Dissertations from the School of Arts and Sciences

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Dissertations from School of Arts and Sciences

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Dissertations from CUA School of Arts and Sciences

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dissertations, CUA School of Arts and Sciences

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: The Choices, Narratives, and Dilemmas of Sacred Rhetoric: A Strategic Interactionist Perspective of the Unity for Gallaudet Protests in 2006; At the heart of this dissertation is the analytical goal to develop more contextual understandings of sacred rhetoric - an absolutist form of reasoning that appeals to principled, non-negotiable, and moral values, and invites moral outrage – by examining the Unity for Gallaudet (UFG) protests in 2006. Attracting national and international attention, the UFG protests at the only liberal arts university in the world for deaf people have been widely criticized in the news media and scholarly analyses as “cultural politics gone wild.” Protestors are still described as “Big D” activists who made non-negotiable demands that the president-select resign because she was “not Deaf enough.” With process tracing and frame and narrative analyses of public and private documents, however, I describe how sacred rhetoric of the protests was shaped by unexpected choices made by university administrators, protestors, political elites, and the news media, and packaged with ideological narratives about justice and representation that divide progressives and conservatives in the culture wars. By exploring the UFG protests from a strategic interactionist perspective, this case study fleshes out political complexities of an absolutist way of talking about identity politics and social justice that is becoming more popular in this day and age, and draws upon Jasper (2006), Marietta (2012), and Haidt (2012) in making the case that sacred rhetoric is not so much a political advantage for cultural ideologues as a strategic dilemma for decent people involving adaptation, simplification, and polarization., Political science, Politics, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America

: Chromosome segregation fidelity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is modulated by glucose signaling and Protein Kinase A (PKA)

: Chronic Alcohol Consumption Impairs Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis and Microtubule-Dependent Nuclear Translocation in Hepatocytes; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Biology. The Catholic University of America, The molecular basis for alcohol-induced hepatotoxicity is not well-understood. We sought to further explore a known protein trafficking defect caused by chronic alcohol exposure: receptor internalization from the hepatocyte plasma membrane, and a hypothesized defect in microtubule-dependent nuclear translocation of transcription factors. We hypothesized that both of these defects are caused by ethanol-induced protein hyperacetylation. Previously, we determined that the clathrin-mediated internalization of asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGP-R) was impaired in ethanol-treated WIF-B cells, whereas the internalization of a glycophosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored protein internalized via a caveolae/raft-mediated pathway was not changed. ASGP-R internalization was also impaired by trichostatin-A (TSA), a drug that induces global protein hyperacetylation, providing evidence that hyperacetylation is indeed associated with this defect. We examined a panel of proteins and compounds internalized by different mechanisms in control and ethanol-treated WIF-B cells. Markers known to be internalized via clathrin-mediated endocytosis were impaired, whereas the internalization of markers for caveolae/raft-mediated-, fluid phase-, or non-vesicle-mediated mechanisms was not altered after ethanol exposure. We conclude that clathrin-mediated endocytosis is selectively impaired by ethanol exposure. Previously we found that alcohol exposure led to increased microtubule acetylation and stability in WIF-B cells and livers from ethanol-fed rats. Because dynamic microtubules are known to regulate nuclear translocation of some transcription factors, we examined whether alcohol-induced microtubule acetylation and stability impair nuclear translocation. Representing factors that undergo directed nuclear delivery, we examined the growth hormone-induced translocation of Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 5B (STAT5B) and the interleukin 6 (IL-6) -induced translocation of STAT3. Representing factors that are sequestered in the cytoplasm by microtubule attachment until ligand activation, we examined the Transforming Growth Factor-Beta (TGF-Beta) -induced translocation of Smad2/3. Ethanol exposure impaired the translocation of STAT3 and STAT5B, but not Smad2/3. STAT5B translocation was decreased to similar extents by taxol or trichostatin A, agents that promote microtubule acetylation in the absence of alcohol. Thus, the alcohol-induced impairment of STAT nuclear translocation can be explained by increased microtubule acetylation. Only ethanol-treatment impaired STAT5B activation, indicating microtubule acetylation is not important for this process. Together, these results suggest that deacetylase agonists may be effective therapeutics for treating alcoholic liver disease., Made available in DSpace on 2012-11-01T17:08:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernandez_cua_0043A_10369display.pdf: 4456009 bytes, checksum: e87206ccfadd525162b1f25330528627 (MD5)

