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Electronic Theses and Dissertations

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Articles 3001 - 3030 of 5786

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Navigating Sociotechnical Power Structures: Dynamics Of Conflict In World Of Warcraft's Player Versus Player Events, Rachael Root Jan 2016

Navigating Sociotechnical Power Structures: Dynamics Of Conflict In World Of Warcraft's Player Versus Player Events, Rachael Root

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a result of technological advancement and exponential increases in global access, cross-disciplinary research has recently turned to digital online video games. Most anthropological research within this area has centered around player self-identification, gender construction, and gaming communities. Yet many interactions occur at nodes of dynamic conflict where agentic players navigate intersections of power, which are unaddressed in the scholarly corpus. By utilizing ethnographic methods in World of Warcraft's player versus player events, I examine resources, relationships, and tools that underpin player actions and understandings. My findings reveal layered and dynamic patterns of sociotechnical conflict. Players' geographical location impacts access …

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The Impact Of A Strengths-Based Group Counseling Intervention On Lgbtq+ Young Adult's Coping, Social Support, And Coming Out Growth, Shainna Ali Jan 2016

The Impact Of A Strengths-Based Group Counseling Intervention On Lgbtq+ Young Adult's Coping, Social Support, And Coming Out Growth, Shainna Ali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals, and those who otherwise identify as a minority in terms of affectional orientation and gender expression identity (LGBTQ+) have a higher rate of mental health concerns than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts (Meyer, 2003). Young adulthood is a difficult time for individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ as internal identity development processes coincide with stressors from the outside world. The conflict between intrapersonal and interpersonal pressures may evoke a multitude of negative emotions such as anxiety, loneliness, isolation, fear, anger, resentment, shame, guilt, and fear. One difficult task that triggers these depreciating sentiments is …

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Tobacco Prevention And Cessation Policies And Youth Tobacco Use In Florida Public Schools, Amanda Terry Jan 2016

Tobacco Prevention And Cessation Policies And Youth Tobacco Use In Florida Public Schools, Amanda Terry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and premature death in the United States. In 2014, an estimated 16.8% of adults were current cigarette smokers, and 9.2% of high school students smoked cigarettes. Nearly 90% of smokers developed their habit as teenagers, and students' tobacco use in high school influences their behaviors later in adulthood. Smoking behaviors appear to be inseparable from the social environment, physical environment, small social groups, and cognitive and affective processes. Preventive strategies, such as advertising bans, clean indoor air laws, education programs, increased taxes, labeling limitations, mass-media campaigns, and youth access regulations, have …

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She's Not Fit For The Business World: An Initial Examination Of Gender, Age, And Weight, Miranda Pelkey Jan 2016

She's Not Fit For The Business World: An Initial Examination Of Gender, Age, And Weight, Miranda Pelkey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined archetype theory (Marcus & Fritzsche, 2015) that suggests that the intersection of multiple group memberships will create a unique cognitive representation, as it is relates to sex, age, and weight. Following a pilot study to equate photos on attractiveness, perceived competence, professionalism, and intelligence, 183 participants reviewed a fictitious LinkedIn profile in which all information was held constant across participants except the photo. Using a 2 (sex) x 2 (age) x 2 (weight) design (manipulated through the photos), participants rated the job applicant on adjectives associated with proposed sex, age, and weight archetypes and on perceptions …

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The Influence Of Online Dating On Emerging Adults' Levels Of Empathy, Objectification Of Others, And Quality Of Romantic Relationships, Zachary Bloom Jan 2016

The Influence Of Online Dating On Emerging Adults' Levels Of Empathy, Objectification Of Others, And Quality Of Romantic Relationships, Zachary Bloom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the directional relationship between emerging adults' intensity of online dating and their levels of empathy, objectification of others, and quality of romantic relationships. This investigation tested the theoretical model that emerging adults' (N = 1,613) intensity of online dating (as measured by the Online Dating Intensity Scale [ODI]) contributed to their levels of empathy (as measured by the Adolescent Measure of Empathy and Sympathy [AMES]; Vossen, Piotrowski, & Valkenburg, 2015), objectification of others (as measured by the Sexual-Other Objectification Scale [SOOS]), and quality of relationships with romantic partners (as measured by …

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Attitudes Toward Cohabitation: A Cross Sectional Study, Kensington Shields-Dutton Jan 2016

