Psychology Commons^™

Psychosocial Impact Of Assistive Technology On Veterans With Disabilities In Higher Education, Maricela Rosales

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation study was to examine the psychosocial impact of assistive technology (AT) on veterans with disabilities in higher education. A current problem is that there is a research and knowledge gap in the AT needs of student veterans with disabilities living in South Texas, as well as in the psychosocial impact that AT for everyday life activities has on the quality of life of student veterans with disabilities who live with functional limitations. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to examine the psychosocial impact variables with participants from higher education institutions via online and in-person surveys. …

Licensed Professional Counselors In Texas: The Role Of Stigma In Seeking Counseling Services, Raquel C. Vasquez

Theses and Dissertations

The literature on stigma has revealed this attribute as a deterrent to seeking mental health services. This study encompassed an investigation of the impact of self-stigma and public stigma on the intentions to seek mental health services of Texas Licensed Professional Counselors. A survey was sent via email, social media platforms associated with Licensed Professional Counselors, and snowball sampling to recruit participants. The participants (N = 99) completed self-report measures about self-stigma, public stigma, social desirability characteristics, and attitudes towards seeking mental health help. The results indicated that neither self-stigma nor public stigma was a deterrent to seeking mental health …

Executive Function And Feedback In Regulatory Monitoring: Towards An Understanding Of Flexible And Adaptive Emotion Regulation, Gilaine Rui Ng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Monitoring is a process which involves attending to feedback regarding the efficacy of ongoing regulatory strategies and determining whether to switch or maintain strategies (i.e., strategy switching or maintenance) in order to maximize adaptive outcomes. While conceptual accounts underscore the critical role of monitoring in flexible and adaptive emotion regulation, empirical research remains scarce, and the cognitive factors which subserve the monitoring process remain unclear and poorly understood. To bridge this gap, we investigate how components of executive function (EF)—a set of cognitive control processes necessary for flexible, goal-directed behavior—would differentially support the monitoring process. Additionally, we examine the extent …

Examining A Regulatory Flexibility Framework Of Psychological Distress: Integrating Distress Tolerance, Emotion Differentiation, And Emotion Regulation Flexibility, Germaine Yue Qi Tng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Several theoretical accounts identify emotion regulation (ER) difficulties, including poor abilities to withstand or distinguish negative emotions, as a transdiagnostic risk factor for symptoms of psychological distress. Considering this, nascent evidence hints that ER flexibility may be a mediating mechanism that explains the relationship between specific ER abilities (i.e., distress tolerance, negative emotion differentiation) and distress symptoms. Across time-lagged (Study 1) and three-wave longitudinal (Study 2) investigations of college-aged adults, a regulatory flexibility framework of distress was examined in which ER flexibility mediates the respective pathways from distress tolerance and negative emotion differentiation to psychological distress symptoms. Furthermore, we explored …

Community Development Through Summer Camps, Edgar Iglesias Vidal, Narcís Turon Pèlach, Pere Soler Masó, Lara Morcillo Sanchez

Journal of Youth Development

Summer camps are widespread in many countries and have a long history. Their contribution to children’s and young people’s leisure and recreation is widely acknowledged, as is their usefulness as an educational resource. That large numbers of children and young people across Europe attend summer camps is well-known; according to Eurofound (2020), most of the twenty-seven countries analyzed record student attendance at camps, and in twelve countries (including Spain) over 50% of young people take part. However, another study carried out in the member countries of the European Union (Plantenga & Remery, 2017) stated that when the availability, use, and …

Study On Pilot Response Time To Reject Takeoff With One Engine Inoperative (Oei), Lydia Savitri Scrivens

Theses and Dissertations

The FAA regulation 14 CFR § 25.109 defines accelerate-stop testing for transport-category multiengine aircraft. It specifies that testing must include 2-second distance equivalent at engine failure speed VEF to simulate time taken for pilot to reject takeoff. However, pilot response time is widely debated. The purpose of this study is to determine pilot response time in rejecting a takeoff due to the failure of one engine during the takeoff roll.

