Clinical Psychology Commons^™

Evaluation Of An Expectancy Challenge Presentation In Reducing High-Risk Alcohol Use Among Greek Affiliated College Students, Abigail Fried

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol consumption and on college campuses has long been a significant problem. The severity of the situation and lack of effective alcohol programming on college campuses warranted the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to commission a Task Force on College Drinking in 2002, which has been vital in revealing drinking patterns and negative consequences which are specific to the college environment. The Task Force proposed three strategies that were empirically validated for prevention and intervention in the college setting. Of the three recommendations, implementing cognitive behavioral skills training and offering motivational enhancement interventions, while proven effective are costly …

Social Comparison, Self-Objectification, And Objectification Of Others Investigating The Vicious Cycle That Leads To Body Dissatisfaction And Disordered Eating, Danielle M. Lindner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to test a new theoretical model that integrates self-objectification, objectification of others, and social comparison as contributors to the development and maintenance of body image disturbance and disordered eating behavior. Within the new theoretical model, self-objectification, objectification of others, and social comparison are conceptualized as a self-perpetuating cycle, rather than as processes that occur independently of one another. Four hundred fifty-nine female college students between the ages of 18 and 32 completed measures of self-objectification, objectification of others, social comparison, body shame, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorder symptomatology. Structural equation modeling with nested model …

An Examination Of Love And Marital Satisfaction In Long-Term Marriages, Rebeca Isabel Estrada

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There has been little marital research that focuses on contributing factors to successful long-term marriage and even less focus on the role that love plays in long-term marriage. As a means of furthering this research, the purpose of the current study was to examine levels of satisfaction in couples in long-term marriages and to identify contributing factors to an enduring marriage. This study also examined the significance of love and changes in love after 35+ years of marriage. Through the use of qualitative methodology five couples who were self-identified as "happy" in their marriage and who had been married at …

Trajectory Of Quality Of Life In Advanced Parkinson's Patients Receiving Bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation, Karl S. Chiang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quality of Life (QOL) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients after Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) neurosurgery generally improves between 3 to 24 months post-operatively. However, QOL beyond 2 year follow-up is generally unknown. This study examined the QOL in 16 advanced PD patients who received DBS at an average of 7.5 year follow-up with the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). Participants had an average Disease Duration of 20.57 years (SD 5.7) and a mean Age of 63.50 (SD 8.05). Linear regression analyses suggested a constellation of changes involving Time, Age, and Disease Duration. As Time progressed since DBS intervention, the PDQ-39 Cognitions …

Marginality And Coping: A Communal Contextual Narrative Approach To Pastoral Care With Korean American Christians, Jaesang Lyu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Focusing on Korean American experiences of racism, sexism, and intergenerational conflicts related to the acculturation process, this dissertation examines the social reality of marginality and constructs a communal contextual narrative approach to pastoral care. Current approaches to pastoral care in the Korean American church encourage a deferring style of religious coping that maintains the status quo—the internalized status of marginality—without activating self agency for the fulfillment of one’s own selfhood within the communal life of religious communities. A communally grounded sense of self agency is described in terms of three aspects of Korean indigenous culture: 1) uri (we-ness), 2) jeong …

Gene-Environment Interactions In Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Holly Donovan Barnard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overall goal of this project is to advance our understanding of the multifactorial etiology of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by testing a diathesis-stress model of gene x environment (g x e) interactions. Although the literature increasingly supports g x e interactions in the manifestation of ADHD, few studies have investigated multiple genetic and environmental risk factors, included direct tests of gene - environment correlations (rG-Es), explored the specificity of interactions to symptom dimensions, or attempted to minimize comparisons. Therefore, utilizing both within-family (FBAT/PBAT) and case-control methodology, this study sought to (1) explore main effects of polymorphisms in the …

Multicultural Events Within Group Supervision: Minority Experiences And Supervision Satisfaction, Jacqueline Renee Moreno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current investigation utilized a mixed-methods design. In Phase I, 76 ethnic minority graduate students in psychology and counseling Master's and doctoral programs completed surveys that explored their general experiences in group supervision as well as the occurrence of multicultural events, and positive and negative factors of the reported events. Surveys also assessed supervisees' perspectives of their supervisor's multicultural competence level, group supervision satisfaction, and their own racial identity and multicultural competence. In Phase II, 20 volunteers from the first phase participated in qualitative interviews that explored in more depth the multicultural event they more briefly discussed in the survey …

