Psychology Commons^™

Jihad Rehab, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Jihad Rehab (2021), directed by Meg Smaker.

Psychological Factors That Interfere With Provider Use Of Medication Assisted Treatment For Opioid Use Disorder, Courtney Spencer

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Since the implementation of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for treatment of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), providers have struggled to obtain the necessary waiver (X-waiver) due to required federal applications, training, and guidelines around prescribing. Nevertheless, prescribers have gone through this arduous process to gain their X-waiver, but a unique phenomenon has occurred where some providers with an X-waiver are not utilizing their ability to prescribe MAT. The current study sought to uncover trends in providers prescribing practices while assessing possible factors involved including personality, compassion, compassion fatigue, personal connection, and confidence factors that may be associated with a willingness to …

Nature And Perspective On God: The Differential Impact Of Long Versus Short Adventure Programming For College Students, Alexandra Heinle

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

This clinical dissertation focused on the shift in one’s perception of God after time spent in nature in the context of a spiritual adventure program. There are studies that find spiritual adventure programs increase a participant’s spirituality (Bobilya, 2011). However, there is a gap in the literature surrounding how spiritual outdoor programs, specifically the one in this study, influences a person’s God-image. This dissertation aims to close the gap in research regarding spiritual adventure programs and shift in God-image by studying if a person’s image of God shifts after time spent in nature, and if it shifts differently depending on …

Physiological Coregulation Intervention Over Video Call In New Relational Dyads, Zachary G. Buckles

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Physiological linkage, the degree to which physiological behavior of one partner in a relationship is related to the physiological behavior of the other partner, is a well-documented process. Electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate variability (HRV) are two physiological measures for which physiological linkage has been observed (Timmons, et al., 2015). A more specific term, coregulation, has been proposed to specify a process of mutual physiological regulation within a relational dyad towards a homeostatic set point (Butler & Randall, 2013). While an important construct, there is a present lack of intervention studies seeking to increase the capacity for coregulation in …

The Multi, William L. Blizek, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Multi (2022), directed by Storm S. Smith and Mikhail Chowdhury.

Interview With Natasha Ofili, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

Natasha Ofili, the star and screenwriter of The Multi, was interviewed by Monica Blizek about the process that led to the creation of the film.

Effects Of Pre-Literacy On High School English Learners (Els) In The Rural Upper Midwest, Maciah L. Lorang

Honors Thesis

The purpose of this research is to catalog the observed effects of pre-literacy on high school English learners (ELs) in the rural Upper Midwest and propose solutions on a local level. A phenomenological research design was implemented for this study. Participants were high school teachers who teach English learners in their classes. Participant demographics include four teachers, one who teaches an EL English course, one who teaches an EL algebra course, one who is an EL teacher, and one who is a Spanish teacher. Participants were interviewed until saturation was reached. The interviews were then transcribed as de-identifiable data (if …

The Eschatological Hope Scale: Construct Development And Measurement Of Theistic Eschatological Hope, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, M. Elizabeth Lewis Hall, Julie J. Exline, David C. Wang, Lindsey M. Root Luna, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, David G. Myers, Alexis D. Abernethy, John D. Witvliet

Faculty Publications

This study aimed to expand psychological research on hope by contributing a construct and scale to measure central dimensions of theistic eschatological hope derived from Christian scriptures. Eschatological hope was conceptualized as the anticipation that God will make all things new, raising people to everlasting life with God in joyful celebration, including people from every culture and nation, ending all personal pain and suffering, eliminating all societal evil and harm, and bringing reconciliation and healing to all of creation. We developed the Eschatological Hope Scale with three studies (N = 1,466). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the single-factor structure …

Just What The Doctor Ordered: Effects Of Humility On Medical Adherence, Sofia Ibarra

Student Research Symposium 2022 (Archived)

Humble people are open to new information, are other-focused, and hold egalitarian beliefs. This project will investigate whether humble people are more likely to be adherent to medical advice. Study 1 will examine trait humility, using the Honest-Humility subscale of the HEXACO and the General Medication Adherence Scale (GMAS). Study 2 will examine whether increasing a person’s state humility affects adherence intentions. Participants will be given a health screening survey and will be told that they have a fictitious disease called thioamine acetlyase (TAA) deficiency. A modified GMAS will measure their adherence intention to treatment of this disease. In Study …

Using Item-Response Analysis To Evaluate The Task-Demands Of A Pictural-Response Based Test Of Word Reading, Michael Eason

