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- Creator:
- Rowley, Christina A.
- Description:
- Although early preventive interventions that curtail the negative effects of chronic stress in childhood are needed, few preventive interventions exist for young children. the current study aimed to address this gap by testing the feasibility of a preventive intervention that teaches diaphragmatic breathing, a relaxation technique that counteracts the effects of physiological stress, to four to six-year-old children and their parents in a one-time group session. It was hypothesized that (1) diaphragmatic breathing would be successfully taught to young children and (2) multiple families in one single session, and that (3) parents would react positively regarding the intervention’s feasibility and acceptability. Three parent-child dyads participated, and data were collected at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and two-week follow-up. Parents reported on perceived understanding, acceptability, and feasibility of the intervention, interventionists rated the families’ ability to replicate diaphragmatic breathing, and parents and children rated the children’s social, emotional, and physical functioning. Overall, parents indicated that the intervention is understandable, acceptable for stress management, and feasible to implement, and successfully replicated the diaphragmatic breathing technique. All participants reported improvement in the children’s overall functioning. the present study contributed to existing literature by piloting a novel preventive intervention for young children and uncovering some unique challenges, primarily associated with recruitment, of leading an early childhood preventive intervention in a group format.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Stapley, Ashley L.
- Description:
- Research suggests that a critical cognitive mechanism involved in false memory is semantic memory. Humans are highly susceptible to false memory error which poses a problem for the reliability of eyewitness testimony. To combat this problem researchers have investigated how metacognitive monitoring and warnings can mitigate false memory formation. Warning individuals about memory errors showed decreases in false recall and recognition; however, the efficacy of warnings is still debated. The current study seeks to determine the extent of the effects of semantic interference on eyewitness memory, and to study which methods of warning are most effective at reducing false memory errors brought about by semantic interference. Participants were given one of three different warning types before beginning the experiment. All participants watched the pilot episode of the television show 24 to simulate a witnessed event. Participants then completed a semantic interference task that was followed by a memory test and confidence measures. Results indicated that those in the semantically related semantic interference task (SIT) condition performed better on the memory test indicating that the task facilitated rehearsal rather than promoting internally generated information. Participants given a warning exhibited poorer performance with decreased memory accuracy and higher false memory errors. This indicates that the warning might have made individuals overconfident in their ability to discern false memories from veridical memories.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379862
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Krupa, Lauren M.
- Description:
- This study examines the relationship between social anxiety and self-concept clarity. Previous research has shown that social anxiety and self-concept clarity are related, and that low self-concept clarity is a unique predictor of social anxiety. There has not been research on the mechanism behind this relationship, which is what the current study intended to do. Three research hypotheses were tested: (1) socially anxious individuals selectively attend to social threat information, (2) those with low self-concept clarity have increased social anxiety, and (3) information processing biases and self-concept clarity are both predictors of social anxiety, with self-concept clarity being the moderating predictor. In order to investigate attention biases, an Emotional Stroop task was used. The Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) crowdsourcing platform was used to recruit 132 participants. Hypotheses 1 and 3 were not supported by the results. For hypothesis 1, social anxiety as measured by the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS) was not significantly correlated with reaction time on social threat word trials of the emotional Stroop task. For hypothesis 3, a hierarchical multiple regression found that while the first model with social threat trial reaction time on the emotional Stroop task and self-concept clarity, measured by Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS) scores, as individual predictors was significant, the second model with the addition of the interaction term was not. Hypothesis 2 was supported in that self-concept clarity was significantly negatively correlated with social anxiety.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379909
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Phillips, Kristen
- Description:
- Fibromyalgia (FM) is a pervasive chronic pain condition that affects almost every aspect of daily life. Symptoms can be debilitating and severe, leading to precautionary and inactive lifestyles for those diagnosed. Perceived social support from loved ones has been shown to alleviate these negative symptoms and encourage pro-healthy behaviors. However, older adults with FM may react to both physical and psychosocial symptoms by reducing their participation in leisure activities, further limiting available sources of social support. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the influence of FM status and leisure activity on social support. by conducting secondary analyses on a sample of 240 older adults with and without fibromyalgia, it was hypothesized that FM status would moderate the relationship between social support and leisure activity. Results revealed that participants with fibromyalgia did report significantly less available social support compared to the healthy control group. Additionally, a positive association between leisure activity and social support was found when controlling for FM status. However, FM status did not moderate the relationship between leisure activity and social support. Despite this lack of impact by FM status, these findings provide additional support to the current literature suggesting that social support is linked with both chronic pain and leisure activity.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379749
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Fleming, Helena Elizabeth W.
