<p> While the notion that sugar consumption leads to hyperactivity has repeatedly been unsupported in the literature, little research has attended to the effects of accepting the widely held belief. The present study aimed to investigate how one's perception of a child's behavior is affected when the individual believes in the sugar-hyperactivity myth and is provided information regarding the child's sugar consumption prior to observing behavior. Findings indicated that participants who were informed that the children ingested sugar prior to the observation rated the male child's and the female child's hyperactivity significantly higher than participants who were told that the children had ingested a sugar-free product.</p>

<p> Wilderness therapy camps have been found to be effective for treating a number of youth issues and for generally improving youth functioning. In addition, wilderness therapy camps appear to address current treatment needs of reducing stigma in treatment and providing other benefits, such as physical and social health benefits. However, currently wilderness therapy camps lack systematic training for staff that has been deemed efficacious, utilizing evidence-based techniques. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based therapy (EBT) for use with children with a variety of issues and backgrounds and in diverse settings, useful for reducing child problematic behaviors. Efforts have been made to expand the use of PCIT in a variety of settings, with promising results. </p><p> This dissertation proposes to describe how PCIT might be adapted to train wilderness therapy camp staff in evidence-based methods for working with youth, especially those with mental health needs, such as behavioral issues. The literature concerning PCIT and wilderness therapy camps is reviewed. A needs assessment was conducted, consisting of interviews with key informants, experts in the field of wilderness therapy, PCIT, and training methods. Based on information obtained, a full program for training camp staff, called Counselor-Camper Interaction Training (CCIT) is proposed. Finally a proposal to evaluate the efficacy of this program is put forth. As part of the proposed evaluation, a financial assessment was conducted on the program, with the results presented. </p>

<p> Survival processing posits that our memories become enhanced when faced with a survival situation. The current study investigates how the survival processing effect is influenced by two memory processes well-known for enhancing memory, the self-referential effect and cueing.</p><p> One key question that can be posed is whether self survival provides a richer ("deeper") memory cue than imagining survival of an other (a third person). Depth of processing in relation to the participants' (self vs. other) perspective is manipulated to understand the role perspective and the self-referential effect play in the survival processing advantage.</p><p> The current study found that indeed the self survival scenario does provide a significantly better memory cue than the third person "other" perspectives. This highlights the possibility that the survival processing advantage is not a unique process so much as the combination of other known processes.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to identify a funding source and write a grant to fund an educational program for adolescent dating violence prevention program that would be administered by a host agency in Long Beach, California. Adolescents are faced with various diversities, and to experience dating violence can damaging. The proposed program would include presentations about teen dating violence (TDV), individual counseling for adolescents, and resource services. Funds will be requested to implement a prevention program to increase knowledge and awareness of dating violence among adolescents and to enhance their quality of life. The actual submission and funding of this grant were not requirements for the successful completion of the project. </p>

<p> This dissertation examined correlates of powerlessness, chronic homelessness (more than one-year homelessness), age, and gender, by analysis of the mental health (MH) and substance use (SU) service requests made by 699 people who attended a San Francisco, California homeless outreach event in May of 2005. People without homes (PWH) suffer MH and SU issues at a much higher rate than housed people, yet PWH who acknowledged they experienced MH and SU issues were least likely to request MH and SU services. PWH may have experienced chronic feelings of powerlessness, which resulted from marginalization. These chronic feelings of powerlessness contributed to a person's belief that his or her actions would produce no positive results. The concept of powerlessness may help explain PWH's reluctance to request MH and SU services. The author explored the relationship between chronicity of homelessness and requests for MH and SU services. Analyses showed that non-chronic PWH requested more MH services than those who were chronically homeless. However, this association was not seen when requests for SU services was examined. Additional analysis examining the relationship between service requests, age and gender did not result in significant findings. These findings provided support for the idea that powerlessness was an intrapersonal factor in PWH's choices to request or not request MH and SU services, based upon non-chronic homelessness and theoretically less exposure to powerlessness. These results assist in identifying intrapersonal factors influencing a person's experience in overcoming homelessness, providing an alternative to the current suggestion from the literature that services were unattractive to PWH.</p>

