Theory and Philosophy Commons^™

Life Coaching -- Rising In Popularity Should It Be Regulated? A Look Into The Life And Work Of Emerging Life Coaching Star Gina Devee, Victoria R. Edwards

Capstones

The lifestyle and business coaching field is an international industry that grosses more than $2 billion, but it has no outside regulation. Some critics worry that without regulation harm can be brought to clients, but others say regulation would bring too much restriction into this growing industry.

How Do Designers Of The Built Environment Attempt To Make Ecological Sustainability Sensory Legible?, Carly L. Bartow

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper attempts to provide a theoretical framework for making ecosystem function and ecologically sustainable design more perceptible or sensible to people through architecture and the built environment. Design features of the Bertschi School Science Wing and the Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington are incorporated to illustrate the sensory legibility of ecological sustainability criteria.The criteria are available to designers to help educate a building's occupants on environmentally sustainable design and motivate more sustainable behavior.

A Theoretical Analysis Of Isis Indoctrination And Recruitment, Trevor Hawkins

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper is an attempt to use various theories in the social sciences as a tool to understand the mechanisms employed in ISIS indoctrination and recruitment tactics. There is a discussion of theories that have been developed in the field of influence psychology, rationalizing the context of indoctrination within this area of study. There is a discussion of proposedly relevant materials in philosophy, specifically simulacrum and linguistic deconstruction. These components are extrapolated to interpret a first person account of ISIS indoctrination, the first-ever ISIS recruitment film, and a Radical-Islamist periodical Inspire Magazine. Using a form of propaganda film analysis, and …

Animals In The Wild, Brittany Samson

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

As a photographer, I am extremely interested in the concept of perception and I let this concept drive most of my artistic work. I present four images from my photographic series “Animals in the Wild,” which explore this idea of perception. These four images: Giraffe, Dinosaur, Buffalo, and Bunny—are drastically varied photos that include no real animals, but instead beg the mind to perceive shapes, colors, figure, and coincidence as an animal.

Validating A Measure Of Ethnic Identity In Afro-Caribbean American Students, Keisha V. Thompson

Publications and Research

The purpose of this study was to validate the Multi group Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) on a sample of Afro- Caribbean American college students. This investigation is unique in that it disaggregated the data to go beyond the usual labels of Black and African American used in past validation studies. Due to being subsumed in the past under such monikers, information on the ethnic identity of Afro-Caribbean American college students has largely been missing from the literature. This investigation served as a comparison to past investigations on ethnic identity in populations of African descent. The results of this study indicated …

The Discursive Functioning Of Knowledge Claims In Research Studies On Children’S Conceptual Knowledge Of Number, Patrick D. Byers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Researchers interested in the development of conceptual knowledge of number have studied children’s behavior in various tasks or other contexts in order to draw conclusions about what they know. The guiding assumption of this work is that the presence or absence of a given form of knowledge is typically reflected in the ability/inability to perform certain types of behavior. Researchers complicate this assumption when they claim that (1) the ability to perform a given behavior may also reflect simple imitation or rote learning in the absence of understanding, and/or (2) that the inability to perform a certain behavior may reflect …

Ptsd From Childhood Trauma As A Precursor To Attachment Issues, Christy Owen

Fidei et Veritatis: The Liberty University Journal of Graduate Research

The past 20 years have been turbulent regarding Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), with conflicting research about its causes, effects, treatment, and prognosis. The current diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5 fails to adequately address this disorder. A number of deviant and maladaptive behaviors common amongst children with RAD are not even mentioned in the diagnostic criteria. As such, the diagnostic definition is almost unidentifiable or incompatible with real-life conduct manifestations of the disorder. Rather, this author contends that RAD is foundationally a unique and extreme form of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from Early Childhood Trauma. The child endured unspeakable neglect and/or …

Understanding Attitude Towards Help Seeking In Predicting Preference For Psychotherapeutic Orientation, Gregory J. Petronzi

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This research examined the extent to which people’s dispositional qualities predict their psychotherapy preferences. Additionally, this study examined the extent to which people’s attitude toward seeking professional psychological help would predict their psychotherapy preferences above and beyond their dispositional characteristics.