: Chronic Alcohol Consumption Leads to Hepatic Lysine Hyperacetylation: Mechanisms and Consequences; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Biology. The Catholic University of America, Although the clinical manifestations of alcoholic liver disease are well-described, little is known about the molecular basis for liver damage. We have been using hepatic WIF-B cells to examine ethanol-induced liver injury. These cells polarize in culture and maintain liver-specific activities including the ability to metabolize alcohol. Ethanol metabolism leads to the formation of highly reactive metabolites that covalently modify DNA, lipids and proteins. More recently, it is apparent that chronic ethanol consumption leads to increased post-translational protein modifications of the natural repertoire including acetylation. This reversible modification on lysine residues modulates multiple cellular processes. These studies were aimed at further characterizing ethanol-induced protein acetylation. Previously, we observed that ethanol induces microtubule hyperacetylation and stability and this requires ethanol metabolism. To determine the mechanism for increased microtubule acetylation, we examined the microtubule deacetylase, HDAC6. While ethanol does not alter its distribution or activity, HDAC6 protein levels are decreased 25%. Furthermore, ethanol impairs HDAC6-microtubule binding, likely due to ethanol-induced tubulin modifications. Therefore, lower HDAC6 levels combined with decreased microtubule binding leads to increased tubulin acetylation. Ethanol consumption has been shown to impair clathrin-mediated internalization and addition of trichostatin A (TSA), an inhibitor of HDAC6 that leads to hyperacetylation, mimicked this defect. Using a morphological approach, it was determined that ethanol and TSA impairs clathrin internalization at a late stage of vesicle budding. We further determined that ethanol impairs dynamin-membrane binding and association with members of the clathrin machinery. Dynamin is the GTPase responsible for vesicle fission and decreased membrane association likely contributes to impaired internalization. A proteomics screen to identify novel ethanol-induced hyperacetylated proteins revealed that both actin and cortactin were hyperacetylated. Cortactin is thought to promote actin polymerization and mediate dynamin assembly on the necks of invaginated coated pits. Since cortactin acetylation disrupts its actin association, it is possible that ethanol-induced actin and cortactin hyperacetylation prevent proper dynamin recruitment and vesicle fission. Recently, a specific deacetylase activator, resveratrol, was shown to attenuate fatty liver in alcohol-exposed mice indicating that lysine acetylation plays a dominant role in regulating hepatic function and reducing acetylation is a promising novel therapeutic strategy., Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-24T17:13:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Shepard_cua_0043A_10193display.pdf: 15930768 bytes, checksum: 9fbaaf9ccdc05097b964fe4265db4cd9 (MD5)

: A Church Apart: The Catholic Church in the Rural South, 1939-1990; Degree Awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation examines Catholicism in the rural South to answer three questions. The first is how did priests and lay Catholics engage in a pluralistic American society before and after Vatican II while drastically outnumbered? The second is what did it mean to be part of the universal Catholic Church while isolated geographically, socially, and institutionally? Finally, how do we balance the impact of major national and international events on the Catholicism in the rural South with the importance of local context? This dissertation seeks to answer these questions by examining the history of seven parishes - four pastored by Glenmary Home Missioners and three pastored by non-Glenmarians - in the rural South between 1939 and 1990.Throughout much of the twentieth century, Southern Catholics were regarded with suspicion by their neighbors without the protections offered by numbers or their own confessional institutions. Catholics in the rural South dealt with this in two ways. The first was by emphasizing their Southerness. Apart from their religious beliefs, they were virtually indistinguishable from their fellow Southerners, and their views on politics, economics, and race hewed much closer to their non-Catholic neighbors than their co-religionists in the North. The second way Catholics in the rural South dealt with an inhospitable religious climate was to make a conscious choice to be Catholic. There was no "cultural" Catholicism here, and minus institutional support, they emphasized the signifiers, such as liturgy, sacred space, and the priest, that marked them as religiously separate. They wanted to be good Southerners, but they wanted to belong to Rome too. The dissertation finds that Catholicism in the rural South could not have grown during the second half of the twentieth century without the New Deal and World War II stimulating the region's economic modernization or the support and priests offered by Catholicism in the urban North. The Civil Rights Movement and Second Vatican Council altered what it meant to be Catholic here as well. Rural Southern Catholics viewed these national and international events primarily through the lens of local concerns, which reinforced their sense of isolation and Southerness.

