Psychology Commons^™

When Is Business Necessity A Necessity? : The Effect Of Disability, Status, And Nature Of Accommodation On Decisions To Accommodate Disabled And Pregnant Employees, Pamela Farago

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

A recent plethora of discrimination court cases regarding granting disability and pregnancy accommodations have brought to light many questions surrounding why outcome decisions have lacked uniformity. One such answer to these questions may be the central role that “business necessity” plays in whether or not a disabled or pregnant employee is granted accommodation. The current study sought to explore the potential perceptual bias in business necessity by investigating whether pregnant and disabled candidates were accommodated similarly and whether job status and the nature of the accommodation influenced decisions to accommodate. Using a group of HR professionals as our sample, the …

Infants' Categorization Of Goal Events, Danielle Spinelli

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Infants can discriminate the difference between goal (endpoint; e.g., duck walking to a tree) and source events (starting point; e.g., duck walking away from tree), and they show a preference for the goals over the source events (Lakusta et al., 2007; Lakusta & Carey, 2015). The current experiment explored to what extent 10-18 month old infants categorically represent goal spatial relations. The present experiment is an extension of Lakusta, Yuschak, & Batinjane (2014) which found that 14-month old infants show evidence for goal and, sometimes, source categorization. Because there is evidence for 14-month old categorization the current experiment tested younger …

Do Happy American And Japanese Adults Become Similar In Psychological Ttraits As They Age?, Masahiro Toyama

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

As happiness has been a popular topic, philosophers and researchers as well as lay people have continued to discuss it. The potential factors which lead to happiness may be influenced by culture and age. Referring to previous findings on distinctive characteristics between Western and Eastern cultures and age effects on psychological traits and well-being, the present study examined potential similarities and differences among age groups of American and Japanese adults with different levels of happiness. The age groups studied consisted of those aged 35-49, 50-64, and 65-79. It was hypothesized that psychological traits including independence, interdependence, extraversión, and neuroticism become …

The Effect Of Charisma, Voice Pitch, And Information Richness On Leadership Perception And Follower Performance, Hillman Wirawan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study aimed to investigate the effect of charisma, voice pitch, and information richness on followers’ perceptions of leadership and task performance. A number of previous studies consistently found significant effects of charisma on performance. Similarly, some studies found the effect of lower voice pitch on leadership perception and effectiveness. In addition, the growth of information technology has changed the way leaders influence followers, making this variable an interesting one to examine. This study employed 2 (charisma vs. non-charisma) x 2 (low vs. high voice pitch) x 2 (strong vs. weak information delivery) experimental design. The participants were undergrad students …

Homophobia In Non-Heterosexuals And Their Families, Merel Hermans

Psychology

Homophobia is described as the negative attitudes towards non-heterosexual individuals. The evolutionary advantage of homophobia and of sexualities other than heterosexuality remain poorly understood within evolutionary psychology. This research extends Gallup’s 1995 research, in which people were found to respond more negatively towards same-sex pairs (i.e. imagining their daughter spending time with a lesbian mother, and a son spending time with a gay father), than opposite-sex pairs.Gallup’s original study did not include lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer (LGBTQ) individuals, however given the increasing acceptance of these groups it is now appropriate to expand this research to include these groups. One …

Effects Of Massive Familiarization On Crossmodal Aesthetic Preference, Nicholas J. Voss, Dylan S. Campbell, Ronald S. Friedman

Psychology

An investigation was carried out to determine whether familiarization to the experience of visual dissonance would have crossmodal effects on the preference for dissonant and consonant musical stimuli. We hypothesized that subjects who viewed a large number of disharmonious color combinations would come to show greater liking for dissonant musical stimuli than their counterparts who had seen either harmonious or single color images. Findings showed that there was no difference in preference between groups, though musical experience and score on a benign masochism measure predicted larger differences between average ratings of consonant and dissonant chords. These results are discussed in …

