes qualitative versus quantitative-oriented teaching methods. Students of the program analyze individual, group, and organizational level business issues through the application of both traditional and new brain-based tools. Individual and professional developments are also …

Heart-Focused Anxiety As A Predictor Of Cardiac Rehabilitation Attendance, Angelyna M. Hinkle

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Cardiac disease is the leading cause of death and functional impairment in North America. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) significantly improves health outcomes, yet adherence to treatment is a major obstacle for this population. Psychosocial factors such as depression have been identified as barriers to rehabilitation attendance, but evidence for anxiety as a potential barrier has been inconsistent. The aim of the current study was to test a more specific type of anxiety, heart-focused anxiety, as a predictor of CR attendance. Thirty-two participants between 39 and 87 years of age (M = 63.66, SD = 12.54, 53.1% female) were recruited from the …

Muscle Tension Induced After Learning Enhances Long-Term Narrative And Visual Memory In Healthy Older Adults, Kristy A. Nielson, Laura L. Wulff, Timothy J. Arentsen

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Arousing events are better remembered than mundane events. Indeed, manipulation of arousal, such as by muscle tension, can influence memory even when it occurs shortly after learning. Indeed, our founding study showed this approach can raise delayed memory performance in older adults to a level comparable to that of unaided young adults. Yet, systematic studies, especially those investigating different modalities or types of memory, have not been done. This study investigated the effects of a brief bout of isometric exercise via handgrip on narrative and visuospatial episodic memory in healthy elders. Forty-seven participants completed the Logical Memory subtest of the …

Sabbath Keeping Internalization: Well Being And Need Satisfaction, Cheryl Simpson

Posters, Presentations, and Papers

In this study I examine a possible correlation between Sabbath-keeping experiences and well-being as a function of religious internalization levels. I also ask whether that relationship is mediated by need satisfaction. My sample included Seventh-day Adventist community church goers. I surveyed a small Midwestern congregation about their Sabbath-keeping experiences, need satisfaction, and overall well-being. To ensure that my sample consisted of church goers, I only surveyed members at the church service. I predict that a higher level of religious internalization of Sabbath-keeping practices and fulfillment of need satisfaction will be more conducive to well-being.

Variable Temporoinsular Cortex Neuroanatomy In Primates Suggests A Bottleneck Effect In Eastern Gorillas, S. K. Barks, A. L. Bauernfeind, C. J. Bonar, M. R. Cranfield, A. A. De Sousa, J. M. Erwin, William D. Hopkins, A. H. Lewandowski, A. Mudakikwa, Kimberley A. Phillips, Mary Ann Raghanti, Cheryl D. Stimpson, Patrick R. Hof, K. Zilles, Chet C. Sherwood

Psychology Faculty Research

We describe an atypical neuroanatomical feature present in several primate species that involves a fusion between the temporal lobe (often including Heschl's gyrus in great apes) and the posterior dorsal insula, such that a portion of insular cortex forms an isolated pocket medial to the Sylvian fissure. We assessed the frequency of this fusion in 56 primate species (including apes, Old World monkeys, New World monkeys, and strepsirrhines) by using either magnetic resonance images or histological sections. A fusion between temporal cortex and posterior insula was present in 22 species (seven apes, two Old World monkeys, four New World monkeys, …

The Mediating Effect Of General Organizational Means-Efficacy In The Relationships Between Organizational Context And Employee Attitudes, Kevin Cobb

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The current study examines the mediating role of General Organizational Means‑efficacy (GOME) in the relationships between organizational context and employee attitudes. The organizational context consists of leadership support, centralization, and emphasis on training and development; and employee attitudes consist of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and career outcomes. The purpose of this study is to reveal what contextual factors in an organization may affect employees’ perceptions of resources available and in turn affects employee attitudes. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze these relationships, and it was found that leadership support and an emphasis on training and development were positively related …

The Effects Of Peer Tutoring On Junior High General Education Students' Attitudes Toward Students With Severe Disabilities, Amanda Kim Hunsaker

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if and how the perceptions of general education students toward their peers with severe disabilities changes when they participate in a peer tutoring program. The study was conducted in a suburban/rural district in Utah and included 102 participants in treatment and control groups over three junior high schools. The data found mixed results. One of the three schools had a significant difference in the attitudes of the treatment group after being part of a peer tutoring program. The study shows that being part of a peer tutoring program can have a …

The Art Of Personal Science, Jeff Fajans

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Quantified Self isn’t really about finding answers or solving problems—it’s about asking new questions.

The Quantified Self, Behind The Cover Art, Leslie Love Stone

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

We lead quantified lives. The information we send and receive through our computers, CD players, and smart phones is coded in ones and zeroes. We exist as numerical accounts, license numbers, and login IDs. Anyone who has ever waited on hold for a live customer service representative understands the desire to be treated like a person, not a number. We each want acceptance for our inherent peculiarities and consideration for our circumstance—conditions we believe extrinsic to numbers.

Multiculturalism And Feminism For Hispanic Immigrant Women Accused Of Drug Crimes, Kathryn Duque Lenhart

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Promoting The Study Of Wrongful Convictions In Criminal Justice Curricula, Jessica S. Henry

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Criminal justice education promotes interdisciplinary learning, critical thinking skills, and ethical decision making. A course on wrongful convictions falls squarely within that paradigm, as it draws upon criminology, criminal justice, law, psychology, and forensic science to examine basic assumptions about the criminal justice system and the actors within it. In a wrongful convictions course, students learn to think critically about the criminal justice system, and what happens when it fails to function as it should. Students identify practice and policy reforms that improve the accuracy and reliability of the system. This article first considers the broad objectives of criminal justice …

Passengers From India And The United States Have Differential Opinions About Autonomous Auto-Pilots For Commercial Flights, Stephen Rice, Keegan Kraemer, Scott R. Winter, Rian Mehta, Victoria Dunbar, Timothy G. Rosser, Julie C. Moore

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

There has been much previous research on cultural differences between the United States and India, as well as some research on consumer attitudes towards auto-pilots in commercial airlines. However, to date, there has been no research that examines how passengers from different countries feel about auto-pilots and remote-controlled (RC) pilots in commercial aircraft, or how they feel about their co-workers or children flying in these situations. The current study manipulates both the type of pilot (human pilot, auto-pilot, and RC pilot) and the passenger (participant, child of participant, or work colleague) and examines three different dependent variables (comfort level, trust …

Examining A Novel Set Of Executive Function Measures Using Event Related Potentials, Danielle Cara Blinkoff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The nature and assessment of executive function are areas of active research. Many current assessments of executive function are complex, have limited reliability and validity, and suffer from task impurity, meaning other cognitive processes may indirectly influence task performance. Additionally, measures may be culture, language, or education bound limiting their use in certain populations (Miyake, Emerson, & Friedman, 2000; Miyake, Friedman, et al., 2000; Strauss, Sherman, & Spreen, 2006; Stuss, 2007). The purpose of this project was to develop a novel set of executive function measures to address issues with current clinical measures. The new measures 1) can be used …

Do Social Biases Impede Auditor Reliance On Specialists? Toward A Theory Of Social Similarity, Rina Maxine Limor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Does social similarity between the auditor and a specialist induce social biases that impair the auditor's reliance on the specialist? It is important to examine potential impairments to reliance since auditors do not possess expertise in many of the areas examined during the audit. One type of specialist that is increasingly relied upon by the auditor is the IT specialist.

Since firms have two approaches to the organization of IT personnel (decentralized vs. centralized) and often use professional designations as a hiring criteria for specialists, I examine two dimensions of social similarity: domain knowledge distinctiveness and spatial distance. Using a …

Attention Deficit Associated With Early Life Interictal Spikes In A Rat Model Is Improved With Acth, Amanda E. Hernan, Abigail Alexander, Pierre-Pascal Lenck-Santini, Rod C. Scott

Dartmouth Scholarship

Children with epilepsy often present with pervasive cognitive and behavioral comorbidities including working memory impairments, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder. These non-seizure characteristics are severely detrimental to overall quality of life. Some of these children, particularly those with epilepsies classified as Landau-Kleffner Syndrome or continuous spike and wave during sleep, have infrequent seizure activity but frequent focal epileptiform activity. This frequent epileptiform activity is thought to be detrimental to cognitive development; however, it is also possible that these IIS events initiate pathophysiological pathways in the developing brain that may be independently associated with cognitive deficits. These …

