College of Behavioral & Social Sciences

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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Psychology, Behavioral

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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    INFLUENCES OF CUSTOMER MISTREATMENT ON EMPLOYEES' EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING: THE MODERATING ROLES OF ON-LINE AND OFF-LINE EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES
    (2011) Zhan, Yujie; Wang, Mo; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Customer mistreatment is a growing issue for service organizations. The present study specified two forms of customer mistreatment behaviors: aggressive and demanding mistreatment and tested their proximal and lagged effects in predicting within-person fluctuation of service employees' emotional well-being. An archival data set was used to test the hypotheses. One thousand one hundred and eighty-five daily surveys were collected from 149 customer service representatives from a call center for 8 weekdays. Multilevel analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. First, drawing on the cognitive appraisal model of emotion, theory for mood development, and resource perspective, the present study examined both proximal and lagged effects of customer mistreatment on employees' emotional well-being (i.e., daily emotional exhaustion and negative mood in the next morning) and the role of daily emotional exhaustion in mediating the lagged association between daily customer mistreatment and employees' negative mood in the next morning. The mediation model was largely supported by the current sample. Second, positive treatment by customer was demonstrated to be a significant moderator in buffering the detrimental effect of demanding but not aggressive customer mistreatment in predicting daily emotional exhaustion. Third, employees' on-line emotion regulation strategies (i.e., surface acting, deep acting, and natural expression) and off-line emotion regulation strategies (i.e., rumination and social sharing) were tested as moderators on the negative relationship between customer mistreatment and employees' lagged negative mood. The current findings supported some of these moderation effects but were not consistent across aggressive mistreatment and demanding mistreatment. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
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    Eye for an eye, but not for everyone: Revenge and its relationship with the need for closure
    (2011) Boyatzi, Lauren Minacapelli; Kruglanski, Arie W; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The urge for revenge after an individual experiences a transgression is ever-present. However, little is known about why one chooses revenge specifically versus other options. This paper examines the desire for revenge as a function of the need for closure. Specifically, this paper argues that due to its evolutionary benefits, revenge is the most cognitively accessible reaction and thus, individuals high (vs. low) in the need for closure seize and freeze on it after a transgression occurs. Results provide convergent support for the positive association between the need for closure and the desire for revenge but are unable to provide evidence that revenge serves the urgency and permanency desires of high need for closure because of its greater saliency. Methodological limitations and theoretical implications are discussed.
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    Examining the Effect of the LET'S ACT Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression on Substance Abuse Treatment Dropout
    (2009) Magidson, Jessica F; Lejuez, Carl W.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Despite the prevalence of depression among substance users and the negative impact of depressive symptoms on substance abuse treatment outcomes, few interventions targeting depression have been developed to meet the needs of depressed substance users, particularly in low-income urban areas. The current study aimed to replicate and expand upon promising preliminary findings for the use of a brief behavioral activation approach [Life Enhancement Treatment for Substance Use (LET'S ACT; Daughters et al., 2008)] to treat depression in the context of inner-city residential substance abuse treatment. Main extensions to the previous study include a comparison of LET'S ACT to a contact-time matched control treatment, Supportive Counseling (SC), and a more definitive evaluation of the effect of LET'S ACT on substance abuse treatment dropout. Results indicated that compared to SC, participants receiving LET'S ACT evidenced significantly lower rates of substance abuse treatment dropout and depressive symptoms, as evidenced by a significant treatment x time interaction with the change in self-reported and clinician-rated depressive symptoms from baseline to the 2-week follow up, as well as significantly higher rates of behavioral activation, as evidenced by a significant treatment x time interaction with scores on the Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale (BADS) from pre- to post-treatment. This study builds on preliminary evidence for LET'S ACT as a short-term behavioral treatment for depression in residential substance abuse treatment and offers initial support for the effect of LET'S ACT on substance use outcomes.
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    The structure and perception of budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) warble songs
    (2009) Tu, Hsiao-Wei; Dooling, Robert J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The warble song of male budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) is an extraordinarily complex, multi-syllabic, learned vocalization that is produced continuously in streams lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes without obvious repetition of particular patterns. As a follow-up of the warble analysis of Farabaugh et al. (1992), an automatic categorization program based on neural networks was developed and used to efficiently and reliably classify more than 25,000 warble elements from 4 budgerigars. The relative proportion of the resultant seven basic acoustic groups and one compound group is similar across individuals. Budgerigars showed higher discriminability of warble elements drawn from different acoustic categories and lower discriminability of warble elements drawn from the same category psychophysically, suggesting that they form seven perceptual categories corresponding to those established acoustically. Budgerigars also perceive individual voice characteristics in addition to the acoustic measures delineating categories. Acoustic analyses of long sequences of natural warble revealed that the elements were not randomly arranged and that warble has at least a 5th-order Markovian structure. Perceptual experiments provided convergent evidence that budgerigars are able to master a novel sequence between 4 and 7 elements in length. Through gradual training with chunking (about 5 elements), birds are able to master sequences up to 50 elements. The ability of budgerigars to detect inserted targets taken in a long, running background of natural warble sequences appears to be species-specific and related to the acoustic structure of warble sounds.
