Psychology Commons^™

An Exploration Of Symptom Severity And Suicidal Ideation Within A Sex Addiction Sample, Emily A. Cordova

Master's Theses

Currently sex addiction is not recognized as a mental disorder in the DSM-5-TR, yet it continues to negatively affect a significant number of people annually. The following study aimed to explore the relationships between sex addiction, attachment styles, and suicide-related behavior, and other psychopathology related symptoms as measured by the MMPI-3. Using data from the MMPI-3, the Sexual Dependency Inventory-4^th Edition, the Sexual Addiction Screening Test-Revised, and the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Revised, this study explored the relationship between attachment style and sex addiction symptoms, suicidality, and sex addiction severity in a sample of 222 men seeking treatment for …

Diversity Climate, Burnout, And Employee Engagement: Considering The Moderating Effects Of Positive And Negative Affect As Individual Differences, Shreya Tellur

Honors College Theses

No abstract provided.

Social Media & Mental Health: An Examination Of Tiktok & Mental Health Outcomes, Jessica Maddox

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The goal of this research study was to examine the relationship between amount of Tiktok use and the results of various mental health scales. The hypothesis was that increased Tiktok use would be correlated with a decrease in self-esteem, and an increase in depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and overall loneliness. Participants were recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and paid a small monetary benefit in exchange for completion of the study. There were a total of 285 participants. Correlations and linear regression analysis were used to determine statistical significance; results showed no statistical significance and none of the hypotheses were …

Nonmedical Stimulant Use In An Undergraduate College Student Sample: Demographics, Academics, Stress, And Other Substance Use, Ashley Skye Vanover, Meredith K. Ginley, Shelby Whalan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nonmedical use of prescription stimuluants (NMUS) can cause adverse outcomes for college students including academic impediments, such as a lowered GPA, and polyuse of illicit substances (Garcia et al., 2021; Holt & McCarthy, 2019; Norman & Ford, 2018). The current study investigated the demographics, academics, stress, and polysubstance use between students who endorsed NMUS and those who did not in an undergraduate college population sample at a large public university in the Southeast. The sample consisted of 429 undergraduate students who completed online measures of demographics, perceived stress, stressful life events, and substance use. Overall, 3.4% of the sample reported …

The Classroom Password Group Contingency With Randomized Reinforcers, Emily Maxime

Master's Theses

From the principles of reinforcement and punishment established by operant conditioning, there have been a variety of different behavior modification methods explored. Group contingencies are one of these behavior modification procedures that can be applied at a class-wide level by teachers who are seeking to improve student behavior as a group or individually. The three types of group contingencies are independent, interdependent, and dependent group contingency. Additional components, such as randomization within a group contingency, have been seen to further the effectiveness of behavioral strategies. A novel independent group contingency that has recently been investigated and demonstrated some promise as …

The Effect Of Compression On Repetitive Behaviors And Task Participation In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jennifer B. Grandits, Hanna W. Kent, Sarah M. Sanborn, June J. Pilcher

Publications

Compression clothes are marketed to relieve anxiety and decrease hyperactivity in children with autism. However, few studies have examined the impact of compression for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, nine children with autism were observed during Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy sessions while wearing compression clothing. The participants were randomly assigned to wear compression clothing for either their first five sessions or their last five sessions. Videos of the therapy sessions were reviewed and each child’s “off task” behavior was identified in the following domains: motor, verbal, and visual. In addition, frequency of the child’s repetitive behaviors …

Navigating The Mind: Mental Health Struggles Among College Students Throughout And Post Pandemic, Megan Lempke

Honors Projects in Psychology

Several studies have reported that the coronavirus pandemic has contributed to the rise in stress, anxiety, and depression levels among college students. This has left mental health professionals at a loss and overwhelmed with the number of new cases during this time. Research has been conducted and has found that these levels have risen because of the pandemic, the lock down, personal factors, and their new learning environment which includes academics as well. Most of the research that has been done focuses on before the pandemic and during the pandemic, but not much research has been conducted for after the …

Workload, Emotional Clarity, Stress, And Anxiety, Anthony J. Carcioppolo

ETD Archive

The authors used experience-sampling methodology via Qualtrics to examine if emotional clarity reduced the detrimental effect of workload on stress and anxiety. United States employees (n = 107) completed measures of workload, stress, anxiety, and emotional clarity during their lunch break on 5 consecutive workdays. Demographics and potential confounding variables of age, race, gender, income, education, employer, job name, and personality type were measured as well. Results showed that workload was associated with increased stress and anxiety, and that, in particular cross-level variations of the models, emotional clarity significantly interacted with workload to reduce the stress and anxiety it causes. …

Knowledge, Attitudes, And Readiness For Integrated Behavioral Health Services Among Primary Care Providers In East Tennessee, Baylee Rose

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Introduction: Individuals in rural areas tend to face unique barriers to accessing mental health care. One possible solution to make mental health services more accessible could be to integrate behavioral healthcare providers into primary care practices. However, the successful integration of behavioral health services into rural primary care is likely reliant on the knowledge, attitudes, and readiness of the primary care practice to initiate the process of integration. The current study aims to describe knowledge, attitudes, and readiness to adopt integrated behavioral health services among primary care providers in rural South-Central Appalachia and to examine how providers’ knowledge and attitudes …

Sex Trafficking: Saudi Arabian Women's Perspectives, Jennifer O. Rowland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Why Are We Creatives? Understanding The Psychology Of Creativity Between Children And Adults With References To Leonardo Da Vinci And Michelangelo Buonarroti, Jordyn R. Garca

2023 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This paper examines the differences in creativity between children and adults, including certain components that can influence creativity, or in certain instances, can also diminish it. With the support of biographers, clinical psychologists, and scholars, this paper also includes information regarding the lives of two of the world’s most well-known artists, and in certain instances the challenges they faced regarding childhood and mental health. Growing up, it is often encouraged that children should develop their creativity and learn to make their own decisions without fear of failure. However, it is not commonly accepted in society for an individual to want …

The Relationship Between Balanced Self-Orientations And Well-Being Egosystem – Ecosystem Motivations, Transcendence, Self-Compassion And The Role Of Burnout: A Model Test On Academics, Özge Kantaş, E. Olcay Imamoglu

Psychology Faculty/Staff Publications

The aim of the presented study is to move on from the basic arguments of the Balanced Integration and Discrimination Model regarding self-structure. academicians' self-orientations (relatedness and individuation) and their work life (feeling of burnout, job satisfaction) and general In the relationship between their well-being (life satisfaction and psychological well-being), interconnected motivational orientations (low egosystem, To test a model that proposes the mediating role of high ecosystem, transcendence) and self-compassion.

A Multidimensional Preclinical Investigation Of Fibromyalgia Models: Subchronic Swim And Biogenic Amine Depletion, Cassie Mae Argenbright

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

Pain is a multidimensional phenomenon, comprised of affective-motivational, cognitive-evaluative, and sensory-discriminative domains. In the presence of pain with no single determinable etiology, such as fibromyalgia, understanding the affective and cognitive dimensions of the disorder is crucial for adequate diagnosis and pain management. However, there is little empirical support for many of the primary animal models of fibromyalgia in replicating this disorder across all the dimensions of pain. Therefore, the current studies sought to evaluate two primary preclinical models of fibromyalgia – the reserpine and subchronic swim stress models – across all three pain dimensions and determine their predictive validity with …

Anti-Nociception Induced By High-Intensity Electrical Brain Stimulation, Julieta Trejo

Psychology Theses - Archive

A universal, and possibly one of the most frequent symptomatic motives to explore professional medical attention, is pain. Pain is defined as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage” by The International Association for the Study of Pain. Additionally, over the years, local field potential (LFP) has grown in interest for many researchers. The LFP is known to demonstrate the activity of neurons around the recording electrode in a localized area, and can be subdivided into 5 frequency bands of delta (0.1 – 3 Hz), theta (3 – 7 …

Consumer Perspectives Of Quality Care: Exploring Patient Journeys From Remote Primary Healthcare Clinics To Alice Springs Hospital, Emslie Lankin, Amanda Graf, Rebecca Schultz, Richard Johnson, Kylie Mccullough

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Problem or background: Residents of Australia's remote regions have lower life expectancies and poorer health outcomes than other Australians. Access to hospital and specialist care frequently requires transport via road or air and time spent away from family and community. Question, hypothesis or aim: To explore consumer perspectives of the journey from remote communities to regional health services and identify areas for improvement. Methods: Individual interviews (n = 16) and yarning circles were used to collect and interpret stories of patient's journeys. Findings: Travel for medical care was common and often required multiple journeys. Complex social and financial barriers to …

The Pathway From Sensory Processing Sensitivity To Physical Health: Stress As A Mediator, Jordan Kenemore, Juliana Chavez, Grant Benham

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) has been proposed as an innate trait associated with differences in the processing and reactivity to internal and external stimuli. To date, there has been limited research on the association between SPS and physical health and only one study examining mediators of this relationship. The aim of this study was to examine psychological stress as a mediator of the SPS-health relationship in a predominately Hispanic sample of 923 adult undergraduates attending university between 2018 and 2020. We identified three SPS factors, each of which were associated with poorer physical health as assessed through two psychometrically validated …

Gaze And Avoidant Patterns Of Visual Attention To Aversive Stimuli During Fear Habituation Trial: A Pilot Eye Tracking Study, Minoru Takahashi, Manabu Kikuchi, Jun-Ichi Yamamoto, Michiyo Hirai