Attitudes Toward Cohabitation: A Cross Sectional Study, Kensington Shields-Dutton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cohabitation and attitudes toward cohabitation have been of interest to social scientists since the 1970s. Early research on cohabitation concentrated on college aged students enrolled at institutions of higher learning. This trend was due to convenience sampling (Trost, 1978). Later research demonstrated the college population represented less than half of the total number of cohabitating persons. With the growth in numbers of persons who are choosing to cohabitate versus marrying, this study examines current attitudes towards cohabitation. This research augments the existing literature on attitudes toward cohabitation in the following ways: (1) it updates the current research on the attitudes …

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Bioarchaeological Investigations Of The Red House Archaeological Site, Port Of Spain, Trinidad: A Pre-Columbian, Mid-Late Ceramic Age Caribbean Population., Patrisha Meyers Jan 2016

Bioarchaeological Investigations Of The Red House Archaeological Site, Port Of Spain, Trinidad: A Pre-Columbian, Mid-Late Ceramic Age Caribbean Population., Patrisha Meyers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2013 structural assessments associated with ongoing renovations of the Red House, Trinidad and Tobago's Parliament building, revealed human remains buried beneath the foundation. Excavations and radiocarbon dating indicate the remains are pre-Columbian with 14C dates ranging between approximately AD 125 and AD 1395. Due to the small overall sample size and the inability to attribute all individuals to a specific Amerindian period, the skeletal sample was considered as an aggregate. A bioarchaeological assessment of excavated graves and associated human skeletal material was conducted to determine the demographic profile and the pathological conditions exhibited by the collective skeletal 'population.' Osteological …

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The Hammer Or The Anvil: Developing Operational Adaptability Through Simulations At The Tactical Level, Michael Mccarthy Jan 2016

The Hammer Or The Anvil: Developing Operational Adaptability Through Simulations At The Tactical Level, Michael Mccarthy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Operational Adaptability is a vital characteristic identified by senior Army leaders in today's military force. The U.S. Army is struggling with the definition and training of operational adaptability at the tactical level. In order to be a critical enhancement to the operational mission, operational adaptability needs to be trained through a training model that supports current U.S. Army doctrine. To develop a base foundation of operational adaptability, Soldiers must train as a collective unit in a simulated operational environment in order to apply characteristics of operational adaptability.

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Common Ground: Uniting Archaeology And Secondary Social Studies Curricula, Jeremy Allen Haas Jan 2016

Common Ground: Uniting Archaeology And Secondary Social Studies Curricula, Jeremy Allen Haas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Archaeologists have been attempting to establish stronger connections with communities for several decades. Concepts such as stewardship can be presented to a larger audience, and archaeology can be a valuable tool for public education. Public schools across the nation are struggling to improve with limited resources. Archaeology can provide teachers with inexpensive resources that improve student learning while simultaneously helping teachers meet more rigorous standards. Using historical, archaeological, and cultural resources from the World War II Japanese American internment camp, Amache, I created a new supplementary curriculum that focused on the experience of Japanese and Japanese Americans during that era. …

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Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn: The Role Of Sensation Seeking, Impulsivity, And Empathy In Cyberbullying, Anandi C. Ehman Jan 2016

Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn: The Role Of Sensation Seeking, Impulsivity, And Empathy In Cyberbullying, Anandi C. Ehman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the potential role of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and empathy in cyberbullying behavior directed towards known and unknown persons. Sensation seeking is one’s propensity to desire novel situations and stimuli. Impulsivity is one’s tendency to engage in behavior without regard for potential consequences. Empathy is conceptualized as one’s ability to understand the experiences and emotions of others. Cyberbullying is the act of intentionally aggressing against another individual via some form of technology. University of Mississippi students (N=393) participated in an online survey and completed measures of the aforementioned variables. Cyberbullying behavior was measured in the context of aggressing …

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Examination Of The Relationship Between Religiosity And Psychological Well-Being: A Multiple Mediation Analysis, Tara Katrina Luchkiw Jan 2016

Examination Of The Relationship Between Religiosity And Psychological Well-Being: A Multiple Mediation Analysis, Tara Katrina Luchkiw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

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Community Newspapers In The Digital Age A Case Study: The Pass Christian, Mississippi Gazebo Gazette, Jace R. Ponder Jan 2016

Community Newspapers In The Digital Age A Case Study: The Pass Christian, Mississippi Gazebo Gazette, Jace R. Ponder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Print newspapers in the 21st century America exist in a diverse media landscape. Radio, television and online media all compete with newspapers to reach news consumers. With 24-hour cable news and the widespread adoption of the internet, information is available to viewers and readers anytime and anywhere. Much of that information is available free of charge. Traditionally, advertising revenue has carried the costs of print news production. But as the media pie gets cut smaller and smaller, that traditional model is failing to support print newspapers. In the five years since 2010, America has seen a net loss of 331 …