Seven multiengine rated pilots participated in this study, which was conducted in a Baron 58 in the X-Plane 12 flight simulator. During the recruiting process, test subject candidates provided their …

A Serial Mediation Model Of Depression And Drinking Motives Underlying Problem Drinking Among Hispanic College Women Following Rape, Michiyo Hirai, Laura L. Vernon, Andrew E. Dials

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Problem drinking and depression are common following sexual assault. The current study applied a coping motives model of drinking and examined the association between rape experiences and problem drinking serially mediated by depression symptoms and coping-depression drinking motives among Hispanic college women. A total of 330 college women were classified into a single rape experience (SGL) group (n = 44), a multiple rape experiences (MLT) group (n = 70), and a no sexual assault experience group (n = 221). Participants completed self-report measures online. Serial mediation analyses with multi-categorical predictors found that significantly increased alcohol consumptions in …

Experiences Of Ambivalent Sexism And Applicant Behaviors: The Interplay Of Affective Reactions, Lauren Marie Soda

Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on ambivalent sexism, which can have detrimental effects for organizations, consisting of two factors: benevolent and hostile sexism. Benevolent sexism is the subtler of the two, oftentimes creating a sense of inferiority and increased anxiety for those experiencing it. Hostile sexism, on the other hand, is often more overt and instills a sense of anger from the target. There appears to be little research looking at experiences of ambivalent sexism in work settings and the affective reactions to those events (i.e., anger and anxiety). I believed that when people experience hostile sexism will feel angry and associate …

Temporal Dynamics Of Shared Leadership Emergence: An Adaptive Leadership Perspective, Erica Medrano

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have identified shared leadership as a valuable team phenomenon due to its link to increased team performance and suitability for the increasingly interdependent and complex work context. Yet, little effort has been invested into discovering how the process unfolds over time. Thus, the proposed study aims to clarify the temporal process of shared leadership by a) confirming that leadership decentralization precedes leadership density, b) identifying the conditions which promote the development of shared leadership, and c) exploring the conditions under which leadership decentralization leads to leadership density. Specifically, I utilize data from an online survey and a 3-hour ecologically …

Optimizing Attention Bias Training For Depression, Bridget R. Kennedy

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Depression has been associated with a negative attention bias. Attention bias modification (ABM) interventions among individuals with depression have demonstrated promising but inconsistent findings in reducing negative attention bias and decreasing depression symptoms. These inconsistent results may be partly due to impaired attention functioning that is common in depression. Mindfulness has demonstrated attention benefits, which may enhance the ability for individuals with depression to benefit from ABM interventions. This study aimed to explore the efficacy of a train-positive dot-probe task ABM intervention when compared to a placebo dot-probe task, both preceded by a series of brief mindfulness activities, among a …

Structural Integrity, Flexibility, And Timing: Introduction To A Special Issue On Resilience, David Pincus, Adam W. Kiefer, Stephen J. Guastello

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

This introduction to a special issue of Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology and Life Sciences on the topic of resilience discusses the contributing articles in terms of their flexibility in methods, models, scale, and contexts combined with their integrity in shared theoretical understanding and generative knowledge. The ubiquity of resilience is discussed, a feature of potentially any living or non-living system and substance. This breadth calls for a flexible set of models and methods, along with the quest for integrative theory to make resilience science more resilient. Since resilience involves the ability of a substance or system to persist, to repair or …

Romantic Resilience: Fractal Conflict Dynamics And Network Flexibility Predict Dating Satisfaction And Commitment, David Pincus

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Previous research has demonstrated that interpersonal dynamics are fractal, and that conflict is a key control parameter that drives fractal complexity. The present study aimed to extend this line of research to examine the putative fractal structure of conflict dynamics over time, and the role that this self-organizing fractal structure may play in the resilience of romantic relationships. An experience sampling methodology was used to assess levels of conflict, satisfaction, and commitment in the dating relationships of undergraduate students, three times per day for 30 days. Hypothesis 1 was supported, with conflict ratings over time generally conforming to an inverse …