An online survey was administered to participants (N = 312) for remuneration. Personality traits were measured using the HEXACO-60, attachment styles were measured using the Relationships Questionnaire (RQ) and Experiences in Close Relationships Scale- Short Form (ECR-S), attitude toward help seeking was measured with the Attitude Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale – Short Form (ATSPPHS-SF), and psychotherapy preferences were …

Animals Are Agents, Linda A.W. Brakel

Animal Sentience

Mark Rowlands’s (2016) target article invites us to consider individuals in a broad subset of the non-human animal world as genuine persons. His account features animals reacting to salient environmental stimuli as Gibsonian affordances, which is indicative of “pre-reflective self-awareness.” He holds that such pre-reflective self-awareness is both “immune to error through misidentification” (Shoemaker, 1968) and a necessary precursor to reflective consciousness and personhood. I agree. In this commentary I hope to extend Rowlands’s work with a view in which agency is an even more fundamental precursor and one can (and should) consider individuals throughout the entire animal kingdom as …

The Grounds For Animal Subjectivity And Intersubjectivity, Timothy P. Racine

Animal Sentience

Harnad (2016) presents an engaging and persuasive argument that stakes out the aims and domain of the fledgling journal, Animal Sentience. As an inaugural editorial, it does this job masterfully, but it does so from a perspective that tends to treat mental states in an overly general manner and that makes hard distinctions between mental and behavioral phenomena. I argue that when it comes to animal minds, it might be more helpful to think of mental concepts in a more piecemeal way that also retains the intrinsic relation between mind and behavior.

The Behavioral Analysis Of Gambling, Benjamin Witts, Anne Macaskill, Mack Costello

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

A behavioral analysis of gambling is unique among the psychologies. A behavioral analysis seeks answers to questions pertaining to the prediction and influence of gambling in terms of the individual gambler, and thus emphasis is placed on well-controlled small-n studies in which findings are generalized to other individuals. Further, the behavioral analysis of gambling is concerned with environmental and historical relations in accounting for current gambling behavior, and less of a reliance is placed on internal and hypothetical causal factors. This symposium explores two data-driven analyses of gambling behavior from a behavioral account of gambling while a third conceptual and …

Boundaries And Belonging: Asian America, Psychology, And Psychoanalysis, Natalie C. Hung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation addresses a vexing problem. In psychology and psychoanalysis, Asian Americans are more often understood as a collective Other than as individual Selves, more frequently an object of study than a subject. Through two overarching aims, my dissertation sheds light on neglected aspects of Asian American selves, the meanings of the invisibility surrounding them, and implications for clinical practice.

First, the project challenges extant psychological perspectives on Asian Americans, which often implicitly assume a wide gulf of difference between Asian American cultural values and the Western epistemologies of psychology and psychoanalysis. Through the examination of academic research, clinical literature, …

Visual Code: Breaking The Binary, Jacob Johannesen, Andrew Adriance

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This project seeks to create an accessible programming language that is more visually based. Although some solutions exist, namely MIT’s Scratch, nothing has caught up to the mobile age. This proj- ect aims to reframe creating a game or app into the context of tell- ing a story, putting character creation first. By researching sto- ry-telling and how people learn, and by applying technical and user interface design knowledge, this project intends to deliver a soft- ware solution that opens introductory coding education to more people.

Perceptions Of Organizational Continuity: Scale Development And Implications For Organizational Outcomes, Gabino A. Gomez-Canul

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The following study examines the impact that perceptions of organizational continuity (POC) have on organizational identification (OI) and organizational outcomes, including organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and turnover intentions. It was proposed that POC would be an important factor in determining OI, OCBs, and turnover intentions. In order to test this proposition, a scale was developed that measured an individual’s POC within their organization with regards to the organization’s culture and history. A survey was distributed among working individuals that contained the new measure of POC and other established measures of an organization’s culture and values. The sample consisted of 394 …

Examining Well-Being Among College Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) And Co-Morbid Diagnoses: An Integrative Approach To Understanding Mental Health, Michael T. Strand

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Deficit and dysfunction in college students with ADHD diagnoses are now well studied and known to be commonplace in clinical psychology research literature (see Green & Rabiner, 2014, for review). However, areas of positive functioning and psychological well-being have not been well examined. This dissertation aims to investigate the extent to aspects of well-being may be more or less developed among college students carrying a diagnosis of ADHD, in comparison to their college peers. This examination utilized a subset of data collected from annual national “Healthy Minds” survey of college student mental health in the United States (Eisenberg, D., Hunt, …

More Than Meets The Eye: Taking A Look At Emdr In Trauma-Focused Therapy, Karen M. Engelhard

