Search Results

Bipolar Spectrum Traits in Day-to-Day Life: Ecological Momentary Assessment of Reward Sensitivity, Circadian Timing, and Experience of Reward in the Environment

Description: The current study examined 236 undergraduate students in a week long twice-per-day ecological momentary assessment exploring the influence of baseline reward sensitivity and interactions between circadian variables (i.e., total sleep time, sleep quality) and daily measures of reward. Though primary study findings did not support reward sensitivity related moderation of sleep-reward pathways, a number of notable findings emerged. We found evidence of specific domains of reward sensitivity (antic… more
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Date: August 2019
Creator: Smith, Patrick M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Co-Occurrence of Rape Myth Acceptance and Intolerant Attitudes in a Military Sample

Description: Sexual trauma within the military is a widespread issue, and rape myth acceptance has been shown to contribute to its prevalence. Given that the military culture has been shown to lend itself to hypermasculinity and traditional gender role adherence, both of which facilitate aggression toward women, this effect warrants investigation within a military sample. The present study replicated and expanded upon Aosved and Long's (2006) study examining 85 veteran and active duty military members' resp… more
Date: December 2017
Creator: Holtz, Pamela M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Comparison of Treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: Memory Specificity Training (MeST) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

Description: The effectiveness of memory specificity training (MeST) was compared with standard cognitive processing therapy (CPT) in treatment of individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder. Eighteen adults aged 18-36 were randomly assigned to the MeST intervention (n = 9) or to the active control group (n = 9) of CPT. Both treatments were administered in group format across 6 weeks. MeST consisted of 6 weekly sessions, while CPT consisted of 12 biweekly sessions. The trial was undertaken in the Psychol… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Maxwell, Kendal Lynn
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Complex PTSD As a Less Pejorative Label: Is the Proposed Diagnosis Less Stigmatizing Than BPD?

Description: Clinicians’ attitudes and behaviors toward patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are affected by the label’s stigma. Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) was proposed as a comprehensive and less stigmatizing diagnostic category for clients with BPD and a history of complex trauma. Given considerable similarities across both disorders’ diagnostic criteria, the CPTSD framework holds promise as a means to improve therapists’ attitudes towards clients with BPD and a history … more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Miller, Susannah Catherine
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Conceptualizing Quality of College Life

Description: The objectives of this study were to mathematically model the quality of college life (QCL) concept and to study the associations between attachment style, emotion regulation abilities, psychological needs fulfillment and QCL via structural equation modeling. Data was collected from 507 undergraduate students (men = 178, women = 329; age M = 21.78 years, SD = 4.37). This data was used to provide evidence for the validity of the College Adjustment Scales (CAS) as a measure of quality of college … more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Cardona, Laura A.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Correlates Between Adult Romantic Attachment Patterns and Dimensional Personality Pathology

Description: Previous research has suggested that adult attachment disturbance is related to maladaptic interaction patterns and personality disorder constructs. Specifically, research indicates that those with attachment disturbance are significantly more likely to meet criteria for a number of personality disorders, including borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between adult… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Ernest, Kimberly Dawn
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Cultural Influence on Attachment and Psychopathic Traits

Description: Individuals evidencing psychopathic personality traits have been shown to have problematic attachment to others. Moreover, research suggests that culture affects attachment style as well as the expression of various psychopathic traits using the four-factor model of psychopathy. However, the majority of this research has included only white college students, which is a limiting factor. The current study assessed the relations among attachment representations and psychopathic features across two… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Lasslett, Heather Elicia
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Decentering and the Theory of Social Development

Description: The concept of decentering originated with Piaget, who defined decentering as a feature of operational thought, the ability to conceptualize multiple perspectives simultaneously. Feffer applied Piaget’s concept of decentering to the cognitive maturity of social content. This study used Feffer’s Interpersonal Decentering scoring system for stories told about TAT pictures to investigate the developmental hierarchy of decentering for children and adolescents. The participants originated from the B… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Fincher, Jennie
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Denial of Risk: the Effects of Intentional Minimization on Risk Assessments for Psychopathic and Nonpsychopathic Offenders

