Return to Sport: Improving Athletes' Confidence and Mindset Post-ACL Surgery (open access)

Return to Sport: Improving Athletes' Confidence and Mindset Post-ACL Surgery

This study explored the impact of three psychological interventions over seven weeks - goal setting (GS), GS and imagery (IM), and GS and mindful self-compassion (MSC) - on 20 athletes' (Mage = 16.75 years) pain, cognitive appraisal, depression reinjury anxiety, psychological readiness to return to sport, and range of motion (ROM). IM and GS interventions have demonstrated initial effectiveness; however, no study has examined MSC in relation to post-ACL recovery. All athletes experienced significant decrease in pain (F(2) = 97.30, p = .000) from Week 1 to Week 7 and a significant increase in ROM from Week 2 to Week 7 (F(1) = 77.93, p = .000). All athletes experienced significantly higher depression at Week 1 compared to both Week 2 and Week 7 (F(2) = 9.01, p = .001), and significantly higher difficulty coping with their injury at Weeks 1 and 2 compared to Week 7 (F(2) = 6.32, p = .005). There were no statistically significant effects found between the intervention groups at Weeks 1, 2, and 7. However there were moderate effect sizes between interventions which suggest MSC and IM could help athletes cope with their injury during the first few weeks after surgery, and GS may …
Date: December 2017
Creator: Sheinbein, Shelly Thurlo
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Multicultural Discussions and Supervisory Working Alliance on Multicultural Counseling Competence (open access)

The Effects of Multicultural Discussions and Supervisory Working Alliance on Multicultural Counseling Competence

This study examined the influence of multicultural training, multicultural discussions in supervision, and the supervisory working alliance on multicultural counseling competence. The sample consisted of 57 doctoral counseling interns, doctoral graduate students and post-doctoral students in counseling and clinical psychology. Participants completed several instruments including a demographic questionnaire, the Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory - Trainee, and the Multicultural Counseling Inventory. They filled out two questionnaires created for this study, one assessing multicultural discussions in supervision and another quantifying their multicultural training experience. Data analyses included multiple hierarchical regression, utilizing the Hayes PROCESS macro. Multicultural discussions in supervision moderated the relationship between the supervisory working alliance and multicultural counseling competence, but did not significantly moderate the relationship between multicultural training and multicultural counseling competence. Findings suggest that when multicultural discussions in supervision are positive, they significantly increases the strength of the relationship between good supervisory working alliance and multicultural counseling competence in psychology trainees. The findings may inform supervision practices and improve multicultural counseling competence in psychology graduate student trainees.
Date: December 2017
Creator: Carr, Jarice N.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Co-Occurrence of Rape Myth Acceptance and Intolerant Attitudes in a Military Sample (open access)

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

Sexual trauma within the military is a widespread issue, and rape myth acceptance has been shown to contribute to its prevalence. Given that the military culture has been shown to lend itself to hypermasculinity and traditional gender role adherence, both of which facilitate aggression toward women, this effect warrants investigation within a military sample. The present study replicated and expanded upon Aosved and Long's (2006) study examining 85 veteran and active duty military members' responses on the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, Attitudes Toward Women Scale (short form), Neosexism Scale, Male Role Norms Inventory (short form), Modern and Old Fashioned Racism Scale, Modern Homophobia Scale, a modified version of the Economic Belief Scale, Fraboni Scale of Ageism, Religious Intolerance Scale, and the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale (short form). Findings provide support for the co-occurrence of rape myth acceptance with intolerant attitudes, including sexism, hypermasculine gender role ideology, racism, sexual prejudice, classism, ageism, and religious intolerance, both individually and collectively. These results provide insight into the functioning of intolerant attitudes within a military sample, and provide important insight for future research addressing the association between rape myth acceptance and rape proclivity and the perpetration of military sexual assault.
Date: December 2017
Creator: Holtz, Pamela M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Examination of a Bi-Directional Relationship between Urgency and Alcohol Use (open access)

