Psychology Commons^™

Observer Reaction To Physical And Verbal Abuse In Relation To Gender And Sexual Orientation Of Abuser And Victim, Rachel Stritt

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Advocating for victims of domestic violence has drastically evolved within the last few years through an increase of education and advocacy for victims, but there is still room for improvement. This study examines the relationship among gender of abuser, gender of victim, and type of abuse (physical or verbal) and participants reaction to witnessing domestic violence. In this experimental study, participants were randomly assigned to one of ten different vignettes describing a domestic violence scenario that varied the gender of the victim and the abuser, along with the type of abuse. Two of these vignettes did not mention the gender …

What Influences Suffering In Silence: Examining Mental Health Stigma, Social-Cognitive Factors, And Age As Predictors Of The Willingness To Seek Professional Psychological Help, Bobbie Call

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Mental health and wellness are increasingly common and popular topics discussed and researched in the world today. Recent estimates suggest that one in five adults in the United States of America experience mental health issues each year; this is estimated to be approximately 51.5 million adults (NAMI, 2020). However, despite many individuals who might suffer from mental health issues, and perhaps be diagnosed with a mental health disorder, these same individuals may not seek out the help and psychological services needed. Research exploring why people do not seek out help for their mental health should be a priority. Thus, the …

Mortality Salience And Moral Dilemmas: The Impact Of Stress On Regret In Trolley Problem Decision-Making, Nicolas Perdomo

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The present study experimentally investigated the effects of stress, in the form of mortality salience, on decision regret in participants presented with the trolley problem. Participants (N = 166) were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk and randomly assigned to a mortality salience or threatening control topic (dental pain) writing prompt and either the standard trolley problems (i.e., the "switch" and "footbridge" dilemmas) or an experimental reversal where the default was five people on the tracks instead of the usual one. The effects of mortality salience on affective regret, the trolley reversal on cognitive regret, and the relationship between mortality salience …

Developing A Nomological Network To Incorporate Learned Helplessness Into Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Nicholas Kovacs

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Employees are facing personal traumas, higher stress, and work pressures that are likely to result in both short- and long-term impacts. To mitigate these negative impacts, organizations should focus on applying research related to employees’ responses to trauma and stress. Learned helplessness, which is well-established within clinical psychology and less established within the industrial-organizational literature, occurs as a direct response to perceived control over trauma and could thus relate to the ability to overcome trauma. In relation to control-related constructs, industrial-organizational researchers have focused on resilience, hardiness, and work locus of control (LOC). However, each of these constructs account for …

The Effect Of Careless Responding Warnings On Construct Validity, Mark A. Roebke

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Careless responding is a problem for survey research that poses threats to both the reliability and validity of data collected. Warnings against careless responding have been proposed as a potential solution to reduce this harmful effect. The present study examines how warnings can reduce careless responding as well as examine how those warnings may influence the reliability and validity of data collected. Data was collected in a low stakes online testing format in a way similar to many psychological studies. This study included informant dyad data from people who knew the participants well to provide external criteria for analysis. A …

The Role Of Social Anxiety In Prosocial Behavior Following Exclusion, Hannah Friedman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social anxiety (SA) causes significant distress and impairment in several areas of daily life. Individuals with SA experience increased rates of exclusion and have more difficultly forming meaningful interpersonal relationships. Exclusion is associated with increased SA and motivations for social withdrawal in emerging adulthood. In non-SA individuals, the desire for compensatory social interaction following exclusion often produces prosocial behaviors (e.g., increased effort to help the group). Prosocial behavior levels following exclusion are not uniform, however, as an individual’s response may vary depending on the type of exclusion experienced. Although previous work has observed decreased levels of prosocial behavior in non-SA …