The Effects Of System Justification And Reminders Of Ingroup Disadvantage On Just World Beliefs, Lukas Sotola

Psychology

The tendency to believe that people get what they deserve—termed just world beliefs—is a pervasive phenomenon associated with acceptance of the suffering of others. We tested whether we could decrease just world beliefs. We experimentally manipulated system justification, and gave participants false feedback on a gender Implicit Association Test telling them that they favor the “opposite” gender. For female participants, this false feedback represented a reminder of their ingroup’s low status by suggesting that they support the status quo that disadvantages women. Participants then completed a self-report measure of just world beliefs. As an indirect measure of just world beliefs, …

Readers In Pursuit Of Popular Justice: Unraveling Conflicting Frameworks In Lolita, Innesa Ranchpar

English (MA) Theses

This thesis examines the competing frameworks in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita—the fictional Foreword written by John Ray, Jr., Ph.D. and the manuscript written by Humbert Humbert—in order to understand to what extent the construction manipulates the rhetorical appeal. While previous scholarship isolates the two narrators or focuses on their unreliability, my examination concentrates on the interplay of the frameworks and how their conflicting objectives can be problematic for readers. By drawing upon various theories by Michel Foucault from Power/Knowledge and Louis Althusser’s “On Ideology,” I look into how John Ray, Jr., Ph.D. and Humbert Humbert use authoritative voices to directly …

Young Adolescents’ Gender-, Ethnicity-, And Popularity-Based Social Schemas Of Aggressive Behavior, Katherine H. Clemans, Julia A. Graber

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Social schemas can influence the perception and recollection of others’ behavior and may create biases in the reporting of social events. This study investigated young adolescents’ (N = 317) gender-, ethnicity-, and popularity-based social schemas of overtly and relationally aggressive behavior. Results indicated that participants associated overt aggression with being male and African American and relational aggression with being female. In addition, participants associated all types of aggression with high perceived popularity. The strength of endorsement of several subscales differed significantly as a function of raters’ gender and ethnicity. Findings highlight the importance of understanding how aggression-related social schemas may …

Lung Cancer-Related Emotional Growth : The Role Of Coping Styles And Prior Trauma., Moriah Horn

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The objective of this study was to explore the relationship of prior traumatic history, coping styles, and post-traumatic emotional growth in participants diagnosed with lung cancer. Participants (n = 40) completed baseline questionnaire packets as part of their initial entry into the ongoing study “Understanding the Prognostic Significance of Circadian Disruption in Lung Cancer.” Linear hierarchal regressions adjusted age at diagnosis, stage, and household income. Analyses revealed no relationship between traumatic history and post-traumatic emotional growth. However, lung cancer patients who endorsed active coping styles were significantly more likely to report post-traumatic emotional growth. Secondary analyses revealed this relationship appeared …

Influence Of Daily Social Stimulation On Behavioral And Physiological Outcomes In An Animal Model Of Ptsd., Shyam Seetharaman, Monika Fleshner, Collin R. Park, David M. Diamond

Psychology Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: We have shown in previous work that acute episodes of predator exposure occurring in the context of chronic social instability produced PTSD-like sequelae in rats. Our animal model of PTSD contained two components: (1) acute trauma, immobilization of rats in close proximity to a cat twice in 10 days, and (2) chronic social instability, 31 days of randomized housing of cage cohorts. Here we tested the hypothesis that daily social stimulation would block the development of the PTSD-like sequelae.

