Other Psychology Commons^™

Perceived Control And Adjustment: A Comparison Of Bereavement And Relationship Dissolution, Sara B. Greenberg

Honors Scholar Theses

The current study investigates the relationship between perceived control and adjustment across a comparison of two events; bereavement (n = 83) and relationship dissolution (n = 75). These events occurred in the six months prior to the study. Perceived control was assessed in terms of personal control, control of other forces, and control of a higher power, and how much control each had over the loss experienced. Adjustment was assessed in terms of current symptoms of distress (i.e., intrusion and avoidance), stress-related growth, positive states of mind, and life satisfaction. The relations between perceived control and adjustment differed …

Young Black Children's Representations Of The Father Figure In Low-Income Households, Shawnae Shalae Thompson

Honors Scholar Theses

This study investigated the cognitive-emotional schemas surrounding the father role in 50 young, low-income, Black children in relation to the amount of father involvement in the first 5 years of their lives. These representations were framed within four parenting categories: Nice, Mean, Authoritative, and Authoritarian. Diana Baumrind’s parenting style framework was utilized to create the Authoritative and Authoritarian parenting categories. This question was investigated in low-income families; the impact of gender of the child was also considered. Information on fathers’ involvements in the children’s lives were gathered through interviews and self-reports from the children’s fathers and mothers. Story Stem Narrative …

Altered States Of Consciousness & The Creative Individual: Breaking The Affective Thinking Skills Paradigm, Dana M. Calanan

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project focuses on the affective side of creative thinking and creating a bridge to the cognitive side. It presents the personal transformation of the author using non-drug induced altered states of consciousness. The finished project includes the beginnings of a holistic creative problem solving model and a workshop which will assist those wishing to become more creatively productive or are looking for a way to creatively self-heal.

Keywords: Creative healing, shamanism, psychedelia, holistic creativity, creative problem solving, Thinking Skills Model, altered states of consciousness, affective thinking skills.

Sociopolitical Control In Urban Kenya: The Sociopolitical Control Scale In Nairobi, Mombasa, And Kisumu, Tasha A. Russman

Scripps Senior Theses

There is popular belief among Kenyans that their government inappropriately distributes resources unequally between different regions in Kenya. A modified version of Zimmerman and Zahniser's (1991) Sociopolitical Control Scale (SPCS) tested for differences in perceived sociopolitical control (SPC) between residents of Kenya's three biggest cities, Nairobi (n = 49), Mombasa (n = 50), and Kisumu (n = 51). Hypotheses were based on expected levels of leadership competence (LC) and policy control (PC), two sub-scales that combine to create SPC. Contrary to the hypothesis, results indicated no significant differences in levels of SPC among the cities. Results could …

The Role Of Self‐Injury In The Organisation Of Behaviour, Curt A. Sandman, Aaron S. Kemp, Christopher Mabini, David Pincus, Magnus Magnusson

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background—Self-injuring acts are among the most dramatic behaviours exhibited by human beings. There is no known single cause and there is no universally agreed upon treatment. Sophisticated sequential and temporal analysis of behaviour has provided alternative descriptions of self-injury that provide new insights into its initiation and maintenance.

Method—Forty hours of observations for each of 32 participants were collected in a contiguous two-week period. Twenty categories of behavioural and environmental events were recorded electronically that captured the precise time each observation occurred. Temporal behavioural/ environmental patterns associated with self-injurious events were revealed with a method (tpatterns; THEME) for …

Methods And Baseline Characteristics Of A Randomized Trial Treating Early Childhood Obesity: The Positive Lifestyles For Active Youngsters (Team Play) Trial, Marion Hare, Mace Coday, Natalie A. Williams, Phyllis Richey, Frances Tylavsky, Andrew Bush

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

There are few effective obesity interventions directed towards younger children, particularly young minority children. This paper describes the design, intervention, recruitment methods, and baseline data of the ongoing Positive Lifestyles for Active Youngsters (Team PLAY) study. This randomized controlled trial is designed to test the efficacy of a 6-month, moderately intense, primary care feasible, family-based behavioral intervention, targeting both young children and their parent, in promoting healthy weight change.

Participants are 270 overweight and obese children (ages 4 to 7 years) and their parent, who were recruited from a primarily African American urban population. Parents and children were instructed in …

Nobody Studies Groups Anymore, Donelson R. Forsyth

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was asked about the level of gang activity in his city, he explained “I’m not a sociologist or an anthropologist, so I can’t share with you the root causes of gang violence that you see in urban areas” (Sims, 2007). He did not include “social psychologist” on his list of experts on gangs, because social psychologists don’t study gangs—in fact, social psychologists don’t even study groups anymore. That is why Lee Ross, Mark Lepper, and Andrew Ward (2010), in their chapter on history in the Handbook of Social Psychology concluded that (a) the study …

Intergenerational Support Systems: An Exploration Of Multigenerational Support Exchange, Ariela N. Litman

Scripps Senior Theses

Post-recession, middle-aged parents may provide various types of support to their grown children and parents. In the current study, parents age 40 to 60 (N =92) reported on a survey the support and affection they exchange with each child over age 18 (N =169) and each parent (N=185). The middle-aged generation (G2) differentiated among children (G3) and parents (G1) within families, and provided emotional, financial, and practical help on average to their children. The more dependent the child (G3), the more support was exchanged. Dependence was measured on normative status like education, employment, disability, and crisis as well as the …

Human-Canine Relationships: Dog Behavior And Owner Perceptions, Briannan K. Byrd

Senior Honors Theses

Abstract

Owning a dog has many physiological and psychological advantages; however, dog behavior can manifest itself in a variety of negative ways, including aggression. Research suggested that genetics and environment might play a role in aggression. It was demonstrated that owners can affect their dogs’ behaviors. Owners can unwittingly condition or encourage their dogs to misbehave, whether through their inaccurate perceptions or misguided actions towards the dogs. Dog behavior specialists view owner education as the key to solving the communication barrier between human and canine. The present study’s purpose was to assess if this view was possible. The research question …

Sports Involvement And Extracurricular Activities: Impact On Prosocial Behavior And Teamwork In Young Adulthood, Keanna Baker

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The broad scope of extracurricular activities during childhood and adolescents provides favorable conditions for promoting positive youth development. The current study examined the relationship between athletic extracurricular experiences at the high school and college level and developmental factors learned from these experiences. From this particular sample, participants participating in either a team or an individual sport tended to have significantly higher rates of positive identity experience within their activity compared to those who did not play an upper level sport. Participants who assessed a high school or college level individual sporting activity tended to report significantly higher rates of interpersonal …

Behavioral And Histological Effects Of Traumatic Brain Injury On Alzheimer's Disease Transgenic Mice, Sara Leilani Kellogg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this study was to elucidate the possible mechanistic link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) using an animal model. We examined behavioral and histological effects of TBI in pre-symptomatic AD-transgenic mice (C57B6/SJL/SwissWebster/B6D2F1). In previous studies, these mice displayed AD-like behavioral deficits by 15-17 months of age and AD-like neuropathology as early as six months of age. To clarify the effects of TBI on these mice, the present study began when they were about three months of age and the study ended when they were about five months of age. As a control, non-transgenic …

External Validity Reporting In Behavioral Treatment Of Childhood Obesity, Lisa M. Klesges, Natalie A. Williams, Kara S. Davis, Joanna Buscemi, Katherine M. Kitzmann

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Context—To aid translation of childhood obesity research interventions evidence into practice, research studies must report results in a way that better supports pragmatic decision making. The current review evaluated the extent to which information on key external validity dimensions, participants, settings, interventions, outcomes, and maintenance of effects, was included in research studies on behavioral treatments for childhood obesity.

Evidence acquisition—Peer-reviewed studies of behavioral childhood obesity treatments published between 1980 and 2008 were identified from: (1) electronic searches of social science and medical databases, (2) research reviews of childhood obesity interventions, and (3) reference lists cited in these reviews. …

Therapy With Immigrant Muslim Couples: Applying Culturally Appropriate Interventions And Strategies, Douglas A. Abbott, Paul R. Springer, Cody S. Hollist

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Despite the steady increase of Muslims in America, there is a scarcity of research for mental health professionals who wish to work with Muslim couples. The goal of this article is to provide mental health therapists the common features of Muslim marriages and how they are influenced by the religious and social context, with clinical implications for couples therapy interventions being discussed.

