Psychology Commons^™

Reliability And Validity Of The Humboldt Food Addiction Questionnaire, Sarah R. Taylor

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Current research shows that foods high in sugar, salt, and fat can illicit addictive responses (Pursey, Stanwell, Gearhardt, Collins, & Burrows, 2014). Although measures of overeating pathology exist, only a few are dedicated to food addiction. Two of these measures are the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS; Gearhardt, Corbin, & Brownell, 2009b) and the Eating Behaviors Questionnaire (EBQ; Merlo, Klingman, Malasanos, & Silverstein, 2009). Given the shortage of food addiction measures, the Humboldt Food Addiction Questionnaire (HFAQ) was developed to supplement the need for additional tools. Recruited from both a university and online, 626 participants completed this study. Reliability of …

Differences In Hair Significance Among Black And White Women: An Exploratory Study On Black Hair, Yasmine S. Keen

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In Western culture, standards of beauty are often based on European characteristics that Black women are inherently unable to meet. African American history and anecdotal accounts suggest that hair in particular can have a significant impact on the perception and body image of Black women, though whether that impact is positive or negative is not clear. The current study takes a quantitative approach to examining women’s relationship with their hair. Black women (n = 146) and White women (n = 1,116) participated in an anonymous online survey regarding time devoted to hair maintenance, money spent on hair upkeep, …

Does Developmental Task Disruption Mediate The Link Between Childhood Adversity And Psychopathy?, Kali C. Williams

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Research has linked adult psychopathy with abuse or neglect in childhood; however, less is known about how it relates to other adverse childhood experiences. The prevention of psychopathic traits may be possible if the issue is examined from a developmental psychopathology perspective, which attempts to understand how early experiences and disruptions in stage-salient tasks may contribute to pathological behavior. ACEs may disrupt the attachment bond between child and parent and continue to impact adult relational functioning, via cognitive templates of adult attachment styles and difficulties with emotion regulation.

This study examined whether ACEs were related to psychopathic trait scores in …

Children's Mental Health Care Needs Assessment In Six Rural Northern California Counties, Brandi L. Goodspeed

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Mental health problems affect millions of children and adolescents each year. Furthermore, the prevalence of these difficulties may be higher among children living in rural communities. Primary care providers are playing a larger role in the treatment of mental health challenges in youth. The present study examined the experiences and knowledge of rural parents and primary care providers regarding children’s mental health care.

While providers practicing in six counties were invited, all respondents (N = 19) practiced in Humboldt County. Parents were recruited through schools which agreed to distribute the survey. Ten principals in four counties agreed, including Del …

Trigger Warnings & Reactions To Literature: Sexual Victimization And Emotional Responses To Difficult Literature, Lynn E. C. Korsun

Honors Theses

Trigger warnings have been a cause for concern nationwide, and it remains unclear whether they truly protect students with varying histories of sexual assault trauma when exposed to triggering experiences. The sample consisted of 62 participants enrolled in an Introduction to Psychology course at Bucknell in the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters. Students responded to a three-part survey, filling out a prior sexual victimization scale, a life events checklist, a PTSD checklist, a distress scale, a research participation scale, and demographic questions in response to reading an emotionally distressing, “triggering” passage from Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” Participants were …

The Effect Of Group Music Therapy On Alleviating Depression In Older Adults, Rebekah Gohl

Music: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Depression and loneliness are significant psychological symptoms that often go unnoticed in older adults. Group music therapy with older adults provides an opportunity to alleviate depression through shared music making, reminiscing, and forming new connections with other individuals. This paper explores the implications of using music therapy to alleviate depression in an older adult population as found in prior research on this topic, advocating for group music therapy over individual therapy as a means to establish connections during old age.

"Stitching Life Together” A Capstone Project, Jane M. Berry, Alex Bruno, Elizabeth Cooper, Stephanie Elmaleh, Olivia Lavin, Mallory Haskins, Peter Kade, Adrian Matthews, Gibran Merchant, Rachel Morris, Pascaline Munezero, Henna Ragoowansi, Alexandra Serek, William Tague, Ben Weinstein, Emily Wu

SSIR Presentations 2018

Our Sophomore Scholars in Residence class, Longevity and Happiness, made a quilt for its capstone project. Each member of the class (15 students, 1 faculty) designed and then sewed together a 12 x 12 inch square, based on a particular person or theme from the course. Most of the squares depict the lives of individuals we met and interviewed over the year, including several from Canada, where we traveled for fall break to interview the exceptionally long-lived individuals in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. We also interviewed several individuals from Richmond, VA. Throughout the spring semester, we learned and practiced our sewing …