Physiological Stress Responsiveness And Outcome In Psychotherapy, Dr. Patrick Steffen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Research conducted by Michael Lambert et al. has found that a substantial minority of psychotherapy clients (about 10%) get worse over the course of therapy. They call these clients ‘red responders’ because they are of particular concern for the therapists and require additional focused treatment. Interestingly, at the other end of the spectrum, Lambert et al. note that there are ‘blue responders,’ clients that not only respond very well to therapy but also respond very quickly (within a few sessions) and also do very well over time. There are no studies to date that have determined what predicts who will …

The Study Of Inflexibility In Autism: Training Students For Translational Neuroscience, Mikle South

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This grant was intended to train undergraduate students from psychology and life sciences in preparation for advanced study related to translational neuroscience, i.e. the application of basic research to clinically-­‐useful objectives. Specifically we conducted studies of anxiety in autism including studies of emotion influences on learning and decision making.

Clues Cue The Smooze: Rhyme, Pausing, And Prediction Help Children Learn New Words From Storybooks, Kirsten Read

Psychology

Rhyme, which is ubiquitous in the language experiences of young children, may be especially facilitative to vocabulary learning because of how it can support active predictions about upcoming words. In two experiments, we tested whether rhyme, when used to help children anticipate new words would make those words easier to learn. Two- to 4-year-old children heard rhyming stanzas naming novel monsters under three conditions: A non-rhyme condition in which novel monster names appeared as unrhymed elements within a rhymed stanza, a non-predictive rhyme condition in which the novel names were the rhymed element in the first line of a stanza, …

Project Title: The Cognitive Neuroscience Of Long-Term Memory, C. Brock Kirwan

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Memory is an essential cognitive ability. It allows us to use past events to guide future actions. Research in my laboratory focuses on determining the mechanics of how the brain remembers what it does. We are interested in determining what will be remembered and what will be forgotten. Specifically, my research focuses on one aspect of memory encoding that allows us to form distinct memory representations for stimuli and events that are very similar. For example, the location where you parked your car this morning is probably very similar to the location where you parked your car many times before. …

Attracting Female Students To Science: An Interdisciplinary Stress-Psychobiology Mentored Experience, Michael Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Women have made considerable progress in education and the workplace; however, progress in science and technology fields continues to lag behind. Females remain underrepresented in science majors at the university level and, subsequently, represent less than a quarter of full professors in scientific fields. Increasing female representation in science is considered a national priority. Studies indicate women who receive a mentored scientific experience are more likely to choose careers in science and research than peers who are not exposed to scientific research in a mentored environment. Thus, our grant focused on attracting female students to the academic and scientific environment …

Research Brief: “Clinical And Demographic Factors Associated With Employment Status In Us Military Veterans Returning From Iraq And Afghanistan”, Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This brief focuses on the connection between employment status and veterans with or without PTSD, mild Traumatic Brain Injury, sleep issues, or pain issues. In practice, depression and those 40+ years of age were associated with the employment status in this study of a sample of post-deployment U.S. veterans. In policy, it is found that policymakers should know that veterans' adjustment issues may not be the threshold of being effective employees. Future research could target combat veterans’ motivations and the ability to pursue education, as well as a study of those who are employed and have had an mTBI and …

Body Dissatisfaction And Males: A Conceptual Model, Mitch Primus

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Within society it appears that dissatisfaction with one’s body is seen as a female-exclusive problem. However, limited research on men and body dissatisfaction suggests that men do experience body dissatisfaction, and these rates are increasing over time. The present literature review seeks to tie together consistent themes seen within these studies, and proposes a model based on these connections that may explain the growth in prevalence rates over time. Two theories, threatened masculinity theory and self-discrepancy theory, are also applied within the model. The model presented within this review can help give new direction to future research on men and …

Differences In The Identity Formation Process Of American Indian Adolescents In Urban And Reservation Contexts, Irene Churchill

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Currently, the majority of American Indians live in more urban and metropolitan environments. The differences in the way identity develops for American Indian adolescents is compared between growing up in an urban context and a reservation context. Two models are explained and applied to American Indian adolescents in these two settings, Oppedal’s Acculturation development model and Phinney and Baldelomar’s Cross-cultural Identity Status Model. According to the Acculturation development model, American Indian adolescents living on reservations likely have higher levels of interaction with their minority culture, therefore having higher levels of enculturation. Additionally, American Indian adolescents living in urban areas likely …

