Psychology Commons^™

Effects Of One Neurofeedback Session On Relationship Between Fear-Of-Pain And Visual Avoidance Of Pain, Timothy Swift

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chronic pain is increasingly prevalent and costly and will continue to be with the increasing mean age of America’s population. It is important to identify interventions addressing pain-related biopsychosocial aspects. The purpose of the current study was to examine if a single session of specific neurofeedback (NF) protocols had an effect on subjective fear and physiological fear-avoidance behaviors in relation to pain-related stimuli. Correlational analyses revealed that FPQ-III minor pain scores were negatively associated with total fixation duration while looking at pain-related pictures. One-way ANOVAs revealed differences approaching significance for those trained on Left-Hemisphere NF protocols compared to those in …

Alzheimer's Disease Treatment Interventions And The Soul: Moral And Ethical Considerations, Bruce Vermeer

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Fostering Peace And Leadership: A Project For The Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit, Tomo Brown

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Black Mambas are members of a majority-female anti-poaching unit in South Africa that preserves wildlife in the world’s most targeted site for rhinoceros poaching. Despite the Black Mambas’ successes, the organization’s director has expressed concerns of a potential leadership issue in the unit, for which he seeks to identify the source and resolve accordingly. To assist in realizing these efforts, the researchers of this project traveled to South Africa and conducted work analysis interviews with 18 of the 34 members of the Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data on participants’ perceptions of cultural …

Gray Matter Correlates Of Emotional Intelligence In Incarcerated Males, Devin Marie Ulrich

Psychology ETDs

Emotional intelligence (EI) is form of social intelligence that is important for navigating one’s social environment. Deficits in these abilities have been associated negative psychological outcomes such as anxiety, substance use, and aggression. Here, we extend current literature that suggests that EI is correlated with gray matter volume (GMV) in limbic regions (e.g. insula ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, and cerebellum) in healthy samples, by using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to assess the relationship between GMV and EI. In study 1, emotional intelligence was positively correlated with GMV in the cerebellum and anterior cingulate cortex in a sample of incarcerated adult …

A Qualitative Study Of Counseling Students’ Attitudes Toward The Use Of Medication Assisted Treatments With Opioid Dependent Clients, Bethany L. Ackerman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dissertation supervised by Dr. William Casile

Counseling students’ perceptions of medication assisted treatment for opioid addition was explored. This study sought to understand how the students’ attitudes and beliefs regarding the use of medication assisted treatments developed, and also how these attitudes and beliefs may affect client care and professional career choices. Specifically, this study examined how their professional counselor education experiences played a role in the formation/development of these attitudes and beliefs.

This qualitative study was conducted with six counseling students who participated in semi-structured, individual interviews. At the time of the study, all of the students were currently …

Peer Support And Food Security In Deaf College Students, Brianna Celeste Keogh

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Objective: This paper investigates the role of peer support in food security among deaf college students. Participants: The sample included 166 college students who took the survey between May and October 2017. Methods: Participants completed a bilingual online survey in ASL and English. This survey included questions about peer support, the USDA’s 6-item food security module, and sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Out of 166 students (mean age=23; SD=6), 60.7% were food secure. About 26.4% (n= 43) were at-risk for food insecurity and another 12.9% (n=21) had very low food security. The sample included respondents who identified as people of color (54%) …

Three Personality Traits Of Deaf Scientists: Openness, Extraversion, And - Uniquely - Agreeableness, Megan Majocha

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

A common observation in higher education is that most deaf undergraduate students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) do not continue on to STEM careers. A smaller pool of deaf individuals persists in STEM and succeed in becoming scientists. Various reasons may explain this observation, one of which may involve personality traits. Certain personality traits have been found in scientists in the general population that differ from the general population: scientists have greater extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness on the Big Five Inventory (BFI) However, no study has focused on personality traits in deaf scientists. This study sought to …

The Neural Substrates Of Communicative Actions: A Cognitive Psychophysiology Study Of Sign Language Production And Imitation In Deaf Signers And Hearing Non-Signers, Athena S. Willis

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

What is the neurobiological underpinning of communicative actions? Studies have suggested that the same neural network of imitation is involved in producing communicative actions, regardless if the persons expressing communicative actions are deaf signers or hearing nonsigners. Through neuroimaging method and analysis, we can observe if experience with communicative actions leads to any differences in the neural processing of the one and two handed ASL signs in deaf signers and hearing non-signers. The results indicate that the posterior right parietal region of the brain shows a significant difference in activity during imitation of one handed and two handed ASL signs …

