<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between attachment style, shyness, shame, and college persistence and grade point average. While considerable research was conducted to examine these variables in children, less is known about how these variables interact in a college setting. This study used a quantitative, non-experimental correlational design to analyze these variables in relation to college freshman students at a for-profit university, with locations throughout the United States. Over 2,000 freshman students between 18 and 40 received e-mails via the university&rsquo;s communication department asking them to participate in this study by responding to three surveys. Participants completed The Experiences in Close Relationships to measure attachment style, the Cheek and Buss Shyness scale to measure shyness, and the Compass of Shame scale to measure shame. Persistence was measured by examining whether students were registered and attending classes the semester following the survey distribution. Students also completed a demographic survey. In all, 143 participants completed surveys, with a final sample of 99 once the data were analyzed for transfer credit and outliers. Results were examined using logistic regression analysis to determine relationships between attachment style, shyness, shame, and persistence. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze relationships between the predictor variables and cumulative grade point average. Results of this study indicated that there were no significant relationships between the predictor variables and persistence and grade point average. A discussion of results explores possible explanations including recommendations for future research in regards to attachment style, shyness, shame and their impact on college student success.</p>

<p> In the past decade, advocacy for theater arts programs in schools has increased. New research suggests that the application of theater arts in conjunction with academics provides many social-emotional benefits for students, including increases in empathy. Although there appears to be a strong link between theater and empathy, many previous experiments have focused their research on the experimental implementation of short-term programs or after school activities. In fact, few studies have explored the effects of theater education classes as part of an already existing curriculum. This mixed methods study investigated the relationship between levels of self-reported empathy and experience in a curriculum-based high school theater program. Specifically, differing degrees of affective and cognitive empathy were measured in students who have been exposed to a multi-year high school theater program versus peers with no theater experience. The study consisted of 75 students enrolled in a rural high school that offered a multi-year curriculum-based theater program. Results of this study indicated that high school students enrolled in the theater program displayed significantly higher levels of self-reported affective empathy across groups. However, no difference in cognitive empathy was found. Additionally, qualitative interviews implied that there is a unanimously positive attitude toward employing theater arts in the high school curriculum. Future implications for further research and practice are discussed.</p>

<p> Sport participation is important for many adolescents and young adults, as they explore their identity and personality expression. In response to controversy over the &ldquo;dumb jock&rdquo; stereotype, and research exploring differing athletic identities, this investigation examined the personality differences between self-identifying &ldquo;Athletes&rdquo; and &ldquo;Jocks.&rdquo; Much research on student athletes examines the benefits and risks associated with sports participation, with no criteria to identify which athletes may be more at risk. The disparity in the research on the benefits and risks associated with sports participation may be mediated by identity and personality. Previous research suggests that a group identified as &ldquo;Jocks&rdquo; display behaviors indicative of narcissistic and antisocial personality, but does not examine personality directly. In this study, narcissistic traits were assessed using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-13. Participants included in the study met the following criteria: age 18-24, played at least one year of high school sports, and currently play on a high contact sports team at Division I or II undergraduate universities in the U.S. Data was collected via online survey. Findings indicate that self-identified &ldquo;Jocks&rdquo; endorse higher levels of narcissism overall, as well as higher levels of three narcissistic trait facets. This lends evidence to the idea that there may be a construct to help explain some of the negative behavior associated with athletics. Finally, this study may benefit individuals who work with student athletes by helping to identify youth who may be at higher risk for problem behaviors and/or mental health concerns, particularly those who begin to display traits at an early age.</p>

<p> Jungian Psychological Type is the foundation of many modern theories of personality. Many aspects of the theory have yet to be explored with empirical research, one area in particular being the theory behind the hierarchy of preferences, which is important because the Types are classified by the order of their preferred functions. A latent class analysis technique was applied to the eight ranked function-attitude scores of 5,247 participants who took the Majors Personality Type IndicatorTM (PTI) and Majors Personality Type Elements&trade; (PTE) assessments. The superior, auxiliary, and tertiary preferences of the latent classes were examined so that the nature of the relationships amongst the three preferences could be observed. Results show that the superior/auxiliary preferences were consistently opposite in process (one rational and one irrational)&mdash;but not consistently in attitude. Not only did the superior/auxiliary/tertiary preferences exhibit complementary relationships to one another, the tertiary function was never antagonistic to the auxiliary or superior preference. Remarkably, the superior and inferior functions were antagonistic to one another in 46 out of the 47 classes that resulted from the analysis. Thus, the outcomes support Jung&rsquo;s theory but also present evidence against other popular Type theories. The resulting profiles support the hypothesis that there may be more than 8 or 16 Types, which holds implications for the practical application of the Type theory as well as the classification and assessment of Psychological Type. A model for a systemic conceptualization of the hierarchy is presented and suggestions for future research are proposed.</p>