The Experience Of “Cool”: A Qualitative Exploration, Kristen Lauer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study explored the phenomenological experience of cool as retrospectively reported. I proposed cool as a phenomenological concept and advocate for the consideration of cool as relevant to clinical psychology through first, a literature review of related academic research and second, by identifying the information gap around cool as it intersects with clinical psychology. I utilized Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to inform analysis and exploration of participant narrative responses collected through an online survey. Participants consisted of 25 individuals between the ages of 18 and 25 who endorsed having experienced cool at some point in their life. In sharing …

Fidelity Assessment Of The Hillsborough County South Drug Court, Christina Marie Minasian Hunt

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study details the application of the Utilization Focused Evaluation model (Patton, 2012) to the Hillsborough County South Drug Court (HCSDC) program evaluation. The program requested an evaluation as part of the National Adult Drug Court model and expressed a desire to better understand their fidelity to the established model. Drug courts across the United States are required to base their programs on the Ten Key Components and the Best Practice Standards. I used this model to evaluate the extent to which the HCSDC team has utilized these concepts in their planning and execution of their drug court. The study …

Cultural Consultations In Criminal Forensic Psychology: A Thematic Analysis Of The Literature, Alesya Radosteva

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The importance of culture as a reference point in clinical practices such as forensic psychology has been considerably valued yet poorly understood, especially in an age where precision and sophistication outlast cultural authenticity and patient-clinician relationship. This paper looks at the gaps and inconsistencies that exist in current forensic psychology research. The topic is introduced by delving into the understanding of the phenomenon of culture and its influences on our everyday conditioning. Aspects such as language, biological development, traditions, rituals, and narratives are emphasized as potent tools that drive individuals to create and mold culture according to needs and requirements …

An Examination Of The In-Group Hypothesis In Facial Expression Inferences Using American And Indian Samples, Scott Lehrman

All Master's Theses

The relationship between culture and evaluations of facial expressions were assessed using American and Indian participants. Based on Ekman (1972) and others’ (cf. Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002) research that supports general cross-cultural agreement of facial expression evaluation, it was hypothesized that participants will be able to accurately evaluate a smiling face as happy and a scowling face as angry and that American participants would be more accurate overall due to the In-Group Hypothesis (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002). Results showed that both cultures were able to accurately assess both facial expressions, although American participants had stronger evaluations across personality traits.

Response Of Three Species Of Monkeys To Caregiver Use Of Species-Typical Behavior, Lillian Anna Stolar

All Master's Theses

Caregivers are a primary part of captive monkey environments. When addressing psychological well-being of captive nonhuman primates, social environment should be considered. Chimpanzees, gorillas, New World monkeys, and Old World monkeys responded positively to interactions with caregivers. Some species showed increased affiliative behaviors and decreased abnormal or self-directed behaviors after interactions. These studies showed that caregivers can affect the behavior of nonhuman primates. Caregivers are underutilized as a source of social interaction for captive nonhuman primates. Utilizing species-typical behaviors during interactions, caregivers and nonhuman primates can communicate and interact in different ways that may be beneficial to both caregiver and …

The Effects Of Autonomous Motivation And Implementation Planning On Dietary Goal Adherence Among Personal Training Clients, Hannah Allen

All Master's Theses

Personal Fitness Trainers working within their scope of practice are in a unique position to encourage client adherence to dietary changes that are aligned with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). Some research shows that the quality of an individual’s motivation may play a role in goal success, and that implementation planning may be an effective goal adherence promotion strategy for those with autonomous motivation. However, little is known regarding this relationship between type of motivation, implementation planning, and goal adherence among personal training clients interested in improving their dietary habits. This 6-week mixed methods study sought out female personal …

Development Of The Clark And Becker Scale Of Symptomatology (Cbs): Symptom-Level Item Performance, Michael Clark

All Master's Theses

Depression and anxiety are common, often comorbid, mental disorders. Many researchers have developed efficient self- and clinician-report measures of depression and anxiety. Most of these existing measures of depression and anxiety measures yield overall or specific subscale scores. The Clark and Becker Scale of Symptomatology (CBS) was designed to measure individual symptoms of depression and anxiety. It utilizes a different type of bipolar scaling to aid in accurate symptom endorsement. Unlike other pre-existing measures, the CBS is designed to be interpreted at the symptom level. The CBS was administered to a nationally representative sample (n = 530). Concurrent validity …

Modeling The Psychiatric Aspects Of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome And Induced Stress, Danielle Peecher

All Master's Theses

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine disorder in women that is characterized by excess testosterone and is associated with increased risk of infertility. Women with PCOS also show higher rates of depression and anxiety. Modeling PCOS in mice via administration of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) results in physiological alterations that are consistent with the physiological symptoms of PCOS in women. While some studies have investigated behavioral changes in PCOS mouse models, findings have varied. Thus, the current research examined whether a PCOS model with an additional stress factor resulted in behavioral changes. To create a stress condition, subjects were implanted with …