Non-Invasive Treatment For Drug Addiction, Scott C. Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The primary objective of this MEG project was to develop a non-invasive treatment for drug addiction. It was the first aim of this study to determine, in controlled experiments in rodents, the efficacy of brain electrical or light stimulation to produce long-term enhancement of dopamine (DA) release. Then, second, in a known human model of transient DA deficiency in drug-free subjects, which we already have recent experience, we will evaluate the effects of this stimulation to ameliorate the physiological and cognitive deficits that we have seen. When an addict refrains from their addictive behavior DA levels fall in the mesolimbic …

The Patterns Of Feeding And Drinking Behavior After Intraventricular Administration Of Orexigenic Compounds To Rats, Lauro Alejandro De Santiago, Dr. Gregory N. Ervin

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The effects of injections of some compounds on feeding behavior have been studied thoroughly in rats. However, the simultaneous pattern of feeding and drinking after the injection of either anorexic (feeding suppressor) or orexigenic (feeding inducer) compounds have been observed only infrequently or not at all. Only the feeding effects of a few compounds, like Neuropeptide Y (an orexigenic compound), have been studied in conjunction with drinking behavior. Observing the patterns of drinking and feeding behavior is important because it can provide valuable neuropharmacological and psychobiological information about the mechanisms that mediate the anorexic and orexigenic effects of these compounds. …

Educational Technology: Evaluation Of An Interactive Cd-Rom For Teaching And Learning Organic Reactions, Loranna K. Kitchen, Dr. Edward E. Green

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Advances in computer technology have affected many parts of our lives. The field of education is no exception. Increasingly, technology is used in schools to enhance students’ learning. Computer based learning programs offer students an opportunity for self-directed study to complement the instruction they receive in class. Teachers may also use educational technology in the classroom to more effectively teach students who respond to a wide variety of learning styles. With so many products on the market, both teachers and students need to know how to decide which products can help them in their teaching and learning. They must then …

Group Therapy Experience As A Factor In The Outcome Of Severely Mentally Ill Patients, Jennifer R. Ellsworth, Dr. Gary M. Burlingame

Journal of Undergraduate Research

An interdisciplinary team of academicians from Brigham Young University’s Comprehensive Clinic initially developed a collaborative relationship with the Utah State Hospital for the purpose of improving the hospital’s group therapy program through staff group skills training and improving the hospital’s outcomes tracking system. They chose six instruments (three of which were currently in use at the hospital) to measure the impact of the staff skills enhancement program and to track patient outcome.

Effectiveness Of Massage Therapy For Clients Who Are Receiving Psychotherapy For Distress, Collin R. Payne, Dr. Bruce Carpenter

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Current research shows that touch stimulation can positively affect physiological, behavioral, and social development (1). Because of this research, health care professionals regard touch as vitally important in interactions and healing (2). In view of the benefits of touch on anxiety and recovery, therapeutic massage is gradually becoming a recognized health care profession (3).

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Preattentive Processes And Visual Search On A Memory Task, Aubree Greenhalgh, Dr. Donovan Fleming

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Extensive research has been done with regards to attention and visual processing. Particular attention has been paid to preattentive processing which is the automatic registration of features by processing all targets simultaneously across the visual field (Matlin & Foley, 1997). Some of the particular properties which visual objects are composed of appear instantly and are, thus, processed faster (Treisman, 1985). In simpler terms, some targets are easier to recognize then others, especially if the targets differ greatly from their surroundings. For example, one square among many circles is easier to recognize then an oval or an octagon among a number …

Qualitative Study Of Males And Females Reactions To Cooperative And Competitive Group Problem Solving Situations, Howard B. Cleavinger, Dr. Kay H. Smith

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This study was constructed using a simplified commodities game in which groups of four participants invested in commodities ranging from $100 to $500. The higher the cost, the higher the rate of risk entailed and thus, a higher payoff. The participants were informed that they were participating as a group against other groups (a cooperative situation), or that they were participating as individuals against the group and all other groups (a competitive situation). Same sex groups were used in this study.