Three experiments were conducted using written vignettes depicting a man harassing a woman co-worker. The vignettes in all the experiments were designed to represent three levels of severity of harassment (mild, moderate, and severe), to represent sexual and nonsexual situations, and to be not significantly different within each level of harassment. Subjects who participated in the experiments were female undergraduate students attending General Psychology courses at Florida State University. The purpose of the experiments was to assess whether blame and stigmatization of a victim of harassment differs as a function of severity of harassment, of type of harassment, of whether or not the harassment was reported, and of consequences to the harasser. The results of the experiments indicate that subjects ascribed less blame to the woman when she reported an incident of severe harassment than when she did not report severe harassment. They also perceived the woman who reported severe harassment to be more agreeable and conscientious. An interaction between severity of the harassment and consequences to the perpetrator was also obtained. Subjects in this experiment rated the woman's character less positive when the man was fired for an incident of mild harassment, but higher when he was fired for severe harassment. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: B, page: 1663. / Director: Edwin Megargee. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The present study investigated the relationships between personality style characteristics, daily events and symptoms of dysphoria, and other psychosocial variables among current depressives, past depressives, and nondepressed control subjects. The study was unique in using a time-series design to examine the specific vulnerability hypothesis. This hypothesis proposes that individuals with socially dependent (sociotropic) personality features are more likely to experience depressive symptoms when confronted with negative interpersonal events, whereas self-critical/independent (autonomous) individuals are likely to experience dysphoria following school or work stressors. The identification of personality characteristics and events associated with depression is important in elucidating variables that interact over time to precipitate and maintain depression. Subjects were administered the Personal Style Inventory-II to assess sociotropic and autonomous personality characteristics. Over a 45-day period, subjects provided daily reports on dysphoria and six psychosocial variables: dependency, interpersonal stress, social support, school/work stress, social withdrawal, and self-devaluation. Results indicated partial support for the specific vulnerability hypothesis. Compared to nondepressed controls, current depressives obtained higher scores on sociotropy, autonomy, dysphoria, and the psychosocial variables (excluding social support). Subjects with a past history of depression had higher autonomy scores than controls and reported greater school/work stress and self-devaluation. As expected, sociotropy and dysphoria predicted interpersonal stress and dependency; however, they did not predict social support concerns. Autonomy and dysphoria predicted social withdrawal, but did not predict school/work stress and self-devaluative beliefs. Concurrent and lagged / relationships between dysphoria and the psychosocial variables were examined and the use of a time-series design in studying depression is also discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: B, page: 3027. / Major Professor: Jack E. Hokanson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

