Health Psychology Commons^™

Examining The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy And Health Behaviors Among College Students, Brent D. Fisk

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Adolescents’ transition into adulthood often coincides with significant developmental change processes. Behavioral patterns established during this period can determine risk and quality of life trajectories (Ben-Shlomo & Kuh, 2002, Halfon & Hochstein, 2002). Social support facilitates health behavior change and college students have ready access to peers with shared goals. In addition to social support, self-efficacy has also been associated with student health as a protective and predictive factor of healthy behaviors (Von Ah, Ebert, Ngamvitroj, Park, & Kang, 2004). Research indicates a strong relationship between self-efficacy and health behaviors; however, the direction of causality is unclear and there is …

Does Social Support Diminish Depression In Students? Evidence From Athletes And Greek Life, Benjamin Chartoff, Myra Beth Bundy

Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Depression and stress are extremely prevalent in college students. The goal of the current study was to examine if social support from athletic teams and fraternities or sororities are related to lower levels of depression and stress than that found in students normally. Participants (N=134) were asked to fill out a questionnaire with scales of depression, stress and social support. It was hypothesized that members of Greek life and student-athletes will show higher levels of social support and lower levels of depression compared to a control group of students. The results supported these hypotheses and suggest that joining social groups …

Weight Stigma, Cognitions, And Disordered Eating, Sarah E. Pelfrey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Weight stigma experiences affect people of all weights and have many negative consequences; despite this, weight stigma is still an acceptable prejudice in our society. Research has established that weight stigma is predictive of disordered eating (DE) cognitions, which are, in turn, predictive of DE behaviors. The current study explored the unique contribution DE cognitions make to DE behaviors while controlling for other DE cognitions. The DE cognitions examined in the current study were drive for thinness, weight bias internalization, and perfectionism. The DE behaviors examined were emotional eating, restrained eating, inappropriate compensatory behaviors, and binge-eating. Weight bias internalization and …

Relationships Of Weight-Related Dissatisfaction, Body Image Flexibility, And Coping In Women, Pooja Shah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The present study examined the relationships between body image flexibility, body image dissatisfaction, body image evaluation, and specific coping factors based on the WEIGHTCOPE measure. Body image flexibility was also examined as a mediator of the relationship between body image dissatisfaction and weight-related coping factors in women. Methods: An online link of the survey (Qualtrics Research Software Program) was distributed through social media and word of mouth to women of all body shapes and sizes (N= 267). The survey included the BICS as a measure of body image dissatisfaction, the MBSR (AE) as a measure of body …

Peer Rejection And Emotion Development: The Role Of Peer Rejection And Coming Out On Emotional Health Among Gay And Bisexual Men, Joseph A. Carter

Theses and Dissertations

Gay and bisexual men experience a higher prevalence of negative mental health outcomes than their heterosexual counterparts. This study examines sexual identity milestone achievement—the age of first coming out to friends—for mediation on the association between childhood experiences of peer rejection and levels of emotion dysregulation in adulthood.

Effect Of Activity Trackers And Text Messaging On Exercise, Fitness, And Physical Activity Self-Efficacy Of Middle School Students, Alison F. Pittman

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

A decrease in physical activity as children age is a contributing factor to the U.S. obesity epidemic. Middle school children are particularly vulnerable to sedentary activities. Activity trackers show promise as a means to motivate children and adults to increase physical activity (PA). This study examined the effect of a text messaging intervention and use of activity trackers with a companion social website on the body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, physical fitness, and PA self-efficacy of middle school children. Children aged 11-14 (n=102) were randomly assigned to one of three groups for a 10-week intervention: activity tracker group; …

Sleep Deprivation And Voluntary Alcohol Consumption In Adult Rats, Charles M. Cowan Ii

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Alcohol is a psychoactive drug with a large userbase among adults across the globe. However, alcohol use also reduces the quality of sleep in the user. Historically, research has focused on the effects of alcohol on sleep architecture, but recent research has started to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on alcohol consumption. This research examines the effects of sleep deprivation on voluntary alcohol consumption in adult rats. Twelve Sprague Dawley rats were given ad libitum access to food, alcohol (7% solution), and water for the duration of this study. Subjects were then placed into non-moving forced exercise wheels to …