Examination of a Bi-Directional Relationship between Urgency and Alcohol Use

The proposed study examined whether negative urgency and positive urgency are dynamic traits that hold bi-directional relationships with binge and prolonged alcohol use across time. Individuals between the ages of 18-30 were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; n = 179) and university student (n = 66) pools. Participants completed three batteries of self-report assessments approximately 30 days apart, each containing measures assessing negative and positive urgency, as well as drinking frequency and binge behavior during the prior month. Latent variable cross-lagged panel models examined the effects of alcohol use from the previous month on negative and positive urgency while controlling for concurrent and autoregressive effects. Results of the current study indicated that for the full sample, there was not an effect for the influence of binge/prolonged drinking on either negative or positive urgency during the subsequent month. However, when examined separately by sample (Turkers vs. university) and gender (male vs. female), significant effects were found more for individuals who were Turkers, male, and/or heavy drinkers, suggesting that increases in positive and negative urgency at Time 2 could be partially explained by variance in drinking patterns at Time 1 for these individuals. However, these relationships were not replicated again between …
Date: December 2017
Creator: Blackledge, Sabrina M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Body Image as Mediated by Age, Sex, and Relationship Status (open access)

Body Image as Mediated by Age, Sex, and Relationship Status

Traditionally, body image research has focused on young women. However, there are indications of cultural shifts which extend physical appearance pressures to both men and women, as well as to middle-aged and older adults. Two hundred and ten subjects were administered objective body image measures including the Figure Rating Scale, the Body Shape Questionnaire, and the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, as well as projective measures including the Holtzman Inkblot Technique and the Draw-A-Person. The NEO-Five Factor Inventory and the Social Anxiety Subscale were also used to explore variables which might covary with body image. A 3 X 2 X 2 Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was utilized with social desirability as the covariate.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Cooper, Caren C. (Caren Connie)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Attention and Information Processing Variables in Hypothetically Psychosis-Prone College Students (open access)

Attention and Information Processing Variables in Hypothetically Psychosis-Prone College Students

Considering the explanations of schizophrenia that presume schizophrenia spectrum disorders (e.g., schizotypal personality disorder, schizoaffective disorder, etc.) to be genetically related to schizophrenia, the purpose of this study was to investigate the attention and information processing abilities of individuals who have been identified as schizotypal or psychosis-prone (i.e., schizophrenia spectrum functioning in individuals who do not have schizophrenia). Research indicates that persons identified as psychosis-prone may show attention and information processing deficits similar to individuals with schizophrenia. The identification and description of individuals who later decompensate into schizophrenia would advance the understanding of schizophrenia and its causes. The Chapman's PER-MAG scale (Perceptual Aberration-Magical Ideation) was used to identify 35 hypothetically psychosis-prone college students (schizotypy group) and 42 normal college students (nonschizotypy group) out of the 806 volunteer subjects. Their attention and information processing abilities were measured by COGLAB (a multiparadigmatic cognitive test battery that represents a continuum of cognitive functions, from preattentional to attentional, to conceptual). Their social adjustment was measured by the Premorbid Adjustment Scale (PAS). The hypotheses of the study were that the hypothetically psychosis-prone subjects would perform poorer than controls on COGLAB measures and that COGLAB measures of a more molar nature would better predict social adjustment …
Date: December 1995
Creator: Ottesen, James McBride
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effects of Meal Size and Type, and Level of Physical Activity on Perceived Masculinity, Femininity, Likability and Attractiveness (open access)

Effects of Meal Size and Type, and Level of Physical Activity on Perceived Masculinity, Femininity, Likability and Attractiveness

Previous research indicates that women are judged on the amount of food eaten and that both men and women are judged on the type of food eaten. This study is an attempt to determine whether meal size or type predominantly accounts for these findings on the variables of masculinity, femininity, attractiveness, thinness, fitness, and likability. Physical activity was also included to determine its effect on these variable. Subjects used were 313 undergraduate students. Results indicate that meal type is more influential than meal size and that physical activity significantly influences judgements of others. The results are discussed in terms of future research and relatedness to socio-cultural theories of eating disorders.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Hill, Christie D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Family and Self-concept Factors Contributing to the Adjustment and Achievement of Early Entrants (open access)

Family and Self-concept Factors Contributing to the Adjustment and Achievement of Early Entrants

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of students' self-concept and their perceptions of family environment in the psychosocial adjustment and academic achievement of accelerated college students in a residential program. A secondary purpose was to investigate the differential role of those factors for students of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Date: December 1996
Creator: Caplan, Sheryl Mink
System: The UNT Digital Library
Detection of Malingering on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices and the Booklet Category Test (open access)