- Description:
- This study was grounded in the I3 theory of aggression, which examines factors that make aggression more or less likely to occur. This study focused on intimate partner violence within the I3 framework. in particular, negative mood regulation (NMR) expectancies–which are people’s beliefs that they can improve their negative moods–were considered as a possible inhibiting factor for intimate partner violence. Participants were 186 men in romantic relationships, who completed the study online. They filled out measures of NMR expectancies and dispositional aggression, anger and hostility. They then completed a Stroop task, for which they indicated the color font in which words were presented. Participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental condition, in which some Stroop words had aggressive meanings, or a control condition, with all neutral words. Participants next were provoked by imagining scenarios in which their romantic partner flirted with another person, after which they were given the chance to behave violently by sticking pins into voodoo dolls representing their partner. Results showed NMR expectancies were negatively correlated with aggression, anger, and hostility. However, multivariate analyses predicting intimate partner violence were not significant. a major limitation of the study is that it was conducted online, and there was no way to control participants’ attention or limit outside distractions. Future research could be done in person and measure behaviors with participants’ actual romantic partners instead of using imaginary scenarios and symbolic aggression.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379893
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Jurkiewicz, Olivia
- Description:
- Digital interactions can provide rich and novel information for psychological research. An influential form of digital communication is online reviews. Individuals supply critical judgments and opinions to facilitate the decision-making process of their fellow consumers. Psychological factors (emotional, social, and cognitive) extracted from review language may elucidate important direct or indirect signals of informational value during the decision-making process. Psychological semantics were extracted using latent Dirichlet allocation (a dimension reduction technique) and using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) dictionary from 3,000 and 50,000 randomly selected Amazon book reviews, respectively, to predict perceived informational value. The final regression model using the LIWC factors demonstrate that negative emotion and inhibitory language negatively influence perceived informational value, while social and analytic language positively influence perceived informational value F(6, 49985) = 14445.19, p < .001. The data-driven approach demonstrated that topical information in book reviews can be unhelpful, while impressions or thoughts about features of the book can be helpful. Both methods produced unique but complimentary results important in distinguish which emotional, social, and cognitive cues within language can impact helpfulness during the decision-making process.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438379695
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Jordan, Alejandra
- Description:
- Suicide by Cop (SbC) is a method of suicide in which an individual purposely engages in threatening behavior toward police officers in an attempt to be killed. Previous studies have found the prototypical SbC subject is male, mid 30s, with a history of suicidal ideation, disrupted relationships, and prior or current mental health concerns, although these studies have all relied on Officer Involved Shooting reports or public information as sources of data, which tend to only include cases involving lethal force. to address the dearth in knowledge of SbC cases involving no force or less than lethal force, the present study provides a detailed analysis of all identified SbC cases from the Los Angeles Police Department Mental Evaluation Unit’s database that occurred between 2010-2015. Results indicate that similar frequencies are seen with regard to subject characteristics as in previous literature; however, substantial differences are seen across incident and outcome characteristics. Chi square analyses resulted in 15 variables that significantly differentiate subjects across the No Force, Less Lethal Force, and Lethal Force groups. the results of the present study paint a more positive picture of SbC outcomes for police and subjects alike. Implications for training and considerations for police departments are discussed.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780355839500
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Lopez, Michael D.
- Description:
- Humans assess formidability though a variety of cues including weaponry, group size, and incapacitation (Fessler, Holbrook, Snyder, 2012; Fessler & Holbrook, 2013a, Fessler & Holbrook, 2013b). These studies argue that formidability is heuristically represented in a potential foes size, height, weight, and muscularity. Meaning, the more formidable a possible antagonist is the larger he/she appears. Formidability has also shown a relationship to ratings of leadership. In the present study, I tested the following hypotheses: formidability and leadership are negatively affected by the presence of a physical injury, the effect of being injured/uninjured on leadership ability is mediated by formidability, and risk propensity moderates the effect of being injured/uninjured on formidability. Participants (246 men and 292 women) were recruited for an online survey in which they were asked to make judgments about either injured individuals (e.g., on crutches, wearing knee braces, wearing a neck brace) or uninjured individuals. Participants made estimates about the target stimulus’s formidability, leadership qualities, and risk propensity. the present study found that participants rated uninjured men as more formidable better leaders. Risk propensity did not act as a moderator between being injured/uninjured and formidability. However, formidability did serve as a mediator for the effect of condition type (injured/uninjured) on leadership ability.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438053236
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Ewing, Emily Lorraine
- Description:
- Previous research has found a consistent association between stressful life events and depressive symptoms. However, it is not well understood why some individuals are more vulnerable to depressive symptoms following a stressful life event than others. The present study addressed this gap through the examination of negative mood regulation expectancies and perceived stress levels as potential moderators of this relationship. One hundred and thirty-five students at California State University, Fullerton completed self-report questionnaires assessing a history of stressful life events, negative mood regulation expectancies, perceived stress levels, and depressive symptoms. The main effect of stressful life events on depression, as well as moderating effects of negative mood regulation expectancies and perceived stress levels, were tested through hierarchical multiple regression. Controlling for the effect of age, stressful life events were not significantly associated with depressive symptoms, though their effects approached significance. Further, also controlling for the effect of age, negative mood regulation expectancies and perceived stress levels did not moderate the relationship trend between stressful life events and depressive symptoms. However, negative mood regulation expectancies and perceived stress levels directly predicted depressive symptoms. The findings from this study suggest that, regardless of stressful life event histories, targeting levels of negative mood regulation expectancies and perceived stress may be important in clinical interventions for college students with depression.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438053748
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Valadez, Adrian M.
- Description:
- The purpose of the current study was to determine if members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, etc. (LGBTQ+) community experience stereotype threat—a psychological phenomenon that hinders a marginalized individual in a multitude of tasks and stereotype boost —an effect that enhances an individual’s performance when a positive stereotype makes identity salient. the effects of stereotyping were measured using a mental rotation task, which has, historically, created a notable gap in performance between men and women. Participants completed the mental rotation while in one of three conditions: control (no identity salience), gender (gender identity salience), and sexual orientation (queer identity salience). It was hypothesized that participants in the control condition would perform similarly on the mental rotation task. When gender identity was made salient, it was predicted that queer men would higher mental rotation performance scores while queer women’s performance would be hindered—thereby demonstrating the effects of stereotype threat. Finally, it was hypothesized that when queer identity was primed, queer men’s performance would be hindered while queer women would experience an enhancement of mental rotation ability—an effect of both stereotype boost and Gay Inversion Theory. a factorial ANOVA analysis indicated that there were no present main or interaction. It is likely that recruitment challenges, priming methods, and reluctance to engage in psychological research contributed to a low sample size and power issues with the current data.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Identifier:
- 9780438054622
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology