Psychology Commons^™

Healthcare Vs. Hawkishness: The Divergent Effects Of Affect On Context-Driven Shifts In Attitudes, Fade Rimon Eadeh

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

There is a tradition of research in affective science suggesting different affective states (e.g., anger vs. anxiety) are associated with relatively unique goals and motives (Frijda, 1986; 1988; Schwarz & Clore, 2007, Lerner & Keltner, 2000; 2001). Although this approach has received considerable empirical support, this work has yet to fully resolve an important issue. For any given type of emotion (say, anger), such feelings can be activated in a variety of different "triggering" contexts. If so, to what extent does the triggering context matter when examining the consequences of that emotion for attitudes? Some findings suggest that context does …

Sins Of The Father: An Investigation Into Judgments And Processes Involved In Within-Family Tainting, Stephanie Allison Peak

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The present research focused on a real-world event (i.e., the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks) as a basis for gaining insight about the spread of negativity (i.e., “tainting”) from a guilty father to an innocent son. The nature of the relationship between the son and the father was varied experimentally, a manipulation that allowed for investigation into the subjective importance of genetic versus social relationships. Across three experiments, I examined two types of judgments about the son, including responsibility and general evaluation of the target. Responsibility ratings were, on the average, extremely low. Indeed, many participants explicitly attributed no responsibility to …

The Role Of Action In Priming Of Pop Out In Visual Search, Blaire Jaffe Weidler

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Completion of many daily tasks (e.g., driving, grocery shopping) requires efficient allocation of limited attentional resources. One factor that affects where attention is allocated in a complex scene is previous experience with the environment—participants are faster to examine features which were previously behaviorally important. In the experimental paradigm often used to investigate this phenomenon, called Priming of Pop Out (PoP), participants view a multi-item display, locate a target (defined by a unique feature such as color), and then respond with a keypress. On the next trial, they are often faster to find the target if it shares features with the …

Quality Of Life And Burden In Caregivers Of Youth With Severe Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Monica S. Wu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a heterogeneous disorder associated with functional impairment and deleterious effects at the family level. Caregivers are often enmeshed in the disorder, coping with the child’s OCD-related distress and engaging in accommodating behaviors. Given the developmental level of these youth and the impactful nature of OCD, caregivers may experience considerable burden and decreased quality of life (QoL). However, extant literature on these constructs is largely limited to caregivers of patients with chronic illnesses, and the few existing studies examining OCD samples are limited to adult patients. As such, this study sought to examine burden and QoL …

Building A Theory Of Adaptive Neuroticism, Sara Jo Weston

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Neuroticism is widely believed to be detrimental to health, but the evidence is mixed. Many large-scale studies find null or positive effects of neuroticism on mortality and health. A theory of “healthy neuroticism” was generated to explain these discrepant results. According to this theory, neuroticism can lead an individual down one of two paths: an anxiety and stress-ridden path of maladaptive coping and poor outcomes, or a path of vigilance and proactivity. Trait conscientiousness is thought to be the defining feature of healthy neuroticism, although studies substantiating this claim are few and far between. Meanwhile, other important factors - notably, …

Folk Epistemology Of Factual, Political, And Religious Beliefs, John Christner

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The term "folk" refers to the intuitive – as opposed to the academic – version of a discipline (e.g., folk physics). The present series of seven studies explored folk epistemology, that is, how laypeople intuitively think about their own knowledge. Concepts from academic epistemology were investigated in laypeople. In addition, folk epistemology across three domains of knowledge were compared: religious, political, and factual.Studies consisted of two parts. In Part 1, participants were presented with religious, political, and factual statements and asked how certain they were that each statement was true. In Part 2, participants were re-presented with only statements that …

Model And World: Generalizing The Ontic Conception Of Scientific Explanation, Mark Povich

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Model and World defends a theory of scientific explanation that I call the “Generalized Ontic Conception” (GOC), according to which a model explains when and only when it provides (approximately) veridical information about the ontic structures on which the explanandum phenomenon depends. Causal and mechanistic explanations are species of GOC in which the ontic structures on which the explanandum phenomenon depends are causes and mechanisms, respectively, and the kinds of dependence involved are causal and constitutive/mechanistic, respectively. The kind of dependence relation about which information is provided determines the species of the explanation. This provides an intuitive typology of explanations …