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Previous studies have revealed that attentional bias toward aversive stimuli may play a causal role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. This pilot study designed an experiment, using eye tracking, to capture gaze patterns individuals may display during a fear habituation trial. Three trials were conducted with twenty-eight subjects who reported aversion to insects. Pictures of cockroaches were used as aversive stimuli. The time proportion of the total visit duration and average visit duration toward aversive stimuli were analyzed using a mixed ANOVA, with three habituation trials and four self-report on fear level scores as within-participants factors. …

Sequence Analysis Of Cardiometabolic Multimorbidity And Association With Subsequent Dementia, Corey Nagel, Heather Allore, Anda Botoseneanu, Jeffrey Kaye, Jason Newsom, Nicholas Bishop, Ana Quinones

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sequence analysis is used in the social sciences to examine patterns of events occurring across the life course, but there are few examples of its use in multimorbidity research among older adults. We used sequence analysis to identify longitudinal patterns of cardiometabolic multimorbidity over a five-year period among participants in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (N=5,218). Multimorbidity sequences were constructed using self-reported diagnosis of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and myocardial infarction (MI) assessed annually. Death was included as an absorbing state, yielding a total of 281 distinct sequences. We calculated sequence dissimilarity using optimal matching then used hierarchical …

The Effects Of Covid-19 School Disruptions On Social, Emotional, And Behavioral Skills, Reggie N. Rios

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School disruptions, closure of school buildings and online learning, in response to the coronavirus disease in 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic impacted students in unique ways (Azmat & Ahmad, 2022; Hosszu et al., 2022; Hussong et al., 2021; Patrick et al., 2020; Spitzer, 2020) and possibly had long-term effects on the social, emotional, and behavioral skills students normally establish and practice within the school setting (Steedly et al., 2008; Taylor & Larson, 1999; Zins et al., 2007). The lack of research related to the effects of school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic on social, emotional, and behavioral skills was addressed in this …

Self-Reflections Through A Screen: Self-Identity, Social Media, And Psychological Well-Being, Jeremy J. Serio

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Social media use among emerging adults is assumed to be related to a variety of negative psychological outcomes and has, in recent years, become a widely studied phenomenon (Kim, 2017, Pew Research Center, 2018). Despite the widespread assumption, the results from empirical studies of the effects of social media use on mental health in this population have been inconsistent and inconclusive (Keles et al., 2020, Yang et al., 2021). Several meta-analyses (e.g., Keles et al., 2020) demonstrate these inconsistent results across studies and point to the need to consider individual difference factors when researching this issue. Different self-identity styles have …

Examining The Hormonal Underpinnings Of Affiliation Motivation In Oral Contraceptive Users, Hormonal Iud Users, And Naturally Cycling Women, Mikayla Tolliver

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Affiliation is important for women during times of stress. Although, affiliation has been linked to women’s hormones across the menstrual cycle, many women use hormonal contraceptives which disrupt the links between hormones, psychology, and behavior. This study examined how hormonal contraceptives (hormonal IUD vs. the oral contraceptive pill) and menstrual cycle phase (follicular vs. luteal) are associated with affiliative motivations following the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Further, this study examined women’s cortisol reactivity and whether cortisol reactivity mediated affiliative motivation following the stressor. I found that oral contraceptive pill users projected more stress and rejection onto others’ faces and …

Diminishing Creative Returns: Predicting Optimal Creative Performance Via Individual Differences In Executive Functioning, Kent F. Hubert

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A robust finding in creativity research is that during idea generation, later (vs. earlier) responses on a divergent thinking task tend to be more creative, while the number of responses start off quickly, and then slow down over time, termed the serial order effect. Divergent thinking and time may follow a diminishing returns curve, where there is an optimal amount of time that should be spent while generating ideas. Executive functions (inhibition, updating, and shifting) have been associated with divergent thinking, specifically with the idea generation phase, but the effect of individual differences on the temporal dynamics of divergent thinking …

In Modeling Digital Learning, Remember Pictorial Competence., Georgene Troseth, Gabrielle Strouse

School of Education Faculty Publications

Barr and Kirkorian summarize decades of research about young children’s learning and transfer from screen media, offer a new theoretical model of factors involved in early multimedia learning, and suggest a future research agenda to study learning from commercial media products “in the wild” of everyday family life outside the lab. In this commentary, the authors offer background on the development of symbolic understanding and “pictorial competence” for young children’s learning from screen media and attempt to deepen the discussion of cognitive factors and individual differences that affect early learning.

