Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Association Between Personality Dysfunction And Alcohol And Substance Use Problems In Emerging Adults, Irma Sham

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the association between dimensions of personality problems (negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism) and alcohol and substance use problems in emerging adults. The sample of 169 participants was used for data analysis. Participants were recruited online via MTurk and a student research participant pool. We found that there is a correlation between the overall personality dysfunction and alcohol and substance use problems. However, only disinhibition, detachment, antagonism, and psychoticism were correlated with alcohol and substance use problems. Multiple regression was used to compare the relative strength of association of variables correlated with alcohol and substance use …

Limpiar La Raza: Island Vs. Diaspora Representations Of Dominican Race, Selines Sanchez

Theses and Dissertations

Investigating Dominicans and Dominican-Americans in the context of whiteness studies, specifically through the Spanish phrase limpiar la raza (cleaning the race), this thesis will examine the existence and effects of whiteness on this population of Latin Americans. I am using my experience and current discourse and representation to explore the way whiteness and blackness are both re-enforced and transformed in the Dominican-American diaspora and what limpiar la raza might mean in the 21st century amongst island-based, U.S. born, and immigrant Dominicans. My goal is to reveal how the history of whiteness, anti-blackness, and racial confusion persists in the diaspora today …

Identifying Subtypes Of Dysfunctional Anger: A Latent Profile Analysis Of The Anger Disorders Scale (Ads), Katharine Romero

Theses and Dissertations

Although we see patients present to outpatient and inpatient settings with problematic anger as frequently as with anxiety and depression (Lachmund et al., 2005), we lack the diagnostic categories for anger that most affective disturbances have been granted by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5: American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Anger is, instead, most often seen as an aspect of the pathology within a wide range of mood and personality disorders. DiGiuseppe and Tafrate (2007) proposed 13 subtypes of disturbed anger via a hierarchical cluster analysis of the Anger Disorders Scale (ADS) standardization data. While more recent attempts …

Pathways To And From Social Withdrawal: Antecedents, Correlates, Consequences, And Considerations For Evaluating Dimensions Of Social Withdrawal In Adolescents, Laura Cyran

Theses and Dissertations

Research into child and adolescent social withdrawal has identified multiple forms of withdrawal behavior, most of which fall under the subtypes of shyness or preference for solitude. Social withdrawal can lead to a variety of maladjustment outcomes, though there is evidence to suggest that the trajectory might differ depending on the form and function of social withdrawal experienced. However, much of the previous research in this area has failed to account for the moderate correlation between shyness and preference for solitude, which calls into question findings on distinctions between these two forms. We investigated the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of …

The Effect Of Strategy Instruction And Spatial Ability On Spatial Problem Solving, Nia Scarboro

Theses and Dissertations

High spatial skills tend to be a strong indicator for predicting STEM success. There are varying abilities when it comes to spatial skills, despite that spatial skills are adaptable and can develop with proper training. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the role of strategy instruction on spatial thinking performance. More specifically whether or not a response elimination strategy (count the number of folds and multiply by two) or a visualization strategy (imagining unfolding the paper) would be more beneficial in terms of improving Paper folding task score. Students participating in this experiment were undergraduate students from St. …

The Cognitive Content Specificity Hypothesis In Anxiety And Depression, Krystell Adriana Montalvo

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, we recruited 400 participants through an online platform and obtained measures of social anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, dysfunctional attitudes, and irrational thinking. We tested the cognitive content specificity hypothesis which predicts that anxious symptoms will be more highly correlated to irrational and dysfunctional beliefs with anxious cognitive content, and depressive symptoms would be more highly correlated with depressive cognitive content. The results were mixed, but generally showed that depressive cognitive content was more highly correlated to depressive symptoms, especially in the case of the positive association between irrational thoughts about self-depreciation and depressive symptoms.

Racial Discrimination And Core Executive Functions, Luke H. Keating

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have theorized that exposure to racial discrimination may impair executive functioning. The limited existing data broadly support this notion and suggest that discrimination may exert acute and persistent effects on executive functioning, potentially because of the cognitive demands associated with responding to discrimination. However, it is unclear if discrimination is differentially associated with different core executive functions. Further, the effects may vary depending on the timing of exposure, as recent or acute exposure to discrimination may operate on executive functioning through different mechanisms than exposure across the lifetime. The current study evaluates the relations of both recent and lifetime …

Media Exposure And Effects On Social Cognitions, Adenique Lisse

Theses and Dissertations

The media, which is comprised of mass media and social media (Bennett, 1982; Carr & Hayes, 2015), is a powerful tool that reflects as well as change’s public opinion and social cognitions (Fan & Pedrycz, 2017; Bandura, 2002). Research posits that Black and Latino individuals are more likely to be portrayed negatively in the media (Dixon, Weeks & Smith, 2019; Dixon et al., 2003; Dixon & Linz, 2000; Dixon, 2017). Thus, media exposures can cultivate real-world stereotypical views of individuals within these ethnic/racial groups (Haft & Zhou, 2021; Han & Budarick, 2018) and shapes individual’s self-view (Tsfati, 2007). White individuals, …