Detection of Malingering on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices and the Booklet Category Test

The capacity of Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) and the Booklet Category Test (BCT) to discriminate between groups of brain-injured, simulated malingering, and normal participants was investigated in this study. Exploratory analyses were also conducted to examine the differences between groups categorized as sophisticated and naive fakers. Clinical decision rules and discriminant function analyses were utilized to identify malingerers. Clinical decision rules ranged in hit rates from 41% to 78%, in sensitivity from 2% to 100%, and in specificity from 86% to 100%. Discriminant functions ranged in hit rates from 81% to 86%, in sensitivity from 68% to 73% and in specificity from 82% to 87%. Overall, the least helpful detection method examined was below chance responding on either measure, while the most efficient was gross errors for SPM.
Date: December 1997
Creator: Isler, William C. (William Charles)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Parenting Stress and the Family Environment of Mothers Who Have Returned to College (open access)

Parenting Stress and the Family Environment of Mothers Who Have Returned to College

Stress plays a key role in our daily lives, influencing our emotional state, productivity, and health. One particular role in life, being a parent, has attracted significant attention in the research world in terms of the amount of stress parents experience in relation to different aspects of being parents. A life change that many parents, particularly mothers, are experiencing in increasing numbers is their return to college. This study compared reports of parenting stress and perceptions of the family environment between two groups of mothers. The first is a group of 32 mothers who were working 30 or more hours a week outside the home and were not enrolled in college while the second group consists of 31 mothers who were in college full-time and working less than 10 hours a week outside the home. All of the mothers were between the ages of 25 and 45 and had at least one child between the ages 5 and 12 years old. In both groups the mothers verified that their child(ren) was (were) without any diagnosis of an emotional, behavioral, or learning problem. A series of one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVAs) were performed. Results indicated there were no significant group …
Date: December 1995
Creator: McCal, Kevin J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Neuropsychological Functioning of Blind Subjects with Learning Disabilities Compared to Those with Blindness Alone (open access)

Neuropsychological Functioning of Blind Subjects with Learning Disabilities Compared to Those with Blindness Alone

It has been hypothesized that a disproportionate percentage of the blind population are learning disabled. In the past, norms and technology were not available to assess in a cost effective manner the blind client's neuropsychological functioning. Norms for the Wide Range Achievement Test - Revised (WRAT-R2) are now available for a blind population without any neuropsychological dysfunctioning. This study utilized the adapted WRAT-R2 and the Comprehensive Vocational Evaluation System (CVES), a neuropsychological test battery adapted for the blind, to investigate the possibility that learning disabilities are present in the adult blind population. Suspected learning disabled, blind subjects were compared with normal blind subjects. There were significant neuropsychological differences between the two groups.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Rabeck, Deborah D. (Deborah Denise)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Process of Sharing Team Leadership : A Study of Key Leadership Behaviors and Who Exhibits Them (open access)

The Process of Sharing Team Leadership : A Study of Key Leadership Behaviors and Who Exhibits Them

Using a manufacturing setting that is organized into self-managed teams, the current study identified and measured key leadership behaviors within the teams. Questions that were asked include: are some team leadership behaviors more critical to a team's level of functioning than other behaviors? and do successful self-managed teams rely on formal leadership to a lesser extent than members of less successful teams? These questions were asked in the context of leadership as a process, not an individual.
Date: December 1997
Creator: Horner, Melissa A. (Melissa Amy)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effects of Performance Levels of Subject Matter Experts on Job Analysis Outcomes (open access)

Effects of Performance Levels of Subject Matter Experts on Job Analysis Outcomes

Much research has been undertaken to determine how Subject Matter Expert characteristics affect job analysis outcomes. The current study seeks to discover if performance levels are related to current incumbents ratings of their positions. A group of 114 corporate associates, from two administrative positions, served as Subject Matter Experts (SME) for this study. Separate job analyses for each position were conducted using the Job Analysis Task Checklist. The results for each job were analyzed to determine if SME performance levels affected job analysis outcomes. The results for both jobs showed that there were very few differences in job analysis results as a function of SME performance levels.
Date: December 1997
Creator: Boyd, Charlotte Friedersdorff
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cluster Analysis of the MMPI-2 in a Chronic Low-Back Pain Population (open access)

