Psychology Commons^™

Experiences Among U.S. Students Of Color, Travel Background, And Cultural Attunement To Intersectionalities In Study Abroad Programs., Jessica Norman

Dissertations

This cohort and event-based case study sought to evaluate the cultural experiences and development of cross cultural intersectionalities in U.S. students of culture participating in a study abroad program to Argentina. Current study abroad outcomes consistently show travel abroad experiences lead to improved cultural awareness, knowledge, understanding and competency. Study abroad programming appears to be an overlooked opportunity for creating positive, long-lasting, transformative change, particularly for under-represented students (Milsen, 2005; Mondard-Weissman, 2003; Hadis, 2005; Van Hoff & Verbee, 2005). Over the last 30 years, international educators have reported positive changes in students after learning abroad; improved in self-awareness, respect for …

Military Sexual Trauma In Female Veterans: Psychoeducation And Treatment Approaches, Jeanne Spence

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

This informative guide was created to help civilian therapists, interns and trainees work with military personal, specifically with female veterans who are survivors of a Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and present with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). When becoming a therapist, cultural awareness is always important. When working with military or veteran clients, learning about military culture is equally important. Some military personal, active duty and/or veterans prefer a military therapist because they perceive he or she understands the culture and the language and will save the client hours trying to explain military life. This guide will provide civilians with …

The Phenomenon Of Teacher Burnout: Mitigating Its Influence On New Teachers, Kaila Sanford

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Burnout is a psychological condition with physical, emotional, and mental dimensions. Burnout often includes feelings of exhaustion, long-term fatigue, negative self-concept, despair or hopelessness, frustration, and a lack of productivity at work.

Teacher burnout is a well-known and researched field. It has been documented in the literature that teachers experience high levels of stress and emotional exhaustion, which leads to high levels of burnout and professional attrition. This study examined the incidence of burnout in new elementary school teachers and offered recommendations for changes to organizational structure that may reduce professional burnout.

For the purpose of this study five new …

Literacy Revolution: How The New Tools Of Communication Change The Stories We Tell, Molly Gamble

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

The transmission of culture depends upon every generation reconsidering what it means to be literate. The way we consider ourselves to be a literate species is changing, which puts us at a unique turning point in human history. Verbal literacy, or the ability to read and write, is slowly being replaced by visual literacy as a primary tool for human communication. As a culture, we tend to underestimate the creative ferment of our increasingly visual world. The linear, structured pathways of traditional literacy are shifting towards a creative and participatory pursuit of unstructured information that emphasize dimensional thinking. The acceleration …

The Effect Of Gender And Veteran Status On The Level Of Perceived Stigma Surrounding Ptsd, Ryan E. Lubock

Master's Theses

This paper explores how gender and veteran status effects the level of stigmatization around Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Participants were randomly assigned to one of four vignette conditions, which were distinguished by gender and veteran status. Participants were then asked to rate how they perceived the individual depicted in the vignette. The researchers analyzed the results by examining how the participants own report of gender, and masculinity, effected how each of the vignettes were judged. This paper addresses the stigma surrounding mental health in general, and more specifically how that stigma affects individuals suffering from PTSD across multiple domains. For …

Comparisons Of Intrinsic Motivation For Novel Stroke Rehabilitation Interventions For Ue, Dorothy Kalmbach

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

An estimated 80% of individuals with stroke experience upper limb dysfunction and 60% of stroke survivors will not regain full use of the affected arm. Improvement in motor function is possible even in the chronic phase of stroke through motor rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is a lengthy process and has little chance of success if a patient is not dedicated to his or her regime. Highly motivated patients are more likely to adhere to a rehabilitation program and motivation has been linked to better therapeutic outcomes in many studies. This study evaluated how motivating participants of experimental stroke rehabilitation interventions found their …

Individual Difference Variables And Social Learning: An Investigation Into Expectancies, Philip Andrew Wiliamson

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Bandura (1969, 1985) proposed social learning theory (SLT) as a theoretical framework through which behaviors can be predicted. SLT offers an explanation to thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are learned. Alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs) are defined as the physiological or psychological consequences that are anticipated following the consumption of alcohol (Goldman, Boca, & Darkes, 1999). Expectancies enhance or diminish a person’s willingness to engage in drinking behaviors. SLT and AOEs converge as children watch adults and the media either consume and glorify alcohol or conversely vilify alcohol and shun its consumption. This study investigated whether individual difference variables (i.e., suggestibility, prior …

The Relationship Of Intimate Partner Violence And Help-Seeking With Eating Disorder Symptoms, Rachel Amerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study used the SVAWS, MMEA, BES, and EAT 26 to test the hypothesis that victims of IPV would have a greater number of and more severe eating disorder symptoms than those who have not been victimized. The current study also used the SRQ, BES, and EAT 26 to test the hypothesis that of those who experienced IPV and sought help, those who received positive reactions would have a different number and severity of eating disorder symptoms than those who received negative reactions. Two MANVOVAs did not find support for these hypotheses however, exploratory analyses did find relationships of …

