Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Psychology, Committee on Human Development, August 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wyoming, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 186-195).

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a dangerous and common behaviour, particularly among adolescents. Childhood trauma, insecure child-parent attachment, psychological distress, and impulsivity are some of the risk factors for NSSI that have been previously identified. However, the pathways from distal risk factors to NSSI and the ways in which these correlated risk factors interact with each other remains unclear. Identifying these pathways will provide valuable insight into the aetiology of NSSI and potentially highlight targets for treatment and intervention. In this dissertation I examine data from multiple large samples of young people, looking at multiple risk and protective factors together, and examining moderation and mediation pathways between risk factors. Using longitudinal data from 933 adolescents with no prior history of NSSI I demonstrated that the association between childhood family adversity before age 5 and new onset of NSSI between the ages of 14 and 17 was mediated by age 14 family functioning and possibly mental illness. Next, I validated a new measure of child perceptions of positive parenting, which I used to demonstrate the uni-directional prospective association between positive parenting and lower rates of NSSI amongst 1489 adolescents (ages 14-25). I then used this new measure of positive parenting to demonstrate that the prospective parenting-NSSI association was mediated by psychological distress. This is also one of the first prospective studies to show that impulsivity is independently predictive of NSSI. Using data I collected myself from a sample of 596 adolescents (ages 16-19) I validated a much needed measure of childhood trauma, with which I then demonstrated that the trauma-NSSI association was mediated by attachment and distress. Using data from this sample I was also able to reaffirm my previous findings that the attachment-NSSI association was mediated by psychological distress, and that impulsivity was uniquely associated with NSSI. Finally, using data from a sample of 559 Flemish 13 year-olds, I demonstrated that behavioural problems were more salient to NSSI than emotional problems among young adolescents, and that the attachment-NSSI association might be mediated by hyperactivity and conduct problems. Together, these findings reaffirm that childhood trauma, insecure child-parent attachment, psychological distress, and impulsivity are robust risk factors for NSSI and potential targets for treatment and intervention. Moreover, both distress and child-parent attachment may be viable targets for interventions aimed at attenuating the impact of early childhood trauma after it has occurred. Future research should use randomised controlled trails to test the efficacy of NSSI treatments aimed at these risk factors.

The diploma thesis deals with the topic of learning disabilities and their consequence on pupil´s self-koncept and class position. A pupil, who suffers from a learning disability, has to face a lot of difficulties after he or she enters school. The way how these children tackle these difficulties influences their self-concept and thier class position. The theoretical part discusses explains the terms- self-concept, self-esteem and self-efficacy in connection with pupil´s motivation, pupil´s engagement in learning process and their coping with the learning disability. The problem of inclusion of these children among their classmates in learning process is also mentioned. The practical and investigative part concerns the research at the elementary school in Pelhřimov and monitors the collected data.

No description available.

Self-affirmation has been shown to alter individuals' reactions to a wide range of threats, yet comparatively little is known about its cognitive and affective consequences, especially in the immediate aftermath of self-affirmation. This thesis explored these effects and the role of trait self-esteem in moderating them. In relation to cognition, in Study 1 (Chapter 2, N = 83), self-affirmation improved performance on two tasks (testing working memory and inhibition) related to executive function; Effects were not moderated by self-esteem. In Study 2 (Chapter 3, N = 107), self-affirmation decreased performance on a different working memory task among high self-esteem individuals. In relation to affect, a systematic review (Chapter 4) indicated that self-affirmation is not consistently associated with positive affect, despite the fact that positive affect has received much attention as a possible mediator of self-affirmation effects. Study 4 (Chapter 5, N = 161) showed that self-esteem moderated the effects of self-affirmation on positive affect: high self-esteem individuals reported more positive affect after self-affirming. Study 5 (Chapter 6, N = 270) revealed that self-affirmed (vs control) participants used more positive affective language. Participants in Study 6 (Chapter 6, N = 73) were randomised to a positive mood, self-affirmation or control condition, and read about the health consequences of fruit and vegetable consumption. At one-week follow-up, self-affirmed participants reported highest consumption, but positive affect did not mediate this effect. Overall, the findings show some support for an impact of self-affirmation on executive function, providing a useful link between the diverse areas which self-affirmation has been known to affect. They also support the notion that positive affect can be an immediate product of self-affirmation, especially for those high in self-esteem. However, they do not support the view that positive affect is the mechanism underlying the effect of self-affirmation on the processing of self-relevant threatening information.

Recent work suggests that the links between religious belief and behavior with a variety of positive outcomes (e.g., longer life, more marital satisfaction, scholastic achievement, better health behaviors) may be partially explained by religious belief systems' ability to foster self-control and self-regulation. The current investigation sought to explore this hypothesis by determining if induction of religious cognition (through a supraliminal religious prime) could increase behavioral self-control, operationalized as performance on a maintained grip task. Using 118 participants, the author tested whether nonconscious exposure to religious content would increase the amount of time that participants were willing to physically persist at two rounds of the maintained grip task as compared to a control group. A within-subjects trial-by-prime interaction was found (the prime appeared to cause participants to persist at the task for less time during the first trial, but not the second) and a between-subjects sex-by-prime interaction was found (on average, men given the religious prime held their grip for less time than did men in the control group, whereas no differences were found between women). Findings are discussed in terms of the link between religion and self-control and future directions are suggested.

