Psychology Commons^™

Some Challenges Facing A Behaviorally-Informed Approach To The Directive On Unfair Commercial Practices, Avishalom Tor

Book Chapters

The Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices seeks to protect consumers by prohibiting, inter alia, misleading practices, which are defined as practices that are likely to mislead the average consumer and thereby likely to cause him to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise (Directive 2005/29/ EC of the European Parliament and of the Council). While determinations of what constitutes average consumer behavior, what misleads consumers, or how consumers make transactional decisions all can be made as a matter of law, based on anecdotal observations, intuitions or theoretical assumptions, an empirical behavioral foundation can put consumer law on …

The Market, The Firm, And Behavioral Antitrust, Avishalom Tor

Book Chapters

This Handbook chapter examines the main distinct concerns facing the application of empirical behavioral evidence to antitrust law and economics—also known as “behavioral antitrust.” More than many (though not all) other legal fields, antitrust law is primarily concerned with the conduct of firms in markets rather than in individual behavior per se. Yet much of the empirical evidence that behavioral antitrust draws on concerns individual behavior outside the firm, often in nonmarket settings. Hence besides adducing additional, direct empirical evidence on behavioral phenomena within firms and markets, there is a need to determine when and how the behavioral evidence on …

Inspiring Change: Exercise Self-Efficacy, Dispositional Optimism, And Perceived Stress In College Seniors, Joshua M. Garrin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prohealth competencies, positive outcome expectancies, and adaptive stress appraisals have profound implications for the real-world transition of college seniors—a population for which engagement in physical activity reflects a preeminent concern. Prior studies on exercise self-efficacy (ESE), dispositional optimism (DO), perceived stress (PS), and physical activity have yielded inconclusive evidence of the emergent psychosocial challenges encountered during the final year of the college experience. Using a triadic framework of self-efficacy, attribution, and cognitive appraisal theories, this crosssectional, quantitative study was conducted using a web survey to examine (a) the impact of physical activity level on ESE, DO, and PS; (b) the …

Generational Cohort Differences In Types Of Organizational Commitment, April Lavette Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In hospitals in the United States, the ratio of nurses to patients is declining, resulting in an increase in work demands for nurses. Consequently, organizations face challenges with nurses' organizational commitment. Studies have revealed generational differences, as determined by birth year, in employee levels of organizational commitment in a number of organizational settings. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the impact of generational cohorts on the organizational commitment of nurses. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental, cross-sectional design was to address whether generational cohorts of nurses differed in their levels of organizational commitment, and to investigate whether …

Implicit Category Priming Capacity, Edward Paulus Hahn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Past research has shown that accessing a memory allows faster subsequent access to the memory activated as well as to related information (priming). There has been much research devoted to implicit category priming (unintentional priming of a category of information), but this research has not determined the number of categories that can be implicitly primed simultaneously. The goal of the present quantitative study was to address that gap. Twenty participants (ages 27-54 years, M=44 years), who volunteered through an online participant pool, were presented with 2 tasks over the Internet. A scrambled phrase task implicitly primed 5 unrelated categories and …

Bystander Effect And Religious Group Affiliation: Terrorism And The Diffusion Of Responsibility, Thomas Schillinger

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The collective nature of group affiliation may inhibit an individual from exhibiting prosocial behavior regarding acts of religiously-motivated terror. This study's purpose was to investigate the nature of bystander intervention as it relates to religious group affiliation. Darley and Latane's bystander effect theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. The research questions examined the impact of religious group affiliation and group size on the dependent variables of civic moral disengagement (CMD) and commitment to the war on terror (CWT). Three validated survey instruments were administered to a random participant pool of 206 respondents. An ANCOVA and Spearman's rho correlation …

Efficacy Of Cultural-Based Psychoeducational Group Therapy For Increasing Marital Satisfaction Among Latino Couples, Maria Jesus Ampuero