METHODS: Beginning 24 h after the first cat exposure, adult male rats were given our established PTSD model, alone or …

The Effect Of Spoiler Types On Enjoyment, Sussana Oad

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The belief that story spoilers are irksome is prevalent in society. However, prior research (Leavitt & Christenfeld, 2011, 2013) has found that spoilers increase enjoyment of short stories, while two follow-up studies (Johnson & Rosenbaum, 2015; Levine, Betzner, & Autry, in press) have failed to confirm these results and, in fact, found the opposite result – that spoilers decrease enjoyment. While these differential results are puzzling, they may be explained by the different spoilers types used in these studies. Therefore, in the present research, we examined whether the discrepant results were due to the spoiler types employed by using all …

“What Did U Say?”: Examining Multi-Tasking Effects On Academic Performance, Emelio Woodstock

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The ability to multi-task—that is the ability to simultaneously complete more than one activity—has become increasingly essential in the high-tech world that we operate in. However, one's capacity to multi-task efficiently has become a concern among researchers, especially in regards to the influence of technology. Cellular phones play a major role in distracting individuals from completing tasks that require sustained attention. A recent study demonstrated that the mere receipt of smart-phone notifications without interaction with the phone itself, can cause significant distraction and error in an assigned task (Stothart and Mitchum, 2015). Proposed results from this study as well as …

Audio-Visual Integration Is Strongest For Spatially Congruent Stimuli, Alyssa Prawl

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Young adult alcohol use is a prevalent and significant public health concern, influenced by a complex interplay of genetic, personality, and social factors. Greater descriptive norms (i.e., perceptions of peer drinking behavior) and injunctive norms (i.e., perceptions of peer drinking acceptability) have been associated with increased young adult drinking. Further emerging research suggest that the association between peer norms and alcohol outcomes may be exacerbated by carrying a 7-repeat allele of the DRD4 VNTR. Presence of a 7-repeat allele has also been associated with greater impulsivity (i.e., novelty-seeking and sensation seeking), but it remains unknown whether such heightened impulsivity explains …

Effects Of Talker Variability On Spectral Contrast Effects., Asim Mohiuddin

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Spectral contrast effects are context-dependent effects that influence the way we perceive certain sounds. Evidence of these effects can be seen in experiments where a precursor sound (e.g. a sentence) is followed by a target vowel sound (like /ɪ/ as in "bit" or /ɛ/ as in "bet"). If the precursor's frequency was emphasized in areas more consistent with the frequency of /ɛ/, listeners tend to perceive the target sound to be the opposite i.e. /ɪ/. A recent study shows using sentence precursors from 200 different talkers diminishes these effects questioning previous claims that talker variability has no influence on spectral …

Exploring Sex Differences In Morphine Withdrawal-Induced Alterations Of The Ventral Tegmental Area, Samara Morris Bobzean

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

Opioid withdrawal syndrome is a feature common to chronic opioid use that often serves as a powerful motivator of continued drug use. GABA-ergic neurons in the tail of the ventral tegmental area (tVTA) are implicated in mediating responses to opioids and opioid withdrawal. The tVTA regulates the effects of opioids on VTA dopamine neurons and a number of earlier studies have shown that alterations in levels of CREB within the tVTA profoundly affect drug-motivated behaviors. Unfortunately, the mechanisms underlying morphine withdrawal have been studied almost exclusively using men and male animals. The objectives of the current study are to investigate …

Effects Of Numeracy And Financial Literacy On Undesirable Financial And Related Academic Outcomes In College Students, Sriram Govindarajan

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

Numeracy was a better predictor of financial delinquency than financial literacy. The relationship between numeracy and undesirable academic effects was fully mediated by financial delinquency. It was also found that in a credit card related decision making task, the relationship between numeracy and performance was partially mediated by the deliberation time. This is similar to the finding in Ghazal et al. (2014) and supporting their conclusion that numeracy is just not facility with numbers, but also related directly to heuristic deliberation and metacognition. The findings also support the notion that people low in numeracy might be prone to various biases …

A Qualitative Study On Clients’ And Therapists’ Perceptions Of Therapeutic Interventions That Foster Hope, April B. Brewer

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Much research has shown that hope is beneficial in facilitating change and promoting progress in psychotherapy (Larsen & Stege, 2010a, 2010b, 2012; Lopez et al., 2004). However, little research has been done looking at specific interventions clients and therapists perceive as fostering hope and promoting change in clients’ lives (Larsen & Stege, 2010a, 2010b, 2012). This study involves interviews with clients and therapists following an early psychotherapy session using a technique called Interpersonal Process Recall (Larsen, Flesaker, & Stege, 2008). During this interview, participants were able to review video clips of their session and comment on ways they felt hope …

