Psychology Commons^™

Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing: Standard Versus Pain-Focused Treatment Protocols, Joni Walsh

Scripps Senior Theses

Typically used as a trauma therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) may be a promising intervention for chronic pain, given the relationship (and rates of comorbidity) between chronic pain and post-traumatic stress (PTS). The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate how EMDR therapy might best be implemented as an integrated treatment for chronic pain among individuals with post-traumatic stress symptoms. This study will be the first of its kind to directly compare the standard trauma-focused (TF) EMDR treatment to a popular emerging pain-focused (PF) EMDR treatment modification (Grant, 2000). This study will utilize a matched-participants design and …

The Impact Of Self-Affirmation On Individuals’ Stress Levels And Performance - A Longitudinal Study, Tarana Jhunjhunwala

Scripps Senior Theses

Abstract

The self-affirmation theory postulates that when an individual is faced with a threat, they have an inherent motivation to affirm the positive beliefs they carry about themselves. (Steele, 1988). The use of these affirmations has been shown to be extremely effective in academic environments, boosting performance in students and also reducing their stress levels. However, there is very little research on the long-term effects of Self-affirmations on performance, and negligible research on its long-term effects on stress. This present study will aim to further understand the immediate effects as well as the longitudinal impact of these affirmations on individuals …

Curarse En Salud: Mexican Curanderos In Mental Health, Angela Molina

Scripps Senior Theses

Also known as traditional folk healers, Curanderos’ name stems from the word “curar” which means “to heal” in Spanish. Curanderismo is the practice and Curanderos are the practitioners. Prior research has found there are significant barriers Latinx communities face when seeking mental health care in the U.S. Reasons include institutional barriers such as language, citizenship, and socio-economic status and cultural barriers such as lack of cultural competency by practitioners. Because of the holistic healing nature Curanderismo emphasizes, extensive research has been conducted to understand why these marginalized communities seek Curanderos’ treatment. Culture and psychopathology have a significant relationship because psychiatric …

Put On Your Dancing Shoes: Boosting Divergent Thinking In Older Adults, Megan Itagaki

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis will explore the influence of two dance modalities (dance improvisation and Zumba dance) on divergent thinking (i.e., an aspect of creativity) in older adults using a quasi-experimental design. Given the existing research on dance as a creativity intervention in the younger half of the population, this study may address a gap in the literature by extending these findings to older adults. Once prescreened to ensure cognitive competence and adequate physical mobility, participants will complete a divergent thinking task before their designated 20-minute dance intervention. After the intervention, participants will complete a divergent thinking task. It is hypothesized that …

The Relationship Between Cognitive Distortions, Humor Styles, Coping Humor, And Self-Confidence, Emma Dudones

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Cognitive distortion is an error in thinking believed to increase susceptibility to depression (Burns, 1980; Dozois & Beck, 2008). Research shows Affiliative and Self-Enhancing humor styles are associated with less cognitive distortion, while Aggressive and Self-Defeating humor styles are associated with greater cognitive distortion (Rnic et al., 2016). The current study examines those relationships and extends the research by examining whether coping humor and self-confidence relate to humor styles and cognitive distortion. 210 college students took the Humor Styles Questionnaire, the Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire, the Coping Humor Scale, and the Internal and External Self-Confidence Scales. The maladaptive humor styles were …

Effects Of Daily Spaced Versus Massed Practice On Spelling Word Retention Among Struggling Spellers, Melissa Engel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Although extensive research has documented the benefits of spaced practice, very little of that research has been conducted in schools, and even less has included students with disabilities or with academic deficits. The purpose of this study was to compare spaced and massed practice on students with an educational disability in a school setting. Three students identified as having a specific learning disability (SLD) and receiving special education services in written language participated in this study, which used an alternating treatment design. Students learned 10 lists of 6 spelling words, each list over the course of three days. Students were …

Object Permanence And The Relationship To Sitting Development In Infants With Motor Delays, Mihee An, Emily C. Marcinowski, Lin-Ya Hsu, Jaclynn Stankus, Karl L. Jancart, Michele A. Lobo, Stacy C. Dusing, Sarah W. Mccoy, James A. Bovaird, Sandra Willett, Regina T. Harbourne

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Purpose: This study examines object permanence development in infants with motor delays (MD) compared with infants with typical development (TD) and in relation to sitting skill. Methods: Fifty-six infants with MD (mean age = 10 months) and 36 with TD (mean age = 5.7 months) were assessed at baseline and then at 1.5, 3, and 6 months postbaseline. A scale was developed to measure object permanence (Object Permanence Scale [OPS]), and the Gross Motor Function Measure sitting subsection (GMFM-SS), and the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd Edition (Bayley-III) were administered. Results: Interrater reliability of the OPS was …

Coming Out In Later Adulthood: Are The Stresses Different?, Chris Ng

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of the present study is to investigate whether there is a difference between people who “come out” at a later age compared to those who came out at a “younger age.” There is a dearth of research on the stress of sexual minorities in general and even less research done on the stress of older sexual minorities. The present study also aims to investigate whether

The hypotheses for the present study include the following:

Hypothesis 1: Older LGB adults will have greater Internalized Homonegativity.

Hypothesis 2: Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends will mediate the relationship between …

The Pathology And Etiology Of Philosophy, Lydia Tucke

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

While much time is spent theorizing about philosophical concepts and theories, little thought has been given to the philosophy and psychology of philosophy itself. I argue that philosophy (or the act of philosophizing) should be considered a form of anxiety. I will examine whether or not philosophy should be evaluated as a mental disorder as well. Finally, I will explore the ways in which one can cope with the anxiety seen in philosophizing.

Blocking The Acquisition Of Ethanol-Induced Conditioned Place Preference With 11, 21-Bisphenyl-19-Norpregnane (Pt150) In Coturnix Quail, Mia Radevski

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been associated with a dysregulated stress system. Therefore, regulating stress hormones has been investigated as a potential therapeutic target for AUDs. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether a stress hormone receptor antagonist, PT150, would block the rewarding properties of ethanol. Quail were used as subjects because a conditioned place preference (CPP) apparatus that utilized visual cues was used, and quail readily attend to visual cues. Visual cues in the environment have been shown to become associated with alcohol effects and later induce craving. Starting on day one, quail were pretreated with …

The Role Of Affective Heterogeneity On Treatment Effects For Youth With Conduct Problems, Pevitr Singh Bansal

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Conduct problems (CP) are a class of disruptive and aggressive behaviors (e.g., aggression, vandalism) comprised of both oppositional defiant and conduct disorder. CP are highly heterogenous and one vital factor that parses out this heterogeneity is affect, specifically the affective traits of irritability (IRR) and limited prosocial emotions (LPE). The current study examined how IRR and LPE predict distinct aspects of treatment efficacy including (1) treatment response (i.e., magnitude of change from week 1 to week 5); (2) trajectories (i.e., shape of symptom change); and (3) time-out (i.e., behavioral and emotional reactions to time-out). Participants were 49 youth aged 7-12 …

Examining The Indirect Effect Of Trauma On Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms Through Responsibility/Threat Beliefs, Emily E. Fenlon

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Inflated responsibility beliefs and threat estimations have been implicated in the etiology and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. Research suggests that early life experiences that involve actual or perceived serious harm to oneself or others may lead to inflated responsibility/threat beliefs and OC symptoms. Research has yet to explore if traumatic experiences influence responsibility/threat beliefs or if the associations between trauma and OC symptoms are at all dependent on trauma’s influence on responsibility/threat beliefs. The present study aims to examine associations among exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs), responsibility/threat beliefs, and OC symptoms. A sample of 886 undergraduate students completed …

