Predicting behavioral outcomes from reactivity and regulation and the role of social preference

The current study examined the effect of early emotion regulation and reactivity on later behavioral outcomes. Differential forms of reactivity were thought to interact with attentional control to predict internalizing or externalizing behavior. Additionally, social preference was examined as a moderator or mediator of these relations. Ratings of reactivity and regulation were obtained by mother report when the children were four years old. Social preference was obtained through peer report of likability. Finally, children self-reported on internalizing symptoms, and mothers and teachers reported on externalizing symptoms at age ten. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed direct effects of anger reactivity and attentional control on externalizing behavior and an interaction between sadness/ fear reactivity and attentional control predicting internalizing behavior. Social preference was found to mediate the relation between attentional control and internalizing behavior. Implications for future research examining the role of reactivity and regulation on maladaptive behavior were discussed

Parent-child co-regulation predicting emotion regulation in early childhood

The current study examined the importance of co-regulation, defined as the mutual regulatory parent-child process that consists of coordinated emotional expression (Feldman, Greenbaum, & Yirmiya, 1999), on emotion regulation in children across early childhood. Literature related to co-regulation (e.g. responses to emotions) and individual factors of the parent and child (e.g. reactivity and psychopathology) was reviewed and used to develop a transactional model predicting child emotion regulation. It was hypothesized that co-regulation would have an additive and indirect effect on emotion regulation above and beyond the contribution of the individual factors of the child and parent. Maternal and teacher report of child negative reactivity and emotion regulation was obtained at ages 4 and 5. Laboratory observations of these constructs were also utilized. Mothers self-reported on their levels of psychopathology, as well as their reactions to their child’s negative emotions. Co-regulation was also obtained using interval coded data of reciprocated positive affect during parent-child interaction tasks. Four structural equation models (SEM) were analyzed in MPlus, and nested models were compared using a chi-square difference test. Using maternal report and observational data, the primary hypothesis was supported, as co-regulation had an additive effect on concurrent emotion regulation. Using observational data of individual factors, co-regulation also had an indirect effect on emotion regulation over time. Findings are interpreted in terms of highlighting the essential role of parent-child interactions on the development of children’s emotion regulation across early childhood

Use of Forest Edges by Bats in a Managed Pine Forest Landscape in Coastal North Carolina

Forest edges represent the interface of two vegetation types and often have increased species richness and abundance (edge effects). Edges can affect spatial distribution of species and dynamics of species interactions. Landscapes of intensively managed pine stands are characterized by mosaic-patterning of forest patches and linear forest edges. Managed pine forests are a major landscape feature of the Southeastern U.S., and the effects of intensive pine management on bat communities are poorly understood. Therefore, I examined bat foraging behavior in four structurally distinct stand types (young open-canopy pine, pre-thinned pine, thinned pine, and unmanaged forest) and along forest edges within a managed pine forest landscape in the coastal plain of North Carolina during the summers of 2006 and 2007. At each sampling site, from dusk until dawn, I recorded echolocation calls of bats using Pettersson D240X bat detectors with digital recorders. At each site, I indexed the insect community using malaise insect traps. I captured bats with mist nets to obtain reference echolocation calls. I used negative binomial count regression models to describe bat foraging behavior relative to stand types, forest edges, and availability of insect prey. For all species detected, bat foraging behavior was strongly related to forest edges. Edges were used extensively by six aerial-foraging bat species, but avoided by clutter-tolerant Myotis species. My results emphasize that forest edges are important landscape features in fragmented landscapes

A study of Christian mysticism in the b-text of Piers Plowman

Most twentieth-century criticism of Christian mysticism in the B-text of William Langland's Piers Plowman focuses on manuscript divisions and their equations with pre-existing mystical triads, particular scenes, or significant dreams. Most interpreters have neglected the fact that the whole scope of the poem is a gradual development toward mystical Union for Will, the folke of the field. Piers, and Conscience. The purpose of this thesis is to substantiate the validity of one particular mystical reading of the poem —a reading that views Piers Plowman as a mystical guide to Inclusive and exclusive mystical salvation through Truth for infill, the folke, and Conscience—and to show afresh how such an interpretation reveals the artistic unity of the whole poem. The basic theme and recurring pattern throughout the eight successive dream visions in Piers Plowman is the Journey or quest for exclusive and Inclusive mystical perfection on earth. The more important quests for Truth are undertaken by the poet-dreamer Will, the folke, Piers, and Conscience. The method of these pilgrimages is not linear but allegorically dramatic

The prediction of scholastic and leadership performance utilizing biographical data

This follow-up study was designed to provide evidence of the value of developing non-cognitive and non-test trial predictors for the identification of talented individuals. An attempt was made to develop workable criteria for leadership performance which could be used in conjunction with a biographical inventory (BI). The objective of the study was to identify individuals with leadership potential and scholastic aptitude for college while still in high school. The major hypothesis tested was that there is a significant relationship between academic performance, leadership performance and biographical data

Noticing trauma responses: the development and validation of the autonomic response screening tool for counselors (ARSTC)

