Psychology Electronic Theses and Dissertations (UMKC)
The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of Psychology. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Kansas City. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
Items in MOspace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
Recent Submissions
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Associations Between Benefit Finding, Disease Severity, Positive Affect, and Health Outcomes Among Patients in Cardiac Rehabilitation
(2020)Following a stressful event, individuals may attempt to create meaning or find benefit from the stressor. Benefit finding (BF) may act as a buffer to minimize the effects of stress on health outcomes. The literature is ... -
The development and validation of the appearance satisfaction questionnaire - the first culturally appropriate measure for body image in black women
(2020)Current theories in body image postulate that body dissatisfaction predicts eating disorder pathology. Previous research in body image with Black women claims that Black women do not experience body dissatisfaction and ... -
The Propel Program: A Exploratory Study of an Inclusive Higher Education Model
(2020)Higher education opportunities were previously scarce for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs), but are steadily becoming more common. The Propel Program, a two-year certificate program, ... -
Facilitators and Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening Among African American Women
(2021)African American (AA) women are at greater risk for cervical cancer incidence and mortality compared to white women, primarily due to lack of screening and follow up. Up to 90% of cervical cancers are caused by persistent ... -
Healthy Eating Information and Food Choices
(2020)The obesity rate amongst American university students has become an item of concern for many colleges and universities across the country. College students are heavily exposed to many unhealthy dietary trends, being reliant ... -
Caregiver Level Predictors of Self-Regulation in Preschool-Aged Children
(2020)Self-regulation is regarded as a key developmental skill that underlies children’s success throughout their life. When children enter kindergarten with under-developed self-regulation skills, they are at a greater risk for ... -
Social Comparison of Body Image in Middle-Aged Women: Implications for Body Image Theory
(2020)Body image dissatisfaction persists into middle age for women. Despite this, most research addressing this area has focused on younger adult women. Therefore, this study sought to explore middle-aged women’s body image ... -
Exploring Mental Health Screening and Linkage to Care among Young African American Men
(2020)Young Black/African American men are at greater risk for trauma compared to young non-Hispanic White males, which increases the risk of mental health concerns and risk behaviors. However, young Black/American men are less ... -
A Real-World Implementation-Effectiveness Study of Cognitive Enhancement Therapy for People with Schizophrenia
(2020)The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation and effectiveness of Cognitive Enhancement Therapy (CET) within a real-world, community mental health program. Evidence-based programs for people with schizophrenia ... -
Investigating the Predictive Validity of the Self-Blame Attributions for Cancer Scale in Patients with Head and Neck and Lung Cancer
(2020)Stressful life events, such as receiving a diagnosis of head/neck (HNC) or lung cancer, necessarily mobilizes people’s adjustment processes and resources. Creating a causal attribution for the event is an important step ... -
Measuring smokers' inhibitory control to smoking cues by a novel mouse trajectory tracking method
(2019)Deprivation from nicotine has been shown to affect executive cognitive functioning in smokers causing an inability to maintain cognitive control over their behavior, which may be directly linked to smoking relapse. Past ... -
The Nature of Night Eating Syndrome: Using Network Analysis to Understand Causal Symptomological Relationships
The purpose of this study was to examine and characterize the core symptoms in a psychopathology network for night eating syndrome (NES) among persons with and without overweight/obesity, and to compare the network density ... -
The Effect of Stress on Prosocial Sharing Behavior in Young Adults
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019)Prosocial behavior benefits both an individual and society. Sharing behavior is considered the most altruistic, due to individuals sacrificing time and resources without the expectation of reciprocation. A cost-benefit ... -
The Role of Experiential Avoidance in the Relationship Between Emotional Pain and Yearning in Sudden and Unexpected Bereavement
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019)Individuals who have experienced a sudden or unexpected loss of a close family member or friend are at heightened risk for developing psychiatric morbidity, including prolonged grief disorder (PGD; i.e., pathological ... -
"Can I get a second opinion?" How user characteristics impact trust in automation in a medical screening task
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019)As technology advances, processes traditionally carried out by humans are being automated in a variety of industries, such as automotive, security, and food service. In the medical field, advances in automation allow ... -
Latent Class Analysis of Health Risk Behaviors Among Survivors of Childhood Adversities
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019)This study examined the clustering of health risk behaviors among young adults who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACE). Data were collected from young adults attending a four-year university in the ... -
A Double-Blind Randomized Intervention to Reduce Distress from Perceived Cognitive Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019)OBJECTIVE: Up to 65% of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience cognitive impairment. However, patients frequently overestimate the extent of their cognitive dysfunction, reducing their overall quality of life. ... -
Preferences for Shared Decision-Making Between Physicians and Patients: Is Age a Factor?
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019)Shared decision-making (SDM) is a tool suggested for improving patient-doctor relationships, health decision satisfaction, and health outcomes in all patient populations. The assumption that older patients desire purely ... -
The Effect of Peer Presence on Risk Taking Behavior Among Late Adolescents
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019)The present study used an experimental method to examine risk-taking in a simulated environment involving risky driving behaviors. The study examined the effects of peer presence on risk-taking behavior among late ... -
Fatalism, Religious Attendance, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Engagement in Health Behaviors Among Hispanic Americans low in Acculturation and Income: Testing the Reserve Capacity Model
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2018)Although health disparities are widespread between ethnic and racial minority groups and Whites in the United States, Hispanics seemingly have a relative advantage in one particular health outcome: all-cause mortality. ...