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    Adaptive echolocation and flight behaviors in free-flying bats, Eptesicus fuscus
    (2008-10-22) Chiu, Chen; Moss, Cynthia F; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Echolocating bats emit ultrasonic sonar pulses and listen to returning echoes, which are reflected from targets or obstacles, to probe their surroundings. Their biological sonar system is well-developed and highly adaptive to the dynamic acoustic environment. Bats are also agile flyers and they can modify their flight behavior in order to capture insects efficiently. Adaptable echolocation and flight behaviors evolved in bats in response to environmental demands. This study employed changes in the external ear of bats and in the acoustic environment to examine how the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, modifies its echolocation call design and flight patterns to cope with these new experimental conditions. Study one investigated the influences of changes in sound localization cues on prey capture behavior. The tragus, which is part of the external ear, is believed to contribute to sound localization in the vertical plane. Deflecting the tragus affected prey capture performance of the bat, but it adapted to this manipulation by adjusting its flight behavior. The tragus-deflected bat tended to attack the prey item from above and show lower tangential velocity and larger bearing from the side, compared with its flight pattern in the tragus intact conditions. The bat did not change its echolocation call design in the tragus-deflected condition. Study two paired two bats together and allowed them to perform a prey capture task in a large flight room. Echolocating bats showed two adaptive strategies in their echolocation behavior when flying with another conspecific. The bat either stopped vocalizing or increased its difference in call design from the other bat. In addition, one bat tended to follow another bat when flying together and antagonistic behavior was found in male-male and female-male pairs. The pursuit strategy the bat uses to track another bat is different from the strategy it uses to capture flying insects. This thesis confirms that the big brown bat's echolocation and flight behaviors are highly adaptable and describes several strategies the bat employs to cope with changes in sound localization cues and conspecific interference.
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    The Effects of Natural Sleep Debt on Current Mood, Working Memory, and Risk-Taking Propensity
    (2008-04-24) Hall Brown, Tyish S; Lejuez, Carl W; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    It has been established that, as a whole, adolescents receive inadequate amounts of sleep due to both biological and environmental influences. As a result of this sleep loss, daytime impairment may occur in both cognitive and affective domains. Recent evidence suggests that inadequate sleep may also play a role in increased risk taking behavior, however, these studies are primarily descriptive in nature. Given that adolescents may be at particular risk for engagement in increased risky behaviors due to chronic insufficient sleep, more rigorous studies focusing on this relationship may be useful. To address this need, the current study provides a laboratory-based examination of sleep debt and risk-taking behavior using a multi-modal assessment approach. This association will be evaluated directly using a behavioral assessment task that measures risk-taking propensity as well as indirectly by examining several dimensions of the construct of disinhibition, which is purported to underlie risk-taking behaviors. Additionally, this study seeks to replicate past findings that suggest a link between sleep debt and daytime impairment in the form of decrements in working memory and disturbance of current mood states. It is expected that this research will provide a better understanding of the relationship between sleep debt and risk-taking behaviors, setting the stage for future studies.
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    The Association of Early Conduct Problems and Early Marijuana Use in College Students
    (2007-12-06) Falls, Benjamin Jacob; Wish, Eric D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    While several studies have documented a strong association between early conduct problems and adolescent drug use, similar research has not been conducted among college students. The current study examines the association between early conduct problems and early marijuana use in a sample of 1,076 college students. A new early conduct problem scale is developed for purposes of analysis. Regression models are developed to test the strength of the association, holding constant covariates that have been shown in prior research to be related to marijuana use. Results reveal a significant positive association between early conduct problems and early marijuana use even after controlling for the covariates. The new scale produces results similar to a previously accepted scale studying early conduct problems in a non-college sample. The results have important prevention implications and suggest the importance of early interventions for reducing the risk for early marijuana use.
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    A Typological Approach to Exploring Pathways for Rapists, Child Molesters and Incest Offenders
    (2004-05-12) Harris, Danielle Arlanda; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice
    This research assumes offense specialization and distinguishes between rape, child molestation and incest. I hypothesize that child molesters will reveal the earliest age of onset (self-reported age of first sexually aggressive behavior) when compared to rapists and incest offenders respectively. Second, I hypothesize that sexual risk factors (pornography exposure and use) will characterize a specific pathway to child molestation and non-sexual risk factors (poor peer associations and substance use) will be more relevant in rape and incest pathways respectively. A descriptive univariate analysis supports the first hypothesis and a principal components factor analysis supports the second hypothesis. Child molesters are indeed characterized by a high rate of exposure to and use of pornography and rapists are more likely than other sexual offenders to use drugs and alcohol and to have extensive criminal histories. Incest offenders are distinguished by their 'social competence' and by variables criminologists consider to be 'protective' factors.