Psychology Commons^™

Bilingual Versus Monolingual Performance Within Memory Suppression, Santiago David

CMC Senior Theses

Bilingual participants have been argued to have a cognitive inhibitory advantage over monolinguals resulting in a faster ability to inhibit information. However, the advantage has not been studied using the item-method within the Directed Forgetting (DF) paradigm, which is suggested to cause inhibition through remember and forget instructions. As the DF paradigm uses a recall and then recognition task format, the current study also investigated the possibility of retrieval-practice effects of the recall task on recognition. By utilizing the item-method with recall and no-recall conditions, the possible bilingual cognitive advantage, role of inhibition in DF, and potential retrieval-practice effects were …

Sibling Mediated Play Intervention Of Joint Engagement And Symbolic Play In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Catherine Callaci

CMC Senior Theses

The study will utilize a multiple baseline design to assess a sibling mediated play intervention using Behavior Skills Training (BST) to increase joint engagement (JE) and symbolic play (SP) behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). JE will be operationalized as turn-taking, imitation, or following through on verbal commands to play. SP will be operationalized as play actions with objects for imaginative uses, without the actual objects present, or labeling abstract properties of the object. Six siblings of children with ASD will be taught BST during playtime. JE and SP occurrences will be scored via a 15 second partial …

Women With High Functioning Asd: Relationships And Sexual Health, Isabelle Taylor

CMC Senior Theses

Women with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are disproportionately less represented in research in comparison to their male counterparts. Some propose that this is as a result of more men having ASD and therefore the diagnostic criteria being further indicative of their gender, but regardless, it remains apparent that the need for supporting women with Autism Spectrum Disorder is just as crucial (Kreiser & White, 2014). For both genders, though, deficits in social skills and the presence of repetitive and restrictive behaviors often lend themselves to conduct seen as inappropriate or awkward within the neurotypical dating world (Hodges et …

The Future Self: Promoting Prosocial Decision-Making Through Motivated Episodic Simulation, Su Young (Kevin) Choi

CMC Senior Theses

Vividly imagining the future self can help inform our present decisions. Given that most attempts aimed at understanding the prosocial effect of imagining future episodes have focused on sensory properties, little is known about how prosocial motivations can explain the link between episodic simulation and helping intentions. Here, the current research investigated whether altruistically and reputationally motivated simulation of helping behavior promote a willingness to help a person in need. The study found that imagining helping episodes increased willingness to help relative to a control manipulation, especially when reputational concerns were made salient. Path modeling analyses revealed that the prosocial …

Marital Outcomes And Attachment In Children Of Divorce Versus Children Of Intact Families, Julirae Gunter Castleton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous studies have investigated many aspects of the lives of children of divorce, including delinquency, emotional aspects, and attachment; however, they have not investigated the patterns of marital partnership formation and persistence among children of divorce who were raised in long-term blended families versus children of other types of families. Based on attachment theory, this study compared adult children from 4 family types: children of divorce raised in (a) long-term blended families, (b) single parent families postdivorce, (c) serial matrimony families postdivorce, and (d) children raised in intact families. A quantitative, causal-comparative, ex post facto survey design was employed with …

Understanding The Relationships Between Combat-Related Ptsd Symptoms And Drinking Motives On Military Parental Satisfaction, Melissa C. Hinely

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

As of 2017, over 1.3 million Americans are enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces (Department of Defense, 2017). Military personnel, particularly those exposed to combat, are significantly more likely to experience Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD; Xue et al., 2015). Furthermore, persons with PTSD are more likely to misuse alcohol, particularly when motivated to drink as a means to cope with negative emotions related to their PTSD symptoms (Simpson et al., 2014). Both PTSD and alcohol misuse have been found to contribute negatively to parental satisfaction and distress (Chesmore et al., 2018; McGraw et al., 2018). Veterans/service members who were parents …

Does Knowing The Mental Health History Of A Mass Shooter Heighten Stigma And Negative Attitudes Toward Mental Illness?, Lianna Artessa

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Mass-shooting incidents are an ongoing epidemic that continues to take countless lives. Despite the prevalence of gun-related mass-shooting events, the research on this phenomenon is scarce. Following these events, individuals often receive news from differing media outlets and programs. The current media portrayal of mass-shooting events often appears to support a widely accepted connection between mass shootings and mental illness. This portrayal may reflect an existing and perhaps growing misunderstanding and negative stigma toward individuals diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. This experimental study sought to determine the degree to which individuals’ attitudes toward and opinions of a perpetrator of a …

