Psychology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2801
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Item Examining the co-development of episodic memory and hippocampal subfields – A longitudinal study(2020) Canada, Kelsey Leigh; Riggins, Tracy; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Episodic memory is a cornerstone ability that allows one to recall past events and the context in which they occur. Many different tasks have been used to assess the development of episodic memory during early childhood. Previous longitudinal work on individual tasks has noted accelerated changes from approximately 5 to 7 years, suggesting non-linear changes in memory ability during early childhood. However, the extent to which tasks relate to one another and are indicative of the latent construct of episodic memory is not known. Further, improvements in memory are thought to relate to underlying changes occurring in the functionally distinct subfields of the hippocampus (i.e., CA2-4/dentate gyrus (DG), CA1, and Subiculum) during this developmental period. This study examined changes in episodic memory ability, hippocampal subfield volume, and the relation between changes in episodic memory and volume of hippocampal subfields during early childhood (4 to 8 years) using longitudinal data and a structural equation modeling framework. Results suggest that episodic memory ability improves substantially during this period, with consistent improvements between 4 to 8 years. Further, there are robust increases in subiculum, CA1, and CA2-4/DG volume between 5 to 6 years of age. Finally, within this sample, there were relations between the development of hippocampal subfields and improvements on a single source memory task commonly used to assess episodic memory. Interestingly, this relation was most robust between subiculum and source memory. Overall, these results highlight the ability to use laboratory tasks to characterize developmental changes in episodic memory, highlight 5- to 6-years as a period of developmental change in hippocampal subfields, and further support a role of the hippocampus in supporting episodic memory.Item PREDICTING YOUNG WOMEN'S CAREER PLANS: DO FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHILDREN PREDICT OUTCOMES OVER AND ABOVE INSTRUMENTALITY?(2013) Savela, Alexandra; O'Brien, Karen M; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The present study assessed factors related to career development in a sample of undergraduate women. The roles of instrumentality, anticipated work-family conflict, and willingness to compromise career for children in the prediction of career choice traditionality, career aspirations, and occupational engagement were examined. Additionally, the moderating role of willingness to compromise career for children on the relationship between instrumentality and each career outcome was tested. Results indicated that instrumentality predicted leadership aspirations, recognition aspirations, and occupational engagement. Anticipated work-family conflict predicted career choice traditionality, leadership aspirations, and occupational engagement over and above instrumentality. Willingness to compromise career for children added to the prediction of occupational engagement after controlling for instrumentality and anticipated work-family conflict. No moderation findings were detected. Findings are discussed in terms of future research directions and in the context of career counseling with undergraduate women.Item Executive Coaching as a Developmental Experience: A Framework and Measure of Coaching Dimensions(2008-09-10) Gettman, Hilary J; Stevens, Cynthia; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The widespread and rapidly growing practice of executive coaching (Berglas, 2002) has evolved as a practice outside of the context of any academic discipline. While the literature on executive coaching is voluminous, there has been no attempt to systematically outline and operationalize the important dimensions of coaching practice. This lack of empirical foundation has made it difficult assess coaching in any meaningful way, for example, to determine what aspects of coaching are critical to effectiveness, or if it is even effective at all. In order to begin to fill this gap in the research, I sought to understand the important dimensions of executive coaching. To this end I reviewed the literature on coaching, and relevant research literatures, to get a better understanding of what coaches likely do to promote development, to develop a more grounded conceptualization of the dimensions of executive coaching, and to begin exploring the theoretical bases for these dimensions. I proposed six dimensions of coaching activities: assessment, challenge, emotional support, tactical support, motivational reinforcement and promoting a learning orientation. Second, I operationalized these dimensions by creating items based on the literatures reviewed, as well as input from subject matter experts, and based upon my own expertise. Finally, I administered the scales to 188 coaches and 32 executives, and evaluated the scales for their structure, reliability and validity. In the resulting factor structure, four of the dimensions were found as proposed, but challenge split into three factors and tactical support into two factors, resulting in nine dimensions of coaching activities, with reliabilities ranging from .75 to .91, averaging .84. Finally, some analyses of convergent, divergent and criterion-related validity of the dimensions were conducted, resulting in some preliminary indications of the construct validity of three of the scales, and providing information of where future validation work should be done. Interestingly, levels of engagement in seven of the dimensions varied meaningfully and predictably amongst coaches according to their education and training, which could have widespread implications for coaching selection and training. The resulting dimensions and measures open the door to further study of coaching, advancing both research and practice.