Comparing Business Experts And Novices In Complex Problem Solving, C Dominik Guess, Hannah Devore Edelstein, Ali Badibanga, Sandy Bartow

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Business owners are faced with complex problems and are required to make decisions on a daily basis. The purpose of this study was to investigate complex problem solving (CPS) between experts and novices and to explore the competing theories of expert-rigidity versus expert-adaptability, as part of exploring which theory better explains crystallized intelligence. Participants were 140 business owners, business management undergraduate students and psychology students. Each participant managed a highly complex simulated chocolate company. Decisions and systems data were automatically saved in log files. Results revealed that small business owners performed best, followed by business students and then psychology students. …

And, The Winner Is…A Visual Preference For Endpoints Over Starting Points In Infants’ Motion Event Representations, Laura Lakusta, Stephanie Difabrizio

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Infants represent objects that are endpoints in motion events and show a preference for encoding the endpoint (the duck waddles into a bowl) over the starting point (the duck waddles out of a box). This asymmetry continues to appear in nonlinguistic cognition and language throughout development. This study tests whether this asymmetry also shows up in 16-month-old infants’ visual preferences for motion events, and if so, for which types of events. Infants looked longer at events depicting an “agentive” figure (e.g., duck) moving into an object (endpoint) than out of an object (starting point), and this asymmetry persisted even when …

The Role Of Sense Of Coherence In Stressor Appraisal, Lisa Brady

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

According to the transactional theory of stress, cognitive individual differences impact stressor appraisal. Sense of Coherence (SoC) refers to an individual’s generalized perception of environmental stimuli. Individuals with a strong SoC perceive the world as more comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful and may be more likely to appraise work-related stressors as having potential for opportunities (challenges) than for obstructing personal gain (hindrances) or causing harm (threats). This study assessed the role of SoC in the appraisal of work-related stressors as challenges, hindrances, and threats. Although an individual’s SoC remains relatively stable upon reaching adulthood, there is a positive association between age …

Stable Inconsistency: A Study Of Response Inconsistency Over Time, James A. Nauert

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Personality measures are currently a popular method for selection in the business world, despite issues such as poor predictive ability and the potential for output manipulation by participants. Another issue with personality testing that is often overlooked is that individuals sometimes respond differently on test items that otherwise measure the same traits. This phenomenon has been called Response Inconsistency (Reddock, Biderman, & Nguyen, 2011). The focus of this study is to attempt to show the phenomenon as a measurable trait that is stable over time. The study administered two different Big Five Inventories to participants taken from a local university. …

Assessing Cross-Cultural Competence: Evaluating The Psychometric Properties And The Nomological Network Of A Modified Version Of The Cultural Intelligence Scale, Kayitesi J. Wilt

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Effectively interacting with individuals in or from an unfamiliar culture requires cross-cultural competence and adaptability. The Cultural Intelligence Scale (Ang et al., 2007) is designed to measure an individual’s ability to adapt in a culturally unfamiliar environment. Studies using the CQS have mixed results regarding its dimensionality, construct validity, and its distinctness from other intelligences. Additionally, the phrasing of some of the items in the CQS require respondents to have been to a foreign culture to be able to answer. To address these critiques, I modified the CQS to accommodate individuals who have never been to a foreign culture. I …

The Social Progression Of Post -Traumatic Stress Disorder: Post Vietnam And September 11th Attacks, Ellie Mcdonald

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Social Progression of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Vietnam and September 11^th Attacks is an examination on the infrastructure of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’and of the Department of Defense’s lack of clarity and misinformation of the challenges and effects of mental illness within military ranks. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) made the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) after Vietnam. Since then, PTSD has been reevaluate numerous times, to properly define it. This research is a comparative analysis of the misconceptions of PTSD as experienced by Vietnam veterans and the first responders of the September 11^th tragedy. My research charts …

Extending The Aces Framework: Examining The Relations Between Childhood Abuse And Later Victimization And Perpetration With College Men, Laura A. Voith, Raeann E. Anderson, Shawn P. Cahill

Psychology Faculty Publications

Research has revealed that forms of violence are interconnected, but less work focuses on the interconnection of victimization and perpetration, particularly with men. Subsequently, our understanding of the complexities of violence exposure in men’s lives and related policies and treatments remains limited. The present study utilizes a sample of at-risk for violence involvement, college men, to examine the relationships between childhood victimization, adulthood victimization, and adulthood perpetration. Participants are 423 college men receiving course credit who completed a battery of standardized questionnaires via an anonymous web survey. Logistic regression is used. Results indicate that 27% of the men report polyperpetration …