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous research has indicated the importance of providing marriage education to ethnic minority couples who are struggling with their marital relationships. Despite this known importance, significantly fewer resources are available for Latino couples, who have a high rate of divorce. The purpose of this quantitative, randomized, wait-list control group trial design was to determine whether Couples in Contact, a culturally-based, psychoeducational intervention group program for Latino couples, increases marital satisfaction, as measured by the Marital Satisfaction Inventory, Revised (MSI-R). This study drew on cognitive behavioral therapy applied to couples, and the supportive theories underlying family systems theory and Gottman's theory. …

Academically Resilient Minority Doctoral Students Who Experienced Poverty And Parental Substance Abuse, Marcia Boatman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a lack of research on the academic resilience of minority, first-generation, online doctoral students (MFOD) who experienced poverty and parental substance abuse (PSA). The purpose of this study was to explore how MFOD who overcame poverty and PSA developed academic resilience. Resilience theory and Kember's model of attrition in online programs provided a conceptual framework for this study. The research questions guiding this qualitative study concerned how MFOD perceive and interpret their academic resilience and protective factors. A purposeful sample of 6 students participated in semistructured interviews. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted, which included a case by …

An Examination Of Perceived Discrimination And Stress In Interracial Relatinships, Sharon Sirmons Conger

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

An Examination of Perceived Discrimination and Stress

in Interracial Relationships

by

Sharon Sirmons Conger

MS, Troy University, Florida Campus, 2006

BA, Baptist College of Florida, 2003

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

General Psychology

Walden University

February 2015

There is a potential increase in stress for White women in interracial relationships with Black men due to perceived racial discrimination that may not have been previously experienced. The purpose of this quantitative study was to measure stress before and after the relationship due to perceived racial discrimination for these women. Guided by …

Physician Well Being And Patient Satisfaction Among Employed Physicians, Deanna Santana-Cebollero

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Understanding physician well-being may help prevent physician burnout, improve the quality of care they provide to their patients, reduce medical errors, and improve patient satisfaction. Using the biopsychosocial-spiritual theory as the conceptual framework, this quantitative study examined the relationship between: (a) physician well-being and patient satisfaction, (b) physician gender and physician well-being, (c) primary care providers' and specialists' well-being, (d) patient satisfaction based on physician specialty, and (e) the duration of practice and physician well-being. All of the 87 employed physicians in a Florida regional hospital were invited to respond to a physician well-being questionnaire; a response rate of 58.4% …

Front Matter

Modern Psychological Studies

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Sensation Seeking, Psychopathy, And Deception, Ashley D. Dickey

Modern Psychological Studies

Psychopathy has many implications for society at large. These individuals are likely to commit violent crimes, manifest other antisocial behavior, and make up a large portion of the prison population. This study aims to establish a relationship between sensation seeking, psychopathy, and deception. A sample of 100 undergraduate students enrolled in psychology courses in a southern university completed three questionnaires assessing their level of sensation seeking (SSS-V), deception (MACH-IV), and psychopathy (TriPM). Each of the three distinct phenotypic constructs measured by the TriPM were also correlated with total SSS-V and MACH-IV scores. Pearson and Spearman correlations revealed significant relationships between …

Effects Of Disability Exposure On Implicit Association Test Scores, Jordyn R. Moon

Modern Psychological Studies

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exposure to counter-stereotypical information about physical disabilities on implicit attitudes. Ten undergraduate students completed a mental imagery task relating to physical disabilities while the other ten students were given a filler task prior to the measurement of their implicit and explicit attitudes using an Implicit Association Task (IAT). It was hypothesized that both groups would have equally negative implicit attitudes. However, results revealed that the implicit attitudes of participants who completed the counter-stereotypical task showed significantly more negative implicit attitudes than the no imagery group whose attitudes were also …

Who Trusts Twitter? Openness To Ideas As A Predictor Of Trust And Interest In News Of An International Disaster Presented In Twitter And Traditional On-Line Journalism Formats, Emily J. Dunn, Greg Feldman, Alandra Klove, Christine Lowery, Kelly Pelham