The Smartphone Addiction Measure, Taylor Bradish

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Due to the multifaceted capabilities of the smartphone, college students have become increasingly susceptible to the overuse of and addiction to smartphone use. This susceptibility has led to many negative effects both mentally and physically in addition to the creation of new pathologies. There are many scales to measure cellphone addiction; however, scales to measure smartphone addiction in particular are scarce and have limitations that call into question their validity and reliability, especially for use on U.S. college students. This study aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of a diagnostic tool to measure smartphone addiction in U.S. college students. …

An Investigation Of The Competitive Anxiety Experiences Of Adolescent Figure Skaters, Diane Benish

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Based on the three-factor hierarchical model of competitive anxiety (Jones, Mullen, & Hardy, 2019), the present study explored the relationship between competitive anxiety and performance among a sample of adolescent figure skaters. Participants included 47 figure skating athletes between the ages of 13 – 17 who were participating in a United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) sanctioned test session. Analyses revealed that the three higher order factors of the Three Factor Anxiety Inventory (TFAI; Jones et al., 2019) along with years of testing experience, test attempt number and months training for a test were not related and therefore were unable …

Alternatives: The Video Game. An Assessment Of Bias And Preferences In Uncertain Situations, Vincent Edwards

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Going against working assumptions of what is "natural", animals have been observed to "gamble" when choosing between a high-risk choice with a high reward, and a consistent alternative with a low reward that feeds them more over time. The Energy Budget Rule (EBR) claims that animals have a foraging goal they must reach to survive, and each attempt to forage has a cost; under certain conditions, a high risk "gamble" is the best option for survival. The present study attempts to observe human choice behavior in a task that tests EBR and assesses shifts in behavior over time as an …

Does Maga Affect Legal Decision Making In A Criminal Case?, Jaelyn M. Nixon

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) slogan was embedded with underlying ideologies that are perceived by some individuals as promoting strict laws, policies, and punishments (Goldstein & Hall, 2017). Specifically, he is notorious for his support of capital punishment on more than one occasion (Richard, 2018). Punishment decision making can be influenced by an individual’s belonging to social categories that may have been formed based on political beliefs, gender, and other social criteria (Kahan et al., 2009). Additionally, racial disparities within the legal system persist and are known to be maintained through racially biased punishment decision making. Our research …

Perceived Credibility Of Child Sexual Abuse Reporting, Bridget Lashbaugh-Barney

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Understanding factors that could influence attitudes and beliefs regarding child sexual abuse may inform efforts to educate clinicians, legal and medical personnel, and even the public on potential sources of bias and barriers to treatment and other service utilization, particularly in rural communities. The purpose of the current study was to experimentally investigate the impact of child accuser age and gender and participant rural status on ratings of perceived credibility of child sexual abuse allegations described in vignettes. With this study, I aimed to not only clarify and update previous findings on accuser age and gender, but also to expand …

What Does It Mean To Be White: Investigating White Culture, White Privilege And Allyship Through The Lens Of Aspiring White Allies, Brett Kirkpatrick

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

In 2017, prominent counseling psychologists stressed the need to make Whiteness and allyship a focus of future research. In particular, they noted that a comprehensive definition of what it means to be White was missing from the extant literature within counseling psychology. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), the present study recruited 10 White individuals, who self-identified as an ally, and asked them to describe how they experienced being White and an ally in their everyday lives. Findings revealed that White culture and White privilege have components that are visible and invisible to White individuals. The more visible component of White …

What Do You And I Have To Lose? Influence Of Relationship Factors On Couple Help Seeking, Douglas Allen Spiker Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Without intervention, most distressed couples will not see relationship quality improvement. Couple therapy has demonstrated efficacy, yet many distressed couples are reluctant to access these services. Despite this well-documented treatment gap, limited research exists on why relationally distressed individuals in relationships do or do not seek couple therapy. An unexplored avenue to increasing couple help seeking is leveraging research and theory on why couples stay together (i.e., relationship-based motives). Interdependence theory and Investment Model of Commitment posit that couples persist in relationships for both self-focused (i.e., commitment, positive and negative relationship quality) and partner-focused relationship reasons (i.e., perceived partner commitment, …

Traumatic Early Life Stress In The Developing Hippocampus: A Meta-Analysis Of Mri Studies, Sharon Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Advancements in neuroimaging techniques afford researchers the opportunity to examine the actual brains of living persons, which exponentially contributes to new insights regarding brain and behavior phenomena. However, empirical studies investigating stress and the hippocampus attend primarily to adult populations - less on children and adolescents. Covariates such as the type of trauma, the duration and severity of the abuse, genetic predispositions, gender, poverty, and age often present as confounding factors that muddle the attempts to establish linkages between interpersonal, environmental, and neurobiological correlates. Although researchers primarily agree that traumatic early life stress (TELS) has some impact on early brain …