Walking A High Beam: The Balance Between Employment Stability, Workplace Flexibility, And Nonresident Father Involvement, Jason T. Castillo, Greg W. Welch, Christian M. Sarver

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Compared with resident fathers, nonresident fathers are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed and less likely, when they are employed, to have access to flexible work arrangements. Although lack of employment stability is associated with lower levels of father involvement, some research shows that increased stability at work without increased flexibility is negatively related to involvement. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 895), the authors examined the relationship between nonresident fathers’ employment stability, workplace flexibility, and father involvement. Results indicate that workplace flexibility, but not employment stability, is associated with higher levels of …

Calendar Interviewing And The Use Of Landmark Events – Implications For Cross-Cultural Surveys, Tina Glasner, Wander Van Der Vaart, Robert F. Belli

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This paper discusses potential methodological issues in the design and implementation of calendar recall aids such as the Life History Calendar for cross-cultural surveys. More specifically, it aims to provide insights into how the use of landmark events in calendar interviewing may be influenced by cross-cultural variability. As an example, we compare the landmark events reported by Dutch and American respondents in two studies in which calendar recall aids were used. The study discusses differences that were found between the two countries in the numbers and types of reported landmark events, as well as in the temporal distribution of those …

The Effect Of Web Usability On Users’ Web Experience, Molly Herring

Honors Projects in Information Systems and Analytics

The ease with which a website visitor can find what they need is positively correlated with visitor satisfaction(Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement, 2008). Web usability is a field that studies what factors affect the visitor’s ability to navigate through a website. Although there are publications outlining specific usability guidelines, many of them have little or no academic research to support the claim. HHS developed a list of 209 guidelines and rated each according to their strength of evidence (research-based support, 5 – high, 1 – low). Using heuristic evaluation and usability testing, this study provides additional research-based knowledge for those …

A Call To Prayer: A Cross-Cultural Examination Of Religious Faith, Modesty, And Body Image, Heidi Woofenden

Undergraduate Review

Body image, a multidimensional construct encompassing the perception and evaluation of appearance, was examined in connection with religious faith and modesty of dress in a sample of 291 Jordanian and 189 American women university students. Participants completed the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire-Appearance Scales, the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, and a modesty scale. As hypothesized, Jordanians reported more favorable body image evaluations, greater religious faith, and greater modesty than Americans. Also, religious faith was positively correlated with better body image for both groups. Although religious faith and modesty were weak predictors of better body image, culture was found …

Understanding Jurors’ Judgments In Cases Involving Juvenile Defendants: Effects Of Confession Evidence And Intellectual Disability, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Juveniles are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes, particularly if they are intellectually disabled. We conducted a mock trial experiment to investigate the effects of a juvenile defendant’s confession and status as intellectually disabled on jurors’ decision making. As expected, jurors discounted a juvenile’s coerced confession: Jurors’ judgments were similar for a juvenile who was perceived to have confessed under coercion and a juvenile who did not confess. In general, these effects were explained by the fact that, compared to a juvenile who was perceived as having confessed voluntarily, a juvenile who was perceived as having confessed under …

An Analysis Of Shifting Preferences For Tasks Involved In Contingency Schedules, Sarah Sinai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This experiment evaluated the effects of noncontingent and contingent access on relative preference for items identified through a series of preference assessments. Four typically developing children participated in multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessments to establish a relative hierarchy of preferred activities. Following the MSWO, the participants were exposed to contingent access or noncontingent access conditions that were separated by preference assessments to assess stability of the preference hierarchy. Results were discussed in terms of preference, preference shifts, and the response deprivation hypothesis.

