This study examined the generality of rumination and its associations with multiple indices of trait level affect and socio-emotional functioning using both variable-centered and person-centered approaches to data analysis. Participants were 310 college-age students (81% female) who completed self-report measures of sadness and anger rumination, trait sadness and anger, depressive symptoms, and aggressive behavior. Confirmatory factor analysis found that a two-factor model of rumination, comprised of separate but highly correlated sadness and anger rumination factors, best fit the data. Latent profile analysis concluded that a three-class solution characterized by high, average, and low rumination provided the optimal categorization of participants. The three classes differed on trait sadness, trait anger, depression, and aggression such that as rumination class moved from low to high, so did the severity of trait mood and socio-emotional variables. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that sadness rumination, but not anger rumination, was related to depression, while anger rumination, but not sadness rumination was related to aggression. This study replicated past research that demonstrated both anger rumination and trait anger are uniquely related to aggression and was the first to show that both sadness rumination and trait sadness were uniquely related to depression. Sex differences were found for one measure of sadness rumination, depression, trait sadness, and aggression, with women endorsing more sadness-related variables and men endorsing more aggression. Sex was considered as a covariate and was not shown to moderate any of the relationships between rumination and its correlates. Taken together, these analyses suggest rumination may be considered a general cognitive tendency that is comprised of highly related sub-factors of sadness and anger rumination. Implications for clinical intervention are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / April 18, 2016. / Aggression, Anger, Depression, Rumination, Sadness / Includes bibliographical references. / Janet A. Kistner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Dina J. Wilke, University Representative; Thomas E. Joiner, Jr., Committee Member; Jesse R. Cougle, Committee Member; Richard K. Wagner, Committee Member.

College students with ADHD are an understudied population. Reading comprehension difficulties are common among those with ADHD. Research is limited addressing reading comprehension abilities among college students with ADHD. This study compares college students with ADHD to a national sample of college students to determine differences between groups on variables associated with reading comprehension. Further, the study addresses reading comprehension ability among college students with ADHD to determine if components of the simple view of reading (SVR) mediate the relationship between ADHD symptoms and reading comprehension. Understanding how college students with ADHD compare to a national sample of college students without ADHD may provide information useful in determining the focus of interventions and support for college students with ADHD. Objective: This study examines four questions. Do college students with ADHD perform below average compared to national college norms on measures of silent reading fluency, language comprehension, and reading comprehension? Do college students with ADHD perform below average compared to national college norms on measures of working memory? Is the relationship between working memory and reading comprehension mediated by silent reading fluency and language comprehension? Is the relationship between attention and reading comprehension partially mediated by silent reading fluency and language comprehension? Methods: A total of 370 college students diagnosed with ADHD completed measures of working memory, attention, language comprehension, reading fluency and reading comprehension. The sample consisted of 14 % freshman, 18 % sophomores, 24 % juniors, 24 % seniors, and 19 % graduate students. The self-identified gender composition was 46 % female and 54 % male. The self-identified ethnic composition is 65 % Caucasian, 18 % Hispanic, 10 % African American, 2 % Asian, and 5 % identified as ‘other’. Researches diagnosed 52 % of the sample as ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive Type) and 47 % ADHD-C (Combined Hyperactive and Inattentive Type). Results: The analysis found that college students with ADHD perform as well or better on all measures than their non-ADHD peers from a national sample. The mediation models that included working memory were significant, the mediation models including inattention were not significant. Conclusion: College student with ADHD may be a unique population in that they experience reduced reading comprehension difficulties as compared to their ADHD peers who do not attend post-secondary education. The mediating models suggest that improvement in working memory does not contribute to meaningful gains in reading comprehension and intervention design may be more successful if directed toward component reading skills and environmental cues that can assist with reducing the effects of ADHD symptoms on reading behavior at a university level. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / May 1, 2017. / ADHD, College Students, Reading / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances Prevatt, Professor Directing Dissertation; Christopher Schatschneider, University Representative; Steven Pfeiffer, Committee Member; Beth Phillips, Committee Member.

