Psychology Commons^™

The Development Of The Barriers, Elizabeth Hagelsieb-Escalera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Estimates of undiagnosed diabetics are as high as 50%. Early intervention and management can reduce the complications of diabetes; however, this is possible only after the disease has been diagnosed. A review of diabetes screening literature revealed a dearth of information regarding the diabetes screening behavior of individuals. Unlike barriers to cancer screening, little is known about barriers and facilitators to diabetes screening. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is a logical theoretical framework to apply for the examination of screening intentions because it allows inference of behavioral predictors via survey item responses. Using the TPB framework, the Barriers and …

Psychographic Characteristics And Health Behaviors In Young Adults, Jose Alonso Cabriales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. Non trivial smoking rates are observed among young adults and Hispanics, particularly as light and intermittent smoking is on the rise. Additionally, the assessment of other health behaviors including alcohol use, physical activity, and dietary practices seems warranted in young adults. The primary aim of this study was to identify clusters of individuals based on psychographics (e.g., lifestyle, preferences, personality characteristics), and their relation to tobacco use within a primarily Hispanic young adult border sample. Secondary aims were the assessment of group differences with respect to alcohol use, …

Developing And Testing An Implicit Measure Of Moral Foundation Accessibility, Scott D. Frankowski

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Moral Foundations Theory provides a framework for understanding moral judgments and behavior. With the present research, I developed a word fragment task as an implicit measure of moral foundation accessibility. In an experiment, I used this measure as a predictor of moral attitudes and behaviors toward two moral violations. Responses on this implicit measure predicted moral attitudes; however, the priming conditions did not affect responses. The failure of the primes are discussed, as well as future directions.

The Relative Impact Of Statistical And Anecdotal Evidence In The Evaluation Of The Risk Of Using Emerging Drugs Of Abuse, Kevin Michael Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The recreational use of "emerging drugs" of abuse (e.g., Spice, "bath salts") is a growing problem that has taken root in the United States and is increasingly recognized as a public health concern (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2012). However, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the level of risk that individuals associate with the use of these substances. In addition, there is a critical knowledge gap regarding how young adults utilize anecdotal and statistical information when evaluating the risk of using emerging drugs. The present study addresses these gaps in knowledge in two specific aims. First, the present …

Investigating Bilingual Non-Selective Lexical Access Within A Reading Comprehension Framework, Justin Gerald Lauro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis examines the role of bilingual non-selective lexical access on sentence comprehension. According to the BIA+ model of lexical access, bilinguals have an integrated lexicon with, and activation flows automatically across both languages. This model assumes that the bilingual lexicon is fundamentally non-selective. Previous research shows that cognates, words that share form and meaning across languages, are processed faster relative to non-cognates, even in sentence contexts. However, previous research focuses primarily on processing of single lexical items. The structure building framework of reading comprehension states that readers initially lay a foundation for subsequent information to be mapped on to. …

Cross-Validation Of The El Paso Risk Assessment Of Juveniles At Intake Scale (El Paso Raji), Dilata Ranadive

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No published risk assessment instrument is designed for the specific purpose of identifying high risk first-time juvenile offenders at their first contact with the juvenile justice system. The El Paso Risk Assessment of Juveniles at Intake (El Paso RAJI) was developed by Valenzuela (2011) for this purpose. The current study had three aims: i) to assess the validity of the RAJI as a predictor of recidivism among first-time juvenile offenders, ii) to compare the predictive power of RAJI items with the predictive power of similar items from another risk assessment instrument, the Pre-Positive Achievement Change Tool (PrePACT), and iii) to …

Investigating The Efficacy Of Traffic-Light Labeling For Nutrition Label Presentation, Mosi Staudt

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The rates of obesity and the number of overweight adults are increasing in the U.S. (Cohen, 2008). This increase is due, in part, to food over consumption (Cohen, 2008). Although nutrition labels are available for people to identify the amounts of nutrients in food, these labels are often difficult to understand (Cowburn & Stockley, 2002). To understand how people interpret nutrition labels, we conducted two studies with a total of 383 participants. For the first study, we developed and pilot tested two outcome measures for the second study. For the second study we examined how people interpret nutrition labels using …

Si Se Puede: The Effects Of Collective Angst And Identity On Group Activism During The National Immigration Debate, Corin Sue Ramos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The United States is involved in an ongoing debate on immigration. States have passed their own laws intended to enforce federal law. The new controversial laws allow local law enforcement to act as federal immigration agents. Opponents argue these new laws unlawfully target Latinos. Latinos are of interest for politicians and lawmakers, due to their rapid growing population. The current research investigated the effects that anti-immigrant laws have on Latino citizens' American identity, ethnic identity and civic engagement. Preliminary data showed conservative Latinos have low intention of voting when primed with anti-immigrant laws. Absent from the pilot study are the …