Language Discrimination Using Bilingual Picture Exchange For Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, River Waits

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Recent research suggests that one-fifth of United States households use non-English languages in the home setting. Ethically and effectively supporting culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) clients (e.g., autistic individuals) presents a growing challenge to practitioners of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Though efforts to address the linguistic needs of the population have grown in recent years, current literature focuses on language selection for monolingual services and underemphasizes the need for bilingual service provision. Studies were conducted to (I) evaluate the efficacy of bilingual picture exchange (i.e., mand response) across items, speakers, and languages (i.e., English and Spanish) as well as (II) …

Investigating The Mediating Effect Of Social Support In Team Sport Participation On Adolescent Mental Health Outcomes, Olivia Schmitke

Theses and Dissertations

Peer and non-familial adult supportive relationships are a critical part of healthy adolescent development, positively influencing psychological, behavioral, and social domains (e.g., Panza et. al., 2020). Extracurricular sports activities are a source of peer (e.g., teammates) and adult (e.g., coaches) relationships and are associated with favorable impacts on mental health which may be an impactful protective factor given the rise of mental health crisis in youth today. The present study aimed to clarify the relationship mechanisms underlying the benefits of sports participation by examining and effecting social support has on mental health outcomes in adolescents engaged in sports. In doing …

Fostering Hope In Schools: Behavioral Engagement Mediates The Relationship Between Perceived Social Support For School And Hope In Adolescents, Jackson Whitmire

Theses and Dissertations

Better understanding and fostering positive development within youth has become increasingly popular among psychologists, educators, and parents (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). One aspect of positive adjustment is the development of hopeful thinking, which has been demonstrated to be associated with more positive outcomes in terms of positive development, academic achievement (e.g., Marques et al., 2017), and greater career success later in life (e.g., Hirschi, 2014). However, relatively little is known regarding the development and maintenance of hope in children and adolescents, particularly regarding the effects of their school experiences on hope. Both theory (Snyder et al., 1991; Marques & Lopez, …

Associations Between Neurological Correlates Of Reading And Learning Disability Profiles Among Children, Jessica Luedke

Theses and Dissertations

Early reading skills are vital for child development. Children with specific reading learning disabilities (SLD-R) display persistent difficulties acquiring reading skills. They are at an increased risk for adverse life outcomes, including mental health concerns, low educational attainment, and low academic motivation. Progress in neurobiological research provides opportunities to enhance the assessment and identification of learning disabilities by revealing distinct neurological patterns of learning. However, the integration of this progress with school psychology research is rare. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate brain network connectivity as a biomarker of reading using resting-state quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) coherence. Fronto-central …

Altered Sensory Processing And Pain In Youth With Sickle Cell Disease: Risk Factors And Moderators, Julia Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Youth with sickle cell disease (SCD) experience recurrent pain and increased risk for chronic pain. Neuropathic pain, characterized by alterations to the central and/or peripheral nervous systems, is not well understood among youth with SCD. Based on our current understanding of pain systems and existing literature on pain in SCD, this study aimed to elucidate psychosocial correlates of altered sensory processing (ASP) and neuropathic pain, determine biomedical risk factors contributing to the development of ASP among youth with SCD, and identify how sensory processing and biopsychosocial factors collectively influence pain experiences by assessing two plausible models. Methods: Thirty-five youth …

Initial Evaluation Of A Peer Supervision Program For Health Service Psychology Doctoral Students, William Bradley

Theses and Dissertations

Clinical supervision has long been utilized as the primary method of clinical training and evaluation for health service psychology doctoral students. Despite the central role that supervision has played and continues to play in the training of psychologists, little scholarly attention has been given to identifying effective methods for fostering competency in providing supervision. The lack of research in this area is concerning, given the accumulating evidence that negative supervision experiences, such as ineffective or inadequate supervision, are reported by a substantial proportion of trainees (21-92% across studies). Moreover, these experiences are associated with important proximal and distal training outcomes, …