This study used the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI; Sampson et al., 1996b) and the Self-Directed Search, 5th Edition (SDS; Holland & Messer, 2013) to examine the relationships among dysfunctional career thoughts, interest profile elevation, and ability self-estimates among a population of individual career counseling clients. The sample included undergraduate, graduate, and community members seeking individual counseling at a university career center (N=86). The CTI was used as a measure dysfunctional career thoughts, specifically, decision-making confusion and commitment anxiety. The SDS was used as a measure of interest profile elevation and ability self-estimates. Multiple regression analyses found significant relationships among decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, interest profile elevation, and ability self-estimates. Results indicated that dysfunctional career thoughts captured 16% of variance in interest profile elevation and 12.6% of variance in ability self-estimates. A MANOVA analysis was performed to determine differences in level of dysfunctional career thoughts (high, moderate, and low) in terms of interest profile elevation and ability self-estimates. Results revealed non-significant differences and thus further analyses were not performed. A discussion of the findings is offered, which includes examination of the results and possible confounds or limitations. Implications for theory, research, practice and policy are discussed, in addition to suggestions for future research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2016. / December 7, 2016. / ability self estimates, Career Thoughts Inventory, dysfunctional career thoughts, interest profile elevation, Self Directed Search / Includes bibliographical references. / Debra Osborn, Professor Directing Dissertation; Kathy Guthrie, University Representative; Janet Lenz, Committee Member; James Sampson, Jr., Committee Member.

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has become one of the most well researched risk factors for the development of psychopathology. Research has found that the AS subfactor of cognitive concerns may play an important role in PTSD, depression, and suicide. AS reduction protocols commonly use interoceptive exposure (IE), or exposure to bodily sensations, to reduce AS. However, current IE paradigms (e.g., CO2 inhalation, straw breathing, hyperventilation) primarily induce physical anxiety symptoms (e.g., racing heart, dizziness), and thus might not be optimal for the reduction of AS cognitive concerns. Previous work has shown that fear reactivity during the induction of dissociative symptoms is uniquely associated with AS cognitive concerns, and therefore it is possible that repeated exposure to dissociative symptoms will result in habituation and decreased AS cognitive concerns. The current study investigated whether repeated exposure to the induction of dissociative symptoms would reduce AS cognitive concerns, and thus be viable as an IE component of treatments directly targeting AS cognitive concerns. Participants (N = 50) who scored at or above 1 SD above the mean on the ASI-3 cognitive subscale were randomly assigned to repeated exposure to dissociative symptoms through audio-visual stimulation or to a control condition (repeatedly listening to classical music). Results revealed that the classical music control condition resulted in significant decreases in AS cognitive concerns as compared the active dissociation exposure treatment. Unfortunately, these results do not support the viability of this exposure paradigm in the current format as a treatment for elevated AS cognitive concerns. Future directions include increasing the potency of the symptoms induced, increasing the number of exposures, and providing a stronger conceptual framework for the participants prior to undergoing the exposures. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 29, 2016. / Includes bibliographical references. / Norman Schmidt, Professor Directing Dissertation; Mark Winegardner, University Representative; Wen Li, Committee Member; Jesse Cougle, Committee Member; James McNulty, Committee Member.

Athletes experience and cope with stressful performance situations throughout their careers. Many coping studies examine athletes’ self-reported coping strategies in past stressful events or ask athletes to report the types of coping strategies they utilized during non-specific stressful events (Crocker & Graham, 1995; Gould et al., 1993b; Gould et al., 1993c; Madden et al., 1989). Coping research is limited in that previous studies examined participants’ competitive stressor and reported coping strategies in incomparable situations (Gaudreau et al., 2002; Gaudreau et al., 2001). Research demonstrates the importance of athlete perception of coach leadership behaviors on athlete outcomes in general, but is limited when specifically related to athlete coping (Chelladurai, 1984; Chelladurai, 1990; Chelladurai, 2007; Garland & Barry, 1988; Poczwardowski et al., 2002; Schliesman, 1987; Vallerand & Losier, 1999; Weiss & Friedrichs, 1986). The purpose of the proposed study was to examine the extent to which perceived coach leadership behaviors contributed to athlete coping strategies in sport-specific, stressful performance situations. Current and former senior level pairs and singles figure skaters completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to report perceived coach leadership behaviors (MLQ; Bass & Avolio, 2004). Each participant then read two sport-specific, stressful coping scenarios and completed the Modified COPE for each coping scenario, respectively, in order to examine the relationship between perceived coach leadership behaviors and athlete coping (MCOPE; Crocker, 1992). Findings from this study indicate that active leadership positively predicted problem-focused coping for scenario I, transactional and active leadership positively predicted problem-focused coping for scenario II, active and passive/avoidant leadership positively predicted emotion-focused coping for scenario II, and passive/avoidant leadership positively predicted avoidance coping for scenario II. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 18, 2017. / Coach-athlete relationship, Coach leadership, Coping, Elite athlete, Figure skaters / Includes bibliographical references. / Graig Chow, Professor Directing Thesis; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Angela Canto, Committee Member.