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Order Behavior In High Frequency Markets, Brian Roseman Jan 2016

Order Behavior In High Frequency Markets, Brian Roseman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Part 1, I study the characteristics of short orders in stock markets. Fleeting orders are quick limit orders that remain on the limit order book for only a few seconds before being canceled, and are significantly different than more patient, static, limit orders that are added to the limit order book and await execution. I investigate the impact that fleeting orders have on spread and depth measures of market quality, and how fleeting orders differ from static orders. Attention is also given to the extent that total depth can be decomposed into the two components of fleeting and static …

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State Of Mississippi Crisis Communications: Examining Mswin Preparedness, Michael Knox Graham Jan 2016

State Of Mississippi Crisis Communications: Examining Mswin Preparedness, Michael Knox Graham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the Mississippi Wireless Information Network (MSWIN) and its level of preparedness to avert the communication problems for the State of Mississippi that were seen during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, in the event of a similar crisis. It explores the technical workings of the network and the makeup of the Mississippi Wireless Communication Commission (WCC) who oversees MSWIN. It also takes a look at similar networks in Louisiana and Arkansas to compare and contrast those to what is in Mississippi. Primary interviews with the WCC, State of Mississippi officials, and others on the Mississippi Gulf Coast paint a …

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Fluorine Dating Of Human Bone At The Pre-Columbian Maya Cemetery Of Caves Branch Rockshelter, Belize, Morgan Isaacs Jan 2016

Fluorine Dating Of Human Bone At The Pre-Columbian Maya Cemetery Of Caves Branch Rockshelter, Belize, Morgan Isaacs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tests the ion-selective electrode fluorine dating method on the remains from the Maya mortuary site Caves Branch Rockshelter (CBR) in Belize. CBR is a cemetery containing at least 400 burials from the late Preclassic to the Postclassic periods. The intensive use and reuse of the site has disturbed the burial matrices, making it difficult to seriate the burials. Fluorine dating analyzes the amount of fluorine that has accumulated in bone over time. In principle, an older burial will contain more fluorine from groundwater than a more recently buried bone; however, this principle must be tested at each site …

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I Speak Better Arabic: Arabic Native Speakers’ Perception Of Arabic Dialects, Mahmoud Sayed Abdel-Fattah Abdel-Rahman Jan 2016

I Speak Better Arabic: Arabic Native Speakers’ Perception Of Arabic Dialects, Mahmoud Sayed Abdel-Fattah Abdel-Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A limited number of studies in the field of perceptual dialectology covered the Arab World. This is a perceptual dialectology study that aims at investigating Arabic native speakers’ perception of Arabic dialect areas. This study utilized a questionnaire that is based on Preston’s (1999) techniques for investigating perceptual dialectology. This questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part includes a detailed map of the Arab world and participants are asked to identify as many dialect areas of Arabic as they could. The second part of the questionnaire investigates Arabic native speakers’ perception of different Arabic dialects in terms of where …

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Brain Drain Or Brain Gain? Cognitive Skill Training With Novice Video Game Players With Casual Video Games, Sean Hollis Jan 2016

Brain Drain Or Brain Gain? Cognitive Skill Training With Novice Video Game Players With Casual Video Games, Sean Hollis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video game playing (vgp) has become a popular and widespread form of entertainment over the past two decades. This form of media is now popular with children, adolescents, and adults alike. While most early research on the effects of vgp focused on the relation of violence in video games and expressions of aggression, more recent research has begun to explore possible beneficial effects of vgp. Study results have been inconsistent, with some suggesting that vgp may improve various cognitive skills such as spatial skills, attentional skills, executive control, and problem solving. Other studies refute or qualify these findings. Additionally, different …

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The Human Dimensions Of Pollinator Conservation : Perception, Practice, And Policy In The Lowbush Blueberry Industry, Kourtney K. Collum Jan 2016

The Human Dimensions Of Pollinator Conservation : Perception, Practice, And Policy In The Lowbush Blueberry Industry, Kourtney K. Collum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents comparative research of diverse agricultural actors involved in lowbush blueberry productions in Maine, USA and Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, in order to explore the factors that influence on-farm pollinator conservation. The research is presented through three distinct projects. In the first project, my collaborators and I ask: how do growers perceive and understand pollination in agricultural systems, and how do growers’ perceptions influence their willingness and ability to enact on-farm bee conservation? Drawing on semi-structured interviews with conventional growers, we present growers’ cultural models of pollination management and pollinator conservation. Our analysis reveals that the messages …