The Role Of Simulation In Mixed-Methods Research: A Framework & Application To Patient Safety, Jeanne-Marie Guise, Matthew Hansen, William E. Lambert, Kerth O'Brien

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Research in patient safety is an important area of health services research and is a national priority. It is challenging to investigate rare occurrences, explore potential causes, and account for the complex, dynamic context of healthcare - yet all are required in patient safety research. Simulation technologies have become widely accepted as education and clinical tools, but have yet to become a standard tool for research.

Methods: We developed a framework for research that integrates accepted patient safety models with mixed- methods research approaches and describe the performance of the framework in a working example of a large …

How To Measure Well-Being At Work And Why It Matters, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Supported staff are key drivers of high performing workplaces

Reconstruction Of The Destroyed Sinjali Secondary School, Isabella Kaganowski

Sustainability and Social Justice

This practitioner paper chronicles my involvement of the grant writing proposal that was designed on behalf of a non-for-profit organization, the Association of Dalit Women’s Advancement of Nepal (ADWAN), in order to secure funding and donations for the reconstruction of the destroyed Sinjali Secondary School in Gorkha district, Taklung village, after a 2015 earthquake struck Nepal. The proposal was guided by and collaborated with Professor Jude Fernando of Clark University, as Professor Fernando was able to visit Taklung village and gather information about the needs in the educational sector damaged by the earthquake. Literature review and research was gathered to …

Imposed Versus Affect-Based Resistance Training Intensities On Adherence, Session Affect, Session Perceived Exertion, And Intrinsic Motivation Measures During A Six-Week Program In Novice Female Lifters 2017, Ryan Joseph Brennan

Master's Theses

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that individuals perform resistance training exercises at a specific intensity based on external load (percentage of one repetition maximum; %1RM). However, only 29.6% of adults in 2013 reported strength training two or more times per week. Furthermore, individuals lifting at recommended percentages vary in their pleasure and displeasure. Self-selected exercise seems to promote positive affective responses, in part, due to the perceived autonomy. The effects of regulating exercise intensity using affect as opposed to imposed intensities as a means for improved fitness, promoting exercise behavior, and enhancing other psychological outcomes have yet …

The Effect Of Stigma On Intimate Partner Violence Reporting Among Men Who Have Sex With Men, Wesley Eugene Harris

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study examined the relation between stigma and reporting of intimate partner violence (IPV) in a sample of men who have sex with men (MSM). It was hypothesized that enacted stigma would result in lower reporting of IPV and that the type of IPV would moderate the relationship between enacted stigma and reporting. Using an online survey, we measured IPV (physical, psychological, and sexual violence) and stigma (perceived, enacted, and internalized). Participants (N = 46) were asked if they had ever experienced any of those forms of violence, as well as if they had ever reported the violence through an …

Individual Difference Variables And Social Learning: An Investigation Into Expectancies, Philip Andrew Wiliamson

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Bandura (1969, 1985) proposed social learning theory (SLT) as a theoretical framework through which behaviors can be predicted. SLT offers an explanation to thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are learned. Alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs) are defined as the physiological or psychological consequences that are anticipated following the consumption of alcohol (Goldman, Boca, & Darkes, 1999). Expectancies enhance or diminish a person’s willingness to engage in drinking behaviors. SLT and AOEs converge as children watch adults and the media either consume and glorify alcohol or conversely vilify alcohol and shun its consumption. This study investigated whether individual difference variables (i.e., suggestibility, prior …

The Nurse’S Story: A Qualitative Study Of How Nurses Experience Caring For Patients Who Die Unexpectedly, Shantel Sullivan

