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- Creator:
- Davies, Kyra L.
- Description:
- ABSTRACT FACTORS INFLUENCING THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERFECTIONISM by Kyra L. Davies Master of Arts in Psychology Psychological Science Option California State University, Chico Summer 2009 Research on the development of perfectionism is important because many researchers have linked perfectionism and many types of psychopathologies. Therefore, the current study attempts to predict perfectionism from adult attachment, parenting styles and adult temperament. Perfectionism can be defined as a multidimensional trait (e.g., personal standards, parental criticism and expectations, concern over mistakes, organization and doubts about actions) that is characterized as having excessively high personal standards. One hundred and fifty-four participants responded to the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised Questionnaire, the Parental Authority Questionnaire, and the Adult Temperament Questionnaire. Insecure attachment styles, authoritarian parenting style and vii extraversion/surgency temperament style were analyzed in all of the regression models. The results indicated that higher scores on the anxious attachment scale were the best predictor for five dimensions of perfectionism and carried the largest beta weights in all five regression models. The findings of the current suggest that individuals who have characteristics of anxious attachment, such as fear of rejection, are likely to develop characteristics of perfectionism.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Tate, Jason A.
- Description:
- ABSTRACT INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF MONEY by Jason Anthony Tate Master of Arts in Psychology Psychological Science Option California State University, Chico Summer 2009 The present study examined individual differences in materialism as a moderator of the psychological consequences of money. Reminders of money have been shown to affect a sense of self sufficiency in individuals, resulting in both more autonomous behavior and less helpfulness. Participants were given a personality selfassessment questionnaire, with items including measures of materialism, socioeconomic status, and subjective well being. They then completed a puzzle task while either being reminded of money (via a poster) or not. Reminders of money did not affect whether the participants sought help, wanted help to be available to them, or wanted to work alone or with a partner. Reminders of money did not influence how much help participants offered with one exception: participants scoring high on materialism offered significantly less help when exposed to the money reminder, as compared to individuals scoring low x on materialism. Materialism was not found to be related to socioeconomic status or subjective social status, but was found to be negatively related to life satisfaction.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Salem, Simon Kamil
- Description:
- ABSTRACT THE EFFECTS OF PRO-SOCIAL VIDEO GAMES ON EMPATHY by Simon Kamil Salem Master of Arts in Psychology: Psychological Science Option California State University, Chico Spring 2009 There has been little research on the positive aspects of learning that may arise from video games. This study hypothesizes that playing pro-social video games can increase empathy as compared to previous research that has found that aggressive or violent video games may decrease empathy. Participants were asked to take a measure of aspects of empathy, before and after playing a violent, pro-social or neutral video game. Participants were instructed to play together with another individual for twenty minutes. Participants who were randomly assigned to the pro-social game showed a significant increase in the subscale of personal distress compared to the violent video game, and participants randomly assigned to the neutral game showed a significant increase in the subscale of perspective-taking compared to the violent and pro-social video game. Results show that playing games cooperatively that contain little or no aggressive x qualities as well as pro-social aspects may have an impact on an individual’s ability to empathize with their partner.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Allan, Justin D.
- Description:
- ABSTRACT AN INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO GAME SELF-EFFICACY by Justin D. Allan Master of Arts in Psychology Psychological Science Option California State University, Chico Fall 2010 Past research has shown that self-efficacy beliefs are an important factor in human action and motivation. Until this study, video game self-efficacy has never been directly investigated. Video game self-efficacy may be a factor in video game addiction, emotional arousal while playing video games, and aggressive behavior related to video game usage. The current study used information gathered from focus groups in conjunction with self-efficacy literature to investigate video game self-efficacy and to create the Video Game Self-Efficacy Scale. The Video Game Self-Efficacy Scale was shown to be a reliable tool that measured video game self-efficacy and was predictive of video game use. Significant correlations were found between video game self-efficacy and gender. High video game self-efficacy was also correlated with frequency of game play and the amount of time spent playing video games.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Caldwell, Steven Franklin
- Description:
- The current investigation was designed to examine whether metaphors, when presented as a graphic or as a text, help to increase learners’ understanding of unfamiliar concepts in physics—specifically the functionality of electrical circuits. One-hundred and eighty-eight undergraduate volunteers read one of two texts explaining electrical circuits, in terms standard physics terminology or in terms of a metaphor for electrical circuits. Each text was accompanied along with one of three graphic conditions: a graphic depicting the elements of the standard text, a graphic depicting the elements of the metaphorical text, or no graphic. Results from the present investigation revealed that a metaphorical description can be just as effective for learning as a standard description, but only when the learners’ rationales are examined for the metaphorical perspective of the explanations relative to their standard explanations—and a graphic is present.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Battinich, William