Modern Psychological Studies

Twitter is an increasingly utilized tool for communication during major events including natural disasters; however, there is little research investigating this topic and how individual differences might predict reactions to information in this medium. The current study seeks to understand how the personality trait of openness to ideas predicts perceptions of a Twitter source's trustworthiness and interest relative to a journalistic source. Participants were randomly assigned to read a simulated account of a flood presented either as a Twitter account or a journalistic account and then rated perceptions of the sources. Results indicate that Twitter is trusted less than a …

The Relationship Of Religiosity To Psychopathy: The Predictive Ability Of Religious Orientation For Stress And Depression In College Undergraduates, Robert B. Arrowood, J. Brian Pope, Thomas Harlow

Modern Psychological Studies

Evidence supports that different levels of religiosity are related to mental health outcomes. This study examines the relationship between religiosity and measures of psychological maladjustment. The current study compared participants' scores on several measures of religiosity with scores on Locus of Control, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Obsessive-Compulsive tendencies. Multiple regressions analyses were conducted suggesting that Indiscriminate Proreligiousness, a measure of overall religiosity, was found to be negatively correlated with stress. Highly religious people were found to have more of an intrinsic religious orientation than either extrinsic or quest orientation.

Hegemonic Masculinity And Misconceptions Of Gender And Mental Health In Violent Criminality, Mina Dailami

Honors Papers

The present research investigates how masculine dominance in the criminal justice system is upheld through misleading media representations of violent criminality in women as predicated upon masculine traits or mental illness and masculine Identity Protection Cognition (which demonstrates the how implicit social information influences an individual to make judgments in favor of protecting their own socially dominant group). Responses to an online survey of 413 participants demonstrated that overall participants assumed men to be more likely than women to engage in violent action, and violence in men was judged to be a function of power, whereas violence in women was …

Effects Of Parental Alcoholism And Trauma Exposure On Depressive Symptoms: A Path Model With Resilience, Social Support, And Family Satisfaction, Erin Doty Kurtz

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this study was to explore the different effects of parental alcoholism and history of trauma exposure on depressive symptoms in an emerging adult, college population. In particular, mediating effects of resilience, social support, and family satisfaction were evaluated for both parental alcoholism and previous interpersonal trauma exposure using structural equation modeling (SEM). Participants were 708 students (217 male, 491 female) attending a large mid-Atlantic state university. It was . anticipated that social support and family satisfaction would be key mediators between parental alcoholism and depressive symptoms, while resilience and social support would be significant mediators between interpersonal …

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., …

An Evaluation Of The Penn Resiliency Program For Disruptive Preadolescents In An Elementary School Setting, Mildred Howard

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Penn Resiliency Program in decreasing disruptive behavior, modifying negative automatic thoughts and improving academic achievement. Forty-eight students from two Title I schools in Georgia participated in this study. The Behavior Assessment Scale for Children, Second Edition, Progress Monitor, The Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale and report card grades were used to evaluate program effectiveness. Research results suggest the program effectively reduced negative automatic thoughts and improved academic performance.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives On Corruption, David Jancsics

Publications and Research

Corruption has become one of the most popular topics in the social scientific disciplines. However, there is a lack of interdisciplinary communication about corruption. Models developed by different academic disciplines are often isolated from each other. The purpose of this paper is to review several major approaches to corruption and draw them closer to each other. Most studies of corruption fall into three major categories: (i) rational-actor models where corruption is viewed as resulting from cost/benefit analysis of individual actors; (ii) structural models that focus on external forces that determine corruption; and (iii) relational models that emphasize social interactions and …

The Neural Correlates Of Anomalous Habituation To Negative Emotional Pictures In Borderline And Avoidant Personality Disorder Patients, Harold W. Koenigsberg, Bryan T. Denny, Jin Fan, Xun Liu, Stephanie Guerreri, Sarah Jo Mason, Liza Rimsky, Antonia S. New, Marianne Goodman, Larry J. Siever

Publications and Research

Objective

Extreme emotional reactivity is a defining feature of borderline personality disorder, yet the neural-behavioral mechanisms underlying this affective instability are poorly understood. One possible contributor is diminished ability to engage the mechanism of emotional habituation. The authors tested this hypothesis by examining behavioral and neural correlates of habituation in borderline patients, healthy comparison subjects, and a psychopathological comparison group of patients with avoidant personality disorder.