All Theses And Dissertations

The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experience of compassion fatigue among nurse professionals in order to examine natural grieving reactions and how they potentially change nurses’ lives. The focus of this study included nurse professionals working in rural community hospitals in Upstate New York. The nurse professionals in the study were exclusively those who identify and practice as registered nurses (RN). The nurses were asked to share their experiences of repetitive exposure to critical incidents (unexpected outcomes, mass casualties, and/or death of infant/child/young adult). Purposive sampling was utilized as a means to select participants. The …

A Qualitative Study Of The Healthcare Experiences Of Hispanic/Latino Persons Of Limited English Proficiency In The Rural Midwest, Emily Pauli

Honors Thesis

The U.S. population is becoming more diverse, and this diversity calls for adaptations that allow our healthcare system to adequately care for all individuals. The group that is currently growing the most quickly in the United States is Hispanics/Latinos (United States Census Bureau, 2016). This group faces additional challenges when it comes to receiving healthcare services, particularly when it comes to rural settings. For those Hispanics/Latinos with limited English proficiency (LEP) residing in rural settings, it can be quite difficult to access healthcare in Spanish, creating for less-than-ideal healthcare experiences.

In the following pages, we will examine some of the …

The Influence Of Values And Recipient Groups On Social Welfare Policy Opinion, Christopher Pulliam

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The following paper examines how value-based considerations for social welfare policy opinion are affected by changes in the race of the program recipient. I propose a new model to understand social welfare policy opinion called the interactive model—where instrinsic considerations are tempered by extrinsic considerations. Through an original survey experiment, I find that humanitarianism and economic individualism do not have significant effects on social welfare policy opinion. However, egalitarianism is found to have a strong impact. When the race of the program recipient is changed from white to African-American, the impact of egalitarianism increases for views of Medicare. When the …

Humor In Medicine: A Literature Review Of Humor’S Potential Therapeutic Value In Health Care, Weston Michael Grant

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Using humor and laughter within the health care field has the potential to be relevant to patients during treatment, to the patient-caregiver relationship, to the subjective well-being of health care providers, and to the environments’ (e.g., work settings) impact on group relationships (e.g., colleagues). A review of the literature examines how the psychological and physiological effects of laughter and humor within the human body impact health and well-being, how humor and laughter improve the patient-practitioner relationship, and if humor and laughter can potentially impact physician burnout. Several possible implications for these findings are discussed, such as professional medical comedians, improvements …

Structural And Functional Neural Correlates Of A Mind-Body Connection., Leonard Faul

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The human brain underlies the complex cognitive processes of the mind, however, this is dependent upon the physiological processes of the body in order to receive adequate energy, oxygen, and blood flow. Therefore, physical measurements such as body mass index (BMI) and indices of cognitive functioning, such as intelligence, may be related via common neural features. Current analyses assessed morphometric differences in cortical and subcortical grey matter regions, white matter structural integrity, and resting-state functional activation in order to determine what combinations of neural variables predict BMI and intelligence (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence; WASI) with the best degree of …

Alcohol Related Rural Emergency Department Use: A Treatment Opportunity, Ezekiel Sanders

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The negative impact of alcohol on an individual’s social, psychological, and physiological health is well known. Despite this knowledge, it remains a prevalent problem in our society. Residents of rural communities encounter a wide range of risk factors including poverty, unemployment, and limited access to healthcare. These factors can influence both the prevalence and treatment for alcohol use disorders. With limited access to medical resources, the Emergency Department (ED) can become the default provider for problems related to alcohol use. The reported prevalence of alcohol-related problems in the ED varies widely from an estimated 2% to 40% of all visits. …

Serving Syracuse Youth Through Mentorship, Neha Rauf

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project seeks to explore the use of mentorship as an intervention mechanism for at-risk youth in Syracuse, living with the consequences of poverty and community violence. The first part is an interview-based study that analyzes the effects on youth and mentors that participate in mentorship programs in Syracuse, New York focusing on the reciprocal nature of those benefits. While mentors guide urban youth through academic, social, and personal challenges, this study finds the principal benefits to the mentees interviewed were exposure to new opportunities and improved interpersonal and communication skills. Furthermore, the mentors themselves felt the relationship was an …