The Effects Of Moral Message Framing On Political Ideology, Matthew Christiansen

All Master's Theses

There is disagreement as to whether and to what extent the American public is becoming more polarized, but certain issues such as climate change have been found to be polarizing. However, ideologically congruent moral message framing has been shown to moderate attitudes towards climate change and may provide a method to reduce polarization and moderate extreme attitudes. The current study attempted to broaden previous findings to investigate whether moral message framing could result in not only shifting relevant attitudes, but political ideology as a whole. Operating under Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt & Graham, 2007) two proenvironmental messages were constructed using …

Derived Textual Control In Recreational Activity Schedules With Children With Autism, Holly Kolb

All Master's Theses

Activity schedules are commonly used with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. The primary advantage of activity schedules is that they help the learner complete tasks independently. One child with autism, who was familiar with using pictorial activity schedules, participated in this study. This study was done to examine the use of a conditional discrimination procedure for helping children with autism transfer from the use of a pictorial activity schedule to the use of a textual activity schedule. The participant was exposed to a conditional discrimination training procedure before being tested for the ability to follow a textual activity …

Nami Nh Youth Suicide Prevention Initiative: Most Significant Changes, Catherine E. Mayhew

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In 2013, the National Alliance for Mental Illness New Hampshire (NAMI NH) was awarded the Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) grant to develop and implement grassroots suicide prevention initiatives in key regions of the State housing high proportions of at-risk youth. I investigated the effectiveness of this work by gathering stories of significant change from key grant affiliates who implemented the interventions and then verifying and enriching those stories with others who had experienced them. Below, I describe the need for suicide prevention interventions in NH youth—both at the time the grant was awarded, as well as at present. I outline …

Black Individuals' Lived Experiences With Racial Microaggressions And Implications In Counseling, Letitia V. Browne-James

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem of racial microaggressions in the United States has important implications for counseling due to the mental and physical health concerns individuals who experience them may develop. Although the current literature addresses racial microaggressions among Black individuals and implications for counseling, no qualitative studies that included the voices of Black individuals using relational cultural theory were found. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of Black individuals who have encountered racial microaggressions and learn their perspectives on what counselors can do to help them in counseling. Adding this perspective will help fill this gap …

Motivation And Limits To Physical Activity In Adults Over 80 In An Assisted Living, Christine Mary Childers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Thirty percent of older adults fall every year with devastating physical and economic consequences. Physical activity is the primary recommendation for fall prevention, but less than 30% of older adults meet the physical activity guidelines of the various professional organizations. Recent work demonstrated that psychological factors were more specific in identifying fall risk but work on psychological issues related to physical activity in the older adult is limited. This study explored motivation and limits to being physically active in 76 adults with a mean age of 88 living in the assisted living setting, using concurrent mixed method research. The theoretical …

Nonmonogamous Clients’ Experiences Of Identity Disclosure In Therapy, Viktoriya Fuzaylova

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Presented is a qualitative phenomenological investigation of the experiences and perspectives of individuals who self-identify as consensually nonmonogamous regarding disclosure of that identity in psychotherapy. Members of this rarely-studied group (n=10) shared their accounts through an anonymous open-ended online questionnaire. Their prompted autobiographical accounts were analyzed for recurring themes and unique concepts which were drawn together into a model of disclosure of a nonmonogamous identity in a therapeutic setting. This model suggests that while nonmonogamous clients expect prejudice from their therapists, their desire for personal integrity and their culturally informed conviction that openness is necessary for best results, often leads …

Delirium Predicts Three-Month Mortality In Critically Ill Patients: A New Model, Katharine E. Hartnack

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Delirium is a neurocognitive disorder defined as an acute disturbance in attention, awareness, and cognition with a fluctuating course not better explained by a preexisting condition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). It is prevalent in up to 70% of hospital patients and 82% of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU; Ely, Speroff, Gordon, & Bernard, 2004; Kavanagh & Gottfried, 2007; Mcnicoll, Pisani, Ely, Gifford, & Inouye, 2005). The impact of delirium on mortality is inconsistent in the literature. Many studies have concluded that delirium prevalence is associated with increased risk of mortality (Cole, 2004; Kavanagh & Gottfried, 2007; Moskowitz et …

The Psychological Effects Of Restraints On Mental Health Workers, Jessica Baroni

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation describes an empirical study of the psychological effects of restraints on mental health workers that perform this duty. To date, there is little research on the long-term, detrimental, and potentially traumatizing effects of restraints on an individual’s personal and professional life. Five self-report measures assessed the frequency that participants performed restraints, use of support after a restraint incident provided by their employer, perceived social support within their work environment, intention to leave their job, absenteeism, levels of job burnout, and post-traumatic stress symptoms. The study investigated the relationship between exposure to restraints and adverse stress effects and the …

