Previous research has found that the content of thoughts and rumination influences driving anger and aggressive driving; however, no research to date has observed how the specific thoughts and process of rumination may directly or indirectly influence aggressive driving behaviors. The present research explores the potential roles of thought content and rumination on aggressive driving to improve our understanding of factors that influence aggressiveness in driving situations. The current study recruited 262 Southeastern University students, who completed a number of questionnaires measuring anger rumination, thought content, driving anger, and aggressive driving behaviors tendencies. Results demonstrated that trait driving anger imposed partial indirect effects on aggressive driving behaviors through specific angry thoughts. In addition, this partial indirect effect was conditional to the degree of coping thoughts. These findings may help advance the understanding of the roles content of thoughts and rumination play in aggressive driving behaviors.

Past studies found many different types of factors can influence dangerous driving behaviors. Driver inattention, such as driving under the influence or using a cell phone while driving, was found to contribute to risky driving behaviors. Rumination is a cognitive process that may also contribute to risky driving behaviors due to its influence on attention and limited executive processes. The present study explores the potential role of rumination in dangerous driving behavior endorsement. It was hypothesized that trait rumination would be significantly related to dangerous driving behaviors and that this relationship would be conditional to the sex of the participant. Six-hundred and fifty-three Southeastern university students were recruited to participate and asked to complete multiple questionnaires measuring anger rumination, thought content, driving anger, and dangerous driving behaviors. It was demonstrated that self-reported risky driving behaviors significantly predicted dangerous driving behavior endorsement on the Dula Dangerous Driving Index. Trait rumination scores were found to predict self-reported dangerous driving, aggressive driving, and risky driving behaviors as well as trait driving anger scores. However, no conditional effects based on the sex of the participant were found. It appeared males and females were equally likely to report dangerous driving behaviors, driving anger thoughts, and trait anger rumination. Findings from the current study may assist in understanding how cognitive processes influence different driving behaviors and help develop methods to re-direct attention to safe driving behaviors, and conversely away from ruminative thoughts that increase the likelihood of dangerous driving.

A predicted association between family relations and cognitive development and the emergence of adolescent egocentrism was explored in this study. A sample of seventh grade boys (n=131) and girls (n=120) completed Elkind and Bowen's Imaginary Audience Scale (a measure of egocentrism) and selected items from Heilbrun's Parent-Child Interaction Rating Scale and Schaefer's Parent-Behavior Inventory. A modified version of Lawson's Classroom Test of Formal Operations was used to measure cognitive development. Contrary to a theoretical based hypothesis a negative rather than positive relationship was found between level of formal operational thought egocentrism. For parenting style, perceived rejection/control and emotional support was associated with diminished egocentrism. Mixed results were found for perceived physical effect and egocentrism. Perceived parental withdrawal heightened egocentrism for both sexes. The data provide an alternative model to past cognitive development theory for the development of egocentrism. Parental socialization factors were found to contribute as much variance to the level of egocentrism as did level of formal operational thought.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Disorganized speech is a core feature of schizophrenia. It is a key component of formal thought disorder (FTD). Recent work has tied disorganized speech to deficits in metacognition, or one’s ability to integrate experiences to form complex mental representations. In this study, we aimed to 1) explore the relationship between disorganized speech and metacognition and 2) compare trained rater and emerging automated analysis methods. Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Indiana Psychiatric Illness Interviews (IPII) were conducted; the IPII was coded for disorganized speech using the Communication Disturbances Index (CDI) and Coh-Metrix multidimensional indices. Metacognition was rated using the Metacognition Assessment Scale. We compared FTD (n = 16; PANSS conceptual disorganization ≥ 3) and non-FTD (n = 29; PANSS conceptual disorganization < 3) groups on metacognition and examined CDI and Coh-Metrix’s ability to account for variance in metacognition. We hypothesized that the FTD group would have lower metacognition and that both CDI and Coh-Metrix would account for significant variance in metacognition. Analyses indicated metacognition did not differ between groups and neither measure accounted for significant variance in metacognition. Results also showed that the CDI was able to distinguish the groups. Overall, results suggest little relationship between FTD and metacognition. Findings also indicate that trained rater measures of disorganized speech may have clinical utility in classifying FTD. Future research examining these constructs should address important limitations of this study by ensuring adequate levels of FTD in the study sample and by assessing neurocognition.

