Psychology Commons^™

Replicability And Reproducibility In Comparative Psychology, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Psychology faces a replication crisis. The Reproducibility Project: Psychology sought to replicate the effects of 100 psychology studies. Though 97% of the original studies produced statistically significant results, only 36% of the replication studies did so (Open Science Collaboration, 2015). This inability to replicate previously published results, however, is not limited to psychology (Ioannidis, 2005). Replication projects in medicine (Prinz et al., 2011) and behavioral economics (Camerer et al., 2016) resulted in replication rates of 25 and 61%, respectively, and analyses in genetics (Munafò, 2009) and neuroscience (Button et al., 2013) question the validity of studies in those fields. Science, …

Examining The Impact Of The Haven Training On Perceptions Of Rape, Katerina Marie Oberdieck

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to study the effect of a university-mandated sexual assault prevention program-Haven: Understanding Sexual Assault-on college students' judgments of three different rape vignettes (Stranger Rape, Acquaintance Rape, Acquaintance Rape with Intoxication), and overall rape myth acceptance. A sample of 490 participants who either had or had not completed Haven training participated in the study, and each participant was also randomly assigned to read either a brief summary of the Haven training or a control paragraph before judging the vignettes. Gender was also treated as an independent variable due to robust evidence of gender differences in …

A Self-Compassion Intervention To Increase Feedback Acceptance Among Individuals With Perfectionistic Tendencies, Alise Sue Ellen Kottman

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Performance feedback is an important part of employee development. Performance feedback is often administered incorrectly which can be damaging to the employee. Self-compassion training is proposed as a means to mitigate the negative effects associated with receiving damaging performance feedback. Self-compassion priming was used as a method to increase feedback acceptance among individuals with perfectionistic tendencies. Participants (n = 938) were given a measure of perfectionism and then asked to complete a proofreading task containing either a self-compassion prime or a neutral topic. Positive and negative feedback was randomly assigned. Participants then filled out an internal self-compassion measure as well …

A Replication/Extension Of The Presence Of Others On Judgments Of Desirability, John E. Scofield

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Mate-choice copying is a mating strategy where females rely on contextual information to assist in securing accurate assessments of potential mates. Mate-choice copying has been extensively studied in non-human species, and has begun to be examined in humans as well. The desirability enhancement effect occurs when women judge men surrounded by opposite-sex females as more attractive than those same men alone or with same-sex males. The desirability diminution effect occurs when men judge women surrounded by opposite-sex males as less desirable than those same women alone or with same-sex females. The current project replicated previous findings concerning the desirability enhancement …

The Effects Of Goal Systems On Performance In Youth Baseball, Joshua A. Leet

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis explores the relationship of multiple goals set by youth baseball players with past and present performance. Core to this investigation was the complexity, content, and number of distal and proximal goals reported by players who wrote their goals for an upcoming season. Results showed that players with a greater number of process goals (compared to performance or outcomes goals) and individual goals (compared to team goals) received higher ratings of performance by their coaches. Analyses also revealed that age significantly influenced aspects of goal structure and content for goal reported by players. That is, older players reported having …

Expressing Pride: Effects On Perceptions Of Agency And Communality Based On Race And Gender, Rosalyn A. Miles

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study investigated how the expression of pride shapes perceptions of agency and communality, and how those perceptions differ when the pride expresser is of a certain gender and race. Participants were primed with a scenario featuring a picture of a target varying in race and gender. Participants were then invited to complete a survey assessing their perceptions of agency, communality, leadership competence, and ascribed interpersonal hostility. It was hypothesized that the expression of pride over happiness would rank someone as being more or less agentic, communal, competent in leadership, or interpersonally hostile. It was also hypothesized that black targets …

A Five-Week Bible Study For Sorority Women, Haley Mcclelland

Senior Theses

My goal with this study is to help sorority women break free of this pressure and stereotypical role they may feel inclined to fill, and to make them stronger women and leaders in the community. Studies have proven that religion is linked with lower drug and alcohol use, lower rates of suicide or suicide ideation, lower levels of depression and hopelessness, and a positive correlation with physical health (Smith, 2003). By creating a means through which to introduce God or expand on knowledge of God, this study has the potential to impact the overall quality of life for its participants. …

The Nurse’S Story: A Qualitative Study Of How Nurses Experience Caring For Patients Who Die Unexpectedly, Shantel Sullivan

All Theses And Dissertations

The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experience of compassion fatigue among nurse professionals in order to examine natural grieving reactions and how they potentially change nurses’ lives. The focus of this study included nurse professionals working in rural community hospitals in Upstate New York. The nurse professionals in the study were exclusively those who identify and practice as registered nurses (RN). The nurses were asked to share their experiences of repetitive exposure to critical incidents (unexpected outcomes, mass casualties, and/or death of infant/child/young adult). Purposive sampling was utilized as a means to select participants. The …

Recollection Bias And Its Underpinnings: Lessons From Terrorism Risk Assessments, Richard J. Zeckhauser, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Recollection bias is the phenomenon whereby people who observe a highly unexpected event hold current risk beliefs about a similar event that are no higher than their recollection of their prior beliefs. This article replicates and extends the authors’ previous study of recollection bias in relation to individuals’ perceptions of the risks of terrorism attacks. Over 60% of respondents in a national U.S. sample of over 900 adults believe that the current risk of a future terrorist attack by either an airplane or in a public setting is no higher than they recall having believed, respectively, before the 9/11 attack …

Give Hate A Chance: An Exploration Of The Affective State Of Interpersonal Hate, Carmen Merrick

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Interpersonal hate, the affective state of one individual experiencing hate toward another, is widely experienced. However, to date there is no experimental evidence of interpersonal hate. This phenomenon was explored, as was its place in the triad of hostile emotions. It was theorized that interpersonal hate would be differentiated from the hostile emotions (contempt, anger, and disgust) by appraisal of violation type and by behavioral response, and that the hostile emotions could be recognized by these characteristics, as well. Specifically, it was hypothesized that interpersonal hate would be incited by autonomy violations and avoidance responses; anger would be incited by …

Say You're Sorry: How To Suss Out An Insincere Apology, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A chicken rice chain owner, airline CEO and church pastor have been in the news recently, apologising for their own or their organisations' mistakes. How do you say sorry like you really mean it?

Signs Of Social Class: The Experience Of Economic Inequality In Everyday Life, Michael W. Kraus, Jun Won Park, Jacinth J. X. Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

By some accounts, global economic inequality is at its highest point on record. The pernicious effects of this broad societal trend are striking: Rising inequality is linked to poorer health and well-being across countries, continents, and cultures. The economic and psychological forces that perpetuate inequality continue to be studied, and in this theoretical review, we examine the role of daily experiences of economic inequality—the communication of social class signals between interaction partners—in this process. We theorize that social class signals activate social comparison processes that strengthen group boundaries between the haves and have nots in society. In particular, we argue …

Delay Discounting Mechanisms In Eating Disorders: A Call To Arms, Rowan Crowder

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Delay discounting, or temporal discounting, is a measure of impulsivity that describes the devaluation of a reinforcer as a function of its receipt in time. Several studies have shown that individuals diagnosed with a variety of behavioral maladies such as obesity/over-eating, substance abuse, cigarette smoking, heavy drinking, and problematic gambling exhibit greater discounting rates. To be specific, they are more impulsive and less willing to wait for delayed reinforcement than healthy controls. Several of these studies have found that obese women discount at a steeper rate than non-obese women, similar results have been shown in binge eating disorder. The relationship …

Symptoms Of Anxiety And Depression And Suicidal Behavior In College Students: Conditional Indirect Effects Of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury And Self-Compassion, Andrea R. Kaniuka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Young adults of college age are at particular risk for psychopathology, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and consequent suicidal behavior, perhaps in a continuum of increasing severity. However, not all persons who experience psychopathological symptoms, or who self-harm, go on to engage in suicidal behavior, perhaps due to protective factors such as self-compassion that buffer this progression. We examined the mediating effect of NSSI on the relation between anxiety/depressive symptoms and suicide risk, and the moderating role of self-compassion on these linkages. Our collegiate sample (N=338) completed: Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Self-Harm Inventory, Suicidal Behavior Questionnaire-Revised, and the Self-Compassion Scale. …

The Effects Of Familiarity On Visual Search Performance Of Typically Developing Toddlers And Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Laura Keegan

Honors College Theses

Visual Search is an attention task that measures how efficiently a person is able to find a target among distractors. It has been found before that children diagnosed with ASD can perform better at visual search when compared to age-matched typically developing children (Kaldy et al., 2011, 2013). Our team conducted a follow-up study with slightly different stimulus parameters (Smith et al., 2015) and two different potential target objects (in this task, an apple vs. a carrot). The results showed that the identity of the target object influenced toddlers’ search performance: they were slightly faster at finding the target when …

How Racial Microaggressions Impact The Mental Health Of Black Women Of Different Occupational Prestige, Esthanette Reid

Honors College Theses

Much of the literature examining anxiety, depression, and trauma among Black women fails to consider the potential impact of racism. This thesis seeks to begin addressing this gap by assessing the relation between racial microaggressions and mental health for Black women. The primary goal of this thesis is to use data from a nationwide online study, The Resistance and Empowerment Against Racism Study (conducted by Dr. Karen Suyemoto & Dr. Tahirah Abdullah), to examine the effects of racial microaggressions on depression, anxiety, and trauma for 179 Black women with different occupational prestige. Measures such as The Racial Microaggressions Scale (RMAS; …

Reentry And Reflection For Study Abroad Returnees At The University Of South Carolina, Paige N. Pierce

Senior Theses

Reentry is a growing practice in education abroad programming, however it remains significantly less developed than pre-departure preparations despite the increasing numbers of U.S. students going abroad in college. This project is a qualitative study looking at how the University of South Carolina (USC) addresses reentry for its students returning from their education abroad. Faculty and staff from six departments at USC were interviewed for data collection on the topic of reentry for the returned student. These stakeholders were chosen based on their professional positions and involvement in internationalization and study abroad education. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and manually …

Adhd Symptomology And Prescription Stimulant Misuse In College Students, Kelsey L. Manfredi, Lisa Weyandt Phd, Shannon May

Senior Honors Projects

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurological disorder characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention. These symptoms result in impairments for individuals across multiple settings and are developmentally inappropriate. While common during childhood, symptoms have been shown to persist into adulthood for 50% or more of those diagnosed before reaching age 18. Although prescription stimulants have been shown to benefit those with ADHD, increased popularity of prescription stimulant misuse among those without ADHD has been reported, despite the potentially harmful side effects that may accompany this use. Specifically, nonmedical use of prescription stimulants during adolescence led to increased …

Training Parents In Descriptive Assessment And Function Identification, Makenzie Sip

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

It is often difficult for parents to address their child’s problem behavior. Children with special needs can display more frequent and intense problem behavior. Therefore, professionals need to help parents of children with special needs identify how to decrease their child’s problem behavior. Professionals help to decrease problem behavior by performing assessments called descriptive assessments to identify why the problem behavior is happening, and then using these assessments to create an appropriate plan of how to prevent and respond to the problem behavior. We examined if parents could be taught the skills necessary to perform descriptive assessments and then use …

Increasing Knowledge And Detection Of Racial And Ethnic Microaggressions In White College Students, Christina A. Patterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Scholars have strongly suggested that to combat microaggressions and their impact on persons of color, there needs to be an increased awareness and ability to detect microaggressions when they occur. There is limited research on how to practically address these concerns. This study examined the efficacy of a multimedia intervention aimed at increasing White individuals’ ability to accurately detect microaggressions. The high-exposure intervention was compared against two other conditions, low-exposure and control, at pre-, post-, and 1-week follow-up from intervention.

Undergraduate university students were recruited from two predominantly white universities (PWU). Participants watched a series of videos to determine if …

Extension Of Behavioral Momentum Theory To Conditions With Changing Reinforcer Rates, Andrew R. Craig

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Behavior is more likely to persist when disrupted in some way in the presence of stimuli correlated with frequent delivery of reward than in the presence of stimuli correlated with infrequent rewards. In laboratory investigations, the correlation between reward rates and specific stimuli are almost always held constant before testing for persistence. In the real world, however, how often rewards are encountered is likely to vary substantially over time. The major goal of the work described in this dissertation was to explore effects of reward rates that change over time on persistence of behavior in controlled laboratory settings using pigeon …

Impact Of Antidementia Medications On Neuropsychiatric Symptoms And Informal Costs Of Caregiving In Dementia, Stephanie Behrens

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dementia-related diseases are progressive neurological disorders that can affect a person’s cognition and functional abilities, and also result in mental health symptoms commonly called neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). To date, the most common pharmacological treatments for dementia, “antidementia” medications, delay the progression of the cognitive and functional symptoms of the condition. Studies of the effects of antidementia medications on NPS show varying results. Presence of NPS can also affect the amount of time caregivers provide care with persons with dementia, which can affect informal costs of the condition. This project used extant data from the longitudinal, population-based Cache County Study on …

Effects Of A Classroom Intervention On Academic Engagement Of Elementary School Students With Anxiety, Lychelle Leatham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study evaluated the impact of anxiety reduction on academic engagement for elementary students experiencing high levels of anxiety. For participating students, the anxiety appeared to be impacting academic performance in the school setting. Student participants received modified cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) including exposure tasks with adult support in the school setting. Both anxiety and academic engagement was monitored by participating students and their teachers. Results show that this intervention has promising outcomes and provides initial support that anxiety reduction increases academic engagement for anxious elementary students

Diversity-Related Experiences Among College Students In The Promotion Of Social Justice Orientation, Multicultural Openness, And Community Involvement, Alexandra K. Reveles

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Institutions of higher education serve students in more ways than simply fostering academic growth. University and college campuses are often the introduction people have to the societal, interpersonal, and career/field specific expectations they will be guided by after completing their degree. One way for universities to do this is through the cultivation of critical consciousness by way of encouraging engagement in diversity-related activities. This study examined associations between engagement in diversity-related activities and reported levels of critical consciousness, along with differences between students of color and White students in patterns of association.

Diversity-related experiences, including extracurricular diversity activities, positive cross-racial …

The Development Of A Short Form Of The Clinically Adaptive Multidimensional Outcome Survey, Peter William Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

The Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) movement has gained considerable influence in the healthcare industry, including psychotherapy. The American Psychological Association's (APA) official stance on EBP encouraged clinicians to used standardized outcome measures in routine practice in order to establish the efficacy of their interventions. Routine Outcome Measurement (ROM) systems were designed specifically to accomplish this purpose, and have been shown to improve client outcomes and provide valuable aggregate data that contributes to empirical literature. Despite this research and the endorsement of the APA's official EBP stance, these measures have not been widely adopted by clinicians. Several studies have found that clinicians …

Future Directions In Personality, Occupational And Medical Selection: Myths, Misunderstandings, Measurement, And Suggestions, Eamonn Ferguson, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper has two objectives: (1) presenting recent advances in personality theory whereby personality traits are conceptualized within a framework that focuses on the dynamic interactions of behaviour, biology, context, and states, and (2) discussing the implications of these developments for measurement and medical selection. We start by presenting evidence that traits are no longer regarded as stable deterministic predictors of behaviour. Instead, traits are found to change across generations, the life span, and in response to environmental contingencies. Thus, there is an urgent need to explore how traits change as function of medical education. Second, drawing on recent theory …

Construct-Driven Sjts: Toward An Agenda For Future Research, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A common theme running through recent research on Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs) and this special issue is the aim to improve the measurement of constructs via SJTs. Construct-driven SJTs differ from traditional SJTs in that they present a trait activating situation to test-takers and a more unidimensional set of response options that depict different trait levels. In this commentary, I frame the different papers of this special issue into a research agenda related to construct-driven SJTs. Specifically, I posit that future research should examine whether construct-driven SJTs lead to more unidimensionality at the item level, cleaner measurement of the constructs, …

Moral Traps: When Self-Serving Attributions Backfire In Prosocial Behavior, Stephanie C. Lin, Julian J. Zlatev, Dale T. Miller

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Two assumptions guide the current research. First, people's desire to see themselves as moral disposes them to make attributions that enhance or protect their moral self-image: When approached with a prosocial request, people are inclined to attribute their own noncompliance to external factors, while attributing their own compliance to internal factors. Second, these attributions can backfire when put to a material test. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that people who attribute their refusal of a prosocial request to an external factor (e.g., having an appointment), but then have that excuse removed, are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior than …

“Good Guys Do Rape”: An Examination Of College Student Perceptions Of Sexual Assault Perpetrators, Taylor Blythe Martinez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When people think of a typical sexual assault, they rely heavily on preconceived notions of sexual violence, which often represents stereotypical rape scenarios. Many stereotypical depictions of perpetrators tend to be centered around individuals who are strangers, mentally ill, lonely, with poor or impoverished upbringing. How perpetrators and victims are depicted impact the likelihood of others believing victims and attributing guilt to perpetrators. This may contribute to societal endorsement of acquaintance rape as not real compared to stereotypical rape scenarios. The current study examines how college students, and in particular fraternity men and sorority women, view perpetrators of sexual assault. …

Psychotherapy Clients’ Recalled Treatment Experiences: A Survey Of Perceived Evidence-Based Practice Elements, Yadi Chen

Psychology

Background: Common evidence-based practice (EBPs) elements can be observed across cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) manuals for commonly occurring disorders. Example EBP elements include exposure, cognitive restructuring, teaching active coping skills (e.g., relaxation), enhancing positive affect, and facilitating a positive working alliance. It is unclear if EBP elements are frequently delivered or prioritized in routine psychotherapy. Also, little is known about the prevalence or pervasiveness of EBP elements from the routine clients’ perspective. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess psychotherapy clients’ self-reported retrospective treatment experiences with regard to common EBP elements. Method: Participants (N = 592) …