Health Consciousness And The Theory Of Planned Behavior: The Role Of Health Consciousness With The On-Campus Use Of Reusable Water Bottle Among Chulalongkorn Freshmen, Aruch Patumtaewapibal

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Use of reusable water container on Chulalongkorn University campus, though is pro-environmental, is currently limited among the students. The present study investigated antecedents of such behavior, using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) with health consciousness as an addition to the model. One-hundred and twenty Chulalongkorn freshmen filled out a TPB-based questionnaire with a health consciousness scale. Data analyses using LISREL reveal an excellent fit for the TPB model. Specifically, attitude, perceived norms, and perceived behavioral control significantly and positively predicted intention and the behavior. Health consciousness indirectly influence intention and behavior via attitude, perceived norms, and perceived behavioral control. …

Preferring Positivity : Age Differences In Judgments Of Learning And Memory For Emotionally-Valenced Words, Edie Sanders

Honors Theses

Many changes occur with age, including changes in emotion regulation and memory. The Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen, 2006) posits that older adults tend to be more concerned with emotionally meaningful goals and therefore experience what is called the “positivity effect” with age. The positivity effect results in a bias in attention and memory towards positive stimuli over neutral and negative stimuli. Age-related changes also arise in memory monitoring, specifically in Judgments of Learning (JOLs), when individuals learn emotional words. We examined the presence of the positivity effect in memory and JOLs for positive, negative, and neutral words. Younger and older …

The Effects Of Privacy Violation Abstractness On Privacy Attitudes And Behaviors, Delicia Anceisao Vaz

Masters Theses

"This research investigates new methods to present privacy policy information to consumers. It makes the argument that current privacy policies do not present consumers with information in a manner that helps align their privacy attitudes with their privacy behaviors. With the introduction of smart appliances to the market, it is critical that appropriate privacy policies are created to equip consumers with information that is easy to understand. Neutral Examples and Risk Examples were created along with the Traditional Content of a privacy policy. These three components were used in different combinations to provide privacy information about smart appliances. Additionally, it …

Is A Measure Of Observed Engagement As Valid As Self-Reported Engagement Measure?, Debarati Majumdar

Masters Theses

"The present study attempted to investigate a never explored research question, i.e., whether an observed engagement measure would be as valid as self-reported engagement measure. Data were collected from the employees of an academic institute. Minimum of 110 self-ratings from subordinate employees (i.e. the self-raters) and 110 observer-ratings from those subordinates' respective supervisor employees (i.e. the other raters) were supposed to be collected to robustly test the formulated hypotheses of the present study. However, due to some sudden structural changes within the organization (i.e. the academic institute from where data were collected), only 32 observer-ratings and 32 self-ratings (i.e. 32 …

Uncovering The Lost Knowledge Of The Imagination In Films, Seda, Daniel A.

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Films have forever changed the way in which humans perceive reality and have provided significant opportunities to spread knowledge in ways that are both entertaining and deceptive. Uncovering the lost knowledge of the imagination shifts an individual’s perceptions of a shared experience and exposes film’s persuasive power to penetrate the psyche. This paper explores the constitutions of reality and how humans are able to tap into other realms of consciousness through mediums of creative expression. Topics such as the origins of life, the hidden knowledge of secret societies, and the burgeoning full disclosure movement for truth are discussed as a …

Laughter Frequency, Pain Perception, And Affect In Fibromyalgia Patients, Deidre Gayl Molchan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), a common chronic pain condition, is often incompletely treated by conventional medical therapies. It can cause disability, psychological distress, work-related absenteeism, increased use of healthcare resources, and result in the inability to carry out the tasks of daily living. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to investigate the potential influence of laughter on affect and pain in individuals with FMS. Laughter produces beneficial effects on acute pain and on chronic pain in general and has been found to improve temporary affective states, but there have been no studies testing the effects of laughter on the …

Racial Attitudes In The Workplace Among Age Groups Of African American Women, Ladonna S. Cooper

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Limited research exists on the impact of racial attitudes upon varying age groups of African American women in the workplace. The factors of conformity, dissonance, resistance, and internalization among African American women of accumulated negative experiences may affect their performance in the workplace. The purpose of this comparative descriptive quantitative study was to use the PRIAS and OCB scales to examine the impact of generational status and racial attitudes on organizational citizenship behavior in a sample of African American women. The study was guided by the theoretical framework of Ajzen's theory of planned behavior. Participants in the study consisted of …