The Influence Of Emotion Regulation And Family Involvement On Diabetes Distress Among Adults With Type 2 Diabetes, Patric Justin Leukel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adults with diabetes frequently experience diabetes related distress which is associated with negative health outcomes. Family members are commonly involved in patients’ diabetes self-management. However, family involvement can have harmful and/or helpful effects on patients’ diabetes outcomes. Difficulties in regulating emotions may play a role in patients’ interactions with family members and experience of diabetes distress. This study examined the role of emotion regulation and type of family involvement in diabetes distress among 370 adults with type 2 diabetes. Two separate three-step sequential linear regression models were used to test the main and interactive effects of harmful and helpful family …

The Trajectory Of Resilience, Meaning In Life, Social Support, Posttraumatic Growth, And Posttraumatic Stress For Emerging Adult Trauma Survivors, Marcela C. Weber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: The literature suggests the relationship between posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic stress (PTS) is curvilinear, and that type or severity of trauma may affect this relationship. The relationship between depression, anxiety, and PTG is understudied. It is well established that meaning in life predicts PTG, PTS, and resilience, yet most of the research has measured general perceived meaning rather than meaning beyond-the-self, specifically, which was initially theorized by mid-century Humanistic psychologists. Mixed findings about whether searching for meaning is beneficial or harmful suggests potential moderators of search for meaning should be explored. METHOD: Participants (N = 628) were emerging …

Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying The Relationship Between Social Media Use And Depressive Symptoms, Mary Le

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Social media continues to grow in popularity but has been associated with diminished mental health in some users. Social media provides a platform for social comparison, which influences how individuals evaluate their traits, abilities, and successes in achieving life milestones and, in turn, may impact psychological functioning. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether social comparison and cognitive distortions mediated the relationship between social media use and depressive symptoms in younger adults. In total, 175 adults between the ages of 18 and 29 years were recruited online (64.6% male, 34.9% female; 45.7% Asian). Participants completed anonymous surveys …

Black Girls Work Out Too! An Exploration Of Physical Activity Behaviors Of Black Women, Kimberley C. Desir

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Lack of participation in physical activity has become an increasing public health concern in the United States. Compared to any other racial and ethnic group, Black women have the lowest prevalence of exercise. A limited amount of empirical research suggests cultural beliefs about the meaning of physical activity has a role in one’s ability to initiate and maintain a physical activity regimen. Black women face specific sociocultural factors that impact their physical activity routines. Hair care practices and maintenance has been identified as a unique barrier among Black women. This qualitative research study investigated the influence of the distinctions in …

Cultural Socialization And Ethnic-Racial Identity Mediated By Positive And Negative Conversations About Race: Exploring Differences Among Students Of Color And White Students, Maria J. Cisneros, Eryn Delaney, Chelsea D. Williams, Sabrina Hawa, Chloe Walker, Fantasy Lozada, Su Jinni, Danielle Dick

Graduate Research Posters

Objectives: The current study examined associations between cultural socialization and ethnic-racial identity (ERI) via positive and negative conversations about one’s ethnicity/race. Differences between students of color (SOC) and White students (WS) were explored.

Method: Diverse college students 18-22 (M age = 18.46) participating in a university-wide study provided self-reports of childhood cultural socialization, engagement in conversations about ethnicity/race during college, and ERI.

Results: Cultural socialization was associated with more positive conversations about race, and, in turn, greater ERI exploration, resolution, and affirmation among SOC and WS. Additionally, negative conversations about race were associated with greater ERI exploration and …

Navigating Internalized Stigma And Identity Development In Bipolar Disorder I: A Grounded Theory Investigation., Kaylyn L. Watterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental illness stigma occurs at multiple levels in Western societies. Internalized stigma, the application of negative stereotypes and prejudice about mental illness to self-concept, has deleterious effects on mental health for adults living with a serious mental illness. Historically, research on stigma in serious mental illness has centered on schizophrenia. Recently, researchers and clinicians have drawn attention to bipolar disorder I, an affective disorder that creates disruptions in functioning and increased risk for substance abuse and suicide. Despite the growing literature establishing the relationship between recovery in serious mental illness and identity, little is known about how adults in long-term …

Comparing Common Procedures Used To Manipulate Reinforcer Magnitude, Michael Steele Yencha