Using Youth Participatory Action Research To Scale Up Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) In The Southern United States, Mariajose Jhamira Paton

Theses and Dissertations

The recently launched initiative, Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE), provides a targeted plan to end HIV in the United States (US) by 2030, and prioritizes key demographic groups and geographic areas that are disproportionately burdened by HIV. Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth, especially Black and Latiné youth (SGMBLY), are a key population for EHE as they have experienced the largest increase in new HIV rates in recent decades. States identified by EHE are disproportionately located in the Southern US, where increasing the uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV has been a challenge. Though proven effective, youth participatory action …

Measuring Evidence Application In Routine Mental Health Settings: Testing A Coding System And Providing A Proof Of Concept, Eleanor Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 25 years, there have been increasing calls to advance the application of evidence in routine mental health settings for youth and families. Methods in the field for characterizing evidence application have played a critical role in shaping these efforts, which, to-date, have largely focused on measuring providers’ adherence to practices from evidence-based programs in treatment sessions. While this program-centric paradigm for characterizing evidence application has supported the widespread implementation of evidence-based programs in public mental health settings, it is limited in scope and applicability for characterizing all the ways that evidence may be applied across a service …

Understanding Stressors, Coping Strategies, And Physical Activity Among African American Women Using Ecological Momentary Assessment, Asia Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Psychological stress is a normal part of the human experience and can be adaptive in certain contexts. However, chronic, cumulative, or uncontrollable stressors, such as those associated with living in poverty or being a member of a marginalized group, contribute to pervasive inequities among African American women including lower rates of physical activity. Given the social and political forces that continue to shape inequities, and which have exacerbated Covid-19’s impact on African Americans, it is important to gain a better understanding of how this population is experiencing and coping with current stressors, many of which are embedded within the social …

Cultural Tightness-Looseness And Optimal Distinctiveness: Examining The Influence Of Culture On The Need To Belong And The Need To Be Different, Hairong Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of cultural tightness-looseness on optimal distinctiveness motives and group identification, examining the moderating roles of self-construal, global orientation, and tightness/looseness match. Participants (N=465) from the United States and China were randomly assigned to tight or loose conditions and numerically majority or minority group conditions. Experimental manipulation of tightness-looseness did not significantly affect optimal distinctiveness needs. Cultural match, operationalized as alignment of tightness/looseness between participants' own culture and experimental condition, significantly moderated the relationship between culture conditions and need to belong. Individuals with high cultural match showed higher need to belong in tight conditions, while those …

Navigating Identity: An Examination Of Intersectional Discrimination And Suicidal Ideation Among Lgbq Latinx Individuals, Jaclyn Pachicano

Dissertations (1934 -)

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, with LGBQ Latinx adults showing higher risk for suicidality and related mental health outcomes. Experiences of discrimination, including heterosexism and ethnic discrimination, are often connected to increased risk for suicidal ideation. In addition to intersectional experiences of discrimination, LGBQ Latinx people often feel an incompatibility between their sexuality and ethnic identity, known as conflicts in allegiances (CIA), possibly increasing risk of suicidal ideation. It remains unclear what mechanisms connect intersectional discrimination and suicidal ideation. The current study expands on intersectional research by utilizing the Interpersonal Theory of …

Is Telehealth Equivalent To In-Person Intervention? A Replication And Extension Of Peers For Adolescents, Elyse Jeannine Adler

Dissertations (1934 -)

One commonly requested area of support for autistic youth centers around teaching and maintaining social skills, as social communication differences are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare services transitioned to telehealth, and some caregivers were concerned about if telehealth services were efficacious. There is a growing body of literature supporting the effectiveness of in-person social skills interventions, however research on telehealth administration of social skills intervention is more limited. This study aimed to evaluate if the telehealth version of PEERS for Adolescents has similar effects for autistic youth as the originally developed in-person …