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Linearly Stressed To Death: Consideration Of Early Childhood Stress As A Main Contributor To The Regional Variability In Classic Maya Mortuary Profiles, Nicholas Billstrand Jan 2016

Linearly Stressed To Death: Consideration Of Early Childhood Stress As A Main Contributor To The Regional Variability In Classic Maya Mortuary Profiles, Nicholas Billstrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Late and Terminal Classic periods were times of great social, economic, and political change in Maya civilization. Scholars have suggested that increasing levels of dietary stress during this time may have been the result of ecological instability, drought, warfare, and significant levels of population movement across the Maya lowlands. All of these processes may have affected human health and left measurable markers of stress in human skeletal material. The burial population recovered from two sites on Ambergris Caye, located near the coast of Belize, have significantly more sub-adult individuals than sites in inland Belize, such as Actuncan, suggesting the …

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Prices, Trading Activity, And Market Quality In The Modern Otc Marketplace, Ryan Davis Jan 2016

Prices, Trading Activity, And Market Quality In The Modern Otc Marketplace, Ryan Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Part 1, I study over 10,000 OTC securities that are organized into one of three tiered marketplaces (OTCQX, OTCQB, and OTC Pink) based on the quality and quantity of information a firm makes available. My analysis adds to the literature by providing a more complete picture of trading in this market. I examine determinants of trading within the tiers and compare trading metrics of the biggest return winners and losers during the sample period. I also examine if day-of-the week effects previously documented for listed securities exist in the OTC market. A large portion of these securities are penny …

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The Influence Of Perceived Barriers, Perceived Social Support, And Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy On High School Juniors' And Seniors' Postsecondary Plans, Denise Antwainette Gilstrap Jan 2016

The Influence Of Perceived Barriers, Perceived Social Support, And Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy On High School Juniors' And Seniors' Postsecondary Plans, Denise Antwainette Gilstrap

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

National emphasis on postsecondary education highlights the importance of studies that investigate students’ college and career readiness, specifically how self-efficacy and contextual factors may affect their postsecondary aspirations. The primary purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the influence of perceived barriers, perceived social support, and career decision-making self-efficacy on high school juniors’ and seniors’ postsecondary plans. High school juniors and seniors (n = 124) were surveyed to determine the influence of three predictors on their short-term and long-term postsecondary plans. The first predictor, perceptions of educational barriers, consisted of the following barrier groups: efficacy and motivation, support system, …

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Framing Ole Miss Coverage In Mississippi Newspapers, Christina Steube Jan 2016

Framing Ole Miss Coverage In Mississippi Newspapers, Christina Steube

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The University of Mississippi, a public institution also known as Ole Miss, is naturally of public interest and consequently is the subject of constant, and sometimes controversial, media coverage. Through the last few years, Ole Miss Athletics has garnered much of that media attention due to its recent successes. However, coverage at Ole Miss, independent of its athletic programs, gets media coverage in a much different way. Sometimes that coverage will involve academic achievements, large financial donations and campus changes. However, other types of coverage, especially over the last four years, have been controversial, dealing with student conduct issues and …

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Linguistic Variations Between Cajun French, Pedagogical French, And Mississippi Gulf Coast French, Virginia Jane Geddie Jan 2016

Linguistic Variations Between Cajun French, Pedagogical French, And Mississippi Gulf Coast French, Virginia Jane Geddie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates lexical variation between three dialects of French in various stages of language death. Those dialects are Pedagogical French, an international language, Cajun French, an obsolescing language, and Mississippi Gulf Coast French, an extinct language. In order to determine the degree of variation, thirty-two lexical items or phrases that display variance with Pedagogical French are selected from Mississippi Gulf Coast French. They are then compared with counterparts in Pedagogical French and Cajun French to determine the amount of variance between dialects. I hypothesized that there is a larger degree of variation between the Gulf Coast dialects and Pedagogical …

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Kiezdeutsch: Perceptions Of A Metropolitan Dialect Of German, Emily Claire Krauter Jan 2016

