Search Constraints
Filtering by:
Department
Psychology
Remove constraint Department: Psychology
Subject
Study
Remove constraint Subject: Study
1 - 4 of 4
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
- Creator:
- Prevatte, Susan J.
- Description:
- A group of currently non-depressed college students (as assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory, BDI) who are vulnerable to depression, were given the Topic Appropriateness Scale (TA) and the BDI on two separate occasions to elicit both their willingness to discuss personal problems and their depression level. The results showed that there was no linear relationship between level of depression and willingness to discuss negative topics. Explanations for this lack of direct association were explored. In support of previous findings, subjects who were vulnerable (high on the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale, DAS) rated negative topics as appropriate for discussion. In addition, the results supported the contention that vulnerable individuals may become depressed over time. This information may imply that cognitive therapy may be effective in treating depression. Depression is described in the DSM III (1980) as a dysphoric mood or loss of interest or pleasure in all or almost all usual activities and pastimes. The dysphoric mood is characterized by symptoms such as: depressed, sad, blue, hopeless, low, down in the dumps, and irritable. The disturbance is prominent, relatively persistent and associated with other symptoms including appetite disturbance, weight change, sleep disturbance, psychomotor agitation or retardation, energy decrease, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, difficulty concentrating or thinking, and thoughts of death, suicide, or suicidal attempts. Depression has been studied from several perspectives. The most influential and enduring theory of depression was developed by Freud (1917). His psychoanalytic view of depression emphasizes unconscious conflict associated with object or ego loss. Freud saw the potential for depression in childhood experience. He theorized that during the oral period the child's needs may be insufficiently or oversufficiently gratified. The person would remain "stuck" at this developmental stage and dependent on the instinctual gratification particular to it. Fixation at the oral stage results in a tendency to be excessively dependent on other people for the maintenance of self-esteem. Freud (1917) hypothesized that after the loss of a loved one through death, or in an ideal sense symbolically lost as an object of love, the mourner incorporates or introjects this lost person and identifies with him or her. Freud asserted we unconsciously have negative feelings against those we love, and that the mourner now becomes the object of his own hate and anger. The mourner also resents being deserted and feels guilt for real or imagined sins against the lost person. The mourner works through these feelings by recalling memories of the lost one and separating himself from the one who has died and loosening the bonds that introjection has imposed. According to Freudian theory, overly dependent individuals are unable to work through their grief and it develops into an ongoing process of self-abuse, self-blame and depression. Overly dependent individuals do not loosen their emotional bonds with the lost loved one and continue to blame themselves for faults and shortcomings perceived in the loved one who has been introjected. This anger turned inward is the basis for the psychodynamic view of depression. (See more in text)
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Campbell, John Laurence
- Description:
- In recent years, a number of studies have examined failure detection performance as a function of the subject's participatory mode (manual vs. automatic mode). The generalizeability of these studies has been limited by both the simplicity of the tasks and the fact that, in general, only failure detection has been examined. The present experiment used a yoked-control experimental design to compare the manual and automatic modes in a full task simulation. The 24 subjects who participated in the study interacted with the system as either a manual controller or as an automatic monitor. Dependent measures were obtained both before and after a system emergency and included total time to complete the task, the number and length of feedback requests, the speed and accuracy of responses to system state questions, and a number of task performance measures. The results indicated superior performance by the manual controllers for a number of the dependent measures. In general, the manual controllers performed the task more efficiently. Although the low fidelity and the simplicity of the task reduced the number of significant variables, the yoked-control experimental design and full-task simulation employed in this study should significantly aid future research.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Mummaw, Deborah Ann Denofsky
- Description:
- Eight pilots and eight non-pilots were rotated in a Barany chair at 30 revolutions per minute and 45 revolutions per minute for 60 and 120 seconds. The subjects were required to track a target on a computer screen after the rotation to determine the amount of time for their vision to clear. The dependent variable was the amount of time to attempt to hit the target the first time or the mean time for each of the first five attempts. There were no significant differences between conditions, however, there were some weak interactions between groups and conditions (p<.10). The literature suggests there would be no difference due to the rotational speed. The lack of significant differences can also be attributed to experimental error, and lack of sensitivity of the tracking task. Pilots tended to have faster speeds, indicating they may have habituated to the stimulus because of their flying. Further research with differing age groups and differing experience levels is indicated.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Connally, Cynthia Ellen
- Description:
- An instruction manual was evaluated to determine the effects of tab type, heading placement and practice on time to locate information, number of errors and perceived ease of use. Forty-eight computer programmers from UNISYS Corporation, ranging in age from 21 to 50, participated in the study. Subjects in each of three tab groups -extended tabs, bleeded tabs, or no tabs -- searched for headings that were centered, left-justified, partially in the margin or fully in the margin. Search time results indicated that subjects located information more quickly with extended tabs than with bleeded tabs or no tabs, particularly for the first manual that they used. They also perceived the chapters to be easier to find with extended tabs. Bleeded tabs were associated with the longest search times for the first manual. Within each manual, a practice effect was found such that search times were longest for the first of three trial blocks. Error results indicated that users missed headings less often with margin and partial-margin headings and perceived them to be easiest to find, easiest to distinguish from the text and most aesthetically pleasing. However, for the no-tab group, the partial-margin headings were perceived as easier to find and more aesthetically pleasing than the margin headings. These results are discussed and recommendations are made regarding the use of extended tabs, as well as margin and partial-margin headings.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology