UNT Libraries - 325 Matching Results

Search Results

Contingency Contracting Effects on Psychotherapy Attendance and Termination at Two Community Mental Health Centers: Contingency management has been utilized to improve treatment compliance and attendance in a medical setting. A related question involves the effect of contingency management on attendance in outpatient psychotherapy. Sixty-nine individuals ranging in age from 8 to 50 years agreed to participate in such a study. These individuals agreed to sign a contract specifying consequation for failure to notify the centers 24 hours in advance of an impending absence. Data on attendance and notification of impending absences were collected weekly for five sessions. After five sessions, dropouts and remainers were interviewed and the course of treatment was discussed. For the purpose of this study, a "dropout" occurred whenever an individual terminated therapy by missing an appointment and not rescheduling, or whenever an individual missed three consecutive appointments.
Bias in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Gay Males: The purpose of this study was to explore heterosexual bias in the diagnosis and treatment of gay males. Two hundred-fifty (134 males and 116 females) mental health professionals from the Division of Psychotherapy (29) of the American Psychological Association participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two case history conditions, which presented a 35-year-old male seeking therapy. Both conditions were equivalent with regards to the presenting problem (i.e., diagnostic symptoms) with the exception of his significant other (i.e., gay vs. non-gay condition). Potential bias was measured through a diagnostic rating Likert scale and a treatment plan questionnaire. Other independent variables that could potentially have an effect on diagnostic ratings were explored, such as gender, year of graduation, and theoretical orientation of the respondents. Results of the statistical analyses failed to confirm evidence of heterosexual bias. Implications for further research and training are discussed.
Siblings of Incest Victims: Sibling-Victim Relationships and Adjustment: The non-victimized siblings in incestuous families have often been ignored in research, literature, and treatment. This study explored these siblings' 1) relationship to the victim, 2) attribution of blame, and 3) adjustment. Participants were 30 non-victimized siblings of incest victims, between the ages of 8 and 14. They completed the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire, the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, the Self-perception Profile for Children, the Children's Depression Inventory, and a questionnaire developed for this research. Participants' scores were compared with the normative sample scores on several measures. Siblings perceived little warmth and closeness in their relationships to their victimized sisters. Rivalry and conflict were within normal limits. Siblings blamed victims and other family members less than expected, with the greatest amount of blame attributed to perpetrators. Adjustment was impaired. Males demonstrated less athletic competence, less global self-worth, more worry and oversensitivity than normative samples. Females showed a tendency toward less global self-worth and heightened general anxiety. Siblings' overall level of emotional distress was higher than most of the normative samples.
Parental Cultural Mistrust, Background Variables, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services for Their Children: Attitudes toward mental illness and the willingness to seek psychological treatment for their children among ethnic minority group parents were investigated. Participants consisted of black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian parents. All parents were given the Terrell and Terrell Cultural Mistrust Inventory, Cohen and Struening Opinions About Mental Illness Scale, Reid-Gundlach Social Services Satisfaction Scale, Fischer-Turner Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help Scale, and Ahluwalia Parents' Psychological Help-Seeking Inventory. A multiple regression model was used to explore the purpose of this study. Parental mistrust level, ethnicity, education, income level, and opinions about mental illness served as predictor variables. The criterion variables consisted of scores on the Social Services Satisfaction Scale and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. The results indicated that the most significant predictor of psychological help-seeking was parental cultural mistrust level. Parents with higher cultural mistrust levels were less likely to seek help. Education was also predictive of black and Native American parents' help-seeking attitude and willingness to seek psychological help for their children. Black and Native Americans with lower levels of education were less willing to seek treatment for their children than members of those ethnic groups with higher levels of education. Ethnicity was also related to parental willingness to seek help for their children. Hispanic and black parents expressed more willingness to seek help than Native American and Asian parents. Finally, parents' opinions about mental illness were found to be significantly related to help-seeking attitude. Parents with positive opinions about mental illness were more likely to utilize professional psychological help than those parents with negative opinions about mental illness. Some clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
Therapist (Dis)Continuity, Therapeutic Relationship, and (Premature) Termination in a Psychology Training Clinic: Premature termination is a substantial problem with significant adverse effects for clients, therapists, and treatment organizations. Unfortunately, it is also a relatively common phenomenon within mental healthcare settings. Across varied mental healthcare settings, rates of premature termination have reportedly ranged from 19.7 % to 40 %. Perhaps not surprisingly, the rate of premature termination in training clinics is substantially higher than in community mental health settings and private practice, with 75 to 80 % of clients ending treatment services prematurely. The purpose of this study was to explore the combined effect of intake therapist continuity or discontinuity, and quality of the therapeutic relationship on premature termination. Intake therapist continuity, measures of working alliance, and termination outcome from 524 clients at the University of North Texas Psychology Clinic were utilized for adults receiving individual therapy services between August 2008 and August 2013. Results of the study suggest intake therapist continuity did not predict subjective termination status (X2(2, n = 524) = 1.61, p = 0.45), nor did it predict change in symptomology status (X2(3, n = 453) = 1.14, p = 0.77). Additionally, working alliance predicted subjective termination status (X2(6, n = 212) = 21.17, p < 0.01), but not change in symptomology status (X2(9, n = 208) = 6.27, p = 0.71). The findings of the current study are discussed, as well as suggestions for further research related to client, therapist, treatment, and procedural variables and their impact on premature termination.
Interpersonal Perception and Communication within Marital Dyads: The present study examined the relationships among similarity, interpersonal perception and communicative behaviors in marriage. It was hypothesized that greater understanding, feelings of being understood, and realization of understanding would be associated with greater self-disclosure, use of more direct person control strategies, and use of less attention control strategies. It was further hypothesized that measuring feelings of being understood and realization of understanding, in addition to measuring understanding, would improve prediction of behavior. Finally, it was hypothesized that the contextual measure of understanding would better predict self-disclosure and interpersonal control than would global measures of understanding.
Perceptions and attributions of child, spousal, and elder abuse.: Although researchers have studied perceptions regarding sexually abused children, little was known about how other types of abusive events were perceived. This study examined 480 college students' abuse history and perceptions of child, spousal, and elder abuse by varying the respondent, victim, and perpetrator genders. Physical abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect were investigated. Perceptions of abusiveness, seriousness, harm, and responsibility were examined, along with the extent of identification with the victims/perpetrators. Participants viewed spousal abuse as less serious and harmful than other abuse types, especially when perpetrated against a male or by a female. Although able to recognize psychological abuse, students did not fully understand what other abuse types entailed. Individuals also showed a considerable amount of blame toward victims. Results further demonstrated important findings about how ethnic identity/orientation, religious affiliation, and history of abuse related to perceptions of abusive events.