Investigating Mechanisms Of Injury And Intervention In A Novel In Vitro Model Of Traumatic Brain Injury In Organotypic Hippocampal Slice Cultures, Julia Elaine Jagielo-Miller

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) impact millions of individuals each year and can pose long term consequences. Despite numerous attempts, no medication has been approved by the FDA to treat TBIs. The causes of these failed trials are multifaceted, but in part can be attributed to the complex nature of TBIs, as well as a lack of sufficient pre-clinical data. In vitro models of TBI are an important tool to help understand the cellular changes seen following the injury, in a highly controlled environment. For the following experiments, a novel model of TBI was used to injure organotypic hippocampal slice cultures, …

Pain Interference Across Chronic Pain Populations: Variability And Associated Psychosocial Processes, Stephanie Judge

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Chronic pain is one of the most common health complaints, yet the limited effectiveness of existing treatment options suggests that chronic pain is still not fully understood. The goals of this study are to identify and organize well-established and emerging psychosocial factors associated with pain interference, clarify the nature of between- and within-diagnostic group differences in psychosocial and demographic factors associated with pain interference, and identify interactions among diagnostic and psychosocial factors associated with pain interference.

Community-dwelling participants (N = 284) completed a one-time survey which included demographic information, information about pain and diagnosis, and five existing measures that assess …

Analyzing Behavioral Adaptation To Covid-19 And Return To Pre-Pandemic Baselines In A Cohort Of College Seniors, Vlado Vojdanovski

Computer Science Senior Theses

As the critical phase of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be winding down, it is important to analyze the adjustment to COVID-19 and return to normalcy of various populations. In this study we focus on the behavioral adjustments exhibited by a cohort of N=114 college seniors. To infer COVID-19 adjustment we compare the 2021 year (second year of COVID-19) to the 2020 year (first year of COVID-19) and 2019 (prepandemic baseline year). We begin with a broad analysis between the second and first covid year, finding that the second year of COVID-19 shows significant returns to pre-pandemic baselines on multiple …

A Comparison Of Forensic Populations Using The Validity Scales On The Mmpi-3, Steven W. Steinert

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Examining the impact of different factors influencing the validity of an individual’s self-report during a psychological assessment is important in ensuring valid clinical findings and useful recommendations. These factors are often referred to as response biases. There are multiple types of response bias that can negatively influence the validity of self-reports in clinical assessment contexts. Specifically, individuals undergoing an assessment can be impacted by non-contentbased response bias, overreporting, and underreporting of psychological impairment and/or distress. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) instruments are amongst the leading tools within professional psychology used to identify response bias. The most recent iteration, the MMPI-3, …

Screening For Energy Restriction In Middle And Late Life, Kate Happel Krautbauer

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The most commonly used screening tools for disordered eating, the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) and Eating Disorders Examination–Questionnaire (EDE-Q), rely on the detection of shape and weight concerns to identify potentially dangerous caloric restriction among adolescent girls and young adult women. It is unclear how accurate these measures are at detecting restriction among adults 40 years and older. These adults may be vulnerable to developing or maintaining restrictive eating patterns when healthcare providers recommend weight loss as a preventative health measure or when acute or chronic illnesses (e.g., diabetes or cancers) impact eating. The present online study (a) evaluated the …

Primary Care Behavioral Health In The Time Of Covid-19, Michael Vriesman

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

People are commonly receiving mental health treatment from primary care providers rather than from behavioral health providers. To address this issue, the healthcare system has begun to integrate behavioral health providers into primary care clinics, known as integrated primary care (IPC). Research suggests that IPC can lead to a number of benefits, including increased likelihood of patients receiving the appropriate standard of care, as well as reduction in healthcare costs due to medical cost offset. While IPC is a promising method of healthcare delivery, additional research is needed to optimize this system. Additionally, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has …

It's About Time: Emphasizing Temporal Dynamics In Dynamic Personality Regulation, Joshua Wilt