Cluster Analysis of the MMPI-2 in a Chronic Low-Back Pain Population

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most frequently used psychological measure in the assessment of chronic pain. Since the introduction of the MMPI-2 in 1989 only two published studies have focused on cluster analysis of chronic pain patients. This study investigated MMPI-2 cluster solutions of chronic low-back pain patients. Data was collected from 2,051 chronic low-back pain patients from a multidisciplinary pain clinic in the southwestern United States. A hierarchical clustering procedure was performed on K-corrected T-scores of the MMPI-2 using the three validity and ten clinical scales. Four relatively homogeneous subgroups were identified for each sex with the MMPI-2. In general, these results replicated the findings of previous researchers using both the MMPI and MMPI-2.
Date: December 1997
Creator: DeBeus, Roger J. (Roger John)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Perseveration Errors in the Performance of Dichotic Listening Tasks by Schizophrenics: The Role of Stimulus Fusion (open access)

Perseveration Errors in the Performance of Dichotic Listening Tasks by Schizophrenics: The Role of Stimulus Fusion

The purpose of the present study was to compare the number of perseverations on fused (no delay) versus unfused (0.5 msec delay) CV-DL tasks with measures on a battery of executive functions across three groups: Schizophrenics (SCZ), Manic-Depressives (MD), and normal controls (NC).
Date: December 1995
Creator: Gard, Diane M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Interpersonal Perception and Communication within Marital Dyads (open access)

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.
Date: December 1992
Creator: Allen, Bruce W. (Bruce Wayne), 1958-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Positive and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia and Their Neuropsychological Correlates (open access)

Positive and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia and Their Neuropsychological Correlates

The distinction of positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia was examined in relation to demographic, clinical and neuropsychological measures.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Tsang, Michael Hing-pui
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cultural Differences in Pain Experience and Behavior among Mexican, Mexican American and Anglo American Headache Pain Sufferers (open access)

Cultural Differences in Pain Experience and Behavior among Mexican, Mexican American and Anglo American Headache Pain Sufferers

Review of previous research on cultural differences in pain experience and/or pain behavior revealed that cultural affiliation affects pain perception and response. Unfortunately, the many inconsistent findings in the literature on cultural differences in pain experience and behavior have made interpretations and comparisons of results problematic. These inconsistent findings could be attributed to variations in acculturation level among cultural groups. The purpose of this study was to investigate cultural differences in pain experience (assessed by McGill Pain Questionnaire, the Box Scale, the Headache Pain Drawing, and the Headache Questionnaire) and pain behavior (measured by determining medication use and interference of daily functioning due to headaches) among Mexican (n = 43), Mexican American (n = 36), and Anglo American (n = 50) female chronic headache pain sufferers. The contribution of acculturation to differences in pain experience and behavior among cultural groups was measured by the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans. The three cultural groups of women significantly differed on pain experience and pain behavior. Specifically, Mexican women experienced their headache pain more intensely, severely, and emotionally than Mexican American and Anglo American women. Furthermore, Mexican women were more willing to verbally express their pain than the other two groups. As …
Date: December 1995
Creator: Sardas, Isabela
System: The UNT Digital Library
Predictors of Compliance and Aggressive Behavior in the Presence of Command Hallucinations (open access)

Predictors of Compliance and Aggressive Behavior in the Presence of Command Hallucinations

The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Change Version (SADS-C), the Social Adjustment Scale-Patient Version II (SAS-PATII) and the Command Hallucination Questionnaire (CAQ) were administered to 86 psychotic inpatients to investigate the relationship between command hallucinations, aggressive behavior, and compliance. Two SADS-C items ("severity of hallucinations" and "depersonalization") were useful as indicators of command hallucinations. Ninety-two percent had complied with their command at least once in the past month. Three SADS-C variables related to compliance with command hallucinations were identified: middle insomnia, the belief that the voice was acting in your best interest, and overt irritability. The patients' level of distortion of reality did not appear to influence compliance rates. Results also indicated that patients who experience command hallucinations were not significantly more or less dangerous than other psychotic inpatients.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Kasper, Mary E. (Mary Elizabeth)
System: The UNT Digital Library
PTSD in Women following a Disaster: the Effects of Social Support and Gender Differences (open access)

