RSS 1.0Psychological Sciences electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of Psychological Sciences. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Recent Submissions
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Framing effects : a fresh perspective from the health and retirement study
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)The current study examines framing effects using two different problems (disease outbreak and investment), while attempting to replicate earlier findings and shed light on unanswered questions within the literature. The ... -
Rate learing in infancy
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)There is a preponderance of nonhuman animal studies that suggest an evolutionary conserved ability to represent time, number, and rate. Infant cognition researchers have followed suit by demonstrating the very same behavioral ... -
Effects of common and rare GABAergic gene variation on alcohol use and antisocial behavior
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)Epidemiological estimates suggest that nearly half of individuals diagnosed with AUD will also be diagnosed with another mental health disorder, with some of the strongest associations involving AUD and other externalizing ... -
The association of externalizing behavior with individual DSM-5 alcohol use disorder criteria
(University of Missouri--ColumbiaUniversity of Missouri--Columbia, 2015)The externalizing spectrum contains a range of disinhibition-related conditions. Comorbidity among externalizing disorders is commonly investigated at the syndromal and trait level precluding insight into the relationship ... -
Gender differences in risks for antisocial behavior
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015)Adolescent girls have always been a relevant presence in the juvenile justice system but have received limited attention from researchers. In response to the dearth of studies on female juvenile offenders, federal study ... -
The effects of stereotype threat on the associative memory deficit of older adults
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015)One of the suggestions made in the literature regarding older adults' episodic memory decline is that it is caused by their reduced ability to bind together components of an episode and retrieve the binding (termed an ... -
Metaphor as a communication strategy for reducing health disparities for Latina women
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)Racial and ethnic health disparities exist in a multitude of health domains, including higher incidence rates of cancer within minority populations and premature deaths associated with cancer. To address this problem, it ... -
Event-related potential correlates of feedback anticipation during motor learning
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)Stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN), an ERP component that reflects the anticipation of feedback and other motivationally salient stimuli, has been proposed to play an important role in reinforcement learning. However, the ... -
Evaluation of risk attitude as a predictor of substance related risk taking
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)Decision making is a complex process influenced by a number of factors. Mathematical models of risk have been developed to deconstruct the decision making process into the components that are most influential. Risk attitude, ... -
A twin study of the common heritable contributions to low-risk trauma, high-risk trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder, and borderline personality disorder
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)The comorbidity of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and posttraumatic stress disorder is common and yet not well understood, particularly outside of treatment-seeking samples. It has been suggested that a shared genetic ... -
Testing the Bayesian brain hypothesis in visual perception
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)Bayesian ideal observer theory describes perception as an ideal integration of sensory information with prior knowledge to produce optimal responses. Bayesian ideal perception models are popular in sensory domains; however, ... -
The effect of mGluR7 antagonist treatment on a dopamine-induced murine model of obsessive-compulsive disorder
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an incapacitating anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted, intrusive thoughts that lead to repetitive, ritualistic behaviors. Current treatments for OCD are only efficacious in a ... -
A multi-method analysis of the acquired preparedness model of risk for alcohol problems
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)The acquired preparedness model (APM) integrates both general risk factors and alcohol-related cognitive factors to understand the development of alcohol use and its associated problems. The present project utilized an ... -
Investigating how bottom-up and top-down systems relate to alcohol use and alcohol use disorder
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)Throughout the field of psychology, there has been increasing interest in dual-systems models of explaining behavior. Specifically, these models propose that behaviors is due to a bottom-up, emotional system (e.g., reactions ... -
Family-based treatments for serious juvenile offenders : a multilevel meta-analysis
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)Violent criminal acts and other serious crimes committed by youths result in considerable emotional, physical, and economic effects on these youths, their families, crime victims, and the larger community. Researchers have ... -
Model selection in mixture modeling
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)In the psychological sciences, mixture modeling (also referred to as latent class or latent profile analysis) is very commonly used to find sub-populations within a sample. However, the process by which researchers select ... -
Applications of network analysis in psychology
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)Methods and applications for network analysis can be found in a variety fields from computer science and machine learning to sociology and political science. Here I describe some methodological issues and propositions for ... -
Lay theories and the correction of mood influences on judgments
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)When people believe their judgments are being unduly influenced by an emotion, how do they attempt to mitigate the influence? This study examined whether people use lay theories to correct for the unwanted influence of an ... -
Prepulse inhibition of the post-auricular reflex
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)It is well established that a weak lead stimulus will inhibit the startle response to a more intense subsequent stimulus, given an appropriate lead time (i.e. 80-400 ms). This effect is termed prepulse inhibition (PPI), ... -
What would James Bond do? Signaling and precarious manhood
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015)In five studies, we investigate the connection between precarious manhood, signaling, and the mate-choice behavior of men. Specifically, we propose that manhood (as a reputation or status) is a tenuous social construct. ...