Description: Risk assessments for offenders often combine past records with current clinical findings from observations, interviews, and test data. Conclusions based on these risk assessments are highly consequential, sometimes resulting in increased criminal sentences or prolonged hospitalization. Offenders are therefore motivated to intentionally minimize their risk scores. Intentional minimization is especially likely to occur in offenders with high psychopathic traits because goal-directed deception is … more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Gillard, Nathan D.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Development and Validation of a Measure of Religious and Spiritual Flexibility

Description: Religion and spirituality are vital aspects of many people’s lives both in the United States and across the globe. Although many constructs and measures exist to describe and assess the experience of pursuing the sacred, the complexity of religious and spiritual experience leads to mixed results in relation to well-being and psychopathological traits. However, in broad terms, the relationship appears positive. Over the past 30 years the need for more refined and useful approaches to the study o… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Schmalz, Jonathan E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Effectiveness of the PAI in Identifying Minimized Substance Use and Predicting Poor Treatment Outcomes in an Offender Population

Description: The accurate evaluation of substance use is a critical component of forensic assessment due to the well-established link between drug use sentencing issues and risk of recidivism. Due to limited resources and chronic time constraints, practitioners typically rely only on self-report measures to assess substance use (SU) patterns. As these measures directly inquire about SU patterns, they remain vulnerable to response distortion. This can lead to ineffective treatment recommendations made to … more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Henry, Sarah
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Effects of Attributional Styles on Perceptions of Severely Mentally Ill Offenders: a Study of Police Officer Decision-making

Description: Police officers are allowed considerable discretion within the criminal justice system in addressing illegal behaviors and interpersonal conflicts. Broadly, such resolutions fall into two categories: formal (e.g., arrest) and informal outcomes. Many of these interventions involve persons who have historically faced stigmatization, such as those who have mental disorders, criminal histories, or both (i.e., mentally disordered offenders). On this point, stigma generally includes discriminatory … more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Steadham, Jennifer A.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Eight-Year Course of Cognitive Functioning in Bipolar Disorder with Psychotic Features

Description: The purpose of the current study was to examine neuropsychological functioning in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) with psychotic features. Data from a large, epidemiological study of patients with first-episode psychosis was used to examine verbal learning and working memory 10 years after onset of psychosis in patients with BD relative to patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and patients with psychotic major depressive disorder (MDD). Cross-sectional comparisons of verbal learning and working … more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Bain, Kathleen Marie
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Evaluating Preventative Interventions for Depression and Related Outcomes: a Meta-analysis

Description: The burden of depression requires modalities other than individual psychotherapy if we are to reduce it. Over the past two decades preventative programs for depression have been developed and refined for different populations. The six years since the last meta-analysis of preventative interventions—inclusive of all program types—have seen a number of new studies. The current study used the greater statistical power provided by these new studies to analyze moderators of, and sub-group difference… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: González, David Andrés
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Evaluating Process Variables in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Description: Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) was developed to specifically target experiential avoidance (EA) rather than any specific diagnostic category. A functional ACT manual was presented and used to treat diagnostically diverse clients in a large sliding fee-for-service training clinic. A multiple baseline across participants and behaviors research design was used to evaluate session-by-session changes in EA, values identification, valued action, and clinical distress. The Acceptance and Acti… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Vander Lugt, Amanda Adcock
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Parent training Protocol Based on an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Philosophy of Parenting

Description: Thirty-four parents were referred by their CPS caseworkers to participate in one of two ACT for Parenting workshops. These workshops followed a 12 hour treatment protocol based on an acceptance and commitment therapy philosophy of parenting. Briefly, an ACT philosophy of parenting maintains that effective parenting requires awareness and acceptance of thoughts and feelings as they occur in the context of the parent-child relationship. An ACT philosophy of parenting also relies heavily on the id… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: O'Brien, Karen M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An Examination of Resnick's Model of Malingering: a Pai Study of Feigned Ptsd