- Description:
- ABSTRACT THE INFLUENCE OF THEMATIC DISPLAYS ON THE COMPREHENSION OF TEXT by William Battinich Master of Arts in Psychology Psychological Science Option California State University, Chico Spring 2009 The current investigation was designed to examine whether decorative graphics can function as thematic displays and whether these displays can influence learnersâ comprehension of textual material. Learners were presented with a text describing the positive and negative aspects of romantic relationship with or without an accompanying thematic display. Some researchers have suggested that decorative graphics do not improve the recall of text nor increase the quality of learning outcomes. However, our results suggest that decorative graphics can act as thematic displays and also influence comprehension processes involved with the both the graphic and text. Our results demonstrate that thematic displays can activate a learnerâ s schema of a topic, thereby creating noticeable differences in the type of prior knowledge they bring to mind while processing textual material. Furthermore, the type of prior knowledge viii that the learners incorporated into their essays about romantic relationships was distinctly different depending on which thematic display was viewed.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Green, Brannon
- Description:
- ABSTRACT CB1 RECEPTOR ANTAGONIST AM-251: EFFECT ON SPATIAL MEMORY IN MALE MICE by Brannon Micheal Green Master of Arts in Psychology Psychological Science Option California State University, Chico Summer 2009 The current study investigated the effect of the endocannabinoid system on spatial memory in mice. We hypothesized that a cannabinoid antagonist would have a negative impact on spatial memory retrieval and reacquisition by interrupting normal cannabinoid activity associated with these spatial memory functions. C57BL/6 male mice were brought to criterion on the Morris Water Maze and acutely treated with either the antagonist or vehicle, and were retested on the Morris Water Maze to assess retrieval. Half of these mice were then chronically treated with the antagonist, vehicle or saline. Latency times on the Morris Water Maze were compared over 10 days to evaluate the effect on memory reacquisition. The cannabinoid antagonist had a small, but statistically significant, negative impact on retrieval, although it did not significantly affect reacquisition. vi
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Lewis, Scott Cannon
- Description:
- ABSTRACT THE ROLE OF EMPATHY IN THE RUBBER HAND ILLUSION by Scott Cannon Lewis Master of Arts in Psychology Psychological Science Option California State University, Chico Summer 2010 The relationship between empathy and the rubber hand illusion has yet to be investigated. The current study investigated the relationship between measures of susceptibility to the rubber hand illusion and measures related to empathy and alexithymia. Latency to the illusion was recorded and participants completed a post-illusion questionnaire. Illusion latency, intensity scores, and questions affirming the illusion were compared to scores on the IRI and TAS-20. Significant correlations were found between illusion intensity and illusion latency. Regression analyses indicated the Empathic Concern subscale of the IRI predicted Illusion Latency. Findings indicate an inverse relationship between latency and self-reported strength of the illusion and that empathy may be related to onset of the illusion.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Kiss, Jamie
- Description:
- ABSTRACT MAKING COMPLEX DECISIONS: UNCONSCIOUS OR ONLINE PROCESSES? by Jamie Kiss Master of Arts in Psychology Psychological Science Option California State University, Chico Summer 2010 Previous studies (Dijksterhuis, 2004; Dijksterhuis et al., 2006) suggest that complex decisions are best when left for the unconscious to decide; however, there is a great deal of criticism and a lack of supporting evidence for unconscious decisionmaking. This investigation was designed to clear up the uncertainty about unconscious decision-making. One hundred-sixty undergraduates were asked to either memorize characteristics or form an impression of four cars. They were asked to rate each car either immediately or after a three-minute period in which they engaged in one of three modes of thought. Results revealed that the difference in instruction had an effect on decisionmaking; however, no support was found for unconscious decision-making. It is suggested that decisions were made online, as information was coming into working memory. The exact mental processes that occur during complex decision-making are still unclear.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Gonder, Justin
- Description:
- ABSTRACT TEXT MESSAGING IN CLASS: EXTRAVERSION AS A MEDIATING FACTOR IN DISTRACTION by justin gonder Master of Arts in Psychology: Psychological Science Option California State University, Chico Spring 2010 The sending and receiving of text-based messages using cell phones has become increasingly common in the college classroom. Many educators express concern that this activity provides a distraction that lowers student performance, however, students often claim that their work is unchanged or improved when texting. Existing literature on distraction in academic settings suggests that previous experience, as well as personality traits such as extraversion, might help to explain individual differences in students’ ability to learn and process information from a lecture when distracted by stimuli such as text messages. The current study examined the effects of text messages in a simulated classroom lecture setting on introverted and extraverted students, while also examining students’ previous experience with this activity. Results failed to show significant differences between introverts and extraverts for any of the conditions.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Chico
- Department:
- Psychology