Psychology Commons^™

Functional Domains’ Ability To Predict Outcomes In Comparison To Absenteeism In A National Sample Of School Age Children, Randolph Dupont

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

School absenteeism poses a critical challenge for educators, clinicians, and policymakers due to its strong associations with impairments across academic, social, mental health, and family domains. Traditional models conceptualize absenteeism systemically, using dimensional definitions (e.g., chronic absenteeism defined by missed days), or analytically, using categorical definitions (e.g., truancy, school refusal). Both approaches are limited in capturing the functional consequences of school attendance problems (SAPs). This study evaluated whether a functional impairment model, which emphasizes how domains of functioning are disrupted by absenteeism, provides a more accurate framework for predicting outcomes than absenteeism frequency alone. Using longitudinal data from the Adolescent …

Prepulse Inhibition And Emotion: A Systematic Review, Jennifer U. Le

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Prepulse inhibition is a neurological pre-conscious sensorimotor gating mechanism by which a softer auditory sound (or prepulse) preceding a startle probe (or pulse) and subsequently reduce the magnitude of the startle blink reflex. Prepulse inhibition is deficient in many psychological disorders where emotion is a central component; however, emotion has been scarcely examined with prepulse inhibition in human studies. The current study is a systematic review that examines three databases (APA PSYCInfo, Pub Med, and CINAHL) to examine how state and trait emotion (such as happiness, sadness, anger, disgust) is related to prepulse inhibition within human subjects. The initial search …

The Making Of An Extremist: How Do We Become Someone Else’S Nightmare?, María Paula Morales

The Confluence

This article explores how ordinary people can be pulled into extremist movements and what psychological forces drive that process. It looks at three perspectives: social identity theory, which explains how group belonging shapes behavior, identity development, which shows how people searching for meaning may find it in extremist causes; and social neuroscience, which connects radicalization to brain activity linked to fear, loyalty, and moral judgement. Together, these approaches show that radicalization is not simply about ideology but about identity, emotion, and belonging. By understanding these dynamics, we can find better ways to prevent extremism and promote healthier, more inclusive communities.

From Your Pov: Using Narrative-Focused Methodology To Study Psychological Correlates Of Sexual Health Behaviors, Zoë E. Sweaney, Stephanie Afful

The Confluence

How far would you go (or not go) to protect yourself from risky sexual behaviors? Additionally, what influence does our gender identity and socialization have on these decisions? In the current series of studies, a story-driven safe-sex behavioral assessment was developed and administered to participants to assess the relationships amongst psychological indices, personal values, and sexual health. This research confirms the validity of an instrument that queries sensitive data while controlling for social desirability concerns. The applications of this research are especially pertinent to improving upon interpersonal communication, sexual health education, and women’s sexual health advocacy.

School-Based Teen Dating Violence Prevention Programs: A Systematized Review, Chloe L. Marsh

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Teen Dating Violence (TDV) is a prevalent issue for many adolescents and can be defined as physical, sexual, and psychological aggression and harm that can occur in-person, online, or through technology. TDV victimization can have devastating impacts for youth, and school-based TDV prevention efforts have been highlighted as a means of addressing this issue. However, there is limited research on how prevention programming influences student beliefs and behavior. This study sought to reveal how programming influences student outcomes and which elements of highlighted prevention efforts are associated with greater benefits. A systematized review was conducted to address these research questions. …

Building Strength: A Systematized Review Of Resilience Intervention Programs For Students, Rachel Christian

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

School-based resilience programs have emerged as a promising vehicle for promoting social-emotional development and buffering the effects of adversity among students. However, a systematic understanding of common program components, associated student outcomes, and implementation factors remains limited. This systematized review examined peer-reviewed research on resilience-building interventions for students in preschool through 12th-grade school settings. Following a structured search across four databases, nine studies met inclusion criteria and were analyzed using structured narrative synthesis. Findings were organized by four research questions addressing program components, student outcomes, implementation factors, and implementation–outcome relationships. Results indicated that resilience interventions consistently strengthened protective competencies, including …

Barriers And Bridges: Exploring Factors That Shape Mental Health Service Utilization In Rural America, Margaret Wiwuga

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Despite disproportionately higher suicide mortality rates and comparable prevalence of mental illness across urban and rural communities in the United States, rural populations across the nation experience significantly lower access to and utilization of mental health services, naturally leading to worse comprehensive outcomes. This literature review examines multifaceted factors shaping mental health service use in rural America, taking note of both barrier and enabling factors that impede or enable these unique populations’ willingness and ability to access and use mental health services. Ten articles published prior to September 9, 2025, were selected from the James Madison University Libraries’ Psychology and …