Gene X Environment Interactions In Developmental Dyslexia, Lauren M. Mcgrath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this project was to advance understanding of the complex multifactorial etiology of developmental dyslexia, or reading disability (RD), by investigating gene x environment (G x E) interactions. This project tested for G x E interactions using molecular genetic methods and measures of psychosocial and bioenvironmental risk factors. There are two competing predictions that can be derived from existing G x E models about the expected direction of interactions in RD. There could be "diathesis-stress" interactions in which the effects of genotype are stronger in risk environments, or there could be "bioecological" interactions in which the effects of …

Perceived Closeness To The Deceased And Its Predictive Effect On The Development Of Prolonged Grief Disorder And Suicidality Among Bereaved College Students, Jeffrey Alan Rings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A growing percentage of college students are experiencing severe and debilitating psychological problems (Caulfield, 2000; Douce, 2004; Kitzrow, 2003). Despite being a commonly-encountered stressor among undergraduates (Currier et al., 2006), the occurrence of bereavement is addressed rarely among the college mental health literature. However, bereavement has been shown to lead to increased suicidality and other problematic mental health symptoms (Prigerson, Bridge et al., 1999). Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD), a newly-defined mental health diagnosis, has been found to be a more accurate indicator of poorer mental health functioning among bereaved individuals than other mental health conditions (Silverman et al., 2000). Some …

Mitigating Risk For Anxiety Among Preschool-Age Children Living In Poverty: Evaluating The Impact Of Adult-Provided Social Support On Autonomic Stress Reactivity, Brian Cory Wolff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Poverty increases children's exposure to stress, elevating their risk for developing patterns of heightened sympathetic and parasympathetic stress reactivity. Repeated patterns of high sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal place children at risk for anxiety disorders. This study evaluated whether providing social support to preschool-age children during mildly stressful situations helps reduce reactivity, and whether this effect partly depends on children's previously assessed baseline reactivity patterns. The Biological Sensitivity to Context (BSC) theory proposes that highly reactive children may be more sensitive than less reactive children to all environmental influences, including social support. In contrast, conventional physiological reactivity (CPR) theory contends …

Predicting Children's Emotional And Behavioral Functioning: An Examination Of Coparenting And Parental Satisfaction, Samantha Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To examine the interplay among shared parenting, coparent support, parental satisfaction, and child behavior problems, the current study examines the responses of mothers and fathers who have children between the ages of 3- and 6-years. As part of this study, 107 parents (i.e., 80 mothers and 27 fathers) completed a questionnaire packet including measures of coparenting, parental satisfaction, and child behavior problems. Results are examined using correlational and hierarchical regression analyses. Correlational analyses suggest that coparent support and parental satisfaction are related positively and that coparent support and parental satisfaction are related negatively with children's behavior problems. Unique relationships are …

Globalization And Identity: A Cross-National Study Among Chinese, Indian, Colombian, And American College Students, Min Cheng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arnett (2002) has suggested the development of a typology similar to one that has become popular in the ethnic identity literature (Berry, 1993; Phinney, 1990) whereby people are surveyed in terms of strength of identification with both the dominant national culture and their particular sub-group minority culture. Based on this typology, we have developed a paper and pencil measure, the Global Identity Survey (GIS), which asks participants about the degree to which they identify with either the local or global culture. A new typology is proposed, with behaviors and attitudes falling into one of the four following categories: "locally encapsulated" …

Adolescent And Caregiver Identity Distress, Identity Status, And Their Relationship To Psychological Adjustment, Rachel Wiley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study addresses identity distress and identity status in adolescents with clinical diagnoses, and their caregivers. There were 88 adolescent participants (43.2% female) ranging in age from 11 to 20 (mean =14.96; SD =1.85) who were recruited from community mental health centers in Volusia and Orange Counties. The 63 caregiver participants included mothers (82.5%), fathers (7.9%), grandmothers (7.9%), and grandfathers (1.6%), ranging in age from 28-70 (mean = 40.24; SD = 9.16). A significant proportion of adolescents (22.7%) met criteria for Identity Problem in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; American Psychiatric Association, …