Relationships Of Weight-Related Dissatisfaction, Body Image Flexibility, And Coping In Women, Pooja Shah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The present study examined the relationships between body image flexibility, body image dissatisfaction, body image evaluation, and specific coping factors based on the WEIGHTCOPE measure. Body image flexibility was also examined as a mediator of the relationship between body image dissatisfaction and weight-related coping factors in women. Methods: An online link of the survey (Qualtrics Research Software Program) was distributed through social media and word of mouth to women of all body shapes and sizes (N= 267). The survey included the BICS as a measure of body image dissatisfaction, the MBSR (AE) as a measure of body …

Weight Stigma, Cognitions, And Disordered Eating, Sarah E. Pelfrey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Weight stigma experiences affect people of all weights and have many negative consequences; despite this, weight stigma is still an acceptable prejudice in our society. Research has established that weight stigma is predictive of disordered eating (DE) cognitions, which are, in turn, predictive of DE behaviors. The current study explored the unique contribution DE cognitions make to DE behaviors while controlling for other DE cognitions. The DE cognitions examined in the current study were drive for thinness, weight bias internalization, and perfectionism. The DE behaviors examined were emotional eating, restrained eating, inappropriate compensatory behaviors, and binge-eating. Weight bias internalization and …

Age-Related Changes In Visual Spatial Performance, Samantha Farrell

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Visual spatial skills allow individuals to understand the relationship between objects, people, and the environment for their everyday activities. Visual spatial abilities incorporate visual, motor, and cognitive components, each of which changes across the lifespan. The current study examined the effects of age-related changes and practice type on visual spatial performance. Participants between 40 and 79 years of age were asked to complete the Block Design Task (BDT) by using nine blocks to recreate various designs. Both accuracy and latency were measured to examine these changes. Task difficulty and practice type were varied and cognitive abilities were measured via MMSE …

When The Clinician Is Burdened: Clinician’S Trauma History, Resiliency And The Impact On Compassion Fatigue, Ashley Martin-Cuellar

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

This dissertation study was motivated by the desire to understand the relationship between a clinician’s prior traumatic experiences and the degree to which trauma may alter the personal impact of their work with clients in the form of perceived compassion fatigue. The methodology used in this study was designed to gather information about the relationship between 1) a clinician’s trauma and current levels of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction, and 2) the relationships between a clinician’s trauma and compassion fatigue when moderated by mindfulness, subjective vitality, psychological well-being and sleep. Regression results indicated that mindfulness, subjective vitality and psychological well-being …

The Impact Of Stereotype Threat On Deaf Individuals, Jessica Kales

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Misconceptions and stereotypes about Deaf people’s verbal intelligence may lead to a social phenomenon known as stereotype threat. When a person is conscious of a stereotype about their group, they may experience stereotype threat, whereby apprehension related to a negative stereotype undermines performance (Steele, 2010). Participants for the study were 27 Deaf undergraduate students. Participants were randomly assigned to high threat or low threat conditions. Regardless of the condition, all participants were then asked to solve seven anagrams and five questions from the verbal portion of the Graduate Record Exam. Participants were asked to evaluate their performance on the anagrams …

The Developmental Progression Of Cognitive Abilities In Deaf Children, Jacqueline N. Wunderlich

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Although there has been a copious amount of research on deaf children’s language acquisition and academic abilities, our knowledge concerning the development of nonverbal cognitive functioning in this population remains limited. The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) is a commonly used neuropsychological tool for the assessment of visuospatial, visuoconstructional, visuomemory, and executive functioning abilities. As a language-reduced test, it seems ideal for use with deaf children. Previous studies using different scoring systems indicate that deaf children perform average to slightly above average on the ROCF compared with hearing youth. However, minimal normative data and established cognitive developmental patterns for deaf children …

Alone In A Crowd: Perceived Social Relationships And Health Outcomes For Clergy, Christopher G. Ford

Psychology ETDs

The purpose of this study was to understand more about the relative contributions of different measures of social relationships to mental and physical health. This was done through secondary analysis of a clergy health intervention (n = 616), a population with unique professional and personal relationship characteristics. Hierarchal multiple regression was used in three steps to control for demographics, measures of perceived social relationships (e.g., social support, social engagement, social isolation, and relationship satisfaction), and whether or not clergy worked alone or with clergy colleagues. The results demonstrated that the relationship variables entered together, after controlling for demographics, were particularly …

Narcissistic Traits Of Police Officers In America, Paloma Moran

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The narcissistic traits of police officers aged 17 to 78 in the United States affect American citizens in various degrees. Improvements made to pre-employment psychological evaluations, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), the L (Lie) Scale, and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), may detect and screen out police officer candidates with underlying Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). It is important that candidates with NPD be screened out as, if they become officers, they may commit acts of police misconduct, which greatly affect the safety and trust of the American people.