Kiezdeutsch: Perceptions Of A Metropolitan Dialect Of German, Emily Claire Krauter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explain perceptions of the German dialect Kiezdeutsch. The basis for the research came from four recorded interviews of male and female Kiezdeutsch speakers. I used the Kiezdeutsch recordings to perform research at the University of Mississippi by interviewing nine different German students who were studying abroad for the semester. The interviewees were separated into three different focus groups. I then performed a pilot study of perceptual dialectology folloby an open discussion. Although my sample size proved to be too small and limited to yield any statistically significant results, the data was regardless intriguing. This study focuses …

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Literary Dialect In Flannery O'Connor's "The Lame Shall Enter First" And "Good Country People", Katherine Ireland Kuiper Jan 2016

Literary Dialect In Flannery O'Connor's "The Lame Shall Enter First" And "Good Country People", Katherine Ireland Kuiper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flannery O’Connor is known for her widely read and loved short stories. By employing sociolinguistic, quantitative, qualitative, and corpus linguistic methods along with R Studio to gather data about literary dialect utilized in Flannery O’Connor’s short stories “Good Country People” and “The Lame Shall Enter First”, I argue that not only was O’Connor a gifted author in her portrayal of African American English and Southern English, but that her writing was also accurate in comparison to language use in the South. The findings suggest that O’Connor’s characters were true to life in the Southern US at the time of her …

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Effects Of Chronic Mild Stress On Clinically Relevant Endpoints In A Rat Ntg Migraine Model, Mary Katherine Jourdan Jan 2016

Effects Of Chronic Mild Stress On Clinically Relevant Endpoints In A Rat Ntg Migraine Model, Mary Katherine Jourdan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

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Motivated Reasoning, Ambivalence, And The Local Economy: Asymmetric Biases In The Formation Of Economic Perceptions, Bradley Dickerson Jan 2016

Motivated Reasoning, Ambivalence, And The Local Economy: Asymmetric Biases In The Formation Of Economic Perceptions, Bradley Dickerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through motivated reasoning, citizens tend to process information in ways that confirm their prior beliefs. This motivation is seen perhaps most clearly in how voters view the economy -- citizens identifying with the incumbent party view the economy favorably, while those opposed to the incumbent party view the economy unfavorably. Thus, while all citizens exist within the same national economy at a given point in time, they also display wide variations in how they perceive that same economy. This study investigates the role the direction of partisan attachments, levels of political knowledge, and the local economic environment play in the …

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Figure Rating Scales: A Novel Measure Of Weight Bias, Joseph Mitchell Magness Jan 2016

Figure Rating Scales: A Novel Measure Of Weight Bias, Joseph Mitchell Magness

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The obesity epidemic in the United States has grown in epic proportions over past decades. People who are obese experience weight bias, which is defined as any attitude that negatively influences obese individuals. Weight bias has also been documented in many areas of life. Furthermore, cultural differences in attitudes toward weight are salient in the conceptualization and maintenance of this phenomenon. Body dissatisfaction has also been linked to excess weight through negative views of fatness. One traditional measure of body dissatisfaction is figure rating scales. For this study, it was hypothesized that figure ratings presented with pictures of obese individuals …

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Identifying Values: Comparing Four Methods Of Values Identification, Emmie Hebert Jan 2016

Identifying Values: Comparing Four Methods Of Values Identification, Emmie Hebert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Values have been described, from a behavioral perspective, as “freely chosen, verbally constructed consequences of ongoing, dynamic, evolving patterns of activity, which establish predominant reinforcers for that activity that are intrinsic in engagement in the valued behavioral pattern itself “ (Wilson & DuFrene, 2009). Emerging research supports the psychological benefits of interventions with a values component. However, there has been little experimental research that explores systematic methods of getting participants and psychotherapy clients to identify their values. This study evaluated four methods of identifying values by comparing within-subject ratings of participant-generated values stimuli. Participants were undergraduate students at the University …

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Scrupulosity, Trauma And Disgust, Oh My! Assessing The Potential Relation Between Religiosity, Trauma Symptoms And Disgust, Brooklee Lightsey Tynes Jan 2016

Scrupulosity, Trauma And Disgust, Oh My! Assessing The Potential Relation Between Religiosity, Trauma Symptoms And Disgust, Brooklee Lightsey Tynes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lifetime prevalence rates for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are estimated to be 6% in the general population. In the United States alone, an estimated 5.2 million adults will experience PTSD within the year (National Comorbidity Survey, 2005). However, a much larger number of the population will experience some form of trauma over the course of their lifetime. Research has demonstrated that the development of PTSD may be attributed to some factors (e.g., temperamental vulnerabilities, social ecological factors), which may predispose individuals to the development of the disorder. The purpose of this study was to test the association of moral disgust …

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