Gifted individuals tend to experience social stressors similar to their not-gifted peers, yet minimal research has been conducted on the potential impact of early social difficulties on their later adjustment. The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between early experiences of peer victimization and later well-being in honors college students and the potential moderating effect of social support on this relationship. Three research questions were posed: What is the difference in reported early peer victimization between honors college students and non-honors college students; what is the relationship between early experiences of peer victimization and later well-being of gifted and not-gifted college students, with respect to age, gender, and ethnicity differences; and does early social support serve to moderate the relationship between early peer victimization and later well-being in gifted and not-gifted students? Completed data from a total of 78 honors and 68 non-honors college student participants, attending 1 of 2 four-year universities in the southeastern region of the United States, were analyzed. Early experiences of peer victimization, current well-being, and early perception of social support were measured utilizing the Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-Being, and a revised version of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale, respectively. The ages of student participants ranged from 18-33 years of age. Data was collected for this study between Summer and Fall 2016. A chi-square test of independence, MANOVA, and MANCOVA were utilized to investigate the study's research questions. Results indicated that gifted students reported more early experiences of relational forms of peer victimization than not-gifted students. For both groups, White/Caucasian, Black/African-American, and Asian/Pacific Islander participants and those with early experiences of bullying showed variation in scores of well-being. Significant interaction effects suggested that early social support from teachers and close friends moderated the relationship between early experiences of victimization and later well-being. A discussion regarding the interpretation, limitations, implications of the obtained findings, along with needs for future research, is provided. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 14, 2017. / Includes bibliographical references. / Steven I. Pfeiffer, Professor Directing Dissertation; Christine A. Readdick, University Representative; Debra Osborn, Committee Member; Angel Canto, Committee Member.

The accepted structure of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has changed repeatedly and significantly over its history, with many symptoms being added, changed or dropped. Despite this, many questions remain about the nature of the disorder and the potentially related set of symptoms known by most researchers as sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT). This study sought to investigate the latent structure of ADHD and SCT by exploring the relationship between SCT, hyperactivity, and inattention as reported by adults. This study proposed that some of the structural issues found in ADHD may be due to the assumption of linearity, and proposed that two significant changes, if supported by the data, would offer some resolution. The first proposed change would be to view hyperactivity and sluggishness as a single continuum of activity level, rather than individual syndromes, and the second proposed change would be to view symptoms of inattention as a separate dimension from the hyperactivity and sluggishness. It was also proposed that evidence of the validity of this dimensional restructuring might be seen as a quadratic curvilinear, or U-shaped, regression line between inattention and the continuum of activity level, where inattention was highest toward the extremes of activity level and lowest at the midpoint of activity level. For the current study, symptoms of hyperactivity and sluggishness were matched by topic to form a continuum from low levels to high levels of activity. This measure, along with a symptom checklist for ADHD inattention, was included in a survey and provided to a sample of 1,398 adults throughout the United States, collected through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants demographics were similar to the population demographics with few variations. Measures of internal scale consistency and of normality were used to analyze the new Activity Level scale produced by matching hyperactivity and sluggishness, and curve estimation was conducted to analyze whether a quadratic regression model was a significant predictor of the relationship between activity level and inattention. Results of the analyses revealed that the new Activity Level scale was unimodal and within commonly accepted limits of internally consistency for both the full sample of participants and for the portion of the sample that endorsed a diagnosis of ADHD. Furthermore, results of the regression analysis indicated that a quadratic model of activity level and inattention accurately explained a small but significant portion of the variance in both the full sample of participants and the in the ADHD sample. Implications are discussed for the both theory and practice. Lastly, limitations of the study and directions for future research are included. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 24, 2017. / ADHD, Curvilinear, Dimensional, Inattention, Latent structure, SCT / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances A. Prevatt, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lee P. Stepina, University Representative; Angela I. Canto, Committee Member; S. Kathleen Krach, Committee Member.