Outcome Of Surgery On Neurocognitive Functioning In Patients With Otic Capsule Defects, Heather Seward Mackay

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

There are two forms of otic capsule defect: Perilymph Fistula (PLF), a tear that typically occurs in the round window; and Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence (SCD), a thinning or absence of bone between the otic capsule and the brain. Symptoms of either may comprise mild to severe disturbances in the vestibular and auditory systems. These may be accompanied by various cognitive inefficiencies. Neurotologists, Grimm, Hemenway, LeBray, and Black (1989) measured cognitive efficiency pre- surgery in 38 adults who had acquired PLF. Assessment revealed difficulty in: verbal and visual memory; attention/concentration; and mental flexibility. Despite their research, the reality of PLF …

Fundamental Image Theory: An Integrated Model Of Trauma, Cassandra K. Sieg

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Historically, trauma theory and intervention has focused on “actual or threatened death or serious injury” (DSM-IV; APA, 1994). More recently, the field has broadened its consideration to a range of trauma and stressor related disorders, including perpetration induced traumautic stress (PITS; MacNair, 2015). Violence perpetration has negative implications on a personal, interpersonal, and group level, but a review of the literature reveals a significant gap in our understanding of perpetration-induced traumatic stress, including 2 fundamental questions: how does perpetrating violence cause trauma, and how can we treat this trauma? None of the existing psychological models adequately answer the first question, …

Embedded Performance Measures Within The Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System, Daniel Olsen

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

It has become increasingly clear many patients do not manifest sufficient effort over the course of a neuropsychological evaluation (Horner, VanKirk, Dismuke, Turner, & Muzzy, 2014). While tests of memory and learning are considered to be the gold-standard in effort measurement, they are vulnerable to coaching (Bianchini, Greve, & Love, 2003). Fortunately, interest in assessing effort through other cognitive domains has grown over the last few years. In the current study, participants were divided into two groups, simulators and controls. All participants completed the Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT, Green, 2004), the Trail Making Test (TMT), the Verbal Fluency Test …

Mother-To-Mother: Creating A Peer Mentor Program For Mothers In Homelessness, Taylor D. Hartman

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Mothers with children represent a growing segment of the homeless population. The American Psychological Association (APA) responded to the problem by initiating a task force in 2009 calling psychologists to step forward and enhance the treatment and services available for this population. However, providing treatment is often a challenge for this population because of the power differential and other barriers that negatively impact the potential relationship between mental health providers and the person living in homelessness (Hoffman & Coffey, 2008). The use of a peer mentor to mitigate the risk factors for a specific population has been an effective intervention …

Police Use Of Force With The Mentally Ill, Chelsea Moore

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Police officers experience many difficult situations in their line of duty, but two situations stand out as particularly unsettling for police officers: when they interact with people who are (a) under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and when (b) people appear to be suffering from serious mental illness (Kaminski, DiGiovanni, & Downs, 2004). This study explores the impact of these conditions on whether or not police officers resort to using force within a Northwestern metropolitan police department. A set of archival data consisting of force incidents was divided into four subgroups depending on subject (suspect) substance use and mental …

Factors That Affect Recidivism For Psychiatric Patients In Emergency Departments, Meghan Polits

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Hospital recidivism for suicimicidal, and psychiatric patients is a burden on the medical system due to the high cost associated with each visit. Factors affecting psychiatric patients in the Emergency Department (ED) in two rural hospitals in the Pacific Northwest were assessed using data routinely collected at intake in an effort to determine patient risk factors for repeat visits. Additionally, patients identified as repeat visitors were assessed for any significant differences in how quickly they were readmitted. Logistic regression results indicate having a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder or bipolar disorder, being uninsured or on Oregon Health Plan insurance (i.e., …