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Reinforcer magnitude is one of several parameters of reinforcement. In the present study, it referred to the quantitative value of the reinforcer in terms of duration of access to a finite supply of grain pellets. Pigeons responded on concurrent-chain schedules earning one of several reinforcer durations depending on response allocation and experimental conditions. Experiment 1 consisted of relatively long reinforcer durations available for completing one chain compared to relatively short durations available on the other. Response allocation in the initial link determined the reinforcer duration, but responses in the terminal link produced no change in the upcoming reinforcer. This arrangement …

Comparison Of Differential Effects Of Interpolated And Intermittent Reinforcement On Extinction Resistance: A Simulated Study, Cara D. Baxter

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Schedules of reinforcement explain when a reinforcer may be delivered. Among the different schedules exists continuous (CRF), intermittent (INT), and extinction (EXT). When employing a CRF, reinforcement is delivered following every occurrence of the target response. An INT schedule includes varying the delivery of reinforcement. While both of these schedules include the delivery of reinforcement, EXT means that reinforcement is no longer delivered for the target response (Lee & Belfiore, 1997). Studies have shown that behaviors may be less resistant to extinction if moved from an INT schedule to a CRF schedule than if EXT followed the INT schedule alone. …

Fuzzy Cognitive Map-Based Knowledge Representation Of Hazardous Industrial Operations, Francesco Longo, Antonio Padovano, Letizia Nicoletti, Caterina Fusto, Mohaiad Elbasheer, Rafael Diaz

VMASC Publications

Hazardous industrial operations are highly stochastic, still human-dependent, and risky. Operators working in such an environment must understand the complex interrelation between several factors contributing to safe and effective operations. Therefore, being able to predict the effects of their actions on provoking or mitigating possible accidents is crucial. This study aims to utilize fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) to model the expert’s reasoning about occupational health and safety (OHS) in confined space. This knowledge is used by operators to build their mental models. The developed FCM displays all the possible incidents of a confined space and links these incidents with all …

Human Factors, Ergonomics And Industry 4.0 In The Oil & Gas Industry: A Bibliometric Analysis, Francesco Longo, Antonio Padovano, Lucia Gazzaneo, Jessica Frangella, Rafael Diaz

VMASC Publications

Over the last few years, the Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF/E) discipline has significantly benefited from new human-centric engineered digital solutions of the 4.0 industrial age. Technologies are creating new socio-technical interactions between human and machine that minimize the risk of design-induced human errors and have largely contributed to remarkable improvements in terms of process safety, productivity, quality, and workers’ well-being. However, despite the Oil&Gas (O&G) sector is one of the most hazardous environments where human error can have severe consequences, Industry 4.0 aspects are still scarcely integrated with HF/E. This paper calls for a holistic understanding of the changing …

Examining The Psychometric Properties Of The Weekly Emotional And Functional Summary, Brittany Lynn Quimby

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Self-report questionnaires are used in clinical practice to aid in the process of conceptualizing, diagnosing, planning treatment, and monitoring progress throughout treatment. However, self-report questionnaires can be inconvenient to both clinicians and patients if excessive time is needed to complete and score them. To date, a brief and consolidated self-report questionnaire that measures anxiety, depression, anger, suicidality, homicidality, positive mental health, and functioning does not exist. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the factor structure and the psychometric properties of the self-report questionnaire, the Weekly Emotional and Functional Summary (WEFS). The study was correlational, using archival data …

Prosocial Behaviors, Gross Motor Abilities, And Soccer Skill Acquisition Of Preschool-Aged Children, Julia Gomes

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The psychosocial and physical benefits of organized sports participation for school-aged children, collegiate athletes, and professional athletes is well understood and recognized in the literature; however, less is known about the possible benefits of sport participation for preschool-aged children. The objective of the study was to examine whether children’s involvement in an organized team sport program facilitated their gross motor, soccer skill, and prosocial development, as well as their soccer experiences. This study examined participants between the ages of 1.5 and 4.5 years old, who were first time participants of a soccer program. To examine the research questions, a paired …

Assessing Factors That Increase The Likelihood Of Naloxone Administration, Samantha Nagy

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

For more than two decades, the opioid epidemic has swept through the United States and has caused thousands of deaths every year due to opioid overdose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; 2019) has reported that since 1999, over 770,000 Americans have died from overdoses. Nearly 70% of deaths in 2018 were due to opioids, 47% of which were the result of fentanyl or a non-methadone opioid and 22% were the result of heroin (CDC, 2019). As policy and treatment protocols attempt to manage those who seek treatment, the pharmaceutical industry has developed a life-saving medication that gives …

An Analysis Of Parent And Teacher Judgements Of Executive Capacities Of Students Classified As Emotionally Disabled And A Matched, Non-Clinical Student Group, Brianna Fonte

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Decades of research on executive functions (EF) have shown that this psychological construct is complex and multifaceted. Although the association between EF deficits and emotional and behavioral difficulties demonstrated by students with the EBD classification have also been made clear, the specific nature of these associations needs further exploration. The current study used archival data from the McCloskey Executive Functions Scale (MEFS) to examine parent and teacher ratings to understand further the EF deficits exhibited by students classified with EBD. Overall, the results reflected that higher percentages of students in an EBD group than a control group were rated as …

The Relationship Between Insomnia, Sleep Continuity Disturbance, Sleep-Related Daytime Dysfunction, Problem Endorsement, And Aging In A Community-Based Sample, Julia T. Boyle

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Although older adults experience greater difficulty initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, or waking up earlier than intended, they are less likely to report that they perceive this to be a problem. The discordance between sleep disorder symptoms and the reported perception that they are troubling is unusually prevalent among older adults. This may be problematic, in that individuals who do not perceive their sleep continuity disturbances (SCDs; difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up earlier than intended) to be problems are less likely to seek treatment. Untreated SCD has been shown to be a risk factor for the development or …

Gender Differences In Cognitive Distortions In Adults With Adhd, Laura Salciunas

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Research has established that men and women with ADHD often manifest varying symptom constellations and are typically referred at different ages for initial evaluation. However, there is a dearth of research into how such gender differences may impact the manifestation of various psychological processes, such as cognitive distortions, even though the latter may explain up to half the variance in many clinical syndromes and personality disorders. The primary objective of this study was to identify whether there is a significant difference in the frequency of cognitive distortions between men and women with ADHD. The secondary objective was to determine the …

The Development Of An Integrated Anger Management Protocol, Gerald W. Smith

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This thesis describes the rationale for and development of an anger management protocol that can be used with middle and high school students. The protocol is based primarily on the anger management work of Goldstein (1999) and Larson and Lochman (2002) integrated with the Holarchichal Model of Executive Functions (McCloskey, 2008). The protocol also integrates the Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model of Greene and Ablon (2001) and mediated learning principles. This integrated anger management protocol primarily draws upon internally based executive function interventions involving goal-setting and increasing self-awareness and self-realization. This thesis discusses the methodologies in developing the protocol, a …

Effects Of Bilingualism On Executive Functioning In A Georgian-American Sample: A Latent Variables Approach. Preliminary Normative Data, Irma Campbell

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Over the past several decades, bilingual advantage has been a topic of continuous debate among neuroscientists and linguists. Bilingualism was thought to negatively affect one’s cognitive development. Although a number of studies have shown positive effects of bilingualism on executive functioning, this view has been often challenged on methodological grounds. The current study examined monolingual and bilingual Georgian-American immigrant participants (N = 130). The results of this study showed that the bilingual individuals performed superior to the monolingual participants on three measures of executive functioning. In addition, the level of performance on measures of executive functioning that emerged in bilingual …

An Examination Of Internet Search Behavior And Completed Suicide Rates Across The United States, Marie Louise Rhoads

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Suicide remains a leading cause of death in the US (CDC, 2021; Murphy et al., 2018). The literature has shown that individuals seeking information on personal or sensitive topics are likely to utilize the internet (Jacobs et al., 2017; Mok et al., 2015; Pew Research Center, 2019). Research also suggests that internet search behavior can be utilized to track and predict disease outbreak effectively, as well as other public health trends across the nation (Paparrizos et al., 2016; Parker, et al., 2017). Moreover, implicit associations related to suicide have been identified as strong predictors of future suicide (Millner et al., …

Preoperative Factors Associated With Weight Loss Following Bariatric Surgery, Abdul Shakoor Ahmed

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Obesity is a major health issue in the United States. More than two thirds of the adult population is considered to be either overweight or obese. It is the fifth leading cause of mortality in the world, with 3.4 million deaths a year. Obesity is associated with numerous medical and psychological comorbidities. There are various types of treatments for obesity, such as diets, exercise and pharmacological agents; however, bariatric surgery is one of the most effective and proven treatments for morbidly obese patients. Although the bariatric surgery success rates are high, up to 30% percent of individuals do not achieve …

The Role And Implications Of Executive Functions During The Transition To Middle School, Susan Niznik

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The current study analyzed the relationship between executive functions and academic performance in middle school. In particular, this study analyzed the relationship between BRIEF Index and Scale scores that were compiled on a group (N = 54) of seventh graders by two seventh-grade ELA teachers and the students’ final grades in ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies. The results showed statistically significant correlations between most of the BRIEF Indexes and Scales and the final grades, with the Metacognitive Scales showing the highest correlations. In contrast, the results showed much higher incongruence index values than expected, given the high correlations that …

Professional Standards For School-Based Behavior Analysts, Selena J. Layden, Daniel Irwin, Karen L. Berlin, Erin P. Jordan, Kaylan Long, Daria K. Lorio-Barsten, Christine Mckee, Jennifer L. O'Berry, Jessica Olesevich, Katie Phelps, Hannah Riddle, Allyson Wharam

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

The Professional Standards for School-Based Behavior Analysts are intended to serve as an enhanced foundational layer for behavior analysts working specifically in the context of public school settings. These Professional Standards were developed by a team of behavior analysts with experience working in public schools and feedback was obtained from additional behavior analysts and other education professionals. There are five identified Professional Standard areas including: 1) Ethical & Professional Practice; 2) Collaboration; 3) Systems Capacity Building; 4) Instruction; and 5) Leadership & Policy.

Exploring The Covid-19 Experience Of Young Adult Latinos In Rural California: Insights Into Mental Health & The Immigrant Health Paradox, Vivianna Plancarte

Pomona Senior Theses

This study expands the COVID-19 and Latino Immigrants in Rural California (CLIMA) Study at UC Merced by exploring how the mental health of young adult Latinos in rural CA has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and comparing the experiences of US-born Latinos to those of Latino immigrants to investigate an Immigrant Health Paradox. A convergent mixed methods design was first employed whereby qualitative and quantitative data was collected concurrently, and then merged. Then, the data collected from young adult Latinos was compared to that from Latino immigrants collected by CLIMA Study to explore the Immigrant Health Paradox in the …

Assessing The Comfort Of Earplugs: Development And Validation Of The French Version Of The Coprod Questionnaire, Jonathan Terroir, Nellie Perrin, Pascal Wild, Olivier Doutres, Franck Sgard, Chantal Gauvin, Alessia Negrini

Études primaires

Earplugs are a common form of protection for workers exposed to hazardous noise levels. Their comfort directly impacts the effective protection by influencing their consistent and correct use. Nevertheless, comfort definition may vary according to the studies. Thus, a previous review of the literature has shown that to improve our understanding of perceived comfort and to reduce measurement variability, it is advisable to consider comfort through a multidimensional construct (physical, acoustical, functional and psychological). On this basis, the COPROD (COnfort des PROtections auDitives/COmfort of hearing PROtection Devices) questionnaire was developed. It is intended for people working in noisy environments. Nine …