The Title, Laurent Turgeon-Dharmoo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present dissertation seeks to address and redress clinical psychology’s disciplinary silence around the title of ‘Doctor’ and attempts to uncover possible meanings gathering around it by following several angles of disclosure: The self-disclosure angle recounts my own resistances and attempts at coming to terms with the title; The disciplinary disclosure angle critically reviews the scarce literature on the topic using discourse analysis; The empirical disclosure angle provides quantitative and qualitative analyses of data obtained from 27 Directors of Clinical Training and Training Clinic Directors, who were prompted to report how they use the title with various interlocutors, to outline …

Life Satisfaction Typologies Among Roman Catholic Secular Clergy: A Q Methodological Investigation, Raju Antony

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Life satisfaction typologies among Roman Catholic secular clergy were studied using a Q methodological design. Using Q-Assessor, a web-based tool for Q methodological studies, 33 priests sorted and ranked 34 predetermined statements about their life satisfaction. By-person factor analysis and varimax rotation extracted three predominant category prototypes – pro-spirituals, professionals, and pro-relationals– representing three different views regarding the life satisfaction of clergy. The findings led to the creation of an explanatory model recognizing a multi-factorial pathway to understanding clergy life satisfaction.

Mind-Body Approach To Treating Developmental Trauma In Adolescents: A Group Therapy Manual For Residential Treatment Facilities, Kayla Prosser

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Among the most traumatized youth are those placed in residential treatment centers. This population reports exposure to abuse and neglect at an alarming rate in comparison with the general population. These youth are often described as irritable and angry and characterized by antisocial, delinquent and problematic behaviors. As such, they are assigned diagnostic labels based on checklists of surface level symptoms while trauma histories and chronic stress are ignored or minimized. As a result, treatment focuses on management of disruptive behaviors as opposed to addressing the root cause of the dysfunction, the trauma. Developmental trauma impacts an individual in a …

A Computational Model Of Team-Based Dynamics In The Workplace: Assessing The Impact Of Incentive-Based Motivation On Productivity, Josef Di Pietrantonio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large organizations often divide workers into small teams for the completion of essential tasks. In an effort to maximize the number of tasks completed over time, it is common practice for organizations to hire workers with the highest level of education and experience. However, despite capable workers being hired, the ability of teams to complete tasks may suffer if the workers' individual motivational needs are not satisfied.

To explore the impact of incentive-based motivation on the success of team-based organizations, we developed an agent-based model that stochastically simulates the proficiency of 100 workers with varying abilities and motive profiles to …

The Role Of Attachment In Experiences Of Affiliate Stigma Among Parents Of Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Individuals, Christina Mastropaolo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parents of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals’ attachment styles and their experiences of LGB affiliate stigma associated with having an LGB child. It was hypothesized that higher levels of anxious and/or avoidant attachment, as measured by the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998), would predict higher levels of LGB affiliate stigma, as measured by the LGB Affiliate Stigma Measure (LGB-ASM; Robinson & Brewster, 2016). A sample of 87 self-identified parents of LGB individuals completed the ECR and LGB-ASM. Utilizing multiple regression, results of …

The Association Of Attachment And Marital Satisfaction Mediated By Implicit Theories Of Relationships, Sadie Teal

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

This study explored the association between adult attachment, implicit theories of relationships, and marital satisfaction for adults who are currently in a romantic relationship. Attachment needs influence the lasting relationships individuals have in their lives, from infancy to adulthood. Secure attachment facilitates lasting relationships. Implicit theories around romantic relationships motivate our behaviors in relationships to fit our cognitive schemas. Due to attachment’s pervasive hold on our perceptions of the world and others, the relationships we have with significant others influence our cognitive schemas around romantic relationship dynamics. It was hypothesized that attachment (the independent variable) would affect marital satisfaction (the …

The Role Of Joint Attention In Pragmatic Language Development In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Ellen F. Geib

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

All children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present with some form of impairment in social communication. Social cognitive learning theory suggests children’s early joint attention skills provide a foundation for future language development. Preliminary research suggests social cognitive behaviors such as joint attention in the context of parent scaffolding may serve as a mechanism for language development in children with ASD. The current study utilized a parent-child free play task to explore the relations among parent and child attention and responsivity and child pragmatic language in 26 children ages 3:1 to 6:11 and their parents. Parent supported joint attention was …

Redefining The Measurement Of Pornography Consumption, Stephen Hatch, Dr. Scott Braithwaite

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Pornography consumption has grown over the past decade with the industry’s leading providers reporting billions of more views with each passing year (Pornhub.com, 2015). The Internet has facilitated the social acceptance and spread of pornographic material, and it is believed that approximately 40 million Americans view pornography regularly. With such a large number of Americans viewing pornography, and providers reporting more video views, it is unsurprising to learn that the pornography industry generates more income than professional basketball, football, and baseball combined (Cooper, 1998; Ropelato, 2006).