Humor In Medicine: A Literature Review Of Humor’S Potential Therapeutic Value In Health Care, Weston Michael Grant

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Using humor and laughter within the health care field has the potential to be relevant to patients during treatment, to the patient-caregiver relationship, to the subjective well-being of health care providers, and to the environments’ (e.g., work settings) impact on group relationships (e.g., colleagues). A review of the literature examines how the psychological and physiological effects of laughter and humor within the human body impact health and well-being, how humor and laughter improve the patient-practitioner relationship, and if humor and laughter can potentially impact physician burnout. Several possible implications for these findings are discussed, such as professional medical comedians, improvements …

An Analysis Of Non-Verbal Emotion Recognition In Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury, David R. Christiansen

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Approximately 1.5 million people suffer traumatic brain injury each year in the United States. Over 5% suffer from long-term disability or cognitive deficits, including loss of executive functions, reduced processing speed, and emotional processing deficits. While research exists examining facial affect recognition and emotional prosody deficits in individuals with traumatic brain injuries, less is known about the how these two emotional processing deficits relate to one another; whether age, education, or time since injury effect deficits; and how these specific deficits impact quality of life. This study conducted a secondary data analysis to examine the relationship between demographic variables and …

The Impact Of Trial Penalty And Evidence Strength On Plea Deal Decision-Making, Yaritza Diaz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Despite its popular use in the U.S. legal system, research on plea bargaining and the factors that affect plea bargain decision-making is limited. Although it has been argued that plea bargaining is necessary to the efficiency of the courts (Williams-Fisher, 2005), critics of the practice argue that offers of leniency relative to the threat of the trial penalty may be coercive, so much so that even innocent defendants can be compelled to plead guilty (Bibas, 2004; Givelber, 1996). Others have argued that defendants are at a disadvantage in the negotiations because they are rarely privy to the evidence held by …

The Effect Of Temporal Gap On The Combination Of Auditory Information, Patrick Dwyer

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Past research has indicated different models of combination may be activated when an individual perceives information as coming from the same source (Treisman, 1998; Ernst, 2004). Moreover, auditory perception research has indicated that a temporal window of integration exists around sounds that are separated by 160 ms or less (Yabe et al, 1998). The current experiment investigated if predictions from an independent decisions model would hold when multiple sounds were played with a gap more or less than 150 ms. We hypothesized that when the gap between cues was 150 ms, the independent decisions model prediction would differ significantly from …

The Relationship Between Depressive Symptomology, Motivational Deficits And Striatal Activity In Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi), Angela Spirou

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been shown to have high prevalence rates of depression. Reward processing and motivational deficits have been shown to be associated with depression, since both constructs rely on the ffonto-striatal network. In this study, we examined depressive symptomology, motivational tendencies and striatal activation during wins and losses in individuals with TBI. Participants (TBI and healthy controls [HC]) completed a gambling task composed of wins and losses in an MRI scanner. Depressive symptomology was assessed with the Chicago Multiscale Depression Inventory (CMDI), while motivational tendencies were assessed with the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation (BIS/BAS) scale. Significant …

The Effect Of Future Oriented Tasks Vs Incidental Orienting Task On Item-To-Item Associations, Victoria Winters

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Working memory (WM) is involved in temporary processing and maintenance of a limited amount of information. WM serves as an access-way to long-term memory (LTM). Individuals encode information into LTM best when the amount of information processed does not exceed the capacity limit of WM. Different strategies, like processing information in terms of future planning, improve verbal LTM performance, however, it is unclear if this results from increased efficiency in WM. This study aims to investigate how processing instructions manipulated at encoding alter associative memory binding as a function of WM capacity. Participants completed a computerized verbal WM word association …

Who Participates? Who Leads? What Are The Outcomes For College Students In Co-Curricular Activities?, Nicole Ashley Alonso

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Sessa and London's learning model (Sessa & London 2006, London & Sessa, 2006) was used to generate hypotheses suggesting that readiness to learn predicts which college students chose to respond to learning triggers in the institutional context of a university (i.e. co- or extra-curricular activities, take on leader roles) and that participation leads to such learning outcomes as higher GP A, psycho-social development, and flourishing/wellbeing. One-hundred and sixty-eight students who varied in their participation levels (no participation beyond the classroom, participation in co-curricular activities, clubs, sports, etc., and involved in leader roles) filled out an online survey. Results partially support …

Structural And Diffusion Parameters Related To Pattern Separation In Multiple Sclerosis, Mark Daniel Zuppichini

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system characterized by widespread lesions and plaques that disrupt neural transmission. In addition to physical disability, cognitive impairment is experienced in about half of the MS population, which profoundly impacts vocational ability and quality of life. Amongst people with MS experiencing cognitive deficits, memory impairment is one of the most common symptoms. Assessing memory impairment in MS, a critical step in treatment, has been a difficult process. Traditional clinical batteries assessing memory impairment in MS may not adequately capture the multiple subprocesses of memory. Pattern separation, the ability …

The Influence Of Stimuli Proximity On Hedonic Context Effects, Christine Madurski

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The context in which stimuli are presented can lead to hedonic judgments moving in two opposing directions. The movement of judgments toward the context is known as assimilation, and the movement of judgments away from the context is called contrast. Some factors that tend to lead to differences in these outcomes include whether the stimuli belong to the same category or not and if similarities or differences are made salient. The Gestalt principle of proximity may have the same effect as other grouping manipulations found in studies of hedonic context effects and cause people to perceive the context and target …

Follow-Up To An Early Intervention For Parents Of Young Children With Or At-Risk For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Alexandra Payne

Psychology

The goal of this research was to study a training program for parents of young children with or at genetic risk for autism and assess the program’s impact on self-reported parent stress levels and competence beliefs. The current study was part of a larger parent training project at the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Parents completed assessment measures of stress, knowledge, and competence at pre-training, post-training, and again six weeks following the completion of the parent training. Paired samples t-tests were used to assess for significant changes in …

Perceptions Of Primary And Secondary Relationships In Polyamory, Rhonda N. Balzarini, Lorne Campbell, Taylor Kohut, Bjarne M. Holmes, Justin J. Lehmiller, Jennifer J. Harman, Nicole Atkins

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In consensually non-monogamous relationships there is an open agreement that one, both, or all individuals involved in a romantic relationship may also have other sexual and/or romantic partners. Research concerning consensual non-monogamy has grown recently but has just begun to determine how relationships amongst partners in consensually nonmonogamous arrangements may vary. The current research examines this issue within one type of consensual non-monogamy, specifically polyamory, using a convenience sample of 1,308 self-identified polyamorous individuals who provided responses to various indices of relationship evaluation (e.g. acceptance, secrecy, investment size, satisfaction level, commitment level, relationship communication, and sexual frequency). Measures were compared …

Board Review Course As Intervention: Impact On Pance Performance, Alan K. Mirly, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez, Jennifer M. Coombs

Psychology Faculty Publications

Purpose To analyze the effectiveness of an independent commercial 3-day Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE)–Physician Assistant National Recertifying Examination (PANRE) board review course to improve first-time pass rates on the PANCE. Methods Data were extracted from academic files at 2 universities over 2 years. In the first year (2014), the universities had not implemented a requirement for participation in a commercial board review course. In the second year (2015), both universities required participation in the course. There were 116 students at Idaho State University and 85 students at the University of Utah. Results Multiple regression analyses with PANCE score …

Neurostructural Organization And Neocortical Projecting Neuron Distribution In A Mouse Model Of Timothy Syndrome-Mediated Autism Spectrum Disorder, Aiden L. Ford

Honors Scholar Theses

Aims: This study investigates the nuanced effect of the CACNA1C mutation on neurocognition and neurodevelopment via an extended study of the Timothy Syndrome (TS) mediated Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) mouse model – TS2-neo. It includes: (1) an expanded assessment of the TS2-neo behavioral phenotype, and (2) a comprehensive histological analysis of cortical structural and laminar features.

Methods: 24 age-matched male mice – 12 TS2-neo (B6.Cg-Cacna1c^tm2Itl, knock-in G406R mutation), 12 WT (C57BL/6J) – were tested on paradigms examining motor, socio-communicative and cognitive abilities. Neural tissue was processed for either volumetric analysis through Nissl stain (8 TS2-neo, 8 WT) or …

Exploring The Impact Of Community Service On Career Exploration, Self-Determination, And Social Skills For Transition-Age Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Agnes Zalewska, Allison C. Hall, Sheila Fesko, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Bleak transition outcomes for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), coupled with the surge in incidence, has led to the need for focused and innovative transition strategies. While structured community service reveals promise, documentation of how community service experiences contribute to building employment skills for youth with intellectual/developmental disability (IDD), including those with ASD, is under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of a community service on employment skill-building for youth with ASD. Findings from 23 qualitative interviews with a range of stakeholders showed positive perceptions in the areas of career exploration, self-determination, and social skill …

Mental Health Counselors Working With Individuals With Developmental Disabilities: A Phenomenological Investigation, Syard G. Evans

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are often not included in traditional mental health treatment services due to beliefs that these individuals cannot benefit from mental health counseling and that mental health clinicians are not capable of treating this population. Some research exists that discusses techniques and interventions recommended to serve individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in mental health; however, there is little information on the specific counselors who are willing and able to support this population. A qualitative methodology was utilized to examine the phenomenon of mental health practitioners with experience serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. …