Some proponents of computer assisted psychological assessment have argued that computer administration of tests may reduce social desirability response bias and, consequently, increase the validity of test results. Although computer administration has been shown to decrease this response bias in nonclinical subjects, this effect has not been found in clinical populations. This author hypothesized that clinical subjects may experience repercussions because of their test responses (e.g., changes in treatment) and this could have a greater effect in determining responses than social desirability. To test this hypothesis, 76 adult psychiatric outpatients were assessed either by computer or clinician on measures of social desirability and psychopathology. One-half were tested under typical clinical conditions in which their therapists received feedback on their results and one-half were tested under standard research conditions assuring confidentiality. ANOVA tests revealed a significant difference between subjects tested under clinical (i.e., possible repercussions) and research (i.e., no repercussions) conditions on the measure of psychopathology and one of the two social desirability measures. Subjects presented themselves as having more traits which are considered psychologically healthy and fewer traits which are viewed as antisocial when their therapists would know their results. The type of assessor, either computer or clinician, had no significant effect on subjects' responses. Although both types of assessor were rated favorably, subjects rated the clinical interview as significantly more enjoyable than the computer administered version of the interview. Implications of these findings for future research and clinical practice were discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-03, Section: B, page: 1676. / Major Professor: Mark H. Licht. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study examined the hypothesis that an overreliance on external sources of self-esteem is associated with depression and depression-proneness. Self-esteem and daily events were assessed among 206 male and female college students for 30 consecutive days. Subjects were identified as Currently Depressed, Past Depressed (depression-prone), or Never Depressed from their scores on a self-report inventory for depression and classified on personal style as either Sociotropic or Autonomous from their scores on the Personal Style Inventory (Robins, Luten, and Ladd, 1987). Based on theories of self-esteem vulnerability in depression, Currently Depressed and Past Depressed subjects were predicted to show more self-esteem lability (day-to-day event-related variability in self-esteem) than Never Depressed subjects. A specific vulnerability hypothesis was also tested wherein Sociotropic and Autonomous depressives were predicted to show high lability to social and achievement events, respectively. / Self-esteem lability was found to be elevated in Current and Past Depressives relative to Never Depressed subjects. Findings were unsupportive for the specific vulnerability hypothesis. The findings are discussed regarding their implications for theory, measurement, and future research. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-11, Section: B, page: 5969. / Major Professor: Jack E. Hokanson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

The causal mediation and diathesis-stress hypotheses of the Hopelessness Theory of Depression were examined in the context of social relations, using a short-term prospective longitudinal design and a sample of 299 university undergraduates. / Partial empirical support was obtained for the causal mediation hypothesis. Inferential style dimensions were generally predictive of corresponding inferences made by participants for their single most upsetting future negative interpersonal event, although the magnitude of effect sizes observed for inferential style dimensions tended to be rather unimpressive, on the whole. Weak support was derived for an accompanying proposal that situationally-based judgements of consensus, consistency and distinctiveness are predictive of event attributions when attributional style dimensions are controlled for statistically. / In turn, equivocal support was obtained for the diathesis-stress hypothesis. Although some inferential style dimensions interacted with interpersonal stress in the hypothesized direction to predict increments in depression over time, other inferential style dimensions interacted with stress in a manner directly counter to theoretical expectations. Moreover, there was a lack of convincing evidence to support the notion that interactions of inferential style dimensions with interpersonal stress are specific in their effects to predicting an outcome of "Hopelessness Depression," as opposed to more general symptoms of depression. Implications of the findings for the Hopelessness Theory of Depression and future research are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-09, Section: B, page: 4956. / Major Professor: Jack E. Hokanson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

This study investigated the relationship between individual and group efficacy in the performance of a group task. The main question asked in this inquiry was, "Under which efficacy conditions will there be maximum group performance?" More specific research questions asked are: (1) What is the relationship between self-efficacy and group efficacy with respect to group performance? (2) What is the relationship between the type of group interaction and group performance? (3) What is the result of the interaction among self-efficacy, group efficacy, and interaction? / The subjects were 156 introductory psychology students at a large southeastern university. A co-relational design with randomized assignment to interactive and non-interactive conditions was used. The task was to solve as many anagrams as possible in ten minutes from a list of 40 anagrams to obtain a group performance score. In the interaction condition, subjects worked together to solve the anagrams; whereas, in the non-interactive condition, they solved the anagrams individually. / The study revealed a significant relationship (r =.82, p $<$.001) between estimations of individual efficacy and estimations of group efficacy. There was no significant difference (p $<$.05) in group scores for the interactive and non-interactive conditions. However, a comparison of levels of interaction, high, medium, low, and none, revealed significant differences (p $<$.01) between levels of high and no interaction, as well as between high interaction and low interaction (p $<$.05). The group scores for the interactive and non-interactive conditions were not significantly different; however, a comparison of levels of interaction revealed significantly different means between high interaction time and no interaction time. This finding showed that length of interaction was an intervening variable in the interaction - performance relationship. / When age, gender, familiarity with group members, self-efficacy, group efficacy, and degree of interaction were entered in a regression analysis, self-efficacy and degree of interaction accounted for the preponderance of variation in group performance. The conclusion was that group performance was highly related to perception of individual efficacy and the degree of group interaction. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: A, page: 2306. / Major Professor: Gary Peterson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.