How Self-Criticism Predicts Momentary Suicidal Ideation Differently For Overcontrolled And Undercontrolled Personality Styles, Ethan Dennis

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and nearly everyone who attempts suicide engages in ideation. Suicidal ideation varies over time and across contexts, indicating the need to untangle the interaction of momentary processes associated with ideation. We predict that people will experience increased ideation in moments of emotional pain when they engage in self-criticism. Moreover, people with differing interpersonal motives, such as that of agency (i.e., valuing competence at tasks deemed important to one’s self-worth) and communion (i.e., valuing the degree of closeness in one’s relationships) may be prompted to self-criticize in moments …

Anxiety Severity And Prescription Medication Utilization In First-Time Medical Marijuana Users, Karen L. Dugosh, Megan M. Short, Paulina Syracuse, Thomas R. Mccalmont, Michelle R. Lent

PCOM Scholarly Works

Background

Anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are qualifying psychiatric conditions for medical marijuana (MM) treatment in Pennsylvania. This study examined baseline prevalence and changes in prescription anxiety medication use three months following MM treatment initiation among individuals with these qualifying conditions.

Methods

The study sample was comprised of 108 adults with anxiety or PTSD as a referring condition; they were enrolled in a longitudinal study evaluating biopsychosocial outcomes in new MM patients. Consenting participants completed an assessment battery at baseline and Month 3 (n = 94, 87 % follow-up rate) that included a measure of anxiety severity and …

The Effect Of Autonomic Nervous System Functioning And Childhood Maltreatment On Empathy In Early Adulthood, Edward Charles Merritt

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Childhood maltreatment has a well-established link to both physical and psychological detriments later in life. Specifically, maltreatment has been found to be associated with changes in physiological functioning and increased aggressive behavior. Despite the well understood link with aggressive behavior, few studies have focused on the effects childhood maltreatment has on empathetic and prosocial behavior. Experienced adversity is theorized to increase one’s tendencies to adopt perspective and to feel a sense of responsibility for another’s welfare (Lim & DeSento, 2016). This study aims to examine how baseline autonomic functioning of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system moderate the relationship between …

Immigration Stress & Maternal Sensitivity In Mexican American Mothers: The Role Of Parasympathetic Activity & Cultural Resiliency Factors, Annabelle Armah

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The immigration process is associated with a host of cultural stressors that may impact family and parental wellbeing. The present study examined whether immigration stress was related to reduced maternal sensitivity, and whether lower PNS activity would account for their associations. A secondary aim was to test the buffering effect of cultural resiliency factors (i.e., familism values, cultural orientation) on maternal PNS activity. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of Mexican American mothers (N = 322; M age = 27 years). Contrary to hypotheses, higher immigration stress was significantly associated with higher maternal resting RSA (B = 0.15, SE …

Perspective Taking And Imagination: The Role Of Episodic Processes In Contemporary Perspective Taking Effects, Cody Gilbert

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Perspective taking has been the subject of considerable psychological research for decades. Numerous empirical articles provide evidence for a wide range of perspective taking effects across a variety of contexts. However, the role of imagination in these effects has not been sufficiently considered. With three studies, we demonstrated an influence of episodic processes in a recent experimental design which increases individuals’ willingness to help others (Study 1), a seminal perspective manipulation which enhances empathy (Study 2), and a further replication of the results found in the second study (Study 3). These findings strengthen current conceptualizations of these two psychological processes, …

Camouflaging And Identity Development Among Autistic Female And Gender Diverse Youth: A Qualitative Exploration, Krista Nicole Drapalik

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Adolescence is a vulnerable developmental period for autistic female and gender diverse youth. Many autistic youths use camouflaging to combat social challenges, perceived differences, and stigmatization. Although adolescence is an integral time for identity development, integration of these topics remains understudied among autistic female and gender diverse youth. The present study seeks to qualitatively explore first-person, youth-perspectives on the topics of camouflaging and identity formation. Ten autistic female and gender diverse youth aged 11 to 16 years (M = 13.1, SD = 1.52) and their caregivers were enrolled in the present study. Youths completed semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. …

Toward A Process-Based Account Of Mental Health Self-Stigma And Distress: Elucidating The Contribution Of Psychological Inflexibility And Its Six Component Subprocesses, Sara V. White

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background: Stigma about mental health and illness remains a pervasive public health concern. Moreover, stigmatizing oneself for experiencing a mental health disorder is associated with further psychological distress. Yet, processes that may account for this relation remain unclear. Thus, the present study aimed to elucidate processes that may account for this relationship, with specific attention to psychological inflexibility as a transdiagnostic mediator between self-stigma and psychological distress. Methods: Undergraduates (N = 486, Mage = 18.68, SDage = 1.31, 66% Female) completed a battery of measures assessing self-stigma, psychological inflexibility, and psychological distress. We tested psychological inflexibility and its six subprocesses …