Factors Correlating With Resilience In Bolivian Street Girls, Emily Wynsma

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Resilience is defined as the ability to respond adaptively and maintain a high quality of life even after adversity or trauma. Research conducted in Western cultures has identified multiple factors that correlate with resilience for survivors of childhood trauma, including social support, the presence of a stable adult, internal locus of control, supportive spiritual beliefs and lack of self-blame regarding the trauma (Crenshaw, 2013; Brooks & Goldstein, 2004; Goldstein, Brooks, & Devries, 2013). This study explored whether the factors that previous research has identified as predictive of resilience have a similar predictive value when applied to another culture. This research …

Acceptance And Commitment Therapy (Act) And Physical Therapy Adherence, Jennifer Ashley Battles

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Adherence to physical therapy rehabilitation is one of the most common issues physical therapists face with patients. Methods to improve physical therapy adherence have only been mildly successful, and many modalities fail to address psychological components that affect compliance. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a third wave behavior analytic therapy that has recently been utilized to influence health behavior change through emphasizing mindfulness, values, and psychological. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of a brief ACT intervention on physical therapy adherence, including compliance with prescribed home exercises and attendance at sessions. Participants (n = 4) with a range of …

Fluctuations In Body Dissatisfaction Across Social Comparison Situations, Stephanie Jian Chen

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Body image has been seen traditionally as a stable trait or dispositional construct. However, recent researchers has increasingly recognized a more dynamic aspect of it—one which is likely impacted by various situational factors. One such situational factor is the process of social comparison. As a method of social comparison, clothing size manipulations (such as trying on different sizes of pants) have been shown to affect fluctuations in female participants' body image. Research has also highlighted the detrimental effects of certain visual cues, such as viewing images of slender female figures, on body image. However, there is a lack of research …

Going For The Goal: The Effect Of Subjective Temporal Distance On Goal Selection, Megan M. Blackley

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Goals are often classified into two types, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic goals are furnished when one finds an activity inherently interesting or pleasurable (Abuhamdeh & Csikszentmihalyi, 2009), whereas extrinsic goals are created when one seeks a reward from an external force (Gunnell, Crocker, Mack, Wilson, & Zumbo, 2014). The pursuit of intrinsic goals represents the purest form of autonomy, which is a staple of positive psychological well-being, and promotes greater task orientation (Nie, Chua, Yeung, Ryan, & Chan, 2014). The current study explores the effects of subjective temporal distance on the selection of intrinsic or extrinsic goal pursuit. Construal Level …

Pre- And Post-Partum Whistle Production Of A Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) Mother-Calf Dyad, Audra Elizabeth Ames

Master's Theses

Whistle use pre- and post-partum in an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) mother-calf dyad has rarely been studied. The current study is the first to investigate signature whistle production by the mother pre- and post-partum, as well as whistle use by other members of the social group during calf development, and how exposure to these whistles may affect the calf’s vocal repertoire. Findings showed that the mother increased her rates both pre- and post-delivery, while other group members produced their whistles at decreased rates until the calf’s second week of life. After the calf’s second week, whistle rates of …

Sex-Related Alcohol Expectancies, Alcohol Consumption, And Risky Sexual Behavior Among African American College Women, Danielle P. Cottonham

Master's Theses

African American college women are experiencing sex-related negative consequences (e.g., contracting sexually transmitted diseases or human immunodeficiency virus, having an unplanned pregnancy) at disproportionate rates in comparison to Caucasian college women. Furthermore, African American college women are likely engaging in risky sexual behaviors (e.g., unprotected anal, vaginal, oral sex) that may be placing them at a greater risk for experiencing sex-related negative consequences. Research suggests that increased alcohol consumption is predictive of more risky sexual behavior among college women. Additionally, sex-related alcohol expectancies, or beliefs about the effects of alcohol on sexual behavior, are positively associated with increased alcohol consumption …