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

An abundance of research in trauma-focused therapy has been conducted and continues in the ongoing effort to increase evidence-based approaches to counseling practice. While the therapeutic intervention of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has existed for decades and is now widely accepted as an effective treatment method for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it continues to be surrounded by controversy and criticism as the utility of the eye-movements and its theoretical basis are still not well understood. In this paper, I have discussed theories of trauma and the impact on mind and body, the evolution of EMDR along with its …

Optimizing Workforce Performance: Perceived Differences Of Army Officer Critical Thinking Talent Across Level Of Education, Richard B. Ayers

Dissertations

The U.S. Army’s operating environment continues to become increasingly complex and unpredictable, where U.S. technological advantage continues to erode. The complexities stem from the Army’s doctrinal assumption that the future operating environment is unknown and constantly changing (Department of the Army [DA], 2014a). Diminishing technological advantage results in more reliance on soldiers’ cognitive capability, and less on high technology weapons systems (McMaster, 2015).

A review of military literature shows extensive research on the importance of Army leaders to be talented critical thinkers (Fischer, Spiker, & Riedel, 2008, 2009; Gerras, 2008; Thomas & Gentzler, 2013). Human capital literature reveals many college …

Interconnections Between Perceptions Of Blame, Mind, And Moral Abilities, Alex Ropes, Steve Guglielmo

Psychology Honors Projects

Theories of blame, mind, and moral attribution consider an individual’s perceived agency, operationalized in part as perceived intentionality and self-control. People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may display social deficits and a greater tendency to engage in problem behavior (PB; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) than neurotypical (NT) people, which may lead people to perceive that individuals with ASD act less agentically. Study 1 shows that the mitigated perceived agency of people with ASD leads to mitigated blame attribution. In addition to perceived agency, theories of mind and moral attribution account for perceptions of an individual’s capacity to experience emotions, pleasure, …

The Development Of The Scale Of Contemplative Practice In Higher Education, Maryann Krikorian

Educational Studies Dissertations

Some scholars have formed a more expansive view of knowledge that moves beyond the cognitive notion of intellect. For example, emotional intelligence (EI) theory posits that human intelligence encompasses both cognitive and emotional competencies, providing a framework for the concept of contemplative practices in an endeavor to support an eclectic understanding of cognition. Contemplative practices may benefit graduate student disposition and inform areas of educator preparation through the use of emotional adeptness in higher education. The purpose of this study was to: (a) develop a self-report measure: Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education (SCOPE); (b) address the issues of …

Family Communication Motivating Athletics Over Generations: A Mixed Method Expansion Of Self-Determination Theory, Elizabeth Hanson Smith

Dissertations

Mixed methods were utilized to test the communication within a model of self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985) in a multi-generational sports framework in order to argue for an update to self-determination theory (SDT) that includes a communication element. Fourteen qualitative research questions were posed to examine how communication functioned to move tennis players, golfers, and runners from the initial family influence in participating, to integrating family values to the extent that participants modeled athletic values to offspring and community members. Three hypotheses correlating the variables of self-efficacy, autonomy-controlling and autonomy-supportive family communication supported the argument that communication functioned to develop …

The Regret Elements Scale: Distinguishing The Affective And Cognitive Components Of Regret, Joshua Buchanan, Amy Summerville, Jennifer Lechmann, Jochen Reb

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Regret is one of the most common emotions, but researchers generally measure it in an ad-hoc, unvalidated fashion. Three studies outline the construction and validation of the Regret Elements Scale (RES), which distinguishes between an affective component of regret, associated with maladaptive affective outcomes, and a cognitive component of regret, associated with functional preparatory outcomes. The present research demonstrates the RES’s relationship with distress (Study 1), appraisals of emotions (Study 2), and existing measures of regret (Study 3). We further demonstrate the RES’s ability to differentiate regret from other negative emotions (Study 2) and related traits (Study 3). The scale …

Transition Outcomes Of Young Adults With Disabilities: A Social Cognitive Career Theory Perspective, Sabrina Michelle Singleton

Dissertations

Young adults with disabilities are impacted by the learning experiences they engage in as students that help shape their career development post-high school. Researchers have identified moderate-level transition predictors that improve post-school outcomes in employment, postsecondary education, and/or independent living. This study used the Social Cognitive Career Theory to examine if a relationship exists among race/ethnicity, gender, and disability type and transition predictors among young adults with disabilities in Mississippi who completed high school in May of 2013. Additionally, this study explored whether a relationship existed between career decision self-efficacy and engagement in employment or enrollment in postsecondary education. A …