Theses and Dissertations

While some children’s reading difficulties are a consequence of socio-economic factors and inadequate instruction, other children have extreme difficulties learning to read despite having adequate educational opportunity and adequate levels of intelligence. These children are classified under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as having a learning disability specific to reading (SLD-R). The identification of children with SLD-R is costly on time, personnel, and other school resources, and due to an insufficient number of resources generally available to schools, the methods implemented for identifying children are alarmingly inconsistent. The aim of the current study is to investigate the task …

Associations Between Child Characteristics And Maternal Mental Health In Families Of Children With Autism, Fragile X Syndrome, And Autism Associated With Fragile X Syndrome, Tiffany Nicole Worley

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the association between various child characteristics and maternal mental health concerns in three high-risk groups of mothers ± those of children with non-syndromic autism spectrum disorder (NSASD), mothers of children with fragile X syndrome (FXS), and mothers of children with fragile X syndrome and autism (FXS+ASD). Research has shown that mothers of children with NSASD and FXS are thought to share a degree of genetic vulnerability to mental health concerns it is key to examine the various other factors that may contribute to difficulties within the family system and maternal stress, depression, and anxiety.

Participants for …

Assessing The Effect Of Negative Mood States On Valence-Dependent Belief Updating, Aleksandr Karnick

Master's Theses

Individuals consistently tend to underestimate the likelihood of negative events happening to them and fail to update these beliefs adequately when provided with statistical evidence. However, depressed populations are better able to accurately update beliefs. It is not clear if the ability to update beliefs effectively is due to overall dysphoria or are partially due to momentary fluctuations of acute affective states. Undergraduates (N=83) completed a belief updating task where they estimated the likelihood of a negative event happening to them, were presented with the actual likelihood of the event, and then re-estimated the likelihood of the event happening to …

Social Media Usage During Covid-19: Friend Or Foe?, Claudia Dominique

Honors Theses

College students experience more stress and are more vulnerable to mental illness as compared to the general population. Both COVID-19 and social media usage have shown to be stressors that augment this pre-existing issue. The goal of the current study is to highlight the relationship between the social media usage and mental health of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing a correlational and longitudinal research design, undergraduate students completed self-report mental health and social media usage measures throughout the semester. Researchers found that both social media usage, anxiety, and depression levels were higher post-pandemic as compared to pre-pandemic. However, …

Healthy Eating, Unhealthy Mind: Measuring The Rate Of A Disordered Eating Pattern Among University Student Athletes And Non-Athletes, Erika Moeller

Honors Theses

The present study examined the rates of Orthorexia Nervosa (ON), a disordered eating pattern characterized by an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy foods, among college athletes and non-athletes at a medium-size, Midwestern university in the U.S. The present study investigated ON using two different tools: the ORTO-15 and the Eating Habits Questionnaire (EHQ). The independent variables were athletic status and hours of exercise per week, and the dependent variables were scores on the EHQ and ORTO-15. Participants reported demographic information, including whether they were an athlete (n = 196 athletes, 105 non-athletes) and how many hours of exercise they perform …

Factors Influencing Attitudes Towards Ex-Offenders, Sydney Mosser

All NMU Master's Theses

Every day, incarcerated individuals are being released back into the general population having served their time. However, these released ex-offenders are 83% likely to re-offend if they are not able to reintegrate properly (Alper et al., 2018). The present research explored how various factors of ex-offenders and community observers could have an influence on attitudes towards ex-offenders upon reintegration. Specifically, we looked at the influence of three manipulated characteristics of a hypothetical ex-offender, race, gender, and age, which were presented to the participant in the form of a vignette. After reading one randomly assigned vignette, the participants were asked to …

The Role Of Motivation In Employee Disposition And Choosing To Act Among Manufacturing Employees: A Grounded Theory Of Discretionary Effort, Shawn Michael Andrews

Dissertations

Managers are often tasked to accomplish more with the resources at their disposal. Doing more with less is especially associated with the manufacturing industry providing a rich and relevant backdrop for study. Understanding discretionary effort as a resource, how it manifests, and when and how manufacturing employees choose to do more than is required is key to achieving results in an increasingly competitive and evolving industry. This constructive grounded research study investigated how 25 non-salaried manufacturing employees conceptualized how and why they chose to engage in activities that were considered above and beyond job role expectations. Extant literature was considered …

Mental Health Functioning, History Of Trauma, And Parent Stress In Maltreating Parents, Dionne G. Pinto-Guerra