Description: Malingered posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) poses a formidable clinical challenge in personal injury and disability cases because of the apparent ease in feigning PTSD and the supposed link (proximate cause) to the claimed damages. The effective assessment of feigned PTSD is particularly challenging because this diagnosis is both easier to fake than other Axis I disorders and more difficult to detect. As an additional confound, some patients with genuine PTSD produce highly variable, elevat… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Wooley, Chelsea N.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An Examination of Risk and Resilience Factors Predicting Executive Functioning in Women following Psychological Trauma

Description: Psychological trauma may affect higher-order executive functions, which include selective attention, inhibition, and task-switching processes. Difficulty in these executive processes can in turn influence individuals' daily functioning and may also negatively affect the psychological treatment of post-trauma symptoms. Women may be most at risk for developing problems with executive functioning following trauma, consistent with their overall greater risk of developing post-trauma symptoms. Yet, … more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Sullivan, Erin
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Executive Control of Craving: An Examination of College Students

Description: Previous research has shown that alcohol abuse may cause a deficit in frontal lobe functioning, specifically, areas of the frontal lobe that are related to executive function. Additionally, problems with executive function have been related to increased difficulty in managing cravings to addictive substances. The current study explored the relationship between alcohol use and performance on measures of executive functioning in a sample of 121 traditional college students. Students were given 5 … more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Yates, Robert Dean, III
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An Experimental Study of Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based Skills for Internalized Ageism in Older Adults and College Students

Description: This project explored whether mindfulness and acceptance-based practices (MABPs) for older adults would reduce the negative effects of ageism and negative attitudes and beliefs related to aging. In addition, state affect and stress were explored. This study used an experimental design to compare two groups of older adults and two groups of undergraduate students – those who received a MABP and those who did not, after being presented with negative ageist stereotypes. Condition and condition by … more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Lester, Ethan G.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Explaining the Relationship Between Borderline Personality Features and Suicidal Ideation

Description: Researchers have previously identified substance use and borderline personality disorder as factors that increase risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This study explored the relationship between these factors in samples of students and individuals seeking outpatient treatment. Supplemental data collected via the internet (MTurk) also looked at experiential avoidance (EA) with the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth. The Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV, Alcohol Use Di… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Nichols, Erica
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An Exploration of Parenting Styles’ Impact on the Development of Values

Description: The term emerging adulthood was coined during the 21st century to describe human development between adolescence and adulthood, during the ages of 18-25 (Arnett, 2000). During this stage, individuals can explore life areas. Emerging adults beginning college have a unique opportunity to form their identities and develop value systems (Hauser & Greene, 1991). With increasing autonomy, college students have possibilities for positive development and risk; values may be imperative in that differ… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Mannon, Kristi A.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Exploring Psychopathic Personality Traits and Moral Development in a Non-criminal Sample

Description: This study explored psychopathic personality traits among a non-criminal, college undergraduate sample. Much research has been done on conceptualizing the construct of psychopathy, but this work has been conducted primarily with incarcerated individuals using a structured interview, The Psychopathy Checklist – Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991, 2003). The goal of the current study was to assess psychopathic traits among non-criminal individuals using The Self-Report Psychopathy Scale - Version Four … more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Bewsey, Kyle
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

External Validation of the MMPI-A-RF with Youth with Mental Health Needs: A Systematic Examination of Symptom-Based Correlates and Interpretive Statements

Description: Over the last several decades, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Adolescent (MMPI-A) has remained one of the most extensively studied and commonly used adolescent assessment measures. Most recently, the MMPI-A was revised, published as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Adolescent Restructured Form (MMPI-A-RF). Given the infancy of the extant MMPI-A-RF literature, the current dissertation sought to be one of the first criterion studies since the test manual to est… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Sharf, Allyson J.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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