A Survey Of Practitioner Methods And Decision-Makng In Evaluation Of Diverse Students, Noelle Ferrara

Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated by the year 2060, minority students will make up more than 50% of the United States population (Ding, Cho, Wang & Yu, 2019). The importance of correctly identifying and placing students in special education is becoming crucial as the population of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students (CLD) and English Language Learners (ELL) is increasing. Bilingual school psychologists are few in number across the nation. Moreover, the most significant problem with regard to bilingual assessment is the lack of a set of standards or guidelines by which practitioners can be held responsible for their assessment practices. The Standards …

A Cognitive-Behavioral Smart Board Program For Youth With Anger, Vanessa Rumie

Theses and Dissertations

Society today has vastly integrated technology into every industry, and this is no different for psychotherapy and education. Increasing research supports utilizing technology to deliver Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) principles. Specifically, current literature supports the use of CBT for students experiencing anger regulation difficulties delivered within the school setting. However, no study has a school-based CBT program for children with anger-related problems delivered via the SMART Board technological platform. Interactive SMART Boards are a technological platform that students of the 21st century are highly familiar with as it has increasingly replaced the traditional black chalkboard in classrooms. As early anger …

Spatial Thinking And Strategy Use: A New Perspective With Eyetracking Data, Joseph Pontorno

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores spatial skill level and strategy use on the Paper Folding task using eyetracking data collection methods. Despite the popularity of self-report methods, the current research aims to provide a clearer understanding of how people approach visuospatial tasks. Test performances from 52 undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Chicago were recorded. A crucial component of this research is how eyetracking hardware and software were used to measure “toggles,” which are the eye movements that participants made across interest areas. Finally, we discuss how toggling relates to strategy use and the different decisions that high and low …

Preschool Teachers’ Knowledge Of Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd) As It Relates To Accuracy Of Symptom Identification, Jessica Prizer

Theses and Dissertations

Although most children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not diagnosed until after four years of age, they can and should be identified much earlier. Given that preschool teachers repeatedly observe children in social contexts, they are in a unique position to aide in the early identification of ASD, which can prompt the initiation of intervention services that mitigate levels of disability. Few studies exist that examine preschool teachers’ knowledge of ASD in the United States and no study to date has researched the relationship between knowledge and accuracy of symptom identification in this population. The current study aimed to …

An Analysis Of The Relation Between Vocabulary And Emotion Regulation: Toward Developing Problem Identification Tools For The School Setting, Ariella Gettenberg

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research suggests that the ability to describe one’s own emotions significantly impacts their overall emotional adjustment. The current study aimed to determine whether the relation between language and emotional adjustment extends beyond emotion vocabulary, to general vocabulary. Participants (n = 181) were administered measures of emotion vocabulary, general vocabulary, and emotional maladjustment. Results indicated that a general vocabulary measure cannot replace an emotional maladjustment measure but may serve as a proxy for emotion vocabulary in predicting mental health outcomes. Statistical analyses revealed that general and emotion vocabulary constructs are most closely related to mental health outcomes in the specific …

Effective Organizational Structure And Leadership Theory For Homeland Security Organizations, Lowell Dimoff

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Homeland (DHS) was borne of the fires of 9/11 and assigned the mission to protect America from terrorism, and what has subsequently grown into a broad range of threats. As evidenced by reports produced by governmental watchdog agencies and academic literature, DHS has been widely criticized for its response to a number of emergencies, and the morale of its workforce remains at or near the bottom of all federal government agencies. Using existing literature and theory as a baseline, this dissertation will examine organizational structure and leadership theory as applied to homeland security organizations through a comparative …

Does Empathic Anger Motivate People To Act On Pro-Defending Cognitions?, Adir Pinchot

Theses and Dissertations

Recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that empathic anger represents a form of anger that motivates bystanders to intervene and defend victims of aggression. Prior research on defending behavior has identified cognitive correlates of defending, but most studies failed to distinguish between different forms of defending and did not evaluate how these cognitions interact with emotions, such as empathic anger, in motivating or inhibiting defending behavior. This study attempted to address these lacunae by analyzing whether empathic anger moderates the associations between cognitions associated with defending (i.e., perspective taking, moral disengagement, and self-efficacy for defending) and different types of defending …

Emotion Beliefs And Attitudes: Implications For The Stoic View Of Emotions And A Test Of Some Theories Of Psychotherapy, Amanda M. Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional CBT and third-wave CBT, namely ACT, are widely used psychotherapy approaches. These psychotherapies have distinct philosophical and theoretical roots and, in turn, emphasize divergent approaches to emotions. The current study explored beliefs about emotions (emotion beliefs) associated with both approaches to psychotherapy, the relationship between emotion beliefs and emotion outcomes, as well as factors that mediate these relationships. Specifically, the study examined correlations between emotion beliefs (emotion controllability beliefs, acceptance of emotions, and emotion control values) and depression, anxiety, and anger. Correlation coefficients were compared to determine significant differences in associations between different emotion beliefs and emotion outcomes. It …

Mental Health Providers’ Responses To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Aubrey Faber

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in closures, increased stressors, and a high need for mental health services. To provide continuity of care and meet the rising need for therapy, mental health providers rapidly transitioned to telehealth. This transition occurred with the support of policy changes and leniency in telehealth guidelines. A survey including participant and client demographic variables, readiness for telehealth, transition time, methods for telehealth practice, and therapist efficacy in-person and via telehealth was created in Qualtrics. It was completed by 79 mental health providers to provide insight into this transition and inform future practice. This study hypothesized that (1) …

Measuring Irrational Beliefs Among Youth: Development Of The Children’S Irrational Response Checklist, Alexa K. Pata

Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) are evidenced-based approaches that have been identified as effective for the treatment of psychological disorders among youth (Bernard & Terjesen, 2020). However, although beliefs and cognitions have been shown to be predictive of emotional and behavioral problems in children (Mogoaşe, Podină, et al., 2013), and modifications in cognitions have been shown to be vital for treatment (David et al., 2017), the research and psychometric properties surrounding measures designed to specifically assess irrational beliefs, self-statements, or automatic thoughts in youth are lacking due to theoretical and practical limitations (Terjesen et al., …

Anger And Intimate Partner Violence In Young Adults: The Role Of Impulsivity, Olga Gulyayeva Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread concern that has been associated with a number of negative outcomes, including mental health problems, and is especially prevalent among young adults (Black, 2011; Miller & McCaw, 2019). Anger has been identified as a risk factor for IPV perpetration, however not all instances of anger within a relationship result in the perpetration of IPV (Birkley & Eckhardt, 2015, Baumeister & Boden, 1998). Impulsivity has been proposed as a possible explanation for why some but not all instances of anger lead to aggression (Baumeister & Boden, 1998). Furthermore, some literature has suggested an interaction …

Therapeutic Alliance And Treatment Outcomes In Clients Of Color At A University-Based Training Clinic, Aimée Baez

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the differences between diverse and Caucasian clients in their ratings of the therapeutic alliance and therapeutic outcomes. Data were collected from 166 participants from a University-Based training clinic in a metropolitan section in the northeastern, United States. Multiple regression analyses were used to test the relationship between ethnicity and the therapeutic alliance. Treatment outcomes included session frequency, working alliance, motivation to change in treatment, and overall quality of life. Results showed that ethnicity is positively related to working alliance, quality of life, and client’s motivation to treatment. In some cases, ethnicity was confounded by age and/or gender …

Racial Bias In The Association Of Externalizing Symptoms With Black And White Children: The Development And Application Of An Implicit Association Test, Maura Francis

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that school and mental health professionals more strongly associate externalizing behaviors with Black children compared to White children. To test this hypothesis, we developed an implicit association test to determine if there was a difference in the reaction times in classifying symptoms as externalizing when the symptoms were paired with the word “Black Child” as opposed to paired with the word “White Child”. In a sample of 54 school and mental health professionals, we found clear evidence in support of our hypothesis. The existence of this implicit bias may explain …

Social Attention And Memory In Youth With Asd, Adnp Syndrome, And Foxp1 Syndrome, Megan L. Braconnier-Krupa

Theses and Dissertations

The current study used eye tracking and behavioral measures to examine social attention and recognition memory in two rare genetic disorders commonly associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): ADNP syndrome and FOXP1 syndrome. Impairment in social functioning is considered a core deficit in ASD. Although individuals with ADNP syndrome and FOXP1 syndrome typically present with symptoms of ASD, research suggests several dissimilarities in symptom presence and severity between the groups. Thus, there is a need to clarify disorder-specific patterns of social attention and their relationships to observed social skills. A visual paired comparison eye tracking task was used to assess …

Understanding Language Use Patterns Of People With Chronic Pain: A Novel Assessment Approach, Jodie Maccarrone

Theses and Dissertations

It is estimated that 35% of Americans or 116 million people report experiencing chronic pain daily (Nahin, 2015). Due to the unique and individualized nature of chronic pain, successful treatment of this condition is difficult to achieve. The heterogeneity and complexity in presentation may help explain why, as all methods of treatment have fallen short of providing consistent and reliable outcomes (Finnerup et al., 2015; Lumley & Schubiner, 2019), resulting in unsuccessful treatment approaches that can lead to compounding negative consequences such as hyperalgesia (Garland et al., 2013) and even death (Scholl, Seth, Kariisa, Wilson, & Baldwin, 2019). As such, …