Creative Careers And Self-Actualization, Kaitlyn T. Cameron

Honors Theses and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to address differences in self-actualization, satisfaction with life, and motivation that exist between individuals in careers of varying levels of creativity. Roughly 330 participants mainly from the United States and India took part in the study. Participants completed a survey on Amazon Mechanical Turk in which they rated their career as not at all creative, somewhat creative, or highly creative. The survey included questions from the Brief Index of Self-Actualization by Sumerlin and Budrick and the Satisfaction with Life scale by Emmons et al. The findings showed that individuals who rated their careers as …

Study, Feedback And Recall, Brenda Taylor-Moody

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Self-Regulated Learning And The English-Spanish Learning Task, Jonathan J. Berry

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

The Antecedents And Outcomes Of Mcgregor's Theory Endorsement, Amy Elizabeth Sund

Wayne State University Theses

Despite being used to categorize individuals, little is known about McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y. It is hypothesized that a number of personal traits and personal values predict theory endorsement and that endorsement is subsequently related to stress and health related outcomes. Results support the notion that individual differences are related to endorsement. Further, theory endorsement is related to stress, which mediates the relationship between theory endorsement and health.

Trauma Severity And Defensive Emotion-Regulation Reactions As Predictors Of Forgetting Childhood Trauma, Bette L. Bottoms, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Michelle A. Epstein, Matthew J. Badanek

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Using a retrospective survey, we studied a sample of 1679 college women to determine whether reports of prior forgetting of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and other traumas could be explained by trauma severity and individual differences in the use of defensive emotion-regulation reactions (i.e., repressive coping, dissociation, and fantasy proneness). Among victims of physical abuse (but not sexual abuse or other types of trauma), those who experienced severe abuse and used defensive reactions were sometimes more likely to report temporary forgetting of abuse, but other times less likely to report forgetting. We also found unanticipated main effects of trauma severity …

Law, Environment, And The “Nondismal” Social Sciences, William Boyd, Douglas Kysar, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Over the past 30 years, the influence of economics over the study of environmental law and policy has expanded considerably, becoming in the process the predominant framework for analyzing regulations that address pollution, natural resource use, and other environmental issues. This review seeks to complement the expansion of economic reasoning and methodology within the field of environmental law and policy by identifying insights to be gleaned from various “nondismal” social sciences. In particular, three areas of inquiry are highlighted as illustrative of interdisciplinary work that might help to complement law and economics and, in some cases, compensate for it: the …

Predictors Of Bullying In An Adolescent School Sample, Schell Hufstetler

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Author's abstract: Bullying is a pervasive problem in our society. Contributing to this problem is the fact that bullying is not well understood. This makes it difficult to design successful interventions. The current study aims to create a complete picture of bullying in order to increase understanding of this behavior. For this study, 59 adolescents completed a survey packet including measures of bullying behaviors and other variables expected to relate to bullying. The results revealed that bullying is a problem for both genders. Multivariate analyses revealed males to be more directly and indirectly aggressive, but there were no significant gender …

The Effects Of Stress-Reducing Interventions On Perceived Test Anxiety And Achievement Of Nursing Students, Julie Mcdaniel

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Point Values And Time Constraints On Self-Regulated Learning, Barbara J. Wright

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Do Clark’S Nutcrackers Demonstrate What-Where-When Memory On A Cache-Recovery Task?, Kristy L. Gould, Amy J. Ort, Alan C. Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

What-where-when (WWW) memory during cache recovery was investigated in six Clark’s nutcrackers. During caching, both red- and blue-colored pine seeds were cached by the birds in holes filled with sand. Either a short (3 day) retention interval (RI) or a long (9 day) RI was followed by a recovery session during which caches were replaced with either a single seed or wooden bead depending upon the color of the cache and length of the retention interval. Knowledge of what was in the cache (seed or bead), where it was located, and when the cache had been made (3 or 9 …

Are There Sex Differences In Reaction To Different Types Of Sexual Infidelity?, T. Joel Wade, Ryan Kelley, Dominique Church

Faculty Journal Articles

Evolutionary theory based research shows that women and men can differ in their responses to sexual and emotional infidelity. However, research has not examined the question of whether men and women react similarly or differently to a partner’s engagement in different types of sexual infidelity. The present research sought to answer this question. Based on the aforementioned prior research, and short term mating desires, sex differences in reactions to different types of sexual infidelity were not expected. Both women and men were expected to report higher levels of upset when a partner engaged in sexual intercourse rather than when a …