Sexual Consent Perceptions Of Child Sex Offenders Who Experienced Childhood Sexual Abuse, Traci Lordan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Sexual consent is the necessary and mutual permission of 2 parties to engage in age-appropriate sexual activity. Child sex offenders (CSOs) target children, an age group who is not legally or ethically permitted to engage in or provide consent to sex. Yet, CSOs overstep all sexual, consensual, and moral boundaries to commit a sexual offense against a child. In this interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study, CSOs’ perceptions of sexual consent and the experiences of their own childhood sexual victimization shaped their conceptualizations of sexual consent were explored. The conceptual framework of implicit theory was used to gain the detailed and …

Predictors For Passing The Psychology License Exam, Edith Chaparro

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Psychology license exam takers who do not pass the exam cannot practice psychology independently, have difficulty securing employment, and may lose current jobs. Despite the increased number of psychologists entering the field and the increase in ethnic minority students in doctoral-level psychology programs, there is scarce recent research on predictors of license exam pass rates. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to examine whether APA internship match rates, GRE scores, percentage of ethnic minority students, gender, program type, rate of admittance, and years to completion predict license exam pass rates. The triarchic theory of intelligence served as the …

The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Performance Among Executive Coaches, Valerie Elizabeth Charles

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although there is research on the correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and performance in areas such business, education, and nursing, a significant gap existed in the literature regarding research on the relationship between executive coaches EI and their performance. As a result, I focused on the lack of empirical evidence regarding the relationship between EI and performance among executive coaches, with performance defined as the number of coaching clients secured in 2015.The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there is a statistically significant relationship between EI and performance among executive coaches. Through convenience sampling, 50 executive coaches …

Predictive Factors Of Risky Sexual Behaviors Of Emerging Adult Women, Corey Dabney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study offered a predictive model to better understand the social dynamics of risky sexual behavior through examining how reproductive coercion, self-esteem, and peer relationships that present with risky sexual behaviors correlate to unintended pregnancy. The participants were 104 emerging adult women between the ages 18-25 who resided in the United States and were proficient in the English language. Using the theoretical lens of reciprocal determinism, direct logistic regression was performed to assess the likelihood that the variables reproductive coercion, peer relationships, and self-esteem would impact unintended pregnancy. The full model containing all predictors was statistically significant, indicating that the …

A Phenomenological Study Of Christian Conversion And Recidivism In Ex-Prisoners, Christopher Featherstone

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Recidivism rates are high in the United States. According to the Bureau of Justice

Statistics, within 5 years of being released, 77% of ex-prisoners are arrested, with 37%

arrested within the first 6 months and 57% arrested within the first year. Past research has

indicated that religiosity functions as a protective factor in relation to criminal behaviors

that is consistent across genders and developmental periods. The purpose of this

qualitative study was to examine Christianity as a protective factor against offending. The

theoretical framework of the study, self-determination theory, with its focus on

individuals’ growth tendencies based on self-motivation and …

Ex-Offenders Perceptions Of Community-Based Substance Abuse Treatment Programs, Yolanda Michelle Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many ex-offenders develop negative attitudes and lifestyles-based on adverse childhood experiences that lead to substance abuse problems, as well as negative coping strategies for managing life stressors. To understand ex-offenders negative perspectives and attitudes, one must understand the motivation for change. The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions and feelings of ex-offenders involved in community-based treatment programs pivotal in changing their attitudes and lifestyles. The theoretical framework consisted of labeling theory and social learning theory. A qualitative phenomenological approach was used to explore participants perceptions of community-based treatment. There was a total of 10 participants, 5 men and …

Problems With Basing Insect Ethics On Individuals’ Welfare, Susana Monsó, Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró

Animal Sentience

In their target article, Mikhalevich & Powell (M&P) argue that we should extend moral protection to arthropods. In this commentary, we show that there are some unforeseen obstacles to applying the sort of individualistic welfare-based ethics that M&P have in mind to certain arthropods, namely, insects. These obstacles have to do with the fact that there are often many more individuals involved in our dealings with insects than our ethical theories anticipate, and also with the fact that, in some sense, some insects count as more than an individual and, in another sense, they sometimes count as less than an …

Lessons From Miniature Brains: Cognition Cheap, Memory Expensive (Sentience Linked To Active Movement?), Giorgio Vallortigara

Animal Sentience

Studies on invertebrate minds suggest that the neural machinery for basic cognition is cheap, and that bigger brains are probably associated with greater memory storage rather than more advanced cognition. Sentience may be linked to feedforward mechanisms (Reafferenzprinzip) that allow organisms with active movement to distinguish active and passive sensing. Invertebrates may offer special opportunities for testing these hypotheses.