Child Abuse Allegations In High Conflict Divorce, Clara Ko

Theses and Dissertations

While child abuse within the context of marital or parental dissolution has received some attention, there is an enduring perspective that child abuse within this context rarely occurs, and that most child abuse allegations are fabricated. Not only is there a dearth of existing literature on how often false child abuse allegations occur and the driving variables behind these allegations, little is known about the psychological effects of unfounded child abuse allegations on families. Furthermore, most of the existing literature on this topic was conducted over 30 years ago. Much has changed in recent years with respect to mental health …

Help-Seeking Attitudes Among Clinicians In Training: The Influence Of Psychological Defensiveness, Alexander Daniel Palmer

Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigated whether psychologically-defensive clinicians-in-training were more resistant to engaging in personal therapy while pursuing a graduate degree in a mental health discipline. Participants were selected from graduate level mental health counseling and clinical psychology programs. Three groups were of interest: ‘manifestly distressed’ (MD), who report high levels of subjective distress; ‘illusory mental health’ (IMH), defined as individuals who report low levels of subjective distress but are identified by the Early Memories Test (EMT) as defensive; and ‘genuine mental health’ (GMH) individuals, rated as non-defensive on the EMT while reporting low subjective distress levels. The following measures were …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Validity And Memory Measures In Retired Nfl Players, Huda Abu-Suwa

Theses and Dissertations

Neuropsychologists have increasingly become involved in assessing sports-related concussions; however, an important concern is the validity of the evaluations. This study examined the relationship between Performance Validity Tests (PVTs) and memory measures in a comprehensive standardized battery administered to retired NFL players, with the purpose of exploring how predictive PVTs are for memory performance in this population. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between four PVTs (TOMM, MSVT, RDS, and Word Choice) and six memory tasks (WMS-IV LM I and LM II, VPA I and VPA II, VR I and VR II). A regression analysis was …

The Assessment Of Burnout And Resilience In Firefighters, Bailee Schuhmann

Theses and Dissertations

The occupational stress inherent to firefighting has consistently been associated in the literature with a number of adverse physiological and psychological risks. Several investigations have examined the dynamics of firefighter-related stress and job burnout. However, there is little research on strategies to promote resilience and reduce burnout in this population. Resilience refers to an individual’s ability to “maintain relatively stable, healthy levels of psychological and physical functioning” when faced with adverse events and has been found to have a central role in coping with stressors and trauma (Bonanno, 2004, p.20). Extant research has identified factors such as hope, optimism and …

Trends And Outcomes Of A School-Based Campaign To Reduce Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Among Racially And Ethnically Diverse Students In Middle School, Roya Amirniroumand

Theses and Dissertations

Reducing sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption has been identified as a chronic disease prevention strategy in children and adolescents (Muth et al., 2019; USDA & HSS, 2015) and promoting healthier alternative beverage options has become an important focus for public health policy and educational efforts. Community-driven school-based health initiatives targeting SSB consumption have shown promising outcomes however, few studies have explored these strategies for middle school students and less is known about the potential benefits of these efforts with racial/ethnic minority youth.

The present study examined whether racial/ethnic differences in SSB consumption existed in a sample of 419 students at one …

A Comparison Of Teleneuropsychological And Traditional Neuropsychological Battery Factor Structures, Alison Datoc

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the factor structures of a traditional neuropsychological battery, administered in-person, and a teleneuropsychological battery, administered remotely. Participants were divided into two groups dependent on test condition (i.e., in- person or remote). Individuals in the in-person test condition group (n = 100) were selected from a sample of individuals who were assessed in-person in a previous archival study, and individuals in the remote testing condition group (n = 100) were assessed via teleneuropsychology in their home environment.

Two Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method were conducted on the T-scores and scaled scores of each …

The Impact Of Insight, Psychological Functioning, And Treatment Resistance On Completion Of Diversion Programs, Seniz L. Warner

Theses and Dissertations

Offenders are three to five times more likely to struggle with mental health challenges compared to that of the general population. As such, mental health is a major concern for individuals within the criminal justice system (Bronson & Berzofsky, 2017; Desmond & Lenz, 2010; Fazel & Seewald, 2012; Gonzalez & Connell, 2014; Hall et al., 2019; Linhorst & Dirks-Linhorst, 2015). Despite the significant number of offenders who are reportedly struggling with mental health, there is difficulty providing inmates with mental health treatment in general. Within correctional facilities, various treatment programs are available for inmates; however, there is limited access due …