Toward A Theory Of Productivity Problems In Graduate Student Writing, Craig Wynne

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This case study focuses on the productivity problems that faced the dissertation/thesis writing practices of fourteen graduate students at a public university on the U.S./Mexico border. The author facilitated a series of group sessions designed to help graduate students in various disciplines cultivate awareness of Donald Murray's notion of "writing as process," as well as knowledge of writer's block and writing anxiety. Sessions also served to cultivate positive self-talk with relation to the writing process, an introduction to mindfulness meditation, and basic time management skills. Four types of data were collected: 1. field notes from participant discussion during workshop sessions; …

The Effect Of Religious References On Identity Salience And Social Behaviors, Jessica Marie Shenberger Trujillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the aftermath of 9/11 and other terrorist attacks on U.S. soil (e.g., the Boston bombings) researchers began to empirically investigate the conditions under which religion can lead to supporting or committing violence. The contradictory findings for the effects of religious references on both positive and negative behavior call for a closer examination of individual or contextual factors that influence the effect of religion on social behaviors. To address these contradictory findings and to identify the underlying mechanism involved, Study 1 examined the extent to which god-related or church-related religious references impact the salience of individual or group identities. Study …

Trauma, Personality, And Behavior: A Longitudinal Study Predicting Adverse Outcomes After Sexual Assault From Personality Prior To The Assault, Jessica L. Combs

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Exposure to sexual assault results in ongoing harms for women. After an assault, some women engage higher levels of externalizing behaviors, such as drinking problems and drug use, and others experience higher levels of internalizing dysfunction, such as clinical anxiety and clinical depression. In a longitudinal sample of 1929 freshman college women assessed across three time points, I found the following. Pre-assault negative urgency (the tendency to act rashly when distressed) interacted with assault exposure to predict increased subsequent drinking and initiation of drug use. Pre-assault trait anxiety/depression interacted with assault exposure to predict increased subsequent clinical anxiety and depression. …

Korean American Adolescents And Their Mothers: Intergenerational Differences And Their Consequences, Hui Chu

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The current study examined the links and mechanisms associated with intergenerational cultural conflict, psychological distress, and the intergenerational differences in acculturation and model minority stereotype (MMS) endorsement for South Korean immigrants. Specifically, Korean American adolescents’ (ages 12-19, M = 15.3, SD = 1.71) and their mothers’ (N = 209 dyads) acculturation difference and MMS endorsement difference were measured and analyzed as predictors of intergenerational cultural conflict and psychological distress for adolescents. Furthermore, the study analyzed intergenerational cultural conflict as a mediator in the acculturation gap-distress and the MMS endorsement-distress paths. Results indicated that when mothers and their adolescents differed …

Nest Destruction Elicits Indiscriminate Con- Versus Heterospecific Brood Parasitism In A Captive Bird, Rachel C. Shaw, William E. Feeney, Mark E. Hauber

Publications and Research

Following nest destruction, the laying of physiologically committed eggs (eggs that are ovulated, yolked, and making their way through the oviduct) in the nests of other birds is considered a viable pathway for the evolution of obligate interspecific brood parasitism. While intraspecific brood parasitism in response to nest predation has been experimentally demonstrated, this pathway has yet to be evaluated in an interspecific context. We studied patterns of egg laying following experimental nest destruction in captive zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, a frequent intraspecific brood parasite. We found that zebra finches laid physiologically committed eggs indiscriminately between nests containing conspecific eggs …

Health Promotion In Multiple Domains: Capitalizing On The Spillover Effect, Gabrielle Maria D'Lima

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Lifestyle behaviors, such as physical activity and food consumption choices, play a critical role in the development of chronic diseases and ultimately mortality. Optimally, multiple health-related behaviors are changed to reduce risk rather than targeting only one risk behavior. The purpose of the current research was to examine the potential utility of the spillover effect in the application of a multiple health behavior intervention. The online intervention developed in this study aimed primarily to foster self-regulation, bolstered by impulsivity control and self-efficacy, in one health-related behavior (i.e., physical activity) in order to potentially affect change in other health-related behaviors (e.g., …

Concurrent Identity Training Is Not Necessary For Associative Symmetry In Successive Matching, Heloísa Cursi Campos, Peter J. Urcuioli, Melissa Swisher

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications

Pigeons demonstrate associative symmetry after successive matching training on one arbitrary and two identity relations (e.g., Urcuioli, 2008). Here, we tested whether identity matching training is necessary for this emergent effect. In Experiment 1, one group of pigeons (Dual Oddity) learned hue-form arbitrary matching and two oddity relations which shared sample and comparison elements with the arbitrary relations. A second (Control) group learned the same hue-form matching task and a second (form-hue) arbitrary task which, together with hue oddity, shared only the samples with the hue-form relations. On subsequent symmetry probe trials, four Dual Oddity pigeons exhibited higher probe-trial response …

Associative Concept Learning In Animals, Thomas R. Zentall, Edward A. Wasserman, Peter J. Urcuioli

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications

Nonhuman animals show evidence for three types of concept learning: perceptual or similarity-based in which objects/stimuli are categorized based on physical similarity; relational in which one object/stimulus is categorized relative to another (e.g., same/different); and associative in which arbitrary stimuli become interchangeable with one another by virtue of a common association with another stimulus, outcome, or response. In this article, we focus on various methods for establishing associative concepts in nonhuman animals and evaluate data documenting the development of associative classes of stimuli. We also examine the nature of the common within-class representation of samples that have been associated with …

Exploring The Influence Of Adult Attachment On Stress Coping Resources And Career Adaptabillity, Laith Mazahreh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Adult Scale Of Parental Attachment-Short Form: Item Selection, Factor Structure, And Psychometric Properties, Anthony Aron Michael

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine if an abbreviated version of the Adult Scale of Parental Attachment (ASPA; Snow, Sullivan, Martin, & Helm, 2005) could be developed with an emphasis on the instrument's item selection, factor structure, and psychometric properties. The ASPA, building upon attachment theory, is a self-report measure that assesses individuals' patterns of relating based on their relationships with both mother and father figures in childhood. Utilizing the conceptual underpinnings of Classical Test Theory and factor analysis, a 40-item version of the ASPA (called the ASPA-SF) was created from 1,075 archived responses through a test construction …

Risk And Protective Factors In The Relationship Between Peer Victimization And Internalizing Disorders, Rebecca Hamblin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the experience of peer victimization through the lens of an integrative model of individual (gender, ethnicity, grade level) and social (receipt of prosocial support from peers, peer victimization) risk and protective factors in terms of association with psychopathology. The examination was conducted in a rural sample of elementary school children of multiple ethnicities. Results suggest that both overt and relational forms of peer victimization predicted social anxiety, depression, OCD, GAD, panic, and separation anxiety and loneliness symptoms with moderate effect sizes. No differences in either overt or relational victimization were found among …

Evaluating Values, Mindfulness, And Working Alliance: Exploring The Effects Of Short, Specific Techniques, Regan Slater

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Comfactors research indicates that there is a positive relationship between therapeutic relationship and improved client outcomes. However, little research has been done to examine the nature of this relationship. The current study examined the relationship among values, mindfulness, and working alliance. This study used different specific interventions and examined the interventions' impact on values and mindfulness. The study also examined whether changes in values and mindfulness led to differences in working alliance ratings. Participants were 66 undergraduate students and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: mindfulness plus values, mindfulness, or control. The participants were then led in a …

Polysemy In Design Review Conversations, Georgi V. Georgiev, Toshiharu Taura

Design Thinking Research Symposium

This paper examines the role of polysemy, defined as the quality of having multiple meanings, in design review conversations. It examines the polysemy, particularly of nouns, involved in a dataset of design review conversations with reference to design ideas. The purpose is to determine whether polysemy is related to successful development of design ideas and more creative design outcomes. The results show that the polysemy of nouns involved in the conversations of the finally developed, successful, design ideas exceeds in the most cases the average polysemy involved in the conversations pertaining to the unsuccessful design ideas. Furthermore, the polysemy of …

Using Internet Artifacts To Profile A Child Pornography Suspect, Kathryn C. Seigfried-Spellar, Marcus K. Rogers

Faculty Publications

Digital evidence plays a crucial role in child pornography investigations. However, in the following case study, the authors argue that the behavioral analysis or “profiling” of digital evidence can also play a vital role in child pornography investigations. The following case study assessed the Internet Browsing History (Internet Explorer Bookmarks, Mozilla Bookmarks, and Mozilla History) from a suspected child pornography user’s computer. The suspect in this case claimed to be conducting an ad hoc law enforcement investigation. After the URLs were classified (Neutral; Adult Porn; Child Porn; Adult Dating sites; Pictures from Social Networking Profiles; Chat Sessions; Bestiality; Data Cleaning; …

Dimensions Of Creative Evaluation: Distinct Design And Reasoning Strategies For Aesthetic, Functional And Originality Judgments, Bo T. Christensen, Linden J. Ball

Design Thinking Research Symposium

The datasets provided as part of DTRS-10 all relate to what may broadly be labeled as ‘design critiques’ in an educational context. As such, we chose to center our theoretical analysis on the evaluative reasoning taking place during expert appraisals of the design concepts that were being produced by industrial design students throughout the design process. This overall framing for our research allowed us to pursue a series of research questions concerning the dimensions of creative evaluation in design and their consequences for reasoning strategies and suggestions for moving further in the creative progress. Our transcript coding and analysis focused …

Process Group Vs. Skills Group Modalities In The Treatment Of Individuals Diagnosed With Major Depressive Disorder, Kirk David Duncan

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

PROCESS GROUP

VS.

SKILLS GROUP MODALITIES

IN THE TREATMENT OF INDIVIDUALS DIAGNOSED WITH MAJOR

DEPRESSIVE DISORDER

by

KIRK DAVID DUNCAN

August 2014

Advisor: Dr. George Parris

Major: Counseling

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of a process group vs. a cognitive behavioral skills group modality on depression while investigating the effects of facilitator bond on outcomes. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted on the BDI-II posttest scores, and pretest scores served as the covariate and the group membership as the independent variable. When observing Figure 1 there was a visual desired …

A Pilot Study To Determine The Value Of Bilingual Counseling In A High School Where The Student Population Is Predominately Spanish/English Bilingual, Terrence Michael Mccabe

Wayne State University Dissertations

The present study examined bilingual counseling in a localized setting: a high school in southwest Detroit. The study assessed the ways in which bilingual counseling increases effective communication among bilingual students, school personnel, and students' parents/guardians. Participants included a cross-section of educators and support staff who work at a high school in southwest Detroit where the student population is predominately Spanish/English bilingual. Questionnaires were distributed to 81 participants; 59 completed questionnaires were returned. The instrument that was used to collect data was a questionnaire, which consisted of 19 questions. The questions reflected the participants' attitudes with respect to the research …

Attention And Emotion Regulation In Social Functioning, Katherine H. Moyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent models of social functioning have identified attention and emotion regulation as important factors in explaining social functioning. In these models, emotion regulation is conceptualized as a cognitive process under attention control (Beauchamp & Anderson, 2010; Crick & Dodge, 1994; Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000). Recently, an alternate conceptualization of emotion regulation has been suggested. In this model, emotion regulation is independent of attentional control and is conceptualized as consisting of four factors: emotion awareness and understanding; acceptance; impulse control and goal directed behavior in the context of negative emotions; and flexible use of contextually appropriate strategies to modulate emotion responses …

A Behavioral Intervention For Child Obesity: Increasing Physical Activity On The Playground Via Reinforcement In A Preschool Classroom, Kevin Francis Karl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Child obesity rates have reached an all-time high in the United States with rates quadrupling since 1963 for children ages 2-5 (Fryar, Caroll, & Ogden, 2012). This has led to increased research directed toward understanding the causes of this proliferation. The literature shows that several key variables, including physical activity level, diet, and health education are related to childhood obesity (Epstein, 2005; Trost, et al., 2003). In the realm of physical activity level, many interventions have been proposed and conducted with varying degrees of success. Only few have attempted to impact the physical activity level of children in free play, …

Exploring Developmental Assets And Strengths In Mississippi Youth, Umieca Nicolle Hankton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Measurement Of Anhedonia In The Chick Anxiety-Depression Model, Amy L. Salmeto-Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anhedonia, the loss of pleasure in previously pleasurable activities, is one of the cardinal features of depression. To further validate the chick anxiety-depression model, the current study aimed at quantifying anhedonia as well its reversal with pharmaceuticals. The first goal was to identify a measure to quantify the display of anhedonia in chicks following exposure to an isolation stressor, the chick anxiety-depression model. All experiments involved a baseline and test measurement either after removal from the home cage (No Test) or exposure to the isolation apparatus with conspecifics and mirrors (Social) or individually (Isolated). Experiment 1 used a straight maze …

Obesity Related Perturbations On Cardiovascular, Immune And Endocrine Response To Active And Passive Stress, Ashley Elizabeth Burch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the obesity epidemic increases, the prevalence of obesity-related diseases grows simultaneously. The internal environment of chronic low-grade inflammation, which characterizes obesity, leaves individuals vulnerable to disease. Cardiovascular dysfunction represents a consequential effect of obesity. An early indicator of cardiovascular disease is an impaired stress response. Further, the type of stress (active versus passive) may be differentially affected representing additional distinctions in impairment. In the present study, we have used two types of stress (active and passive) to investigate obesity-instigated alterations in cardiovascular, immune and endocrine response to stress. In addition, we have evaluated how these systems may overlap to …