Trauma can impact all people of all identities, and mental health professionals are experiencing an influx of clients presenting for services with symptoms related to trauma (Webber, Kitzinger, Runte, Smith, & Mascari, 2016). According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (2016), an estimated 6 in 10 men and 5 in 10 women will experience a traumatic experience in their lifetime. Roughly 8 million adults meet diagnostic criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in a given year (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016), and trauma is considered a public health crisis by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2003). In response to this increasingly prevalent concern among the population, it is imperative that counselors are trained to effectively recognize and treat trauma symptomology. Porges’s Polyvagal Theory (PVT; 2018) offered a conceptualization of trauma responses that could prove useful for counselors. Porges outlined the physiological underpinnings of how one’s autonomic nervous system (ANS) responds to stress. PVT explores three types of stress responses: social engagement, sympathetic arousal (fight/flight responses), and dorsal shutdown (freeze responses). These responses are connected with various symptoms that correlate with trauma, and they offer one lens for conceptualizing how clients present to counseling for trauma. Within the literature, authors are conceptually connecting symptoms of psychopathology with ineffective autonomic regulation and vagal dysregulation (DePierro et al., 2013; Fiskum, 2019), as outlined by Porges (2011), but there is limited empirical literature on applying PVT to counseling. Thus, autonomic regulation is an important - but overlooked - factor at play within counseling and trauma treatment. Because autonomic regulation is tied to which trauma response a client experiences (and exhibits in session), it is important for counselors to have a way to screen for it. In the current study, visual markers indicative of autonomic regulation related to the social engagement, fight/flight, and freeze responses were organized into the Autonomic Response Screening Tool for Counselors (ARSTC). These items did not categorize into the specific trauma responses as outlined within PVT, but they did seem to be representative of two broader yet distinct nervous system processes: sympathetic and parasympathetic processes. These analyses suggested initial evidence for the validity the ARSTC, specifically related to changes in heartrate variability (HRV) between the ARSTC categories of social engagement and freeze, and fight/flight and freeze. Limitations of the study and implications of the results are outlined, and offer a launching point for both counselors and researchers to continue exploring the role of autonomic processes and PVT at play in counseling session

A legal analysis of student assignment in North Carolina

This study was designed to research and analyze case law relating to student assignment in North Carolina. The writer surveyed the governance of the public schools from the early 1800's to 1955 and traced the changing nature of school boards and the state board of education. With the passage of the Pupil Assignment Act in 1955, local boards of education were given the authority to assign students. The basis for this study were the court cases that challenged school boards and their right to assign students. All court cases to be adjudicated in the Courts of Appeal of North Carolina and the federal courts relating to student assignment in North Carolina were reviewed. These cases were discussed in regard to the legal aspects of the decisions of the courts and their effect in establishing precedent for litigation that was to follow. Having discussed the legal aspects of the Pupil Assignment Act, the facts of each case were summarized, the legal decision rendered was cited and the decision discussed as to its legal significance

Duration

There is a unique relationship in photography between the event of the subject and the birth of its symbol. They are simultaneous. The photograph contains only the present. The present enters the camera and is likely to reside in the print as a duration no larger than the event of exposure. Time is then bound by discrete fact; and the photograph becomes a statement in perfect tense, with no history beyond its borders. It is a point in linear time, lifted and held like a number remembered. The thesis exhibition is intended as an investigation of time in the photograph; its goal, the expansion of the present into a larger duration to include an intimation of continuing transaction of past and future. An effort has been made to eliminate both the symbol of duration obtained in the record of explicit actions and the symbols of the event of exposure. This is not to conjure the dream-like or the memory, but to question what passes through the objects of interest when the observer's time is not imposed upon them. The camera should receive the present anonymously. The photograph, in turn, should act as a kind of palimpsest, its incompleteness blurring the cleavage between past and future and the events of its writing remaining obscure. The event is not important, but what goes through the event, the imperfect tense without the identity of verb. The prints should convey the anonymity of time

A study of the psycholinguistic abilities of inadequate readers

Psycholinguistics, the psychological study of language, is the science of the expression, reception, and integration of language and their complex interrelationships. Reading, a complex psycholinguistic process, has received national attention due to the failure of some children to adequately learn this important language skill. This study was designed to delineate psycholinguistic abilities which may affect reading achievement. Thirty children, eight to ten years of age, were selected for study on the basis of reading-related scores on the Stanford Achievement Test. The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (Revised, 1968) was administered to selected children according to standardized procedure and the resulting scores were analyzed statistically. Analysis of variance, using a subject by treatments repeated measurement design, revealed a significant difference (.01) between inadequate readers and the theoretical normal expectancy on the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, 1968, (ITPA). Specifically, inadequate readers scored significantly lower on these subtests: auditory reception, auditory association, visual association, manual expression, and visual sequential memory. Contrary to previous studies, the results of this study indicate that inadequate readers score significantly lower than the theoretical normal expectancy on representional level tasks, while at the automatic level no significant differences were found. The findings are discussed and inferences made regarding the nature of language skills involved in the reading process

An exhibition of paintings

My thesis exhibition consists of five paintings, each composed of one or more segments. My paintings deal primarily with space and utilize the walls, the floor, and the activation of the physical space in which the works are hung. Essentially most of traditional painting has dealt with visual illusion. The work usually occurred within framed borders or was usually done with the idea of framing in mind. My work, on the other hand, no longer remains bound within the frame or the framing edges. Instead, it moves into space. The paintings and the surrounding space must interact in order for the work to succeed