The Benefits Of Culturally Adapted Mental Health Treatments: A Meta-Analysis, Juan Valladares, Madeleine Coenen, Niyeli Herrera, Yoojin Kim

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Cultural values, ideas, beliefs and word views may affect the way a mental intervention is received and therefore how effective it is. Historically, research has not focused on cultural minorities and these groups tend to have poorer success rates in treatments (Gonzalez et al., 2010). The purpose of this meta-analysis is to establish the aggregate effect of those mental health interventions that have been adapted to clients' cultural or ethnic backgrounds.

Barriers To Mental Health Service Access Among Women At A Large Public University, Auburn Beebe

Student Research Symposium

• College students are dealing with serious mental health issues, and represent an important population to access when providing mental health services.
• In particular, college women show a significant need for mental health services.
• Though most universities provide free mental health counseling services, many students are unaware or reluctant to use those services.
• Many factors contribute to this reluctance such as lack of knowledge about services and perceived stigma.
• This study seeks to add to the existing body of literature on college student mental health by identifying barriers to mental health service access at a large public university, while uniquely focusing …

Individual And Group Differences In Sound Category Learning, Ben Carlstrom

Student Research Symposium

Abstract: We examined the role of procedural-, declarative-, and working-memory systems in adults learning novel sound categories. Adults have fully developed declarative-memory skills that sometimes inhibit their ability to learn implicitly/procedurally (Filoteo, Lauritzen, & Maddox, 2010). Models of impaired language like the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis suggest that procedural-memory deficits are predictive of language-learning outcomes (Lum, Conti-Ramsden, Page, & Ullman, 2011). This study tested the hypothesis that language structure is best learned implicitly/procedurally, which has implications for L2 learning and language impairment. The novel sound categories presented to participants varied along a phonologically non-native dimension, pitch, and a native dimension, vowel …

Mindfulness Meditation As A Stress Reactivity Intervention: An Event-Related Potential Study, Jessica L. Trottier, Barry S. Oken

Student Research Symposium

The biological and neural mechanisms of stress have been extensively studied and supported, but are still unclear. Event-related potentials (ERP’s) emitted by neurons in the brain are a useful tool in measuring stress because they reflect neural response in real-time, to the millisecond, versus typical biological markers, which are typically evaluated before and after a stress test. The neurobiological relationship between ERP’s and stress originates in the anterior cingulate cortex, which in turn activates the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis; the main physiological cascade fueling the stress response and its chronically harmful symptoms. Malfunctions in the stress response, as in the cases of …

Expanding Stereotype Content Beyond Warmth And Competence, Lauren S. Park

Student Research Symposium

Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, and Xu’s (2002) stereotype content model (SCM) has emerged as one of the most influential models of person perception in contemporary scholarship, and the organizational literature has begun to use this model for diversity management (Lyons et al., 2016; Martinez, White, Shapiro, & Hebl, 2016). However, data we have collected indicate that this two-factor solution may not be sufficient for all groups. Furthermore, the factor structure of the SCM items has never been examined empirically. The construct of morality, though largely ignored in contemporary Western psychology, has been proven to be the most important basis on which …

Associations Between The Willingness To Exert Cognitive Effort And Smoking Abstinence, Austin A. Phanouvong

Student Research Symposium

In decision-making tasks, individuals who prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards (delay discounting) are less likely to quit smoking. Indeed, decision-making tasks with delayed reward costs are sensitive to many aspects of substance use disorders. However, other reward costs might also be important. Our study focused on one of these other reward costs, which was cognitive effort (CE). 22 current smokers who were anticipating quitting in the near future were recruited to validate if more CE discounting predicted shorter abstinence times in reinforced smoking lapse period. Each participant had to be over the age of 21, and smoke …

The Impact Of Ethnic Identity On Psychological Well-Being And Perceived Discrimination Among Arab Americans, Rawan Atari