Black Maternal Mental Health: Counseling Considerations For Prenatal Depression And Anxiety, Morgan Renee Williams

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

The maternal mortality rate of Black women in the United States is four times higher than white women (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The CDC defines a maternal death as “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy… but not from accidental or incidental causes” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024, para. 1). This statistic is a consequence of the inequality within and outside of the American healthcare system (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2020). For the purposes of this research, Black women are defined as any women …

Neurodiversity In Counseling: Counseling Strategies For Supporting Neurodiverse Clients, Emily R. Plowright

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Neurodiversity recognizes the natural differences in human functioning, including the unique ways that individuals think, learn, and process information. The neurodiversity movement views these differences as valuable, challenging historical beliefs that label them as deficits. Despite growing awareness of neurodiversity, counseling research and practice have largely overlooked the unique needs of neurodiverse clients, resulting in barriers to accessing mental health care. This paper addresses the concept and models of disability to provide context for understanding neurodiversity. Neurodiverse identities, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), specific learning disorders (SLDs), and tic disorder, are explored through their diagnostic criteria …

What’S Behind The Mask: The Diagnostic Divide In The Female Autism Phenotype, Shelley Gies Alston

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication and restrictive, repetitive behaviors; however, women are diagnosed at significantly lower rates than men. This study examined whether DSM-5-TR diagnostic practices may contribute to the underdiagnosis and delayed identification of ASD in individuals assigned female at birth (AFAB), with attention to masking behaviors, gendered social expectations, and clinician interpretation of symptoms. Grounded in the Female Autism Phenotype (FAP), a retrospective mixed-methods study surveyed 12 AFAB individuals aged 18–24 who self-identified or were formally diagnosed with ASD. Participants completed a 44-item online survey including Likert-scale and open-ended …

Psy 1100 Writing Intensive Syllabus, Jos Khan

Open Educational Resources

This is an ZTC/OER syllabus for a PSY 1100 writing intensive course at Kingsborough Community College.

Underlying Mechanisms In The Relationship Between Ptsd And Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Jillian B. Heymann

Dissertations

Current bodies of knowledge support the relationships between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), pain catastrophizing and PTSD, and pain catastrophizing and IBS. However, much less is known regarding how pain catastrophizing influences the relationship between PTSD and IBS. Additionally, while correlations between some demographic and trauma-related symptomatology have been elucidated in the relationship between PTSD and IBS, their impact as potential moderators on the relationship between PTSD and IBS has yet to be fully examined. Examining a student sample from a large midwestern university, the present study aimed to investigate the potential mediating and moderating roles …

Talking Climate: Does Peer Anxiety Amplify Or Alleviate Climate Change Worries?, Emma Tupone

Student Theses

As the climate crisis intensifies, climate change anxiety (CCA) has become increasingly common, yet it remains unclear whether discussing climate concerns with peers alleviates or amplifies distress. This study examined how climate conversations related to daily climate change anxiety, optimism, and pro-environmental behavior (PEB), as well as whether the perceived emotional tone of conversation partners shapes these associations. Using an 8-day daily diary design (N = 121), participants reported their daily climate-related emotions, engagement in private and public PEBs, and perceptions of peers’ climate anxiety and optimism following climate-related conversations. Results indicated that engaging in climate conversations was associated with …

The Greater Good?: Tradeoffs Between Social Connection And Status In Decision-Making Scenarios, Jonah M. Dratfield

Student Theses

Strong social relationships have consistently emerged as predictors of well-being in the psychological literature. However, research has not distinguished between the intrinsic social value derived from these relationships and the status derived from them. We constructed the novel Relationship Orientation Scale to explore this gap, utilizing binary decision-making scenarios in which individuals were forced to pit these two goods against one another. Across two studies, we found that individuals displayed a significant, but by no means universal, preference for intrinsically rewarding social relationships. We found, also, that social media use and comparison orientation were negative predictors of relationship orientation, whereas …

Predicting Psychosis Through Speech: A Case For Nlp In Clinical Practice, Lydia Britton '27

Student Research

Psychosis is difficult to identify in early stages; however, changes in speech and language offer insights and indicators of emerging symptomatology. This paper examines the potential for Natural Language Processing (NLP) and other computational linguistic techniques for improving the predicition of psychosis disorders through automated analysis of speech. Existing research shows that lingustic markers that are aligned with Formal Thought Disorder, including reduced semantic coherence, poverty of content, tangentiality, reduced syntactic complexity, and pragmatic deficits, can help to distinguish between individuals who are experiencing or at risk for psychosis from healthy controls. Traditional clinical assessments may have difficulty identifying and …