Correlates of Body Image in University Women: The relationship between maturation rate, body image, depression and eating disorder tendencies was explored in a group of 251 college-age females in order to better understand the developmental progression of body image and related variables. Two aspects of body image were measured, namely, level of body satisfaction and amount of body distortion. Body dissatisfaction was found to be associated with early maturation, depression, and eating disorder tendencies. Body distortion was not found to be associated with any of the primary variables. The significant relationship which was found between maturation rate and level of body satisfaction in young adult females suggests that pubertal timing may have lasting effects on the body satisfaction of women. Body satisfaction and depression were found to contribute significantly to the variance in eating disorder tendency.
The Effect of Alternative Stress Response Training on Bulimic Behaviors: The incidence of bulimia has been increasingly documented in recent years. Treatments have focused on one behavior in the Binge-Purge chain or have combined several treatment components. This study was designed to assess the effect of teaching bulimics alternative responses for dealing with stressful events.
Sex Role Stereotypes: The Effects of Instructional Salience on Clinical Judgment of Mental Health Professionals: This investigation examines how knowledge of a researcher's intent, as well as gender, influences the clinical judgments of mental health professionals in sex role research. Conscious awareness of the study's aim was manipulated by varying experimental instructions to minimize (not salient) or maximize (salient) sex role awareness. Subjects were mental health professionals who rated a protocol of a female or male pseudopatient exhibiting masculine, and lacking feminine, stereotyped behaviors. It was hypothesized that if sex biases affect judgments, more negative ratings should be assigned to a female with cross sex role behavior than to male-appropriate role behavior. Differences should be greater when subjects were unaware of the nature of the study.
Eight-Year Course of Cognitive Functioning in Bipolar Disorder with Psychotic Features: 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 memory at the 10-year follow-up mirrored findings of relative performance at the 2-year follow-up (Mojtabai, 2000), as patients with SZ performed significantly worse than patients with psychotic affective disorders. When FEP patients' cognitive performance was examined longitudinally, all groups showed non-significant decline over time, with no significant diagnostic group differences after accounting for current symptoms. More frequent hospitalizations and longer treatment with antipsychotics were associated with poorer performance on cognitive testing 10 years after illness onset, but these associations disappeared when controlling baseline cognitive performance. Within the BD sample, current positive and negative psychotic symptoms were associated with poorer performance on cognitive testing. After controlling for baseline cognitive performance, markers of clinical course were unrelated to cognitive performance, consistent with existing literature on longitudinal cognitive functioning in patients with BD. The current findings support a neurodevelopmental model of verbal learning and working memory deficits in patients with bipolar disorder.
Imagery, Psychotherapy, and Directed Relaxation: Physiological Correlates: Thirty outpatients being treated at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center Department of Behavioral Health Psychology were randomly assigned to either a relaxation/imagery training class (R/I), a short-term psychotherapy group (P/G) or a no treatment control group. Subjects had psychological, physiological and immunological data taken before and after treatment. Results indicated that support for the hypothesis that relaxation/imagery training improves the psychological, physiological, and immunological functioning of participants was found.
Androgyny and Sex-Role Measurement: A Personal Construct Approach: Recent research into sex roles has been heavily influenced by androgyny theory, and by the development of the Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI; Bern, 1974). Psychological androgyny is the combination, in one individual, of both culturally defined masculine and feminine personality traits. The Sex-Rep, a new instrument for assessing sex role which is aimed at rectifying certain problems associated with the BSRI, was then described. The Sex-Rep, the BSRI (Bern, 19 34), the Texas Social Behavior Inventory (TSBI; Spence & Stapp, 1974), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI, Beck, 1967), and a self-concept thermometer, were given to 100 male and 108 female undergraduates. Results indicated that the BSRI and the Sex-Rep are both valid sex-role instruments, insofar as they both discriminate between males and females. They tend to measure nonredundant components of sex role as indicated by a lack of overlap between their sex-role classifications. The present study did not find any support for the balance model of androgyny which suggests that high masculinity and high femininity interact by balancing each other to produce a healthier, more behaviorally flexible individual. BSRI masculinity (M) was strongly related to adjustment in both sexes, but BSRI femininity (F) had little impact. This relationship between BSRI M and adjustment was described as probably resulting from measurement artifact since (&) only socially desirable traits are included on the BSRI, (b) removing self-esteem effects from the BSRI M scale enhanced its ability to discriminate between the sexes, (c) Sex-Rep masculinity was not related to adjustment for women, and its linkage to adjustment for men was less strong than BSRI M, (d) women rated their feminine constructs as more desirable than their masculine constructs, and (e) there were no actual self-esteem differences between males and females. Thus, findings from the BSRI regarding the relationship between sex role and adjustment …
Self-Complexity and Physiological Responses to Facial Self-Reflection: An Investigation into Women's Self-Image: In this study, effects of facial self-reflection and complexity of self on physiological responses were investigated. Skin conductance levels were measured during baseline and neutral conditions, then under a self-focusing condition provided by mirror reflection of the face. Subjects completed measures of self-complexity, depressive affect, self-esteem, anxiety and body image satisfaction. Eye tracking data was collected during the mirror condition. Results showed a significant effect of mirror self-reflection on physiological reactivity as measured by differences between mirror and baseline mean responses. Pre-test depressive affect was correlated with low self-esteem but not with self-complexity. Self-complexity was negatively correlated with orientation to physical appearance and positively correlated with greater differences between baseline and mirror mean reactivity. Self-complexity and depressive affect did not significantly predict physiological reactivity, although a trend was found for the influence of each variable. Post-hoc analyses showed significant group differences for both self-complexity and depressive affect on physiological reactivity, although the influence of self-complexity was in the unexpected direction. Results of this study are consistent with general findings that negative self-esteem, anxiety and depression are strongly correlated. In addition, a strong correlation was found between negative self-esteem and dissociative symptoms. Exploratory analyses of eye tracking data found no significant relations among personality variables and percent of time looking at facial image, although some trends were found. Trends for a relation of self-complexity with time looking at facial image, negative evaluation of appearance in the mirror, and less focus on physical appearance suggest a component in the domain of self-complexity related to physical appearance. Clearly, self-complexity has a number of interrelated dimensions and remains a challenging area of study. In addition, the combination of eye tracking and physiological measurement is a relatively new area of study that shows promise for continued investigation.