Using Implicit Associations To Reveal Hidden Biases Toward Robots, Ashley Reardon, William Volante, Tracy Sanders, Peter Hancock

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

Previously, the Implicit Associations Test (IAT) has been used to measure attitudes toward different human variables (i.e. race, religion, age) (Fazio, R. H., & Olson, M. A., 2003). In this present study, we extend this research to examine biases toward robots by assessing the association between humans and robots with negative and positive stimuli. Participants were recruited at a large southeastern university in the U.S. (n = 23, M_age = 19). The IAT was created in the Qualtrics survey engine where it contains 7 tasks. An improved scoring algorithm was used to examine reaction times from tasks 3, …

Nature Connection: Theory, Evidence And Practice, Matt V. Bukowski

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

This presentation explores scholarly work at the intersection of mental health and the natural world in a variety of disciplines. My intent is to provide an overview of theoretical perspectives, research-based evidence, and clinical practices that support the idea that experiencing the natural world can improve human mental health outcomes.

A Conceptual Model Of Transfer Of Training Via Virtual Environments, Nathan A. Sonnenfeld, Matthew Meyers

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

A Conceptual Model of Transfer of Training via Virtual Environments Sonnenfeld, N.A., & Meyers, M. Presentation

A review of Transfer of Training (ToT) literature over the last several decades reveals both significant advancements and gaps in our conceptualization of the transfer process and its contributing factors - especially in the domain of training via the use of virtual environments. Updating our current model of the transfer of training process is necessary to ensure adequate preparation for personnel operating in extreme environments - particularly for those training for small unit operations in dynamic environments for extended periods of time - such …

Presence In Virtuality > Reality | Review & Commentary, Matthew Meyers, Nathan A. Sonnenfeld

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

Presence In Virtuality > Reality | Review & Commentary Meyers, M., & Sonnenfeld, A. Presentation

It has been demonstrated in previous literature that participants may feel more present in virtuality than in reality. Why is this? Our team of researchers propose that this phenomenon neither suggest invalidity in both objective and subjective presence measurement - nor invalidity of the construct itself. Presence, as the experience of being in an environment, is refined in our review from insight gained from three psychological schools of thought which have conflicted for over twenty years. Just as our definitions of presence evolved over the last …

East-West Psychology Newsletter, Ciis

East-West Psychology Newsletter

This is the Spring 2016 edition of EWP News.

Impact Of Assumption Violations On The Accuracy Of Direct Range Restriction Adjustments, Austin J. Hall

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

For decades researchers, analysts, and organizational professionals have utilized correction equations to adjust for the effects of various statistical artifacts. However, every correction method has certain assumptions that must be satisfied to work properly. These assumptions are likely rarely satisfied for range restriction corrections. As a result, these correction methods are used in a manner that can lead to incorrect results.

The current study employed a Monte Carlo design to examine the direct range restriction correction. Analyses were conducted to examine the accuracy of adjustments made with the direct range restriction correction when its assumption of perfect top-down selection was …

Hostage At The Table By George Kohlrieser: A Critical Book Review, Bimal Dahal, Muhammad Ilyas, Erika Krajcovicova, Myriam Marcuello-Lopez, Abdulah Saleh, Shadi Sheikh Saraf

Journal of Interdisciplinary Conflict Science

Being a hostage impedes. One must strive to get out of the hostage mindset and situation to realize peace. This review analyzes George Kohlrieser's approaches from peacebuilding perspective.

George Kohlrieser is a professor of leadership and organizational behavior, psychologist, and veteran hostage negotiator. In his book Hostage at the Table, he contends that conflict resolution is not difficult if we understand how human self-esteem operates. He believes that deep within humans reside slumbering powers that most of us do not even activate. These latent powers can revolutionize our lives if aroused and put into action.

In the following pages, …

Let Fall: Hysteria And The Psychoanalytic Act, Matthew W. Oyer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This text proposes to examine the contemporary crisis of psychoanalysis by taking seriously feminist critiques of the theory’s phallocentrism, but arguing that the phallus cannot be metaphorically or metonymically replaced by any substitutive term, as most revisionist theories of psychoanalysis have sought to do. Castration is the central psychoanalytic concept, though the theory always seeks to cover it over. In order to develop a psychoanalysis that can confront this castration that is always repressed and yet, in its persistent return, continuously disrupts the continuity of psychoanalytic theory, a detour is proposed, returning to the origins of psychoanalysis and taking hysteria …