How Is Perfectionism Related To Neural Indices Of Error Processing And Negative Feedback?, Jayden Goodwin, Dr. Michael Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Perfectionism, or the pursuit of error-free performance, is often associated with shame, guilt, failure, and low self-esteem (Kilbert, Langhinrichsen-Rohling, & Saito, 2005; Stahl, Acharki, Kresimon, Völler, & Gibbons, 2015). Individuals with psychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, and anxiety disorders often display these maladaptive traits of perfectionism (Fairburn et al., 1999; Fairburn et al., 1997; Hewitt & Flett, 1991; Steele, Corsini, & Wade, 2007). These traits could be due in part to a maladaptive response system, or an inability to respond to errors and adjust subsequent behavior (Clayson & Larson, 2011; Schrijvers, De Bruijn, Destoop, Hulstijn, & …

The Mediation Between Intrinsic Religiousness And Positive Mental Health, Mason Ming, Scott Richards

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Religiousness has gained more attention in psychological research and literature in the past few decades (Allen & Heppner, 2011; Cervantes & Parham, 2005; Worthington et al., 2003). Richards and Bergin (1997) noticed a spiritual energy in the United States that has “created a powerful cultural demand for psychotherapists to be more aware of and sensitive to religious and spiritual issues” (p. 6). The burgeoning interest in religiousness has resulted in psychological researchers studying the effects of religiousness on mental health (Oldham, 2009), and have found varying results across time. Early research on the topic of religiousness and mental health, conducted …

Sexual Victimization, Trauma, & Resilience To Disordered Eating, Ava Fergerson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

It is widely known that sexual assault disproportionately affects women. College-aged women are the highest risk population of all ages, in fact. Sexual assault can occur at any age and may have a varying range of emotional consequences for survivors. This includes pathological coping mechanisms, such as disordered eating behaviors. This study examined the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between sexual assault and disordered eating behavior in a sample of women who reported negative sexual experiences. A sample of 519 undergraduate women at Western Kentucky University completed a survey assessing sexual experiences, trauma symptoms, disordered eating behavior, and …

Faces Of Time: Developing Protocol For The Crowdsourced Annotation Of Time Magazine Images, Aisha Cornejo

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project served to aid with the development of a research project that aims to analyze the progression of the appearance and context of women’s faces in Time Magazine images from 1960 through 1990. This will be accomplished by using Mechanical Turk to employ crowdsourced labor to extract every image of a face from select issues of Time magazine over the time period of interest. Mechanical Turk will also be used to label the following characteristics of each face: photo/drawing, gaze direction, context (ad/feature/cover), color/monochrome, ethnicity, age, gender, presence of a smile, and image quality. My work focused on the …

Differences In Perceived Stress, Locus Of Control, And Coping Styles Used By Male And Female Stem And Human Service Majors, Dawn M. Lowe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study sought to determine if program type along with gender could predict the type of coping styles students are more likely to use. Secondly, it endeavored to uncover whether a college student’s gender and program type might affect their locus of control and the amount of perceived stress reported. It was hypothesized that female students in Human Service programs would exhibit the most adaptive coping styles, while males in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs utilize the most maladaptive coping styles. Moreover, it was postulated that females in Human Service programs would report a more internalized locus …

The Effect Of Community Violence Exposure On Self-Reported Anxiety Symptoms In Adolescents: The Role Of Social Support Versus Family Cohesion, Blair Burke Kreiger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Exposure to community violence is a prevalent and problematic occurrence for many adolescents. Previous research associates direct (i.e., victimization) and indirect (i.e., witnessing or knowledge of incidences) community violence exposure with numerous adverse externalizing and internalizing psychological symptoms, including aggression, post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety. The literature also has identified risk and protective factors in community violence exposure and its outcomes. This study examined the relationship between community violence exposure and self-reported anxiety symptoms in adolescents, while also evaluating the role of social support and family cohesion as moderating variables. Results did not indicate significant relationship between community violence exposure …

The Effects Of Health-Promoting Signs Encouraging Stair Use In Parking Structures, Fiona T. Tang, Vincent Berardi, Benjamin D. Rosenberg

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This research study aims to promote physical activity by encouraging stair use rather than elevators using persuasive point-of-choice prompts. The current investigation is comprised of two sub-studies: pilot testing, which we have completed; and the main study, which will be conducted in the fall. While most studies in this area use observation to count pedestrian traffic, a novel component of the current research is that we will use a pressure mat to measure stair and elevator use. As such, before completing the main study, we completed two pilot studies to test the feasibility of the mat technology and the messaging …