The immune system has the ability to discriminate self from non-self proteins and also make appropriate immune responses to pathogens. A fundamental problem is to understand the genomic differences and similarities among the sets of self peptides and non-self peptides. The sequencing of human, mouse and numerous pathogen genomes and cataloging of their respective proteomes allows host self and non-self peptides to be identified. T-cells make this determination at the peptide level based on peptides displayed by MHC molecules.<p>In this project, peptides of specific lengths (k-mers) are generated from each protein in the proteomes of various model organisms. The set of unique k-mers for each species is stored in a library and defines its "immunological self". Using the libraries, organisms can be compared to determine the levels of peptide overlap. The observed levels of overlap can also be compared with levels which can be expected "at random" and statistical conclusions drawn.<p>A problem with this procedure is that sequence information in public protein databases (Swiss-PROT, UniProt, PIR) often contains ambiguities. Three strategies for dealing with such ambiguities have been explored in earlier work and the strategy of removing ambiguous k-mers is used here.<p>Peptide fragments (k-mers) which elicit immune responses are often localized within the sequences of proteins from pathogens. These regions are known as "immunodominants" (i.e., hot spots) and are important in immunological work. After investigating the peptide universes and their overlaps, the question of whether known regions of immunological significance (e.g., epitope) come from regions of low host-similarity is explored. The known regions of epitopes are compared with the regions of low host-similarity (i.e., non-overlaps) between HIV-1 and human proteomes at the 7-mer level. Results show that the correlation between these two regions is not statistically significant. In addition, pairs involving human and human viruses are explored. For these pairs, one graph for each k-mer level is generated showing the actual numbers of matches between organisms versus the expected numbers. From graphs for 5-mer and 6-mer level, we can see that the number of overlapping occurrences increases as the size of the viral proteome increases.<p>A detailed investigation of the overlaps/non-overlaps between viral proteome and human proteome reveals that the distribution of the locations of these overlaps/non-overlaps may have "structure" (e.g. locality clustering). Thus, another question that is explored is whether the locality clustering is statistically significant. A chi-square analysis is used to analyze the locality clustering. Results show that the locality clusterings for HIV-1, HIV-2 and Influenza A virus at the 5-mer, 6-mer and 7-mer levels are statistically significant. Also, for self-similarity of human protein Desmoglein 3 to the remaining human proteome, it shows that the locality clustering is not statistically significant at the 5-mer level while it is at the 6-mer and 7-mer levels.

The immune system has the ability to discriminate self from non-self proteins and also make appropriate immune responses to pathogens. A fundamental problem is to understand the genomic differences and similarities among the sets of self peptides and non-self peptides. The sequencing of human, mouse and numerous pathogen genomes and cataloging of their respective proteomes allows host self and non-self peptides to be identified. T-cells make this determination at the peptide level based on peptides displayed by MHC molecules.<p>In this project, peptides of specific lengths (k-mers) are generated from each protein in the proteomes of various model organisms. The set of unique k-mers for each species is stored in a library and defines its "immunological self". Using the libraries, organisms can be compared to determine the levels of peptide overlap. The observed levels of overlap can also be compared with levels which can be expected "at random" and statistical conclusions drawn.<p>A problem with this procedure is that sequence information in public protein databases (Swiss-PROT, UniProt, PIR) often contains ambiguities. Three strategies for dealing with such ambiguities have been explored in earlier work and the strategy of removing ambiguous k-mers is used here.<p>Peptide fragments (k-mers) which elicit immune responses are often localized within the sequences of proteins from pathogens. These regions are known as "immunodominants" (i.e., hot spots) and are important in immunological work. After investigating the peptide universes and their overlaps, the question of whether known regions of immunological significance (e.g., epitope) come from regions of low host-similarity is explored. The known regions of epitopes are compared with the regions of low host-similarity (i.e., non-overlaps) between HIV-1 and human proteomes at the 7-mer level. Results show that the correlation between these two regions is not statistically significant. In addition, pairs involving human and human viruses are explored. For these pairs, one graph for each k-mer level is generated showing the actual numbers of matches between organisms versus the expected numbers. From graphs for 5-mer and 6-mer level, we can see that the number of overlapping occurrences increases as the size of the viral proteome increases.<p>A detailed investigation of the overlaps/non-overlaps between viral proteome and human proteome reveals that the distribution of the locations of these overlaps/non-overlaps may have "structure" (e.g. locality clustering). Thus, another question that is explored is whether the locality clustering is statistically significant. A chi-square analysis is used to analyze the locality clustering. Results show that the locality clusterings for HIV-1, HIV-2 and Influenza A virus at the 5-mer, 6-mer and 7-mer levels are statistically significant. Also, for self-similarity of human protein Desmoglein 3 to the remaining human proteome, it shows that the locality clustering is not statistically significant at the 5-mer level while it is at the 6-mer and 7-mer levels.

Dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Psychology-Industrial/Organizational, 2009. / "May, 2009." Title from electronic dissertation title page (viewed 11/27/2009) Advisor, Andrea Snell; Committee members, Robert Lord, Aaron Schmidt, James Diefendorff, Matthew Lee; Department Chair, Paul Levy; Dean of the College, Chand Midha; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.