Method

During fMRI scanning, borderline patients, healthy subjects, and avoidant personality disorder patients viewed novel and repeated pictures, providing valence ratings at each presentation. Statistical parametric maps of the contrasts of activation during repeated …

Grounded Labels From The Behavioral International Economic Development Growth Path Model On Economic Development Patterns From 2002-2012, Kenneth Thomas Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Economic models generally fail to adequately measure positive and negative growth paths in development through agrarian, industry, and service economies. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to design a new model that could accommodate both directions of growth and better measure development paths with particular attention to labors contributions. The theoretical foundation for this study was Walt Whitman Rostow's 5 economic stages of growth classifications. This Study attempted to find the most common economic growth path. While most development models use three to five classifications, this study used nine new classifications giving it a unique and specific look …

I Cheat Because I Can: Power, Sexism And Approval Of Infidelity, Teni Davoudian

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study examined the moderating role of ambivalent sexism in the relationship between power and approval of infidelity. College students were randomly assigned to high- and low-power conditions and completed measures assessing their perceived power, endorsed sexism toward men and women, and approval of their own possible infidelity. It was hypothesized that the association between perceived power and permissive attitudes toward infidelity would vary according to participants' endorsement of hostile and benevolent sexism. The hypotheses were partially supported, and the results revealed the importance of both participant gender and sexism as predictors of attitudes toward infidelity. Hostile sexism toward men …

Child Sexual Abuse, Attachment, Dating Behaviors, And Sexual Assault, Lucie Holmgreen

Dissertations (1934 -)

The current study used survey methodology to investigate the relationships among child sexual abuse, adult attachment, risky dating behaviors, and sexual assault. Specifically, it tested a model whereby attachment mediates a hypothesized relationship between child sexual abuse and risky dating behaviors, thus partially explaining sexual abuse survivors' risk of sexual assault (or revictimization). Results indicate that child sexual abuse relates to attachment anxiety but not to avoidance or the dating behaviors studied. While risky dating behaviors are associated with increased rates of sexual assault, most of them were not predicted by attachment. Attachment avoidance does relate, however, to some key …

Parent And Family Outcomes Of An Empirically Validated Social Skills Intervention For Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jeffrey Scott Karst

Dissertations (1934 -)

Past research has indicated that raising a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is associated with increased parenting stress, decreased parenting self-efficacy, and increased family distress. While ASD therapies often include significant parental involvement and are typically time-intensive and expensive, studies of ASD treatment have not widely evaluated the impact of treatment on caregivers or the family. There is evidence that successful long-term treatment outcomes are dependent on healthy systemic functioning, and thus it is important to understand how any particular treatment adjunctively affects parents and the family system. The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills …

Acute Cerebellitis With Hydrocephalus, Nida Amjad, Anwarul Haque, Khalid Ahmed

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

We report a case of an 8 years old child who presented with sudden onset of headache and vomiting. He had broad-based gait and intention tremors on admission. MRI brain revealed isointense signals on T1-weighted imaging and hyperintense signals on T2-weighted imaging. Cerebellar swelling was also identified with significant mass effect obliterating the fourth ventricle. CT head showed prominent third and lateral ventricles. He was treated with high dose corticosteroids and required an external ventricular drain (EVD) insertion. He made an uneventful recovery and suffered no neurologic deficit. The clinical and radiologic findings in this boy were consistent with cerebellitis …