Understanding Foster Parents' Experiences Of Secondary Traumatic Stress, Sarah Marie Boeding

Dissertations (1934 -)

Secondary traumatic stress, which has been studied across many helping professions, refers to symptoms similar to posttraumatic stress disorder which an individual may develop as a result of indirect exposure to another individual’s trauma (Sprang et al., 2019). Foster parents may be particularly susceptible to developing secondary traumatic stress due to their exposure to their foster child’s trauma history and trauma symptoms, which has been confirmed in recent studies (Bridger et al., 2020; Whitt-Woosley et al., 2020). Importantly, foster parents’ experiences of secondary traumatic stress may differ from those of other helping professionals given their unique role. The purpose of …

Narrating The Self: An Intervention For Nurturing The Whole Person, William S. Futch

Dissertations (1934 -)

The aim of this study was to design, implement, and test a novel intervention for nurturing the whole person. The intervention and its theoretical framework were envisioned as a counterbalance to the scientistic medical model that currently dominates clinical psychology. It was asserted that, to recover and nourish the holistic, subjective, and self-actualizing nature of the human person, it is critical to invoke both richer, phenomenological perspectives that appreciate the constructive character of personal identity, as well as positive psychological approaches that regard human flourishing. The intervention itself consisted of seven content modules—Narrative Identity, Narrative Identity and Wellness, Dominant Narratives, …

Intense, Repeated, And Ever-Present: An Initial Investigation Of Traumatic Invalidation Among Sexual Minorities, Zane Browning Ballard

Dissertations (1934 -)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer individuals have been shown to experience significantly more negative health outcomes than do heterosexuals, commonly attributed to sexual minority stress. Research to date has insufficiently explained the processes by which stigma exposure becomes felt, internalized stigma and has not accounted for resemblance between presentation of mental health effects of sexual minority stress and of post-traumatic responses. Researchers have posited traumatic invalidation may partially explain the development and manifestations of reactions to sexual minority stress. The current study proposed and tested a measure of traumatic invalidation, conceptualized as instances of interpersonal, identity-based invalidation among sexual minorities. …

An Analysis Of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services And Human Error Contributors To Accidents, Paige Lawton

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) is a growing industry that provides a vital service to transport critically ill or injured patients to healthcare facilities. This growth has come with an increase in rates of HEMS crashes and fatalities. Certain types of events commonly precede HEMS accidents such as continued flight into deteriorating weather conditions, night, and self-induced pressure, to name a few. Given that these causes and contributing factors can be seen time and again within HEMS accidents, the need arises for additional analysis of the human factors that play a role in accidents. This study addresses this need through …

Neurodivergent Employees: The Impact Of The Disclosure Decision And Subsequent Workplace Accommodations, Tamara Farquhar

Theses and Dissertations

A great deal of organizational investments have gone towards diversifying the labor force as of late. However, the same cannot be said for efforts made towards making newly acquired talent feel included. Neurodivergent individuals in particular have not been sufficiently welcomed in organizations, partially explaining their reluctance to disclose their identity along with feeling excluded. Despite researchers framing the characteristics displayed by neurodiverse talent as natural variations found at the tail ends of the bell curve, many people are incapable of viewing them as such. Discrimination and stereotyping have thus resulted, further dampening neurodivergent employees’ work experiences. These two factors …

Relationship Commitment Regulation: Influencing A Partner's Commitment To Achieve One's Commitment Goals, Laura V. Machia, Kenneth Tan, Christopher R. Agnew

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We introduce a model of relationship commitment regulation, which describes how romantic partners might use empirically-validated antecedents of commitment level strategically to influence a partner's commitment toward their relationship based on certain commitment goals they have for the relationship. People are generally aware of and relatively accurate with respect to knowing their partner's level of commitment and also have preferences regarding their desired level. We summarize key antecedents of commitment level (i.e., satisfaction level, alternative quality, investment size, future plans, and subjective norms) and then describe how each can be manipulated via relationship maintenance activities to move a partner's commitment …