Role Of Perceived Partner Responsiveness On Mexican American Males' Pain Severity And Depressive Symptomatology, Carolyn M. Freedman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the role of cultural indicators in moderating the influence of perceived partner responses and relationship satisfaction on pain severity and depressive symptomatology among a sample of 62 married and cohabiting Mexican American men, the majority of whom were first generation Mexican Americans, with chronic back and/or neck pain. The cultural indicators were not found to act as moderators in the analyses that involved pain severity and depressive symptomatology as outcome variables. Nevertheless, this study's findings are an important initial step in understanding the relationship dynamics among an understudied population with chronic pain and raise many important questions …

Developmental Trajectory Of Aggressive Behavior In Clinically Referred Boys: A Rasch Analysis, Scott Lafond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A majority of research investigating aggression and its development in children has relied upon the use of rating scales such as the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). These scales are typically developed using a conventional factor analytic approach for the selection and retention of scale items, but may not contain sufficient numbers of items to adequately assess the unidimensional construct or developmental trajectory of aggressive behavior in youths. The present study evaluates specific psychometric properties of CBCL Aggressive and Delinquency Problems clinical syndrome scale items to determine the degree to which they reflect the breadth and established developmental trajectory of aggressive …

Hyperactivity In Boys With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Ubiquitous Core Symptom Or Manifestation Of Working Memor, Jennifer Bolden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hyperactivity is currently considered a core and ubiquitous feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, an alternative model challenges this premise and hypothesizes a functional relationship between working memory (WM) and activity level. The current study investigated whether children s activity level is functionally related to WM demands associated with the domain-general central executive and subsidiary storage/rehearsal components using tasks based on Baddeley s (2007) WM model. Activity level was objectively measured 16 times per second using wrist- and ankle-worn actigraphs while 23 boys between 8 and 12 years of age completed control tasks and visuospatial/phonological WM tasks of increasing memory …

Am I Too Fat To Be A Princess? Examining The Effects Of Popular Children's Media On Preschoolers' Body Image, Sharon Hayes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigated the effects of brief exposure to appearance-related media on female preschoolers' body image. Results indicated that exposure did not affect body dissatisfaction or engagement in appearance-related play behaviors. Surprisingly, participants' self-reported frequency of weight concerns decreased at posttest. In contrast to older populations, it is possible that young children may adopt the persona of attractive characters with whom they identify rather than comparing themselves to the characters. This level of identification temporarily may alleviate weight concerns. This is the first empirical study to provide support for previous findings that suggest media exposure does not affect body …

Perceptions Of Student Organizations On Campus, Rachael Lunt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This two part study investigated whether perceptions of student organizations are related to participants' ethnicity as well as the ethnicity of the ethnic student organization. Study 1 (N = 460) assessed overall attitudes toward ethnic student organizations dependent upon ethnicity of the participants. Study 2 (N = 631) assessed how attitudes toward ethnic student organizations were affected not only by race of the participant but also by ethnicity of the student organization. Results of Study 1 indicate that overall White students found the ethnic student organizations least beneficial/necessary, most racist, and had the least interest in joining as compared to …

The Importance Of Addressing Acculturative Stress In Marital Therapy With Hispanic American Women, Mary Hammons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between acculturative stress and marital distress among Hispanic American women and to explore the potential mediating roles of variables believed to be important to marital functioning among ethnic minorities and immigrants (e.g., acculturation, ethnic identity, social support, etc.). Based on data from 103 Hispanic American married women, pressure to acculturate toward the dominant culture of the U.S. was found to significantly correlate with the amount of distress the women reported in their marital relationships. Two variables were found to partially mediate the correlation. Perceived social support and recent stressful life …

Adult's Perceptions Of Children's Aggressive Play With Advertised And Non-Advertised Toys., Lori J. Klinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined adults’ perceptions of aggression in toys and toy commercials targeted toward young boys. The subjects, 262 undergraduate psychology students, completed the Buss/Perry Aggression Questionnaire and rated either a videotape of 10 boy-oriented toy commercials or slides of 10 non-advertised boy-toys. Parental status, exposure to an advertised versus non-advertised toy, and level of self-reported aggression were assessed to determine their relationship to perceptions of aggressiveness in a toy’s image and predicted play with the toy.

Univariate analyses of variance and paired sample t-tests were conducted. The results indicate that toys advertised in commercials are judged to portray more …