Faculty Scholarship

People change over time. These changes are thought to represent some self-regulatory, dynamic processes. However, dynamic processes need to be distinguished from mere stochastic variation. Just as the Brownian motion of a dust mote does not help us understand the basic principles of classical physics, neither does random variation within an individual describe the complexity of self-regulatory processes. This regulation implies solving the problem of competing goals and desires within the constraints of situational presses. And what people feel, think, and do at one moment affects what they feel, think and do in the next moment. Thus, describing and explaining …

Revisiting Donald Griffin, Founder Of Cognitive Ethology, Carolyn A. Ristau

Animal Sentience

Donald Griffin’s writings, beginning with The Question of Animal Awareness (1976), strove to persuade scientists to study the possibility of animal sentience, the basis of Rowan et al.’s efforts to promote animal well-being. Facing great hostility (but also some acceptance) for his ideas, Griffin initially avoided animal welfare advocacy, fearing it would further undermine his efforts to gain recognition of animal sentience. In later years, however, he began to ponder the ethical implications of animal sentience, intending to study wild elephants’ communication and social behavior to better understand their experienced life and apply it to improving conservation methods. As he …

Sentience Politics : A Fishy Perspective, Culum Brown

Animal Sentience

The plight of fishes has almost certainly got worse since Bentham (1789) coined the phrase “The question is not Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but Can they suffer?” Despite the fact that fishes are increasingly recognised as sentient animals worthy of protection under animal welfare legislation in many countries around the world, fishing practices are almost universally exempt activities. The human population continues to grow, and, surprisingly, per capita intake of fish is still increasing (FAO 2020). The source of this fish is not wild stocks (catches of which have remained more or less stagnant for …

Adverse Work Experiences And The Impact On Workplace Psychological Well Being, Workplace Psychological Distress, Employee Engagement, Turnover Intention, And Work State Conscientiousness, Nicole J. Dekay

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Workplaces work to reduce severe safety issues and highly stressful events, yet limited focus has been put on the chronic traumatic experiences and everyday psychological stressors that people experience in workplaces. This dissertation will add to existing work design literature by studying how the presence of Adverse Work Experiences, both acute and chronic, at a variety of workplaces, impact mental health both in terms of Workplace Psychological Distress and Workplace Psychological Wellbeing which in turn can affect turnover, engagement, and work conscientiousness. Results indicated adverse work experiences were significantly related to higher psychological distress, lower psychological wellbeing, higher turnover intention, …

A Quantitative Comparison Of Employee Engagement Antecedents, Kirby White

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Practitioners and academics are keenly interested in employee engagement due to its relationship to beneficial outcomes such as employee health, tenure, job performance, company profit, and more. However, most engagement research is siloed into one of three theoretical frameworks, leading to conflicting evidence and strategic implications for effectively fostering more engagement. This study investigated the redundancy and incremental validity of each theory by analyzing multiple responses from a robust sample of working adults. The sample includes more than 160,000 participants who are performing any job function at one of more than 60 global enterprise companies and across over 20 industries. …

“Intended Between A Man And A Woman”: Examining The Lgbtq Campus Climate Of A Non-Affirming Free Methodist University, Justin Cospito

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of this is research is to further LGBTQ-related research in the education space by examining the LGBTQ college campus climate of Seattle Pacific University (SPU), a non-affirming religiously affiliated university and Denominational Institution of the Free Methodist Church. SPU has recently come into the national spotlight for its non-affirming stance on LGBTQ issues, specifically its controversial hiring policy banning employees from having sexual intercourse with the same gender. This study hypothesizes that perceptions of the LGBTQ climate at SPU will be related to campus satisfaction for students who identify as sexual minorities as well as sexual majorities. …

Awareness And Knowledge Of Aging And Hiv-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder: Service User And Provider Perspectives And Experiences In Southern Nevada, Renato M. Liboro, Brandon Ranuschio, Sherry Bell, Jenna Despres, Trinity Puno, Aruna Sedere, Nadia Sheik Yosef, Esmeralda Villalobos, Janelle Wackens, Lianne Barnes