Exploring Play: Counselor Education Strategies, Online Community Fantasy Play, And Sexuality In The Counseling Space, Nattalie Wolff-Tseng

Dissertations, 2020-current

This dissertation examines the ways that play is constructed and understood in a variety of settings. Using Relational Cultural Theory as a guiding theoretical influence, each portion examines how play influences relationships and how engagement in play and conversations about play can enhance student–teacher relationships, social connection, and the therapeutic relationship. The first section of this dissertation, the conceptual article, explores how play can support counselor education as it encourages creative engagement and discourages perfectionism, which is often noticeable in novice counselors. Play may take many forms in the classroom and offers counselor educators the opportunity to tailor activity to …

The Impact Of Free Vs. Fixed Factor Correlations On Parameter Recovery In Multidimensional Irt Models, Stephanie Leroy

Dissertations, 2020-current

This dissertation investigated how cross-loading specification and factor-correlation treatment influence parameter recovery in multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) models. Two simulation studies extended Hosseinzadeh and Cole (2024) by examining whether freely estimating factor correlations improves recovery of item parameters, factor correlations, and latent traits. Study 1 used a compensatory multidimensional two-parameter logistic (M2PL) model with two correlated dimensions and 20 dichotomous items. Manipulated conditions included cross-loading specification (correctly specified vs. ignored), proportion of cross-loaded items, magnitude of cross-loadings, true factor correlation, and factor-correlation treatment during estimation (freely estimated vs. fixed to zero). Study 2 extended the design to a multidimensional …

Discussing Barriers And Solutions To Address Student Accommodation And Support Services, Anna K. Garst

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Accommodation and support services are essential for fostering academic achievement and positive well-being among college students with disabilities, yet many students delay or avoid seeking support. The present study used an explanatory mixed-methods design to examine disability and mental health service utilization among college students with disabilities, while also exploring the prevalence and intersecting experiences of basic needs insecurity. Quantitative survey data were collected from 275 students with diagnosed disabilities at a large public Mid-Atlantic university. Results indicated that perceived lack of need for support was the most frequently reported reason for not using services, followed by self-stigma, lack of …

The Impact Of Partner Quality On Female Perception Of Ovulation Cues During Pregnancy, Zoe Michelle Hannabass

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Human ovulation is largely concealed, yet subtle fertility-related cues, including facial and vocal changes, may influence mate selection and intrasexual competition (Thornhill & Gangestad, 2008; Haselton & Gildersleeve, 2016). These cues are thought to “leak” across the menstrual cycle and shape social perception in ways that are not always consciously detected. Pregnancy represents a unique context in which reproductive priorities shift, as women become increasingly dependent on partner resources for maternal and fetal well-being. As a result, traits signaling physical attractiveness, signaling genetic quality, become less important while those signaling partner investment may become more important among pregnant females. This …

The Effects Of An Autism Community Member Feedback-Based Training On Increasing Positive Interaction Skills, Francis Gary Powers Iii

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The current study examined the effects of a behavioral skills training (BST) on the frequency with which participants engaged in positive interaction skills that could be used when interacting with individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The behaviors for which the BST sought to increase were identified through a study that interviewed the members of a local autism community and first responders regarding actions that can be taken to foster more positive interactions when both specifically first responders and individuals with autism are at an emergency scene. A multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to assess the effect of …

How Does Age Affect Our Memory? Semantic Relatedness In Proper Name Recall, Art Beqiraj

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Proper names belong to a distinct class of lexical items that pose challenges for encoding and retrieval across people of all ages. Unlike common nouns, and the exception of nicknames, proper names are arbitrary relative to their referent. Forgetting someone’s name is not only seen as a social faux pas but may be particularly concerning for older adults due to its interpretation as a cognitive decline indicator. Prior research has shown that when names are physically descriptive of their referent (e.g., a giraffe called ‘Lengthy’), they are better learned and recalled; however, the extent to which descriptiveness without a visual …

Teaching "Wh" Questions To Children With Autism Using A Differential Observing Response Procedure, Margaret Piatt

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often demonstrate difficulties responding to “wh” questions (e.g., what, where, who), which are critical for social communication and academic participation. Differential observing responses (DORs) have been shown to improve discrimination learning by increasing attention to relevant stimulus features. The present study evaluated the effects of a DOR procedure using a two-stimulus visual array on the acquisition of intraverbal responding to “wh” questions in a child with ASD.

A multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to assess intervention effects across three response classes: what, where, and who questions. During …

Evaluating The Effects Of Bilingual, Video-Modified Social Story Interventions For Spanish-Speaking Children With Autism And Limited Language Abilities, Benjamin Troyer

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Social Stories ™ are interventions commonly used to target skill deficits or behavior

reduction goals for children with Autism. Most Social Story research has focused on English

speaking children with relatively advanced language abilities, limiting evidence for efficacy

with Spanish-speaking populations with lower language abilities. Some research has

demonstrated that modifying the format of a Social Story to a video format is effective at

extending the effectiveness to populations with lower language abilities. The purpose of

this study was to examine the effects of Bilingual, video-modified Social Stories on skill

acquisition and behavior reduction targets for Spanish-speaking children with ASD …

Building A Comprehensive Insider Threat Defense Program, Alan Saquella

Publications

Organizations today face a growing and evolving threat that often originates not from an outside hacker or criminal organization, but from within their own workforce, vendor networks, and trusted partnerships. Insider threats continue to represent one of the most difficult risks to identify, prevent, and mitigate because insiders already possess something external adversaries spend enormous resources trying to obtain: trust, access, and legitimacy.

For decades, many organizations relied heavily on pre-employment criminal history checks and reference verification as their primary safeguard against insider misconduct. While these tools remain important foundational elements of any hiring and risk management program, they are …

Sense Of Abundance Effect On Happiness, Samantha Macneil, Philip Watkins

2026 Symposium

The purpose of this study was to see how sense of abundance affects overall happiness. Understanding this can help us to understand how our subjective well-being is connected to gratitude. A sense of abundance has been proposed to be crucial to trait gratitude (Watkins, 2014), but few studies have investigated the importance of this construct. Our data comes from a related study that we conducted analyzing interpretation biases characteristic of gratitude. We had 165 participants complete all parts of the administered survey online. It contained two measures of abundance, happiness, and trait gratitude. The happiness scales were the Subjective Happiness …

Understanding Behavioral And Representational Divergences Of Humans And Machines, Thomas Lasman Botch

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Human behavior and cognition are strikingly variable: people differ from one another in their preferences and abilities, and even from themselves across situations. Yet this diversity arises from common neural machinery shaped by the complex environments humans inhabit. A central objective of cognitive neuroscience is to understand how this varied experience emerges from interactions between brains, agents, and environments. In this dissertation, I argue that comparing behavior and neural computation across humans, artificial systems, and contexts is essential for understanding the flexibility of human cognition. Across three chapters, I use this comparative approach to examine how the rich, multimodal contexts …

Reduction Of Restrictive Procedures Through A Behavioral Emergency Response Team, Christina Marie Broughton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Migration-Related Predictors Of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms In Two Samples Of Latinx Immigrants, Renee M. Frederick, Maria Cuervo Barron, Sita G. Patel, Ashley Bautista, Daniel Oconnell, Alfonso Mercado, Luz M. Garcini, Cecilia Colunga-Rodríguez, Mario Angel-Gonzalez, Amanda Venta

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms are well-documented health disparities in Latinx migrants, explaining a diverse array of physical and mental health complaints as well as role limitations for both youth and adults. Few studies have examined the influence of the migration journey on PTS in Latinx migrants. We examined the added effect of migration-related predictors, above and beyond general trauma exposure, of PTS in two samples of Latinx migrants with the broad aim of uncovering unique predictors of PTS in this high-risk population. Both studies investigated predictors of posttraumatic distress using information collected about individuals’ demographics (e.g., age, …

Book Review: Addressing Anxiety In Young Learners: A Teacher’S Guide To Recognizing Needs And Resolving Behaviors, Jacqueline Sperling

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of pediatric mental illnesses, especially anxiety disorders, have increased significantly (Racine et al., 2021), and with this change, teachers have been tasked with educating even more students who have additional needs.

Addressing Anxiety in Young Learners: A Teacher’s Guide to Recognizing Needs and Resolving Behaviors is a book that aims to provide teachers with an understanding of pediatric anxiety disorders and practical tools to support students who present with symptoms of them. The following review of the book describes what the book addresses, highlights strengths, examines areas for improvement, and offers additional …

An Equity-Based And Culturally Responsive Bill Of Rights For Early Childhood Students Of Color With Exceptionalities, Evette Simmons-Reed, Michelle Frazier Trotman Scott, Gloria Tardash, Mildred Boveda, Donna Y. Ford

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing disparities in early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE) services for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) disabled children, exposing critical gaps in access, services and support. systemic inconsistencies in implementation, training, and funding, remain barriers limit opportunities for CLD students to benefit, despite the aims of the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act (IDEA). To address these inequities, this manuscript proposes an expanded and updated Culturally Responsive Equity-Based Bill of Rights for EI and ECSE. Building upon Ford and colleagues' (2018) work, this revised document extends protections to children aged zero to five, emphasizing …