Psychology
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2270
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Item 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.Item Is Test Anxiety A Form Of Specific Social Phobia?(2005-05-26) Hall Brown, Tyish S; Turner, Samuel M; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Test anxiety is characterized by a fear of negative evaluation, specifically in academic domains. This evaluative fear is often driven by social concerns that are consistent with those that are found in individuals with social phobia. The current study was designed to determine if test anxiety is a type of specific social phobia. 57 subjects completed a battery of self-report measures, underwent a semi-structured interview, and participated in a behavioral assessment task. Results showed that test anxious individuals were similar to socially phobic individuals in personality characteristics, in subjective ratings of anxiety as well as in the prevalence of feared situations. However, despite these similarities test anxious individuals did not show significant functional impairment during the behavioral assessment task as evaluated through level of performance, number of negative cognitions, and psychophysiological reactivity. Based on these results, test anxiety cannot be considered a type of specific social phobia.