Poor mental health outcomes are associated with families who have a parent without legal U.S. residential documentation who are at-risk for detainment or deportation (Dreby, 2012; Gulbas, Zayas, Yoon, Szlyk, Aguilar-Gaxiola, & Natera, 2016; Zayas, Aguilar-Gaxiola, Yoon, & Natera Rey, 2015). With an estimated 5.7 million U.S. born youth living with parents who do not have legal residential documentation, there is a need for furthering the understanding of the needs and resiliency of this largely underserved population (Warren & Kerin, 2017). In addition to receiving less mental health and social services than families with parents with legal U.S. documentation, families who have a parent does not have legal residential documentation fate is often determined by legal and social service systems, including immigration, incarceration, and child welfare. Therefore, there is a need to explore further and examine the experiences and needs of this population to find ways in which to address negative outcomes and build upon their existing resilience. The purpose of this study was to give voice to Latino youth and their parents to further the understanding of the relationship between the experiences, needs, and resiliency factors associated with coping with having a parent at risk for detainment or deportation. This research examined the reported experiences of youth and parents to gain an in-depth understanding of their experiences with this potentially traumatic event and resiliency factors. Both developmental trauma theory (van der Kolk, 2005) and ambiguous loss theory (Boss, 1999) provided the theoretical frameworks for this study. Using a qualitative design, a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006: 2013) was used to further the theoretical understanding of the interactions and experiences of Latino families who are at risk or who have experienced parental deportation. Participants include 16 families who had a least one parent who was at risk for detainment or deported. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in either Spanish or English with parents and youth separate to gather depth and descriptive richness of the participants’ story from their perspective and with their choice of language. Also, demographic information and a quantitative trauma measure were used to triangulate the qualitative findings Results revealed themes of emotional distress and injustices from both parents and youth of this population. Additionally, parents and youth identified both cultural factors and parent-youth communication about the potential trauma contributed to parent and youth resiliency. Implications for professionals in the helping field and future directions for research are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / May 22, 2018. / Child Mental Health, Complex Trauma, Family Therapy / Includes bibliographical references. / Lenore M. McWey, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Gussak, University Representative; Ming Cui, Committee Member; Melinda A. Gonzales-Backen, Committee Member.

Hoarding disorder (HD) is characterized by an inability to discard possessions that contributes to clutter that interferes with the use of one’s home. One of the core features of HD is an emotional attachment to possessions. Initial theoretical work suggests individuals with HD may become overly attached to possessions in an effort to compensate for poor interpersonal connections, though little empirical work has explored this hypothesis. The current study provided an initial investigation of the association between social disconnectedness, attachment to possessions, and saving behaviors. The sample comprised 117 undergraduate students selected for reporting hoarding symptoms above the non-clinical mean (i.e., 23) on the Saving Inventory-Revised. Participants were randomized to a social inclusion or social exclusion condition using the Cyberball paradigm. Participants completed a series of self-report questionnaires and behavioral tasks at baseline, pre-manipulation, and post-manipulation that assessed social disconnectedness, attachment to possessions, and hoarding behaviors. Contrary to hypotheses, baseline social disconnectedness was not significantly correlated with attachment to possessions nor hoarding behaviors. Individuals who were socially excluded saved significantly more items than did those who were socially included, though this was not due to changes in attachment to possessions. Future studies should further investigate the association between interpersonal processes and hoarding symptoms in a more severe sample and using different methodology. Though initial hypotheses were largely not supported, the current study nonetheless provides an important initial examination of the associations between interpersonal and object relationships in HD. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2018. / July 10, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Norman B. Schmidt, Professor Directing Thesis; Jesse R. Cougle, Committee Member; Colleen M. Ganley, Committee Member.

The broad goal of this paper was to examine how perception of gratitude affects perception of status. Across three studies participants rated their perception of a target person’s gratitude, status, positivity, and other variables. Three hypotheses were developed. First, the prosocial hypothesis purported that gratitude signals one has prosocial traits (and therefore social value) and this makes the grateful person appear higher in status. Second, the competence hypothesis argued that gratitude signals incompetence and therefore reduces perception of status. Third, the halo effect hypothesis argued that because gratitude is a positive trait it might bias perception of other positive traits (like status). In Study 1, participants read a vignette about someone who was either dispositionally high or low in gratefulness. The high gratitude target was perceived as generally more positive and marginally higher in status than the low gratitude target. For Study 2, participants read a brief story involving one person helping another followed by an expression of weak or strong gratitude. Participants rated the strong gratitude person as more grateful than the weak gratitude person; however, the strong and weak gratitude targets did not significantly differ on any other factors. The help receiver (the person expressing weak or strong gratitude) and help provider differed on many factors. The help provider was perceived as lower in gratitude, lower in neediness, higher in general positivity, and higher in status than the help receiver. Thus, Study 2 partially supported the competence hypothesis. In the last study, more grateful targets were perceived as more positive and higher in status than the less grateful targets. Mediation analyses revealed that in Study 1 and Study 3 perceptions of general positivity mediated the effect of gratitude on status, suggesting that Study 1 and 3 supported the halo effect hypothesis. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / February 22, 2018. / emotion, gratitude, halo effect, person perception, status / Includes bibliographical references. / Roy F. Baumeister, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Paul Conway, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Ming Cui, University Representative; Andrea L. Meltzer, Committee Member; Alexandria Meyer, Committee Member.