Grade Retention: Knowledge And Attitudes Of Teacher Educators And Preservice Teachers, Jenny Pearson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Grade retention, otherwise known as “failing” or “being held back”, is a common practice for schools when they feel a student is not performing at or meeting school standards. While grade retention is a popular practice, very little research supports the use of it as an effective intervention over other interventions (Jimerson, 2001). A survey, structured around Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985) was distributed to preservice teachers and teacher educators at a Midwestern university to examine their knowledge and beliefs about grade retention, as well as the prevalence of the topic of grade retention in teacher training. Results from …

Examining Ecological Constraints On The Intergenerational Transmission Of Attachment Via Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis, Marije L Verhage, R M Pasco Fearon, Carlo Schuengel, Marinus H Van Ijzendoorn, Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Sheri Madigan, Glenn I Roisman, Mirjam Oosterman, Kazuko Y Behrens, Maria S Wong, Sarah Mangelsdorf, Lynn E. Priddis, Karl-Heinz Brisch, Collaboration On Attachment Transmission Synthesis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Parents' attachment representations and child-parent attachment have been shown to be associated, but these associations vary across populations (Verhage et al., 2016). The current study examined whether ecological factors may explain variability in the strength of intergenerational transmission of attachment, using individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis. Analyses on 4,396 parent-child dyads (58 studies, child age 11-96 months) revealed a combined effect size of r = .29. IPD meta-analyses revealed that effect sizes for the transmission of autonomous-secure representations to secure attachments were weaker under risk conditions and weaker in adolescent parent-child dyads, whereas transmission was stronger for older children. Findings …

Investigation Of Attitudes Towards Security Behaviors, Daniel Kelley

McNair Research Journal SJSU

Cybersecurity attacks have increased as Internet technology has proliferated. Symantec’s 2013 Internet Security Report stated that two out of the top three causes of data breaches in 2012 were attributable to human error (Pelgrin, 2014). This suggests a need to educate end users so that they engage in behaviors that increase their cybersecurity. This study researched how a user’s knowledge affects their engagement in security behaviors. Security behaviors were operationalized into two categories: cyber hygiene and threat response behaviors. A sample of 194 San José State University students were recruited to participate in an observational study. Students completed a card …

Open Ears, Open Mind, Open Heart: Active Listening, Mia Nguyen

Service-Learning | Student Scholarship

Active listening is the act of listening with all senses– the body, the mind, and the soul. It means empathizing with another person and finding that place within ourselves where we can listen beyond our initial judgements and personal feelings. It is listening beyond words and allowing our souls to understand, connect, and accept one another. Active listening sparks internal purity eliminating all types of judgement and allowing us to truly take in what another person has to offer. It is “an experience of language as a bodily felt process” in which we have a felt understanding rather than a …

How Do Mindfulness Practitioners Describe Pausing?: A Qualitative Interview Study, Benjamin G. Feldman

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has been demonstrated to be an effective adjunct to psychotherapy for reducing distress. An exploration of the MBSR literature was undertaken to examine the concept of pausing. Surprisingly, this process highlighted by MBSR’S creator Jon Kabat-Zinn, was found to be under-researched; when mentioned, it is often not defined. In order to examine the phenomenon empirically, this study used transcripts of interviews (N = 20) conducted for a larger study examining how mindfulness practice is learned. A Grounded Theory content analysis examined open-ended interviews to explore how MBSR participants represent taking a pause. The transcripts had …

Impacts Of Mindfulness Training On Mechanisms Underlying Stress Reduction In Teachers: Results From A Randomized Controlled Trial, Jaiya Rae Choles

Dissertations and Theses

A teacher's ability to foster and sustain high quality learning environments for their students relies largely on their own coping abilities and mental health. However, due to the emotionally taxing nature of their profession, teachers are at increased risk for developing elevated levels of occupational stress and burnout. To help teachers cope with their occupational stress and other negative emotions related to their occupation, mindfulness-based stress reduction programs for teachers have been introduced through schools. Evidence for the effectiveness of such programs is promising, however few studies have considered underlying mechanisms that may be driving these effects.

Using data collected …

Self-Construal Influence On Individual Choice Does Culture Shape Our Choices?, Marrie Shirzada

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

Previous research has shown that cultural values and individual preferences for uniqueness and conformity influence one another, and that a theme of uniqueness is prevalent within North American culture and a theme of conformity is prevalent within East Asian culture. The goal of the present research was to examine the causal role of self-construal by investigating whether priming participants with either independent or interdependent self-construal could lead to differences in choice patterns that mirror themes of uniqueness and conformity that is traditionally found between East Asian and North American cultures. It was hypothesized that participants primed with independent self-construal will …