PTSD in Women following a Disaster: the Effects of Social Support and Gender Differences

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare individuals that had survived a single incidence trauma, the Luby's massacre in Killeen, Texas. Participants answered questions regarding various facets of social support following the trauma, and were also screened for a diagnosis of PTSD. Participants' level of symptoms, specifically depression, anxiety, and phobic anxiety was measured over time with the SCL-90-R. The results of this study indicate that, while women initially experience a higher level of depression and phobic anxiety, there is no gender difference in rate of symptom change over time. This study also found that women were significantly higher than men on desirability, utilization and usefulness of social support. Of the target symptoms, however, only depression correlated with any facet of social support, specifically, desirability. Finally, this study questioned whether individuals would share more similarities with others based on gender or diagnosis. It is suggested by the current data that diagnosis is the better indicator of similarity.
Date: December 1996
Creator: Direiter, Diana C. (Diana Charity)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hemispheric Interactions and Event-Related Potentials in Lateralized Stroop and Stroop Analog Tasks (open access)

Hemispheric Interactions and Event-Related Potentials in Lateralized Stroop and Stroop Analog Tasks

Classical Stroop stimuli and newly developed face/word Stroop analog stimuli were used to investigate hemispheric interactions in Stroop interference effects (SEs) and corresponding event-related potentials (ERPs). Lateralized stimuli were presented unilaterally and bilaterally as congruent or incongruent color strip-word or face-word pairs (to invoke right hemisphere (RH) and left hemisphere (LH) specialization, respectively, in the latter case). The common finding for such tasks is that responses for the congruent condition are faster and more accurate than for the incongruent condition (i.e., the SE). A primary prediction is that the SE will be maximized when both the distractor and target components, or distractor alone, are presented to the specialized hemisphere (i.e., LH for words and RH for faces). A total of 88 right-handed University of North Texas students participated in one of four experiments. Participants manually responded to one component of the stimuli (i.e., color, face, or word), while ignoring the other. Behaviorally, participants showed a robust SE across all experiments, especially for the face/word task with word targets. Findings from the face/word Stroop analog tasks also indicated that SEs were produced by selective attention to either faces or words, implicating a role for top-down (controlled) processes. Hemispheric asymmetries were observed …
Date: December 1997
Creator: Kavcic, Voyko
System: The UNT Digital Library
Top Management Groups: the Relationships among Member Characteristics, Group Processes, Business Environments, and Organizational Performance (open access)

Top Management Groups: the Relationships among Member Characteristics, Group Processes, Business Environments, and Organizational Performance

In the present quasi-experimental study, the relationships among individual executive characteristics, top management group processes, the business environment, and organizational performance for the gas and computer industries were investigated. Data were collected through a questionnaire using several published instruments measuring work locus of control, self-monitoring, group innovation/improvement, collaboration, and task management, environmental uncertainty, and perceptions of organizational performance. Return on assets data and sales data for several years were obtained from a business database. A total of 204 executives, 135 from the gas industry and 69 from the computer industry, returned completed questionnaires. Group processes were positively correlated with the average return on assets over three years. In addition, based on regression analyses, group processes predicted the average return on assets over three years. Work locus of control was positively correlated with group processes. However, none of the hypothesized moderator relationships were supported due to collinearity difficulties with one of the measures. Also, there were no differences between the gas and computer industries with regard to the uncertainty of the business environment.
Date: December 1996
Creator: Matthews, Lauri Luce
System: The UNT Digital Library
Social Validation of Intervention Procedures for Emotionally Disturbed Students : Effects on Regular Education Students (open access)

Social Validation of Intervention Procedures for Emotionally Disturbed Students : Effects on Regular Education Students

The purpose of this study was to explore regular education student perceptions of the effects of implementing behavioral interventions for seriously emotionally disturbed students (SED) in the regular classroom. Student perceptions of classroom friction or disruptiveness, apathy, and general enjoyment or satisfaction were evaluated. It was predicted that regular education students would report more classroom friction, increased apathy, and less satisfaction when interventions were implemented in the regular classroom for a target SED student.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Thomson, Marty C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Feigning Cognitive Deficits on Neuropsychological Evaluations: Multiple Detection Strategies (open access)

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 …
Date: December 2000
Creator: Bender, Scott D.
System: The UNT Digital Library