Biological Psychology Commons^™

Autonomic And Behavioral Reactivity To An Acute Laboratory Stressor, Jeremy C. Peres

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Stress has been widely shown to directly influence people’s emotional and behavioral processing as well as their underlying biological systems. This project examined physiological and behavioral responses as indicators of stress and coping in the context of a psychosocial stressor in a controlled laboratory setting. We examined the association between indicators of behavioral coping and underlying physiological reactivity within participants while experiencing stress. Participants included 68 emerging adults. Physiological measures include autonomic biomarkers (e.g., heart-rate, skin conductance) at rest and during the stressor while behavioral indicators that were coded include acute verbal and non-verbal actions exhibited by participants during the …

Sex Differences In The Dopaminergic Regulation Of Courtship, But Not Pairing Behaviors In Zebra Finches, Erin Marie Lowrey

Wayne State University Theses

Dopamine is one of the key ingredients in the glue that cements social bonds in vertebrates. The D2 dopamine receptor has been implicated in the regulation of monogamous pair bonding in the prairie vole. While dopamine affects courtship behaviors in the male zebra finch, the behavioral role of dopamine acting at D2 receptors in both males and females deserves further attention. We hypothesized that the D2 receptor would regulate courtship and pairing behaviors in the male and female zebra finch. Sixteen males and females were tested using a repeated measures design. On day 1, the zebra finches were injected with …

Middle School Teachers' Perceptions Of Barriers Of Managing Student Behavior, Winifred Nicole Whitlock

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite training and support, many middle school teachers struggle to create, implement, and enforce research-based strategies to manage students' behaviors. The purpose of this case study was to examine teachers' perceptions about the barriers of managing student behavior. The research questions investigated 9 teachers' perceived barriers of managing student behavior at one middle school and the observed actions of these teachers' reactions to student behavior. Each participant was asked to participate in a 45-minute semistructured interview to examine their perceived barriers of managing student behavior and the strategies they use to manage student behavior relative to McGregor's theories X and …

Roles Of Internal Locus Of Control And Self-Efficacy On Managing Job Stressors And Ryff's Six Scales Of Psychological Well-Being, William A. Howatt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles internal locus of control and self-efficacy play in moderating how employees manage their perceived work stress and positively engage in the behaviors that facilitate autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, self-acceptance, positive relations with others, and purpose in life. Investigators have documented the relationship between perceived workplace stress and strain and showed that how employees cope with perceived stress influences their psychological and physical health. However, there is less information available about the relationship between how employees cope with perceived workplace stress and engage in behaviors that facilitate their psychological well-being. …

Self-Hypnosis And Volitional Control Of Finger Temperature Among Adults, Joseph Swope

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Raynaud's disease is a condition in which circulation to the hands becomes restricted, causing an uncomfortable sense of cold and occasionally injury. The cause of Raynaud's disease is unknown. Earlier studies have shown that hetero-hypnosis is effective in the treatment of Raynaud's disease. Cost and access to providers limit such a treatment's availability. Theories of hypnosis suggest that self-hypnosis underlies all hypnotic processes. This study examined the utility of self-hypnosis and focused attention on the volitional control of hand temperature. Forty-three adult participants ranging in age from 19 to 77 years with no hypnosis experience were randomly divided into 2 …

The Relationship Between Depression And Cognitive Deterioration In Older Adults, Rakesh Chand

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The population structure of the United States is changing; the older age group is increasing in size relative to the younger generation. The trend is expected to continue, especially starting in 2020, when the baby boomer population---estimated at 80 million---will be reaching their 65 th birthday, a time associated with increasing health complications, including depression and dementia. The study employed a holistic paradigm as the conceptual framework to examine the association between depression and dementia in older adults, and generated a grounded theory to illuminate the relationship between depression and dementia. This theory was then used to assess the efficacy …

Attachment, Parentally Bereaved Adolescents, And High School Outcomes In A Large Inner-City High School, Silvana Amar

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

U.S. and world communities face the challenges of understanding how children grieve and of giving them sufficient social and educational support. Inner-city minority adolescents have not been represented well in the bereavement and attachment literature. The purpose of the quantitative study was to use the attachment theory to understand the impact of parental bereavement on these adolescents. Data were collected using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), the Piers-Harris Children's Self- Concept Scale (2nd ed.), and school records. MANOVAs were used to analyze the influence of attachment organization, bereavement status, and gender on self-concept and academic and behavioral functioning in school. …

Implementing Core Values In The High-Tech Industry, Arthur J. Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous research has indicated that the path-goal theory is an effective way to study leadership behavior; however, a gap exists in the literature with respect to its achievement-oriented and participative leadership dimensions in high-tech organizations. In this quantitative study, the effects of a core values intervention on the four leadership dimensions of House's path-goal theory were evaluated at a semiconductor manufacturer with a focus on the differences between supervisors and non-supervisory personnel. Data were gathered from the validated, company-developed Corporate Culture Survey that was administered pre and post intervention. Data were also gathered from a categorization task that sorted the …

Knowledge Sharing And Competitiveness Of Professional Service Firms: A Case Study, Albert P. Cruz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study is that little action is taken to create the social aspects and social value of knowledge-sharing culture within organizations. There is a need for increased understanding of the behavioral side of knowledge management. The purpose of this study was to focus on knowledge sharing from a behavioral perspective. Knowledge management is defined as the accumulation, protection, and leverage of knowledge. This research study investigated the relationship between knowledge sharing and competitiveness and approached the field of knowledge management from the organizational, cultural, and behavioral perspectives. The research questions examined how knowledge workers described the …

Spirituality And Depression In Parents With Children In Oncology Or Hematology Treatment, Kurt D. Soell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The psychological burden of cancer treatment affects not only child patients but also their parents. There is extensive literature on the positive influence of spirituality on the cancer patient. But there is a gap in the literature on the potential healing influence of spirituality on the parent of the cancer or hematology patient. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between spirituality and parents' levels of depression and anxiety during their child's hematological or oncology treatment. Using the transtheoretical model of change, a purposive sample of 48 parents of children undergoing cancer or hematology treatment completed a …

The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Literacy Achievement Of Secondary Students, David P. Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Proficiency in language arts and communication skills is essential to success in the global workforce. Most states assess students in language arts literacy (LAL) through standardized tests that assess a student's ability to read, interpret literature, and write expressively. Although educational reformers strive to improve the foundations that prepare students in literacy, reforms have not fully incorporated the theory of emotional intelligence (EI), which explains a student's ability to use, understand, perceive, and manage their emotions in order to think critically, make decisions, and solve problems. Although it is not known whether EI directly correlates to literacy, emotional skills are …

Evaluation Of Bureau Practice For Illegal Drugs Use Among Teens, Sharon D. Heard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Bureau of Substance Abuse Treatment Recovery and Prevention, which oversees drug intervention services for Detroit residents, has found the city's illegal drug use among teens to mirror national rates. Illegal drug use is associated with addiction, major health problems, and stigma. Incorporating evidence-based screening during all teen health care visits would decrease missed opportunities to identify at-risk behaviors, the number of teens that do not receive intervention, and the stigma associated with screening. The purpose of this project was to develop evidence-based policy and practice guidelines for teen screening services for illegal drug use. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model was …

The Impact Of Company Grade Officer Self-Sacrificial Behavior On Subordinate Assessments Of Leader Charisma, Danjel Bout

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Newly commissioned officers in the U.S. Army are taught to lead their soldiers from the front and to voluntarily make personal sacrifices in the service of the nation. Although this facet of military culture is seen as critical to the integrity of the force, there are few research studies describing the impact of leader self-sacrifice in the U.S. Army. Research evolving from the transformational leadership literature indicates that civilian leaders who engage in self-sacrificial behavior are viewed as more charismatic than their counterparts and that this perception is particularly pronounced in crisis situations. The current study extended this research to …

The Impact Of Personalization-Based Tailored Instructional Communications On College Student Persistence, Nichole Gibbs

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The low graduation rate of degree-seeking students at public community colleges is an important crisis facing communities across the United States. College satisfaction and withdrawal cognitions in students have been identified as key factors in college persistence by researchers. However, a review of the literature revealed no study in which a college-persistence intervention based on the personalization principle theory or using tailored messages has been conducted. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a college-persistence intervention, based on the personalization principle theory and Mashburn's theory, for students at a community college. This study used between-groups experimental …

Exploration Of The Project Management Practitioner's Emotional Intelligence Competencies, Linda A. Hooper

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The success rate of information technology projects is on a downward trend, with reported losses in the billions of dollars. Recent studies indicate a 50--56% project success rate based on quality, budget, and on-time criteria. Building upon the conceptual framework of the emotional intelligence and knowledge management theories, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how project management practitioners apply self- and cultural-awareness competencies to affect project outcomes. Using a purposeful sampling method, 24 experienced U.S.-based project management practitioners participated in a web-based questionnaire. Following Giorgi's data reduction process resulted in numeric data coding. Thematic analysis revealed themes …

Discrete Trial Instruction: Comparing The Abbreviated Performance Feedback And Lecture Test Models, Tammy J. Dobbs

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Growing media attention and a high diagnosis rate of autism places significant demand on the service industry to provide qualified staff to work with individuals who have autism. Discrete trial instruction (DTI) is one of the most sought-after treatment approaches for those individuals. However, there is a gap in research regarding the efficacy of training methods for those who train direct staff to implement DTI. This quantitative study used an applied behavior analysis basis, deriving from foundations of behavior theory, to compare the abbreviated feedback form (AFF) to the lecture test model (LTM) to understand which will improve direct staff's …

Maternal Defense: Breastfeeding Heightens Aggression By Reducing Stress, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Colin Holbrook, Sarah M. Coyne, E. Thomas Lawson

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Mothers in numerous species exhibit heightened aggression in defense of their young. This shift typically coincides with the duration of lactation in nonhuman mammals, which suggests that human mothers may display similarly accentuated aggressiveness while breast feeding. Here we report the first behavioral evidence for heightened aggression in lactating humans. Breast-feeding mothers inflicted louder and longer punitive sound bursts on unduly aggressive confederates than did formula-feeding mothers or women who had never been pregnant. Maternal aggression in other mammals is thought to be facilitated by the buffering effect of lactation on stress responses. Consistent with the animal literature, our results …

Repeated Binge Pattern Ethanol Administration During Adolescence Or Adulthood: Long-Term Changes In Voluntary Ethanol Intake And Mesolimbic Dopamine Functionality In Male Rats, Antoniette Michelle Maldonado-Devincci

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Binge alcohol consumption is a rising concern in the United States, especially among adolescents as during this developmental period alcohol use is usually initiated and has been shown to cause detrimental effects on brain structure and function. These findings have been established through the use of binge models in animals, where animals are repeatedly administered high doses of ethanol typically over a period of three or four days. While such work has examined the effects of a four-day and repeated three-day binge, there has been almost no work conducted aimed at investigating the long-term behavioral and neurochemical and/or functional consequences …

Effect Of Stress, Emotional Lability And Depression On The Development Of Pregnancy Complications, Servitje, Estibalitz Laresgoiti Servitje

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Chronic stress and other emotional factors may have relevant impacts on pregnancy outcomes because they are related to neuroendocrine changes that lead to alterations in immunomodulation during pregnancy. In this quantitative prospective cross-sectional study, the relationship of emotional lability, depression, and stress during pregnancy and the development of preterm labor, preeclampsia, placental abruption, and low birth weight for gestational age babies was examined. Additionally, social support scores were compared to levels of stress/anxiety, depression, and emotional lability in pregnant women. Two hundred and forty two pregnant women who received prenatal services at the National Institute of Perinatology in Mexico City …

Taking Charge Of Adult Adhd, P. S. Mcmillen

Library Faculty Research

Barkley is one of the leading researchers and most prolific writers on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the life span, having produced materials for mental health professionals and self-help books like this volume.

Effect Of Depression On Attention Via Mood Induction In A Healthy Population, Cheryl Mae Calvano

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This project continues research into the cognitive attention of persons with a sad mood similar to that experienced by dysthymia. The project utilizes the Dot Probe Task to evaluate attention to affective stimuli presented in the International Affective Picture Set (IAPS). Participants were psychology students recruited from La Sierra University. Participants completed a word task that intended to induce a sad or neutral mood. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) was used to evaluate the efficacy of the mood induction. Overall, participant’s negative PANAS scale did not differ between groups. Groups differed between administrations of the PANAS on the …

Immune Function And Health Outcomes In Women With Depression, Cherie Howk, Mary P. Bennett

Nursing Faculty Publications

This research reports immune function and health outcomes in women with depression, as compared with a nondepressed control group. Using Psychoneuroimmunolgy theory and a descriptive comparison design, scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were used to divide 40 non-hospitalized Caucasian women between the ages of 18 and 65 years into either the control or depression comparison group. Women with depression were found to report significantly more incidences of illness over the previous two months and they were found to have significantly more indicators of illness at the time of the exam as compared to the controls. However, contrary to …

Cognitive And Psychiatric Predictors To Psychosis In Velocardiofacial Syndrome: A 3-Year Follow-Up Study, Kevin M. Antshel, Robert J. Shprintzen, Wanda Fremont, Anne Marie Higgins, Stephen V. Faraone, Wendy R. Kates

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Objective: To predict prodromal psychosis in adolescents with velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS). Method: 70 youth with VCFS, 27 siblings of youth with VCFS and 25 community controls were followed from childhood (Mean age = 11.8 years) into mid-adolescence (mean age 15.0 years). Psychological tests measuring intelligence, academic achievement, learning/memory, attention and executive functioning as well as measures of parent and clinician ratings of child psychiatric functioning were completed at both time point. Results: Major depressive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder diagnoses increased in the VCFS sample. With very low false positive rates, the best predictor of adolescent prodromal …

Comparison Of Affective Analgesia And Conditioned Place Preference Following Cholinergic Activation Of, Elena Schifirnet

Wayne State University Dissertations

Activation of the dopaminergic mesolimbic reward circuitry that originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) is postulated to preferentially suppress affective reactions to noxious stimuli (affective analgesia, AA). VTA dopamine neurons are activated via cholinergic inputs, and we have observed that microinjections of the acetylcholine agonist carbachol suppressed vocalizations of rats that occur following administration of brief (1 sec) tail-shocks (vocalization afterdischarges = VAD). VADs are a validated rodent model of pain affect. In addition, the capacity of carbachol to support reinforcement appears to be regionally dependent within VTA. Ikemoto and Wise (2002) reported that carbachol was self-administered in the …

Epigenetics: Blurring The Line Between Nature And Nurture, Elizabeth H. Rose

CMC Senior Theses

This long-standing nature versus nurture debate is cited in behavioral and physical expressions of disease dysfunctions, resiliencies, and recovery. Their purposes are noted both in scientific pursuits as well as literature. This discourse has been particularly intense in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and biology where there is a long history of scientists’ attempts to disprove or discredit others’ intellectual and professional measures. Interestingly, recent advances in the neurosciences and genetic technologies have brought these fields closer together with a new focus – the interactional relationship between nature and nurture – epigenetics.

Using A Structured Decision Making Protocol To Stratify Caseloads In The Child Support Program, Steven J. Golightly

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although structured decision making and risk assessment protocols have successfully been used in human service programs, little research has been done on their applicability in the child support program. In this study, problems identified with child support case management were examined, along with positive and negative attributes of various risk assessment tools utilized in other arenas. The overall research problem asserted that there are no structured decision making protocols in the child support program to support case assignment by enforcement difficulty. The primary research question asked whether or not a process stratified by risk and level of enforcement difficulty could …

A Phenomenological Inquiry Of Chronic Homeless Individuals' Challenges To Independence, Dewana Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Homelessness is a comprehensive social problem affecting approximately 744,000 people in the U.S. Despite consistent efforts from politicians, state and local leaders, and service providers, the number of homeless people continues to rise. Although there are some explanations in the literature to account for the increase of homelessness, the literature tends to not include the voices of the homeless themselves. The purpose of this phenomenological study, which used Maslow's hierarchy of needs as its conceptual framework, was to understand the life experiences of members of the homeless population, as perceived by four male residents of a mission in an eastern …

Illness Uncertainty, Ways Of Coping, And Psychological Adjustment Among 18--25-Year-Olds With Anaphylactic Food Allergy, Susan J. Cohen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The prevalence of food allergy is increasing, with adolescents and young adults being the group most likely to die from food-induced anaphylaxis. Behavioral and psychological factors contribute to this risk. This study investigated the relationship between illness uncertainty (as measured by the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale Community Form) and emotion- and problem-focused coping (as measured by the Ways of Coping Scale), to see if they contributed to psychological adjustment (as measured by the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21) in this population. A cognitive diathesis-stress model was used to explain individual differences in adjustment. Multiple regression was used to test illness …

Functionality, Parsimony, Discovery, Avoiding Hamartia: How Evolutionary Perspectives Are Changing Psychology, Brooke N. Jenkins, Aaron T. Goetz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Evolutionary psychology offers an important perspective to scientific psychology. Evolutionary psychology, in its short existence, has added an abundance of knowledge to the social sciences, let alone psychology. The study of human cognition and behavior remains incomplete without an evolutionary perspective. Here, we argue that evolutionary psychology uniquely provides a complete understanding of scientific psychology because it explains the functions of our psychological traits, provides us with the most parsimonious explanation of many psychological phenomena, predicts undocumented phenomena, and possibly allows us to avoid the downfalls of some of our contemptible evolved psychological mechanisms.

Attachment: The Antidote To Trauma, Joshua Straub

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Trauma and loss in life are inevitable. And all too often the traumatic experience itself can be enough to paralyze the mental, emotional, and spiritual state of any given person. Unable to interpret the traumatic experience, many instead are left defined by it. Helping clients discern the objective experience and their subjective reactions to it will help free them from the emotions and beliefs that subsequently control their lives. Based on the most relevant attachment theory research and clinical techniques, this workshop teaches the attentional strategies necessary to helping clients overcome trauma.