McNair Scholars Manuscripts

Objective: Child maltreatment is common and can lead to a host of negative outcomes, so understanding the factors that influence risk for maltreatment is warranted. The present study examined the role of parent history of trauma in shaping parent stress in a sample of maltreating parents. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) provide one way to quantify cumulative childhood trauma, and the experience of ACEs has been found to negatively impact mental and physical adult health outcomes. These findings are consistent with non-ACEs-related trauma research, which also shows that history of trauma leads to negative long-term outcomes, which may influence later parenting. …

The Importance Of Timing In Repeated Traumatic Brain Injury, Willie L. Hardeman Iii

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Repeated closed-head traumatic brain injury (rTBI) can result in serious consequences, such as the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and many others. This study characterizes the consequences of injury timing in a Drosophila melanogaster model of rTBI. Specifically, each fly was subjected to 4 strikes with a modified “high impact trauma” (HIT) device. The strikes were separated by either 5 minutes, 2 hours, 4 hours, or 36 hours. These inter-strike intervals theoretically provided an opportunity to study outcomes of repeated brain injury during times of unresolved rTBI mechanisms. Half of the flies were …

Assessing Student Utilization, Accessibility, And Awareness Of Mental Health Practices At The University Of South Dakota, Melissa N. Pham

Honors Thesis

Mental health is critical to the overall wellbeing of individuals. However, college students oftentimes are at an increased susceptibility to encountering mental health issues including but not limited to depression, anxiety, stress, difficulties with concentration, and suicidal ideation. This study aims to assess the mental health perceptions, utilization, awareness, accessibility, and barriers to seeking out mental health aid at the University of South Dakota.; furthermore, this study investigates if and how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced student mental health. Through the distribution of an anonymous survey to University of South Dakota undergraduate students, this thesis project can provide a better …

Sex Differences In Lateral Hypothalamic Extracellular Glucose Concentrations During Cumulative Dosing Of Methamphetamine In Rats, Joshua A. Jolton

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The present study experimentally investigated sex differences in lateral hypothalamic glucose concentrations following cumulative dosing of methamphetamine. Male (n=17) and female (n=11) rats were surgically implanted with enzyme-based glucose biosensors in the lateral hypothalamus. Rats then received a saline injection followed by four methamphetamine doses (0.025 mg/kg, 0.05 mg/kg, 0.1 mg/kg, and 0.2 mg/kg) spaced 55 minutes apart. We found that while there was a general decrease in glucose baseline throughout the study for both sexes, the magnitude of the decrease was significantly greater in females compared to males. On a rapid timescale, fixed sex effects existed at the lower …

Relationship Between Gender And Symptom Severity For Youth Who Have Been Sexually Abused, Zoe Erickson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Childhood sexual abuse is a recurring problem which negatively affects thousands of children and adolescents every year. This is a traumatic event which can cause distress for individuals post sexual abuse well into adulthood. Because of this, it is important for practitioners to understand what symptoms could be present post abuse, as well as factors that may impact the presence and severity of these symptoms. Using data from the Project SAFE group treatment program including 126 adolescents aged 12-19, this study aims to further examine how factors such as gender of the individual will affect their symptoms post sexual abuse. …

Heart Rate Variability (Hrv), Cortisol, And Trait Anxiety In Mid-Life Adults, Meghan Bennett

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Heart rate variability (HRV) and cortisol are well-established biomarkers of the human stress response system. As such, their respective relationships with trait anxiety have been studied. As high HRV indicates healthy emotion regulation while low HRV signifies poor emotion regulation, a negative relationship between HRV and anxiety is found in the literature. Conversely, cortisol both prepares the body for stress and helps it to recover and current studies yield mixed results on its relationship with anxiety. While the link between vagal activity, which mediates HRV, and the HPA-axis, which outputs cortisol, is generally assumed, few studies have examined these biomarkers …

Mixed Methods Exploration Of Low Points And Wellness In Black Women, Jessica Krukowski

Master's Theses (2009 -)

IntroductionTime and again the voices, experiences, and interests of Black women are systematically marginalized, overlooked or dismissed (King, 2019). In addition, and possibly because of this, Black women are consistently underrepresented and historically overlooked in research (Allen, 2008; Corker, 2010). It is imperative to allow the voices of Black women to begin to fill this scientific gap. Mixed-methods narrative research provides a strength-based framework to do so. This study explores how Black women talk about the lowest point in their life and how that relates to various outcomes of wellness. Method The low point response narrative from The Life Story …

Applying The Vulnerability Stress Adaptation Model To Romantic Relationships Of Couples Raising A Child With Asd, Hillary Katherine Schiltz

Dissertations (1934 -)

Cross-sectional evidence indicates that raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with strain on caregivers’ romantic couple relationship, yet many couple relationships thrive (Hock et al., 2012; Markoulakis et al., 2012). Research on general population samples highlights changes in couple romantic relationships across short and longer periods of time (e.g., Karney & Bradbury, 1997); little is known, however, about how the relationships of couples raising a child with ASD unfold and which couples are at greater risk for deterioration than others. According to the Vulnerability Stress Adaptation (VSA) Model, couple romantic relationships are directly shaped by how …

Conditional Risk For Ptsd Traumatically Injured Latinx Sample: Cultural X Biological Model, Claire Maria Bird

Dissertations (1934 -)

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder that develops in some people following a traumatic event. Latinx communities in the U.S. are at greater risk of developing this disorder and experiencing more severe and chronic symptomology. This population has also been found to experience greater levels of dissociative experiences – possibly explaining the increased conditional risk for PTSD in this ethnic group. It remains unclear what may be connecting the experience of peritraumatic dissociation to heightened PTSD risk. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature by examining peritraumatic dissociation and the interplay between sociocultural and …

Investigating Beliefs & Attitudes Regarding Equitable Teaching & Discipline Practices: Race Essentialism In Schools, Jamee S. Carroll

Dissertations (1934 -)

Black, Latinx, and Indigenous adolescents experience more suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests than White students. However, minoritized students do not engage in problematic or disruptive behaviors more frequently but rather at equal or lower rates than their White counterparts. One factor that may contribute to this discipline gap is race essentialism, which is the belief that there are deep-rooted, unalterable traits and abilities unique to each racial group. Race essentialism, which has been linked to stereotyping, prejudice, intergroup trust and closeness, and cognitive flexibility, has not been studied in a school discipline context. Demonstrating associations between race essentialism and teachers’ …

Coachmotivation: Leveraging Motivational Interviewing Methodology To Increase Emotion Regulation Ability In The Workplace, Michael R. Nelson

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Emotions are complex, powerful states that both positively and negatively impact personal and professional human experiences. One’s ability to regulate their emotions has been related to desirable organizational outcomes such as (a) decreased counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), stress, and negative emotions and (b) increased well-being, coping abilities, and job satisfaction. However, appropriate workplace interventions that increase perceived emotion regulation (PER) abilities continue to be limited. Stemming from Motivational Interviewing (MI), CoachMotivation (CM) is a modified form of organizational coaching that translates core practices of clinical MI interventions (i.e., OARS: open questions, affirmations, reflections, summary statements) into coaching conversations in the …

The Mental Noise Hypothesis: A Relation Between Neuroticism And P3 Latency Variance In A Stroop-Style Reaction Time Task, Jeremy Lawrence

All NMU Master's Theses

Neuroticism is a relatively stable personality dimension characterized by tendencies to experience negative thoughts and affect. Its empirically related outcome measures range from anxiety and mood disorders to increases in mortality. Traditional theories of neuroticism, link the construct to greater threat sensitivity, however, these conceptions fail to account for certain salient features of neuroticism, such as negative affect in threat benign environments. The mental noise hypothesis posits that neuroticism results from a more variable mental control system, with support coming from behavioral, psychometric, and neuroimaging paradigms. To assess whether this more chaotic mental control system would variably disrupt the stimulus …

Testing Models Of Context-Dependent Outcome Encoding In Reinforcement Learning, William M. Hayes Iv

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies of reinforcement learning (RL) have established that choice outcomes are encoded in a context-dependent fashion. Several computational models have been proposed to explain context-dependent encoding, including reference point centering and range adaptation models. The former assumes that outcomes are centered around a running estimate of the average reward in each choice context, while the latter assumes that outcomes are compared to the minimum reward and then scaled by an estimate of the range of outcomes in each choice context. However, there are other computational mechanisms that can explain context dependence in RL. In the present study, a frequency …

Investigating The Role Of Stressful Life Events And Emotion Regulation As Potential Antecedents Of Gratitude In Early Adolescents, Olivia Schmitke

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACTThe construct of gratitude has gained interest over the last decade along with the rise of positive psychology. Gratitude’s significant relations with psychological and psychosocial factors have been shown in prior research, although support for such relations in children and adolescents exists, to date the literature is more robust around adults. Additionally, presumed antecedents of individual differences in gratitude have been acknowledged. The present study included a sample of 1872 middle school students and aimed to build on previous work to explore the influence of emotion regulation (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) in the development of gratitude among youth …