<p> Impairments in various aspects of language, including the manipulation and comprehension of verbal and written language, are common in pediatric populations. Some disorders of language are secondary to other clinical presentations, while others, such as dyslexia (or reading disability [RD]), language impairment (LI), speech sound disorder (SSD), and autism spectrum disorders (ASD), have primary deficits in language skills. Each of these is a distinct disorder with unique clinical presentations and deficits. For instance, children with RD have deficits in reading and the use of written language, while those with LI have deficits in the manipulation and comprehension of verbal language. Additionally, children with SSD have difficulties in the production of speech sounds, while children with ASD may have delays or regressions in language and an inability to use complex, proper syntax and pragmatics. However, there is substantial comorbidity of these disorders, as children affected with one of these disorders are more likely to have or develop another disorder than their typically developing peers. These 'disorders&mdash;RD, LI, SSD, and ASD&mdash;are complex traits, with significant environmental and genetic components contributing to each. Similar to their phenotypic relationships, there is limited evidence that these disorders may share genetic contributors. In fact, these shared genetic components may explain the common phenotypic comorbidities of these disorders. Therefore, the overall goal of this project is to determine whether and to what extent RD, LI, SSD, and ASD share genetic associations with the hypothesis that these disorders have common genetic contributors. To accomplish this goal, I assess whether genetic associations were shared among these disorders or specific to individual disorders. First, I expand the association of the RD environmental risk factor, prenatal exposure to nicotine, to include LI and show the association of dopamine-related genes <i> ANKK1</i> and <i>DRD2</i> to LI. Second, two RD risk genes, <i> DCDC2</i> and <i>KIAA0319</i>, located within the DYX2 locus on chromosome 6p22, show associations with both LI and SSD. Third, I identify <i> ZNF385D</i> as a novel risk gene for subjects affected with comorbid RD and LI. I also assess the neuroimaging implications of DYX2 genes and <i> ZNF385D</i>, specifically in regards to cortical thickness, fiber tract volume, and fractional anisotropy. Finally, two LI risk genes, <i>ATP2C2 </i> and <i>CMIP</i> located within the SLI1 locus on chromosome 16, are associated with language skills of subjects with ASD. Taken together, these results characterize the relationship of previously identified risk genes to other related language disorders and identify novel risk genes that specifically contribute to language comorbidity. Shared genetic associations among these language disorders appear to be commonplace as opposed to the exception. However, the question remains of how these genetic variants interact with each other and other genes/exposures to ultimately lead to one or more of these language deficits seen clinically.</p>

<p> The use of positive reinforcement in acquisition programming is a hallmark of Applied Behavior Analysis; however, the Precision Teaching literature reveals a lack of reporting on the use of reinforcement. The present study utilized a groups design and single case analyses to investigate the effect of programming systematic tangible reinforcement on acquisition performance, retention and endurance of academic skills with 10 typically developing students ranging from 5-7 years of age. Results indicate that for both control and experimental participants, an increase in accuracy on both See/Say sight words and math problems occurred; however, the experimental group performed better on See/Say sight words and both groups performed the same with See/Say math problems. </p>

<p> This study explored the lived experiences of 10 counselors who work with traumatic-brain-injury (TBI) individuals on community reintegration. Constructivist self-development theory was used as the conceptual framework for understanding how exposure to traumatic topics affects the self-development of the therapist, leading to the manifestation of other issues in their lives. Data for this study was collected through in-depth interviews that asked counselors to describe their personal experiences of community reintegration counseling with TBI individuals. A transcendental phenomenological design was used to analyze data from counselor interviews. The outcome of the analysis revealed 10 themes: (a) counselors' satisfaction in knowing they are helping, (b) TBI individuals' memory impairment, (c) counselors' frustration with counseling, (d) countertransference, (e) counselors' knowledgeability about TBI population, (f) TBI individuals' family/caregiver support, (g) lack of community support and resources for TBI individuals, (h) TBI individuals' behaviors, (i) counselors` patience in counseling, and (j) family expectations of TBI individuals. These core themes highlighted a consensus among the counselors of feelings of satisfaction in helping, counselors' acceptance of clients, or both. The significance of these findings can benefit counselor education programs and best practice measures for working with this population.</p>

<p> Highly successful online educators are believed to have a perceived sense of subjective well-being in connection to the education they give to their students. The research question for this study was: what is the perceived subjective well-being for highly successful online educators? This generic qualitative research study used sampling that was purposive and a thematic probe of the data. The study included eight exceptional individuals who described their feelings of what it meant to be highly successful as online educators. A rich narrative of the experiences of the participants offers original insights that supplements a better understanding of how they associated with and taught learners. This research study acknowledged those experiences that are collective and exceptional among the participants. Conclusions from the analysis included online educators who are highly successful have a positive sense of subjective well-being in their jobs. There were four major themes found: satisfaction, creativity, motivation and appreciation. It is the goal of this research study that highly successful online educators will continue to engage and collaborate with their students and this provides the basis for both exceptional learning and teaching experiences alike. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> subjective well-being, highly successful educators, satisfaction, creativity, motivation and appreciation.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1991. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-11, Section: B, page: 5999.