Theses and Dissertations

The current study intended to expand upon psychological research on the Arab American community, which has faced increased discrimination since 9/11 and recent ISIS-related terrorist attacks. Since perceived discrimination has been associated with greater psychological distress among Arab Americans, it is important to determine whether any protective factors are available for this community. In a sample of Arab Americans, the relationship between perceived discrimination and aspects of psychological well-being (i.e., self-esteem, flourishing, and satisfaction with life) were examined in order to gain a better overall picture of Arab American mental health. Because ethnic identity has been recognized as a protective …

The Effects Of System Justification And Social Dominance Orientation On The Temporal Discounting Of Climate Change, Gage Peterson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Within the current political landscape, environmental issues such as global climate change are not without their controversies. Though novel relative to other physical sciences, climate and environmental sciences demonstrate opportunities within and beyond their formal disciplines to shape our ecological legacy. The fields of social psychology as well as environmental psychology, with its various subdisciplines including conservation psychology, ecopsychology and human ecology among others, promise relevance to political and social decision-making regarding our environmental health. This thesis isolates and examines factors affecting an individual’s perceptions of climate change and its associated risks. Specifically this project examines the implications that social …

How Having A Child With Special Needs Affects Family Functioning In Families Of Different Types, Victoria Nascati

Theses and Dissertations

A number of children in the United States are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder each year. In the past several years, there has been an increase in this diagnosis. Along with this increase, there has been an increase in the variety of therapies, resources, and services available to children diagnosed with ASD. However, previous research has shown that there is a lack of resources for the parents and families of those children. The purpose of the current study is to gain insight into the daily lives of a family who has a child with Autism in order to assess the …

“The Cracked Pots Of Humanity”: Post-World War Ii American Literary Perspectives On Psychiatric Treatment/Containment Of Mental Disorders, Jennifer Chichester

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the ways in which characters in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Bird’s Nest, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces grapple with the concept of “madness” on individual and societal levels. Each of these Post-World War II novels question whether “madness” is a social construct. Is the person mad, or is society? These three novels, written in an era when inpatient psychiatric care was losing its prominence as a method for treating those deemed insane, reflect the growing trend of deinstitutionalization in the 1950s …

The Etiology And Phenomenology Of Sexual Shame: A Grounded Theory Study, Noel Clark

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Although sexual shame is widely present in social discourse and has previously been described clinically—as shame related to sexual thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and attitudes—it has not been defined in an operational manner that can be empirically tested. This study creates a bridge between the colloquial knowledge regarding sexual shame found in clinical practice and the way in which sexual shame is defined and measured scientifically in the psychological research literature. Grounded theory was used in this study to generate theory related to the development and experience of sexual shame. The concept of sexual shame was explored from both a personal …

Mentally Ill, Hiv-Positive, Or Sexual Predator?: Determining Myths Perceived As Representative Of Transgender People, Dominic C. Locantore

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Discrimination and prejudice toward transgender individuals are pervasive in the United States. Stereotypes, or myths, may partially explain why anti-transgender prejudice is so prevalent. The present study recruited a community sample online via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N = 1450) to determine potential myths held by the American public about transgender people. In a between-subjects 5x6 factorial design, participants read a description of a target described as either: mentally ill, HIV-positive, a sexual predator, an ally of transgender people, or a person who is unfair to others (control). They then completed an intuitive judgment task regarding the target’s gender and provided …

Using Conditioned Place Preference To Investigate Changes In The Rewarding Effects Of Running And Eating Following Activity-Based Anorexia, Daniella Plaksiy

Theses and Dissertations

We used conditioned place preference to investigate whether activity-based anorexia would enhance the rewarding effects of running, causing running to be more rewarding than eating. We found that food restricted mice showed a clear preference for the food-associated chamber, and a subset of activity-based anorexia mice preferred the wheel-associated chamber.

Multilingualism And Ego Depletion In Interference Task Performance – Are Multilingual Brains More Intelligent Than Monolingual Brains?, Dorota B. Botwina

Theses and Dissertations

Research linking multilingualism with better executive control has produced inconsistent findings. Since definitive empirical evidence is not available, this study seeks to explore whether these advantages really exist. The Flanker Task followed an ego depletion task that was introduced to participants who were monolingual, bilingual and trilingual.

Reward Preferences In Domestic Horses (Equus Caballus), Elizabeth E. Jaeger

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined stress response in domestic horses (Equus caballus) to determine if horses show preference for either traditional or natural horsemanship training methods to test the hypothesis that natural horsemanship would induce less stress. Our results show that natural horsemanship rewards elicited lower stress response in horses.