Anxiety-Management Training for the Reduction of Type A Coronary-Prone Behavior: The present study investigated the effects of anxiety management training on the reduction of Type A coronary-prone behavior in a college student population and utilized behavioral measures as well as self-report indices of change. Evaluations pre- and post-treatment included self-report measures of Type A behavior, empirically validated performance measures of the achievement-striving and time-urgency components of coronary-prone behavior, and a learned helplessness manipulation that has been associated with this behavior pattern. Analysis of covariance indicated that the treatment group changed in the desired direction on all self-report indices, and on most of the performance measures and helplessness scores that were used as dependent variables. Discussion centered on the implications of these data to theoretical and practical conceptualizations of coping behavior and coronary disease and cautions were expressed concerning clinical significance, maintenance, and generalization of results.
Differential Response of Speech-Anxious Repressors and Sensitizers to Systematic Desensitization and Rational-Emotive Therapy: There is a scarcity of objective criteria upon which to select among the available therapies for those most likely to benefit specific patients. Comparative research has suggested that the outcomes of alternative and competitive therapies are equivalent. There are few facts available concerning which patients benefit most from even the more popular therapies. The purpose of this study was to find a type of patient for which differential improvement could be predicted. Neither therapy decreased checklist scores or increased speaking time significantly more than the other. Repressors and sensitizers responded equally to therapy. When dropout rates were analyzed there were also no significant differences between the therapies or between repressors and sensitizers. When posttherapy scores from both therapies were compared to pretherapy scores, no significant changes were found. The latter finding was important for understanding the absence of support for the hypotheses. Since the subjects did not improve as a result of either desensitization or rational-emotive therapy, there was no opportunity to observe the hypothesized differential changes. Given this hindsight, it was concluded that speech anxiety may not be a desirable disorder with which to study the prediction that repression-sensitization is related to the outcome of rational-emotive therapy and desensitization. It was recommended that future research of this relationship utilize a disorder for which therapeutic effectiveness is more firmly established.
Lecithin Therapy for Tardive Dyskinesia: Drug-induced tardive dyskinesia, an irreversible involuntary movement disorder caused by neuroleptic drugs, may reflect cholinergic hypofunction in the corpus striatum. Therapeutic results have been reported in trials of choline and lecithin, nutritional substrates which may enhance cholinergic neurotransmission. Lecithin's effects on dyskinetic symptoms were examined in 50 male patients in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Patients were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups; 31 patients were retained in the analytic cohort. Experimental patients were treated with 60 gm/day lecithin (55% phosphatidyl choline) for 11 days. Symptom frequency was rated from videotapes made at baseline, 3 and 11 days of treatment, and 1 week follow-up.
Effectiveness of the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination in Assessing Alzheimer's Disease: Accurate, early diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease is becoming increasingly important in light of its growing prevalence among the expanding older-aged adult population. Due to its ability to assess multiple domains of cognitive functioning and provide a profile of impairment rather than a simple global score, the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination (NCSE) is suggested to better assess such patterns of cognitive deficit for the purpose of diagnosis. The performance of the NCSE was compared with that of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for diagnostic sensitivity in a sample of patients diagnosed as having probable Alzheimer's Disease. The strength of correlation between severity of cognitive impairment on these tests and report of behavior problems on the Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist (MBPC) was also explored, as was performance on the NCSE and report of behavior problems using the MBPC in predicting Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) scan results. The NCSE was found to exhibit greater sensitivity to physician diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's Disease relative to two versions (Serial 7's or WORLD) of the MMSE (.90, .77 and .68, respectively). While both measures were found to correlate significantly with the report of behavior problems, only a moderate proportion (NCSE = .22 and MMSE = .33) of the explained variance was accounted for by either test. Severity of cognitive impairment on the NCSE was found to be significant, though small in estimate of its effect size, for predicting the absence/presence of pathognomic findings on SPECT scans. In contrast, the report of behavior problems on the MBPC did not significantly predict SPECT scan outcomes. The NCSE would appear to be a sensitive tool for the identification of the extent and severity of cognitive impairment found among demented individuals; however, it may be "over"-sensitive to such diagnosis. Although relationships between cognitive impairment and behavior problems …
Individual, Group, and Self Behavior Therapy for Weight Reduction in High and Low Self Reinforcing Persons: An experiment was conducted to contrast the effectiveness of Behavior Therapy administered in self, individual, or group therapy versus a no-treatment control condition. The therapy conditions were administered to two subgroups, high and low self reinforcers, as defined by Rosensky and Bellack (1976). The general hypothesis was that high self reinforcers would engage in countercontrol and therefore do poorly in group and individual therapy, but would lose weight in self therapy. Individual behavior therapy showed the best long term results, but self and group therapies also showed significant weight loss. It was also found that low self reinforcers as a group lost more weight than did high self reinforcers.
Feigning Cognitive Deficits on Neuropsychological Evaluations: Multiple Detection Strategies: Individuals undergoing forensic neuropsychological evaluation frequently stand to gain in some manner if neurocognitive dysfunction is diagnosed. As a result, neuropsychologists are customarily asked to test for neurocognitive feigning during the assessment. The current study employed an analogue design with a clinical comparison group to examine the utility of the TOCA (Rogers, 1996) as a measure of feigned neurocognitive impairment. Two groups of simulators (one cautioned about the presence of detection strategies and one not cautioned) were compared to clinical and normal control groups. Fourteen scales were developed based on five detection strategies: symptom validity testing, performance curve, magnitude of error, response time, and floor effect. Each was employed during both verbal and nonverbal tasks. Significant differences were revealed among groups when subjected to ANOVA. Classification rates from subsequent utility estimates and discriminant function analyses on the scales ranged from 58.8% to 100%. Combining strategies yielded a classification rate of 95.7%. The effect of cautioning simulators was modest; however, a trend was noted on some scales for cautioned simulators to appear less obviously impaired than noncautioned. Although the results require crossvalidation, preliminary data suggest that the TOCA is a sensitive and specific measure of feigned neurocognitive performance. Strengths and weaknesses of the study are discussed and directions for future research are proposed.
Common Strategies for Regulating Emotions across the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) Model: The hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology (HiTOP) is a novel classification system that adopts both a dimensional and hierarchical approach to psychopathology to address shortcomings. However, the HiTOP framework is descriptive in nature and requires additional research to consider potential mechanisms for the onset and maintenance of psychopathology, such as cognitive-behavioral emotion regulation strategies. To redress this gap, a sample of 341 adults who endorsed ongoing mental health concerns completed self-report measures of emotion regulation strategies and psychopathology. The data revealed a three-spectra HiTOP model consisting of internalizing, thought disorder, and antagonistic externalizing. Results found that psychopathology was most strongly associated with avoidance, catastrophizing, expressive suppression, and self-blame. In contrast, adaptive strategies were generally unrelated to the HiTOP spectra. This pattern was strongest for internalizing, distress, and detachment. Fewer, yet noteworthy unique relationships between the strategies and specific spectra/subfactors were also found. These findings suggest that psychopathology may be best conceptualized as an overutilization of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Furthermore, the results indicate there is added benefit to considering these strategies within a hierarchical approach to psychopathology. These associations alert clinicians to potential treatment targets and contribute to an ongoing literature that seeks to identify underlying mechanisms of the structure of psychopathology.
The Use of Local Norms to Improve Configural Reproducibility of Two MMPI Short Forms: The effectiveness of local norms with two short forms of the MMPI was investigated in this study. Comparisons were made between high-point code-type concordance rates and the overall concordance rates generated by local norms and the original norms of Faschingbauer's Abbreviated MMPI (FAM) and the MMPI-168. The use of local norms did not produce significantly higher high-point code-type concordance rates than the use of original norms. The use of local norms was indicated when one is interested in overall profile concordance. However, this finding was not replicated in the cross-validation samples. No conclusion was reached regarding the superiority of one short form over the other in terms of high-point codetype concordance. In terms of overall concordance, the FAM was found to generate higher concordance rates than the MMPI-168 when original norms were used. Overall concordance rates were not significantly different between the two short forms when local norms were used. Design changes and possible explanations for the findings were discussed. The former included increasing the sample size of the cross-validation samples to reduce sampling error. The latter consisted of the lack of congruence between the factor structures of the FAM and MMPI-168 and that of the MMPI, possible similarities between the populations sampled and those upon which the FAM and MMPI-168 were standardized, and inadequate sample size.
Needs of familial caregivers of cancer patients across the advanced cancer disease trajectory.: Familial caregivers are providing increasing amounts of care to advanced cancer patients. Increased understanding of caregivers' needs is vital in providing necessary support to lessen caregiver burden and comorbidity. This study examines particular information needs across a variety of specific events in the advanced cancer disease trajectory. A cross-sectional sample of 107 familial caregivers (24 current and 83 bereaved) of people with advanced cancer completed a needs assessment survey along with a measure of health information-seeking behavior. Analyses extend current research by including more specific disease-related events along the advanced cancer trajectory through bereavement. In all information categories, endorsement of wanted information differed across broad stages of Cancer Progression, Treatment, End of Life, and Post-Patient Death. For all information categories, except Dying and Spirituality, greatest information was wanted at the Cancer Progression stage. Information need also differed across specific events within broad stages. The categories of Disease/Medical and Relating to the Patient were the most endorsed at events involving patient care. Spirituality was least endorsed. At patient death, Caregiver Well-being has the highest endorsement. For events thereafter, information on Caregiver Well-being, Spirituality, Future Outlook, and Family and Close Others was most endorsed. Information needs did not differ based on age or education. Whether or not a caregiver had experienced a given event on the cancer trajectory impacted some categories of information desired at the events of leaving the hospital for home, going into hospice, patient death, immediately after death, and bereavement. In all cases, those who had experienced the event wanted more information. In comparing current to bereaved caregivers, no differences in information endorsement occurred for events of the Cancer progression or Treatment stages. This study also involved the validation and factor analysis the Health Information-Seeking Behavior Survey. Two factors, Health Information-Seeking and Health Information-Avoiding, emerged. Health Information-Seeking correlates positively …
Attitudes and Treatment Knowledge by Medical Students Regarding Rape Victims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes and treatment knowledge of medical student professionals regarding rape victims. In addition to generating normative data for a population which, as a function of their vocation may come in contact with victims, comparisons were made between a sample of those beginning their medical education process and those at the end of training in order to measure change in treatment knowledge and attitudes towards rape victims which occur during medical school. Also investigated were differences which exist in the attitude and treatment knowledge measures for rape victims compared to other emergency room patient populations, and the effect of gender of the physician upon those measures. A final element investigated the physicians' perceptions of a "real" rape as it relates to those measures.
Exploring Psychopathic Personality Traits and Moral Development in a Non-criminal Sample: 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 (SRP-IV; Paulhus, Neumann, & Hare, in press), and compare how SRP-IV scores were associated with a well recognized semi-structured interview for psychopathy, The Psychopathy Checklist – Screening Version (PCL: SV; Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995). The study also examined whether psychopathic personality traits could be predicted using a measure of normal-range personality, based on the five-factor model (FFM; Digman, 1990), and a measure developed by Loevinger (1976) related to ego development. Five-Factor Model Rating Form (FFMRF; Mullins-Sweat, Jamerson, Samuel, Olson, & Widiger, 2006) scores and Total Protocol Ratings (TPR score) on the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT; Hy & Loevinger, 1996) were used to predict psychopathy scores. Correlations of SRP-IV scores and PCL: SV scores with FFMRF scores and WUSCT TPR scores were also examined for their uniformity. As predicted, there were significant, negative correlations between FFM domains, Agreeableness and Conscientious, and SRP-IV scores, as well as significant, negative correlations between WUSCT TPR scores and SRP-IV scores. These correlations ranged from small to strong for both SRP-IV overall scores and for SRP-IV factor scores (i.e., Interpersonal Manipulation, Callous Affect, Erratic Lifestyle, and Criminal Tendencies). Additionally, FFM domain scores and WUSCT TPR scores significantly predicted SRP-IV scores. FFM domains, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and WUSCT TPR scores, were the strongest predictors of SRP-IV scores. Similar results were found when FFM domain scores and WUSCT TPR scores predicted SRP-IV factor scores. Results also indicated …
Structural Equation Model of Variables Associated with Family Functioning among a Nationally Representative Sample of Families with a Child with Autism: Previous research indicates that stressors experienced by a family, the perceived level of burden assigned by the family to the stressor, and the utilization of resources predict family functioning. The current study utilized a nationally representative sample of families of children with autistic disorder to determine if previously proposed models of family functioning accurately conceptualized family functioning within a representative sample. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the double ABCX and the linear ACBX models of family functioning. With slight modifications, the double ABCX model was supported, thus indicating that pileup of stressors, perception of burden, and utilization of resources each have unique predictive ability for family functioning, with perception of burden demonstrating the highest amount of predictive ability. Results, implications, and limitations of the study are discussed.
Maternal Stress and Cystic Fibrosis: The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between parent and child factors for mothers of children diagnosed with cystic fibrosis to predict mother's psychological distress. Mothers were surveyed to identify measurement models in areas of Child and Parental characteristics and a Full Causal Model of Maternal distress. Factors related to Child Characteristics include general parental stressors and cystic fibrosis specific parental stressors. Factors related to Parental Characteristics include the mother's sense of parental competence and self-esteem. Additional factors related to the Full Causal Model include social support, major and minor life events, and demographics. Results were analyzed using LISREL IV structural equation modeling. Measurement model analysis found a good fit for the Child Characteristics model (Chi Square = 6.85, df = 4, JD = .144, Goodness of Fit Indices = .972) and Parental Characteristics model (Chi Square = 5.89, df = 3, p = .117, Goodness of Fit Indices = .971), but not for the full causal model of maternal distress (Chi Square = 114.98, df = 66, E = .000, Goodness of Fit Indices = .853)
Miranda Reasoning and Competent Waiver Decisions: Are Models of Legal Decision Making Applicable?: Miranda understanding, appreciation, and reasoning abilities are essential to courts' determinations of knowing and intelligent Miranda rights waivers. Despite the remarkable development of Miranda research in recent decades, studies have generally focused on understanding and appreciation of Miranda rights, but have not examined Miranda reasoning and waiver decisions. Therefore, examining the nature of defendants' decisional capacities constitutes a critical step in further developing theoretical and clinical models for competent Miranda waiver decisions. The current study evaluated Miranda waiver decisions for 80 pretrial defendants from two Tulsa-area Oklahoma jails. Previously untested, the current study examined systematically how rational decision abilities affect defendants' personal waiver decisions. Components from general models of legal decision making, such as decisional competence and judgment models, were examined to determine their applicability to Miranda waiver decisions.
The Personality Pattern of Hyperactive Boys: Adjustments in Internality, Self-Esteem, and Anxiety: During the past 80 years, similar descriptions of a hyperactive behavior pattern in children have appeared in medical, educational, and psychological literature. Hyperactivity has been conceptualized as a character disorder, an organic disorder, and, most recently, as a behavior disorder. In this study, hyperactivity was explained in interactional terms, using Rotter's social learning theory of personality. Little consideration has been given in research to the influence of an abnormally high activity level upon personality development during childhood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the general influence of negative interactions associated with hyperactivity upon the organization of four personality constructs: locus of control, self-esteem, trait anxiety, and state anxiety.
Blood Pressure Biofeedback and Relaxation Training: The Effects of Home Practice on Reduction of Blood Pressure in Persons with Essential Hypertension: Blood pressure biofeedback at home was compared with relaxation training and a combination of the two procedures for the treatment of essential hypertension, Ten subjects were taught to monitor blood pressure (BP) at home with electronic sphygmomanometers designed for self-use. Although situational factors appeared to have rather potent effects on BP levels, results suggested that training to control BP did generalize across situations. Although pretreatment BP level seemed to be related to the amount of reduction obtained, there was some evidence to indicate that subjects trained in behavioral methods of control could maintain BP in the average range after medication was discontinued, even if no significant reductions were obtained during treatment . Home practice of BP biofeedback was found to be the most successful single treatment for reducing systolic BP in the practice setting.
Effects of Enculturation in Neuropsychological Test Performance on the African Neuropsychological Battery in African Americans and First-Generation Sub-Saharan African Immigrants to the United States: This study used an archival data set of 26 healthy adult immigrants from a sub-Saharan African country to the United States (Mage 39.0, SD = 11.36; Meducation 16.33, SD = 2.88; 40.7% male). Additional archival data was used for 32 healthy African American adults (Mage 34.06, SD = 11.18; Meducation 16.16, SD = 2.49; 53.1% male). A bivariate correlation indicated that acculturation to African culture, as measured by the mBIQ (M 49.29, SD = 8.66), was significantly positively correlated with ethnicity, r = .632, p = .000, ηp2 = 0.399. Two-way ANOVAs revealed that African Americans were able to name more animals than African immigrants (F(1, 54) = 4.82, p = 0.32, ηp2 = 0.82) and exhibited greater organizational skills during a task of cognitive set shifting and problem solving than African immigrants, regardless of level of acculturation (F(1, 54) = 4.47, p =.039, ηp2 = 0.078). In contrast, African immigrants scored higher than African Americans on indigenous fruit (F(1, 54) = 7.60, p =.008, ηp2 = 0.123) and object naming (F(1, 54) = 5.59, p =.022, ηp2 = 0.094). Results of the study concluded that there are small variance effects in language tasks as well as strategy-based approaches to tasks of novel problem solving. Implications of these findings are discussed relative to future research as well as clinical practice in the assessment of culturally dissimilar people across a racially homogenous population by pushing the field forward with diversified approaches to neuropsychological testing.
Assessment Center Ratings as a Function of Personality Factors, Sex and Rating System: The purpose of this study was to examine the differences between the traditional global rating scale and a new behavioral rating scale in a university-based assessment center. It was hypothesized that personality factors, as measured by the 16PF and associated with the global ratings of performance would differ from those associated with the behavioral ratings of performance. It was further hypothesized that the associated personality factors would also differ for males and females. These hypotheses were ^confirmed. Pearson correlations were computed for ratings of males, females, and all subjects combined on both global and behavioral rating scales.
Ecological Treatment and Fasting Effects on Psychological Measures: The purpose of the present study was to objectively verify psychological and behavioral changes in a group of identifiably susceptible patients who were treated for environmental sensitivities in a highly controlled environment. The subjects were 71 Environmental Control Unit (ECU) patient volunteers and 16 nonpatient volunteers for a total of 87. The patients were divided into a short-treatment (fasting 3-4 days) group (n = 35) and a long-treatment (fasting 5-7 days) group (n = 36). A third group, consisting of the 16 nonpatients, formed a nonpatient/no-treatment control group. All subjects were administered tests for assessment of intellectual/cognitive functioning, neurological/cerebral functioning, perceptual-motor skills, mood states, and general psychopathology.
Trauma Responses, Abuse History, and Exposure to Violence as Risk Factors in Adolescent Sex and Non-Sex Offenders: Several risk factors have been identified for adolescent sex offenders and non-sex offenders. Such risk factors include physical and/or sexual abuse, and exposure to community and/or domestic violence. Additionally, the presence of disinhibitive factors, such as substance use and exposure to violent or pornographic media are also commonly reported in the backgrounds of both sex and non-sex offenders. Similarly, adolescent offenders have reported traumatic reactions to environmental factors such as abuse and violence. Similarities in exposure to the risk and disinhibitive factors described above between adolescent sex and non-sex offenders do not provide an explanation for why some adolescents commit sex offenses, whereas other adolescent offenders do not. This study investigated the discriminative ability of traumatic reactions as a risk factor between male adolescent sex and non-sex offenders. The inclusion of traumatic reactions increased the accuracy of risk factors distinguishing between sex and non-sex offenders. Thus, not only the presence of risk factors, but also the adolescent's reaction to the risk factors, are important predictors of whether he will commit a sexual offense.
A Comparison of Short-Term Systematic Desensitization and Implosive Therapy under Therapeutic Level of Aspiration: Systematic desensitization and implosive therapy have surfaced as two of the primary behavioral therapy techniques to decrease phobic responses during the past decade. Although attempts have been made to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of these two techniques, results have been unclear because of the failure of researchers to duplicate the procedures as described by their respective originators. This experiment is designed to explore the joint effects of the therapies and level of therapeutic aspiration. A second objective, and a byproduct of the data produced in achieving the primary objective, was to analyze the goal discrepancy and attainment discrepancy scores accruing throughout the therapy sessions. Several hypotheses were advanced. Further analysis of the three criterion measures by means of ANOVA resulted in significant main sessions effects for each of the three independent analyses. Results suggest that all subjects, regardless of treatment subgroup, did make significant therapeutic gains in their approach scores, fear thermometer scores, and speed of approach scores from the first to the last session. Possible explanations for results were discussed. Furthermore, approach test absolute goal discrepancy, fear thermometer absolute goal discrepancy, approach test absolute attainment discrepancy, and fear thermometer absolute attainment discrepancy scores were calculated for all goal-setting subjects. Results from independent ANOVA suggest that the typical university student is able to make fairly accurate and consistent predictions concerning his future behavior, based on his past experiences.
Affective Reactions and Psychosocial Functioning in the Course of Psycho-Educational Assessment: Every day, children throughout the United States are given psychological evaluations for many different clinical and psycho-educational purposes. Very little research has attempted to investigate children's responses to the experience of having intellectual and achievement tests administered. The goal of the current research was to explore the effect a psycho-educational evaluation has on children in areas of self-concept and anxiety. Dependent variables consisted of pre- and post-test measures of anxiety and self-concept. A total of 75 children in the 4th 5th and 6th grades were recruited after referral for evaluation and possible placement in the Talented and Gifted Program or Special Education. This study employed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), t-tests, multiple regression analysis, and correlational analysis. Findings included initial evidence that children endorsed decreased anxiety after psycho-educational assessments rather than increased anxiety, suggesting that fear of unknown situations may be more anxiety provoking than the actual situation itself, potentially beneficial findings for psychology and psychometric professionals who evaluate children daily. Students endorsement of academic self-concept significantly predicted anxiety after a psycho-educational evaluation, indicating that students who feel capable in academic areas may endorse less anxiety after an evaluation than students who do not feel academically capable. Finally, negative verbal interaction with parents significantly predicted lower general self-concept scores, providing evidence that the manner in which parents verbally relate to their children may have significant impact for the mental health of children.
The Role of Anger/Hostility on Physiological and Behavioral Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease: The purpose of this study was to examine the role of anger/hostility on physiological and behavioral coronary heart disease risk factors. It was hypothesized that anger/hostility would contribute to the severity of CHD via consummatory behaviors such as smoking, poor diet, and excessive alcohol consumption. Some researchers suggest that negative consummatory behaviors play a direct causal role in CHD. The present study proposed that hostility predisposes an individual to these behaviors, and that these behaviors in turn, contribute to CHD. Further, it was proposed that some of the anger that exists in CHD patients may result from the individual being unable to participate in some of their previous consummatory behaviors after suffering a myocardial infarction. Also, it was hypothesized that the construct of anger/hostility would be differentially related to consummatory behaviors.
Menstrual Cycle and Caffein Effects on Physiological and Psychological Processes: This study was directed toward investigating effects of menstrual cycle stages and caffein ingestion on various physiological and psychological processes. Subjects maintained a daily log of basal waking temperature (BWT), occurrence of menstruation, and consumption of caffein containing beverages and medications. At each session, visuo-spatial discrimination, depth perception, and time estimation (15 and 30 sec) were assessed. The Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ), The Measurement of Depression (MOD), and a self-report scale were completed.Multiple linear discriminant analyses were conducted on menstrual cycle and caffein ingestion data. Variables that contributed significantly to the discrimination of level of caffein ingestion were visuo-spatial discrimination; MDQ Water Retention and Control; cervical, lumbar, and saccral temperatures; time required to reach baseline; and total daily consumption of caffein-containing beverages.
Affective Forecasting: the Effects of Immune Neglect and Surrogation: Studies of affective forecasting examine people’s ability to predict (forecast) their emotional (affective) responses to future events. Affective forecasts underlie nearly all decisions people make and the actions they take. However, people engage in systematic cognitive errors when making affective forecasts and most often overestimate the intensity and duration of their emotional responses. Understanding the mechanisms that lead to affective forecasting errors (e.g., immune neglect) and examining the utility of methods for improving affective forecasting errors (e.g., surrogation) can provide highly valuable information for clinicians as they assist clients in determining their goals both for therapy and for life. The first purpose of the current study was to determine if affective forecasting errors due to immune neglect lead to misjudgments about the relative emotional impact of minor versus moderate negative experiences (i.e., trauma severity). The second purpose was to examine the utility of surrogation for improving affective forecasts. Potential interaction effects between these two variables were also examined. The current study utilized a 2 (Trauma Severity: minor, moderate) X 3 (Prediction Information: surrogation information only, simulation information only, both types of information) experimental design. Undergraduates were recruited via the SONA system and randomly assigned to one of the six experimental conditions. A preliminary study was conducted to obtain surrogation information for use in the main study. All participants in the main study predicted how they would feel 10 minutes after receiving negative personality feedback, using a 10-point scale ranging from (1) very unhappy to (10) very happy. These predictions constitute their affective forecasts. All participants then actually received the negative personality feedback (ostensibly from another participant, a peer, in a nearby room) and reported their actual affective states ten minutes later, using the same scale. These ratings constitute their affective reports. Affective forecasting error was calculated as the difference between …
Transactional Risk Factors and Coronary Atherosclerosis: The Impact of Type A Behavior, Hostility, and Defense Style: The relationship of coronary-prone behavior, hostility, and defense style to atherosclerosis was examined. Subjects were 1,271 patients who underwent coronary angiography at Duke University Medical Center between 1974 and 1980. Type A behavior was assessed using both the Structured Interview and Jenkins Activity Survey. The Cook and Medley Hostility scale and Byrne's Repression-Sensitization scale, both subscales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, were employed to measure hostility and defense style. The results revealed no significant association between the disease end-points CADSEV, history of myocardial infarction, and history of angina pectoris and either the Structured Interview Type A, hostility, or repression-sensitization, Jenkins Activity Survey defined Type B's, however, were found to more frequently complain of angina. It was suggested future research employ longitudinal or process designs to focus on adaptive functioning from a transactional and developmental perspective which may serve to promote coronary resistance.
Attitudes about Caregiving: An Ethnicity by Generation Approach: The goal of this project was to understand ethnic and generational differences in attitudes towards caregiving and expected burden while taking into consideration factors such as gender, generation, familism, and acculturation. One hundred and sixteen young adults (ages 18-25) and 93 middle-age adults (ages 38-62) were enrolled in the study. Participants included European Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics. Using moderation analysis, two hypotheses were investigated: 1) Ethnicity relates to attitudes towards caregiving, moderated by gender, generation, familism, and acculturation. 2) Ethnicity and expected burden relate to each other, moderated by gender, generation, familism, and acculturation. Familism emerged as a moderator in the relationship between ethnicity and expected burden. Results suggested that the strength of the relationship between being African American and expecting burden was less for those with moderate familism (R =.078), slightly higher for low familism (R = .176), and the highest for high familism (R= .261). Additional results indicated that the strength of the relationship between being Hispanic, as opposed to being European American, and expected burden, was higher for middle-aged adults (R =.23) when compared to young adults (R =.19). The current findings lend support to the recently established idea that familism is not protective against burden as it increases one's sense of obligation towards family (Knight & Sayegh, 2010).
The Impact of a Peer Mentor Intervention on Internalized Stigma, Mindfulness, and Adherence to Antiretroviral Medication among Adolescents Living with HIV in Zambia: Based on a step-wedge randomized control trial (intervention n = 136; comparison n = 137), this study investigated the impact of a peer mentor intervention for youth living with HIV aged 15-24 years in Ndola, Zambia. Using piecewise hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), change in internalized stigma predicted change in mindfulness, and mindfulness was a significant predictor of better self-reported adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) across both intervention groups. Intervention group membership did not predict rate of change in mindfulness, but predicted a reduction in internalized stigma and an increase in self-reported ART adherence. Following the peer mentor intervention, internalized stigma was significantly lower in the intervention group than the comparison group. Findings highlight the need to develop and implement interventions specific to adolescents living with HIV with a biopsychosocial approach that attends to both the physical and psychological needs specific to adolescents. Our findings support the inclusion of mindfulness-based components in interventions targeting ART adherence for adolescents living with HIV.
Violent and Nonviolent Juvenile Offenders: An Assessment of Differences in Impulse, Ego Structure, and Object Relations Using the Psychoanalytic Rorschach Profile: The present study used the Psychoanalytic Rorschach Profile (PRP) to assess differences in personality organization in violent and nonviolent juvenile offenders.
Conceptualizing Quality of College Life: 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 life. The CAS demonstrated good convergent validity with the World Health Organization Quality of Life measure (WHOQOL), Subjective Well-being and Psychological Well-being Scales. Results: Students who were insecurely attached were as likely to feel adequate in their academic and professional endeavors as securely attached students. However, insecurely attached students had lower QCL levels, lower fulfillment of psychological needs and more emotion regulation difficulties than securely attached students. The results also indicated that Anxious Attachment and Avoidant Attachment were positively and strongly associated. Nonetheless, Anxious Attachment and Avoidant Attachment affected QCL through different mechanism. Emotion regulation mediated the path between Anxious Attachment and QCL while the fulfillment of psychological needs mediated the path between Avoidant Attachment and QCL. The fulfillment of psychological needs also mediated the path between emotion regulation and QCL. The described pattern of results was found for three separate models representing 1) the student’s attachment with their romantic partner, 2) best friend and 3) mother. Additionally, the study’s findings suggest a change in primary attachment figure during the college years. Emotion regulation, the fulfillment of psychological needs and QCL were all affected more strongly by the student’s attachment style with their romantic partner and best friend compared to their attachment style with their parents.
The Nature of Cognitive Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis: Cognitive impairment is common in multiple sclerosis (MS), with as many as 70% of patients with MS affected. Individuals with MS who experience cognitive deficits are less likely to be employed, and may have more difficulty performing independent activities of daily living. Most commonly, deficits are observed in processing speed, complex attention, and memory. Because lesion location varies widely among individuals, no clear pattern of cognitive dysfunction in MS has emerged. However, a number of risk and protective factors may influence the likelihood of individuals to develop and/or express dysfunction, though the contribution of each to specific domains of cognition has not been fully explored. Recently, support for the cognitive reserve hypothesis (i.e., enriching life experiences protect against cognitive decline despite disease burden) has emerged in the MS literature. The current study investigated the contributions of cognitive reserve to learning and memory functioning in MS and the interaction of cognitive reserve variables and risk factors known to impact cognitive functioning in individuals with MS. Finding revealed cognitive reserve protects against decline in the domains of processing speed and complex attention. Furthermore, indirect protective effects of cognitive reserve through these domains were observed for verbal learning and memory. Finally, in line with previous literature, cognitive dysfunction predicted employment status of the current sample. Clinical implications and future directions for intervention efforts are discussed.