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“Almost every statement spoken today by major political, business, and academic leaders was written by someone else” (Einhorn, 1991, p. 115). Those “someone elses” are ghostwriters who are willing to craft documents, anonymously, for clients for a fee. As familiarity with the role of ghostwriters has risen, shame or embarrassment at having used their services seems to be declining (Conner, 2014), which is why we have heard that Prince Harry paid his ghostwriter $1 million and apparently Michelle Obama had as many as six different ghostwriters assisting in the writing and production of her bestseller, Becoming. Still, very little is known about who ghostwriters are and how they work. To begin to empirically understand the burgeoning ghostwriting industry and its participants, as well as how the occupation has evolved, I conducted an in-depth inductive, qualitative study using a grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) methodology, conducting interviews with ghostwriters, ghostwriting agency owners, and ghostwriting clients to chronicle and explain the trajectory of the field. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon is a theoretical prison that was developed in 1787 as a way to punish and reform people convicted of crime. It involved a circular building with a central guard tower, from which an omnipresent and omniscient warden would constantly surveille the inmates who were kept in solitary confinement. Although the prison was never physically constructed, elements of the panopticon are present in many aspects of our social structure and power systems. This paper explores Bentham’s original work, the post-modern responses to it, and present day manifestations of the panopticon through a bioethics lens in order to develop a metaphorical tool that can be used examine and explain how power is systematized and functionalized by those who control it, the effects on those who are subject to it, and how the systems are exploited to the point of dysfunction. / Urban Bioethics

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In the university, the influence of Jacques Derrida's thought is immeasurable. Yet, his thoughts and 'Writings on the university remain somewhat unacknowledged. Derrida has 'Written and spoken extensively on the subject of the university with the hope of initiating a discussion that will, by questioning all aspects of the "university," create an opening toward its future. This thesis explores Derridean discourse on the university and suggests it as a useful and provocative means of(re)thinking the university. Chapter One ofthis thesis consists of a close reading of Derrida's essay "The Principle of Reason: The University in the Eyes of its Pupils." By following Derrida's historical, philosophical and political allusions, this chapter functions, in a certain sense, as a concordance to Derrida's essay. After exploring Derrida's discussion of how not to speak of the university, Chapter Two attempts to use Derridean discourse to understand the university as a "body." If the university were a body, what would it look like? In this chapter, I propose the existence of two quite different university bodies: the metaphysical university and the university incarnate. The metaphysical university body is infused with spirit and in fact rejects the body. By repressing its "body" (its historical, political and social determinants) the metaphysical university hallucinates its body as a unified, indestructible, inconsumable and uncontaminated whole. To preserve the university, the metaphysical university body suggests a return to "spirit." The university in-camate on the other hand, understands its body as wounded, parasitized, consumable, displaced and gaping. I suggest that this university body represents Derridean discourse on the university in its desire to think its body--its own constitution / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This paper is a discussion of the relation between ethics and politics in the thought of Emmanuel Levinas. Generally speaking, I will examine how justice emerges out of a prior relation of infinite responsibility. Levinas points to a tension that arises between ethics and politics. We are always in a paradoxical situation where we are pulled in two opposing directions. On the one hand, we are drawn toward a responsibility for each unique individual. On the other hand, we are always compelled to act justly, to treat everyone equally. Instead of trying to ease this tension, it is my belief that Levinas attempts to heighten it. While a perfect balance between responsibility and politics can never be attained, justice can only arise where there is recognition of, and engagement with the tension that is unavoidable. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)