Effects Of Depression And Health Habits On Diabetes Outcomes, Yvonne Marie Chapa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Diabetes mellitus outcomes are intensified by the lack of screening and awareness for depressive symptoms, alcohol consumption, cigarette use, and gender difference. The purpose of this quantitative survey study, grounded in biopsychosocial theory, was to investigate the best predictor (alcohol consumption, cigarette use, and the exploratory variable gender) of diabetes outcome in a Mexican American population. Data were collected using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 with 120 Mexican American patients from a diabetic clinic in Southern Texas. Results from a multiple regression analysis indicated that gender was the best predictor. A series of Pearson correlations revealed a significant positive relationship between …

The Influences Of School Counselors' Professional Development On Their Comfort Levels Addressing Mental Health And Substance Use, Megan Lynne Hines

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study was an investigation of the comfort levels of school counselors to address PK-12 students’ mental health and substance use concerns. While incidents of bullying and school shootings rise it is unclear how school counselors’ professional development has influenced their level of comfort identifying and addressing PK-12 students’ mental health and substance use concerns. Accordingly, this quantitative descriptive survey examined school counselors’ recognition of mental health and substance use symptoms, frequency of encounter, and whether their developmental stages influenced their comfort levels in addressing students’ mental health and substance use concerns. Rønnestad and Skovholt’s counselor development model was the …

Psycho-Social Processes Of Desistance In Post-Release Reintegration Of African American Ex-Offenders, Ladawn Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Virginia’s incarceration statistics revealed a significant increase in recidivism 6-36 months post-release, the highest jail occupancy rate in the United States in 2014, and the seventh highest prison occupancy rate in 2016. African American males are the highest incarcerated population every year statewide. Virginia’s diversion initiative, implemented to address recidivism and overcrowding, had a high failure rate among enrollees in reported outcomes from 2010 to 2015, a lower number of African American enrollees compared to White enrollees, and inconsistent funding from 2007 to 2015. This phenomenological case study focused on the reintegration experiences of African American ex-offenders in Virginia through …

Examining The Effect Of Substance Use Training On Registered Nurses’ Competency And Self-Efficacy, Myrtle Harrison Greene

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Substance abuse and addiction among nurses remains a problem and can have lasting and sometimes fatal effects on patients. The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study is to examine the effect of substance use training on RNs’ post training competency about substance use impairment and level of self-efficacy to deal with impaired colleagues. Bandura’s self-efficacy theory (SET) which originated from Bandura’s social cognitive theory provided the theoretical foundation. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 118 registered nurses using the Perceived Competency with Impaired Nurses survey, the Methods for Dealing with Nurse Impairment Questionnaire (MDNIQ) and a demographic questionnaire. …

Clinicians’ Perspectives On Distinguishing Between Religious/Spiritual And Psychotic Phenomena, Jessica K. Parker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Psychosis is a central concept in mental health, yet the concept is unclear. Clinicians are challenged with the task to be able to distinguish psychotic phenomena; however, little is known about how clinicians are able to distinguish religious/spiritual phenomena from psychotic phenomena, as both may be similar in presentation. The focus of this dissertation was on understanding the perspectives and distinguishing processes of mental health professionals when distinguishing between religious/spiritual and psychotic phenomena. Taking a generic qualitative framework approach, the study included face-to-face and telephone interviews with 10 licensed mental health professionals recruited through social media and snowball sampling. Interviews …

Help-Seeking Behaviors Among Filipino Americans: Understanding Enculturation, Depression, And Anxiety, Kristoffer John Almazan Rouse

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Filipino Americans have some of the highest levels of psychological distress among all Asian Americans. However, underrepresentation in psychological studies and a unique set of cultural values and norms contribute to the lack of literature on the sources of this distress among Filipino Americans. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how aspects of cultural assimilation and norms of Filipino culture affect willingness of Filipino Americans to seek mental health services. Several factors, enculturation, anxiety, and depression, among Filipino Americans were examined to predict influence on help-seeking behaviors. A sample of 120 Filipino Americans living in the Pacific …

Lived Experiences Of Gay Men And Barriers To Reporting Intimate Partner Violence, Nicola A. Seahorn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gay men encounter barriers when reporting same-sex intimate partner violence (IPV) to officials. This phenomenon is vital to address, given that IPV impacts gay men more than others in the LGBTQ community, with gay men making 31.5% of the IPV reports among that population. The identified gap in the literature showed the lack of research regarding the lived experiences of barriers encountered by gay men in reporting IPV, which was the purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study. Merten’s strain theory served as a framework to answer the study’s two research questions on how barriers in reporting IPV affect gay men’s …