Psychopathy in Male and Female Offenders: Validating the CAPP-IRS and Investigating the Impact of Gender Role Conformity: Recent conceptualizations of psychopathy are moving toward more inclusive, purely trait-based models. However, researchers continue to heavily rely on assessments of psychopathy that include categorical behavioral elements. The newly developed Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality – Institutional Rating Scale appears to be a promising interview-based measure of psychopathy, but research on its reliability and validity is in its infancy. As a second issue, the vast majority of research on psychopathy, particularly in offender populations, is conducted with male participants. Nonetheless, the growing body of literature involving incarcerated females suggests gender differences in the prevalence and manifestation of psychopathic traits. Reasons for these differences are unclear, but some have proposed socialized gender roles as a contributing factor. With a sample of 52 female 49 male offenders recruited from a large, metropolitan jail, this dissertation evaluated the construct validity of the CAPP-IRS and examined the effect of gender role conformity on the manifestation of psychopathic traits. Results indicated that a three-factor model of psychopathy represented by antagonistic interpersonal relations, restricted emotions, and disinhibited behavior best fit the data. Findings further suggested convergent and discriminant validity for the CAPP-IRS. Additionally, masculine and feminine gender role conformity differentially related to psychopathy, but generally accounted for a small proportion of the variance in psychopathic traits. Recommendations for future research on the CAPP model and its assessment as well as implications for the clinical assessment of psychopathy in women are discussed.
Depression and Learned Helplessness: Task Difficulty and Success-Failure Attribution: This study was designed to compare the effects of exposure to two different sets of soluble discrimination problems, an easy set composed of only two- and three-dimensional problems and a more difficult set composed of problems ranging from two to seven dimensions, both immediately after training and at a 10-day posttreatment follow-up. The subjects were 32 depressed male inmates of a federal correctional institution. It was hypothesized that as a result of meeting and mastering progressively more difficult problems, the group given progressively more difficult problems would show a greater reduction in depression and a greater enhancement of performance on a variety of cognitive measures, both immediately after treatment and at the 10-day posttreatment follow-up. The results failed to support these hypotheses. Depression scores decreased significantly from pretreatment to posttreatment, but did so equally for the two groups. One of the cognitive measures, the WAIS Digit-Symbol subtest, showed significant improvements from pretreatment to posttreatment, but did equally for the two groups. Significant relationships were found between the subjects' performances on the cognitive tasks, and measures of their tendencies to attribute successes and failures to stable or unstable factors. Unexpected significant positive relationships were found between depression and performance on the cognitive tasks. The differential effect of the prison environment upon people differing in their intelligence was discussed as a possible explanation of these findings.
Organized Semantic Fluency and Executive Functioning in an Adult Clinical Sample and a Community Sample: The study investigated an organized semantic fluency task, (the Controlled Animal Fluency Task - CAFT) as a measure of executive functioning (EF) in adults, and the relationship with instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Participants (N = 266) consisted of a clinical sample (n = 142) utilizing neuropsychological assessment data collected at an outpatient psychological center, and a community sample (n = 124). The clinical sample was a heterogeneous mixed neurological group including a variety of health conditions and comorbid anxiety and depression. The CAFT Animals by Size demonstrated a significant positive correlation with Category Fluency (r = .71, n = 142, p < .001) , Animal Fluency (r = .70, n = 142, p < .001), and with other, established neuropsychological measures. The CAFT Animals by Size condition demonstrated a significant moderate negative correlation with IADL for the sample as a whole (r = -.46, n = 248, p < .001), and for the clinical sample (r = -.38, n = 129, p < .001), but not for the community sample. In a hierarchical regression analysis, CAFT Animal by Size explained additional variance in IADL (ΔR2 = .15). In a hierarchical regression analysis predicting IADL with the control variables entered first, followed by Category Fluency, with CAFT Animal by Size entered last, CAFT Animals by Size did not make a significant additional contribution. A stepwise forward regression indicated Category Fluency, education, and Category Switching are better predictors of IADL than CAFT Animals by Size. Normative data for the CAFT were calculated separately for age groups and education levels. Simple logistic regression indicated CAFT Animal by Size was a significant predictor of clinical or community group membership. A second logistic regression analysis indicated the CAFT Animal by Size condition improved the prediction of membership in the clinical versus the community …
How Exposure to Parental Intimate Partner Violence Affects College Students' Dating Violence: A Structural Equation Model with Adult Attachment and Social Information Processing as Mediating Factors: The effects of childhood exposure to parental intimate partner violence (EPIPV) on dating violence (DV) were examined through two layers of mediations. Based on attachment theory, individuals who are exposed to parental intimate partner violence are less likely to experience secure parent-child attachment, which in turn transfers to insecure adult attachment that is prone to perceive significant others as less trustworthy and less reliable as well as higher likelihood of over-reacting and/or staying in an unhealthy relationship. In the second layer of mediation, insecure adult attachment would lead to biased SIP which in turn, would result in an increase of DV. A total of 327 university students participated in the study by voluntarily completing the research questionnaires. Among them, 253 reported having experienced mild to severe DV and were included in the final data set. The data analyses procedures included examinations of the measurement models and structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses. Findings from the final models best supported by the data indicated that EPIPV predicted both dating violence perpetration and victimization and that EPIPV predicted adult attachment anxiety and avoidance, both of which are consistent with existing literature. However, findings revealed that EPIPV did not predict SIP and SIP was not predictive of DV perpetration. In addition, neither adult attachment anxiety nor attachment avoidance was predictive of DV perpetration and victimization. For DV victimization SEM model, adult attachment anxiety predicted SIP, however, SIP did not predict DV victimization. Findings are discussed based on DV literature and attachment theory. Limitations, clinical implications, and future research directions are also outlined.
Pregnancy Loss: Disenfranchised Grief and Other Psychological Reactions: It is widely acknowledged in the literature that grief is most intense when it is experienced by parents whose children have died. However, as recently as 20 years ago, mothers whose children died at birth or before the pregnancy had reached full term were often dismissed as merely medical patients, and their psychological reactions were not considered or acknowledged by professionals, their friends, or their families. More recently fields such as psychology have recognized that women who have experienced pregnancy loss have complex psychological reactions to their loss. The present study examined the patterns of grief of women who have had a pregnancy end in spontaneous abortion or stillbirth and the ways in which these women gave meaning to their experiences. Participants were asked to complete several measures including the Perinatal Grief Scale (PGS), the Hogan Grief reaction Checklist (HGRC), the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSS), and the Inventory of Social Support (ISS). The participants also wrote a narrative account of their loss experience. These narratives were content analyzed to delineate common themes. The findings indicated several important factors which may be useful in understanding and assisting in post-loss adjustment.

UNT Libraries - 325 Matching Results

Search Results

Add Filters

Applied Filters