Browsing Psychology Masters Theses by Issue Date
Now showing items 1-20 of 47
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Gaze Cuing, Familiarity, and the Self
(North Dakota State University, 2009)Attention researchers have known for over a decade that people have a tendency to shift their attention automatically to a location gazed at by another person (e.g., Friesen & Kingstone, 1998). This social orienting ... -
Antisocial and Prosocial Peer Experiences and Social Cognitions as Predictors of Children's Responses to Harassment from Peers.
(North Dakota State University, 2009)The current study examined whether prosocial and antisocial peer experiences and cognitions are predictive of changes in children's coping behaviors in response to peer victimization. Longitudinal data spanning two time ... -
Creativity and Randomness
(North Dakota State University, 2010)Major theories of creative cognition are reviewed in the present thesis. These theories are diverse yet seem to converge on similar key processes. One definition of creativity emphasizes going beyond stereotypical responses ... -
Rumination and Problem Solving: A Focus on Dispositions, Processes, and the Five-Step Framework
(North Dakota State University, 2010)Rumination is a method of responding to and coping with negative moods that involves repetitively and passively focusing on the causes, consequences, and symptoms of negative mood (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991 ). Research has ... -
Conquering Avoidance by Avoiding Death: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Goal Value, Goal Commitment, and Goal Pursuit in Depressive Individuals
(North Dakota State University, 2010)Research into the antecedents and consequences of successful goal pursuit is reviewed within the framework of a proposed existential intervention for depression. Behavioral perspectives propose that insufficient goal ... -
Literal vs. Symbolic Immortality: Exploring the Relative Strengths of Religious Paths to Death-Transcendence
(North Dakota State University, 2010)According to terror management theory, religious worldviews provide protection from mortality concerns by providing feelings of literal immortality ( conscious life after death) and symbolic immortality (the essence of ... -
I'm Seeing Red!Literally: The Effect of Metaphoric Representation on Perception
(North Dakota State University, 2010)Metaphor is often used to represent abstract concepts using concrete domains (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). One set of metaphors that has long been of interest, but seldom studied, is the set of those linking color and emotion. ... -
The Influence of Vulnerable Narcissism on College Adjustment
(North Dakota State University, 2010)Attending a university is one of the first major life transitions for many young adults, and it presents a number of important challenges, difficulties, and stressors. Thus, students with certain personality characteristics ... -
Hawk and Dove Stress Response Profiles in Humans
(North Dakota State University, 2011)A recent evolutionary theory hypothesizes that there are two primary biobehavioral profiles of stress responding. Labeled "hawk" and "dove," each is characterized by divergent patterns of autonomic nervous system and ... -
Changes in Negative Affect Following Pain (vs. Nonpainful) Stimulation in Individuals With and Without a History of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury
(North Dakota State University, 2011)Theoretical models of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI; i.e., purposeful destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent) suggest that individuals engage in NSSI in order to regulate intense emotions. However, empirical ... -
The Relationship Between Features and Edge Types in Natural Images
(North Dakota State University, 2011)One of the most important processes in the human visual system involves detecting and understanding edges. Edges allow humans to break a visual scene up into meaningful chunks of information. Without edges, a visual scene ... -
To Be or Not To Be: An Empirical Test of English Prime as Theory
(North Dakota State University, 2012)English Prime is a language prescription advocating the abolition of all forms of the verb “to be” from usage. Such benefits of a “to be”-less form of communication might include an increased appreciation for the essential ... -
The Examination of the Effect of Nostalgia on Risk Factors for Suicide
(North Dakota State University, 2012)In order to investigate the relationship between nostalgic tendencies and risk factors for suicide, two studies were completed. Study 1 examined nostalgic tendencies among individuals with depression symptoms in order to ... -
Does Discussing Problems Online Change the Nature of Co-rumination and Its Associated Effects on Negative Affect and Perceived Friendship Quality?
(North Dakota State University, 2012)Engagement in problem-focused discussions that direct attention to negative emotions predicts heightened depressive affect and feelings of closeness with friends (Rose, 2002). The goal of this study was to test whether the ... -
A Test of an Interactive Model of Binge Eating in Men
(North Dakota State University, 2013)Past research has shown that a combination of high perfectionism, high body dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem is predictive of binge eating in college women (Bardone-Cone et al., 2006). The aim of the present study was ... -
The Psychological Benefits of Positively-Focused Writing
(North Dakota State University, 2013)Writing about potent positive events has been shown to be associated with physical health benefits in a manner similar to the expressive writing paradigm originally espoused by Pennebaker and Beall (1986). Little has been ... -
Intuitive Risk Aversion and Reflective Risk Taking in Gain-Framed Economic Games
(North Dakota State University, 2013)We typically think of risk taking as impulsive, but evolutionary pressure may actually favor playing it safe as a default strategy. In the context of dual-process theory of reasoning (Evans, 2003), we hypothesized that ... -
Treating Objects like Women: The Impact of Terror Management and Objectification on the Perception of Women's Faces
(North Dakota State University, 2014)According to terror management theory, humans are threatened by the awareness of death and counter this threat by investing in cultural systems that make them feel like they are more than mortal animals. Based on this ... -
Re-Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Massachusetts General Hospital Hairpulling Scale
(North Dakota State University, 2014)Trichotillomania is characterized by recurrent hair pulling resulting in hair loss and has been shown to have a significant impact on the health and social functioning of individuals with the disorder. Despite a growing ... -
Effortful Control Moderates the Association Between Emotional Instability and Binge Eating
(North Dakota State University, 2015)We hypothesized that (H1) emotional instability would be associated with an increased likelihood of a binge episode, and that (H2a) this relationship would be potentiated among individuals with low cognitive control and ...