Psychology Faculty Research

This community report presents the findings and analysis of a survey that was part of the quantitative stage of a mixed-method Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project dedicated to examine the awareness and knowledge of racially and ethnically diverse, middle-aged and older people living with HIV/AIDS, and their healthcare and service providers from Southern Nevada, on aging, brain health, HIV/AIDS, and the condition known as HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder. The CBPR project was conducted in collaboration with community partners such as the LGBTQIA+ Community Center of Southern Nevada, Southern Nevada Health District’s Ryan White Program, Community Counseling Center of Southern Nevada, and …

Perpetrator Workplace Aggression: Development Of A Perpetrator Aggression Scale (Pas), Md Rashedul Islam

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Perpetrator workplace aggression has always been considered as a uni-dimensional construct from the uni-dimensional perspective. The most popular and widely used scale, interpersonal deviance scale (IDS; Bennett & Robinson, 2000), to assess perpetrator workplace aggression has only seven items (i.e., seven content areas), which lacks a high level of content-related and construct-related validity. Recently, researchers have suggested that perpetrator workplace aggression may be a construct with a general factor at the top (Sackett & DeVore, 2001); however, this general factor can be less clear for a more complex model (Marcus et al., 2016). Using three samples (N = 271, 337, …

User Interface Design For Supervisory Control Of Multiple Manned And Unmanned Air Vehicles, Taleri Lynn Hammack

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation research will cover lessons learned from the three-year, iterative design and evaluation of TECUMSA (Tasking and Execution of Collaborative Unmanned and Manned Systems with Autonomy). TECUMSA is a graphical user interface and autonomous tool suite that enables a single operator (e.g., an Air Mission Commander) to team with autonomous capabilities (e.g., route planning, aircraft task allocation) to effectively command and control multiple manned and unmanned aircraft in a contested battlespace. The user/AMC was responsible for accomplishing a series of reconnaissance, surveillance, and threat neutralization tasks in a hostile and dynamic simulated battlespace. The main challenges in this problem …

The In-Between : Addressing The Gap In Identity Formation Modeling For Ex-Muslim Atheists, Fatima Afsheen Shaik

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The transition between religiosity and disaffiliation has been under-represented in the literature. Furthermore, religious disaffiliation has thus far been studied in reference to religion broadly without further specification, except in the cases of Christianity and Catholicism, which have been studied far more often than other religions. Gaps in the research were identified and addressed using seven existing models of religious and nonreligious identity development. The extant literature was reviewed, analyzed via critical interpretive synthesis, and organized into an identity development model for ex-Muslim atheists. The resulting model consisted of the following stages: (1) religion as ascribed identity, (1a) socialization, (1b) …

Barriers To Technology Adoption In The Water Treatment Industry, Ian Adams

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This honors project focuses on barriers to technology adoption in the drinking water treatment industry. The scope of this project considers these barriers as they relate to general technology and with a specific focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital twins. To better understand these barriers, prior research and case studies are analyzed. The case studies include reports provided by Fontus Blue, a water treatment software provider based in Akron, Ohio. The case studies exhibit the benefits and challenges of integrating new technology, including AI systems. With the context of these case studies in mind, a survey was distributed to …

The Impact Of Social Media On Mental Health Of Adolescents: A Research Proposal, Megan Porter

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As social media use becomes more prevalent for teenagers and late adolescents alike, researchers continue to analyze its associations with mental health and social connectedness. Most studies in this area take a correlational, self-report approach. However, correlational, self-report research neglects to assess cause-and-effect relationships, thus rendering it difficult to ascertain whether social media use causes changes in users’ well-being or if social media users already differ on certain variables prior to their use. After analyzing previous studies, this paper discusses their limitations and proposes future research to assess the potential causal relationship of social media use with mental health. The …