: The Church of the East at Three Critical Points in its History; This dissertation seeks to examine changes in the identity of the Church of the East over a span of several centuries particularly in relation to events and experiences undergone by this church body in its own milieu. It aims to do this through the analysis of key texts by or about prominent church figures and secondary texts which establish the context for these men in each of three separate time periods. The figures under investigation are Mar Babai the Great at the turn of the 7th century during the last years of the Sassanid Empire, Catholicos Timothy I in the height of Abbasid Culture at the turn of the 9th Century, and Mar Yaballaha III during the Pax Mongolica at the end of the 13th century. This dissertation asserts that these men acted as representatives of their churchmen in their day, and that said representation, judging by the esteem in which they were held, extended to subsequent generations. Because of this, an analysis of their milieu and their responses to it provided in their writings grants insight into their corporate identity in their respective time periods, and what variations exist can be described as identity shifts. In this way, this dissertation establishes that the Church of the East in the Sassanid period was working to establish an identity as the Church of the Persian Empire, in distinction from that of the Romans, and furthermore, due to their lofty connections, they were highly anticipating the acceptance of their faith by the leadership of their empire. By the time of Timothy, a century and a half later, due to the religious inclinations of their new political masters, such aspirations were at least in part abandoned locally, but at the further extents of the church’s reach, a greater degree of freedom was granted its members. This freedom contributed to the state of the Church of the East in the final period, where distant unexpected church members came home at the head of an army to establish a kingdom, and Church of the East leadership understandably interpreted this to mean that they might finally have a Christian king. Such aspirations proved short lived. This dissertation shows that there were a number of Church of the East identity points that shifted over the centuries, but two stand out as prominent: 1. their relationship with their political rulers including the role their ecclesiastical group played in society, and 2. the role of missionary outreach in the life of their church., Middle Eastern literature, History, Religious history, Asia, Babai, Church of the East, Islam, Timothy I, Yaballaha, Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America

: Citizens of Heaven: Conservative American Protesant Reactions to New Deal Legislation; Degree Awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, In September 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a letter to clergymen across the nation asking for feedback, counsel, and advice. This project examines two separate, but connected questions. First, what compelled Roosevelt to send the letter, which represented a departure from his established patterns of gauging public opinion? Second, what can we learn from the responses submitted by conservative Protestant ministers? The project begins with a detailed investigation of Roosevelt's letter- what compelled the President to send it, how was it prepared, and how were the responses compiled. This is followed by an examination of the letters received from conservative Protestant ministers from seven representative states, specifically focusing on their responses to federal relief aid, Social Security, New Deal agricultural programs, and their assessment of the current spiritual state of the nation.Roosevelt's decision to send the letter demonstrates his view of clergymen as spokesmen for their congregations. He was confident that religious leaders were capable of providing access to the sentiments of their congregants, which were difficult to otherwise discern before widespread political polling. The conservative clergymen's responses help us to see a direct link between the political activism of the fundamentalists during the Progressive Era and the emergence of a powerful Christian Right in the 1950s. Though these conservative Protestant clergymen did not play a significant role in national politics during the 1930s, they did not retreat from political and civic activity. They saw themselves as informed citizens and community leaders qualified to offer unbiased counsel. Though they respected government authority, their primary allegiance was to God. They advocated for more intentional interaction between the President and religious leaders, committed to support government actions that reflected Christian principles, and offered specific criticism of programs and legislation that threatened God's authority. The clergymen urged Roosevelt to heed their counsel, confident that God would use them to usher in a period of genuine religious revival and renewed spiritual fervor across the nation, which they believed was necessary for true stability.

: Closest in Friendship? Al-Jahiz' Profile of Christians in Abbasid Society in “The Refutation of Christians” (Al-Radd 'ala al-Nasara); Abbasid society in ninth-century Iraq faced the challenge of reconciling the role of its many non-Muslim citizens with Islamic norms and governance, as seen in “The Refutation of Christians” by al-Jahiz (d. 868/869 [255 A.H.]). Al-Jahiz moved in circles only one step removed from those of the Christian and Jewish intellectuals he came to criticize in the work, and he likely composed it just prior to Caliph al-Mutawakkil’s watershed reforms in non-Muslim policy. Thus, the “Refutation” is a primary source for understanding shifting Muslim sensibilities toward Christians’ societal role in a religiously diverse realm, but its polemic approach makes it problematic to analyze historically. This dissertation seeks to make “The Refutation of Christians” more accessible as a historical source by performing a contextual analysis of its argumentation.Al-Jahiz’ rhetorical strategy is to explain away factors behind popular Muslim preferences for Christians over Jews, and then to advance positive reasons for considering Christians more harmful than Jews. Argumentation analysis using the pragma-dialectical approach highlights salient social points at issue between Christians and Muslims of the time. First, al-Jahiz’ dispute is not directly with Christians, but with Muslims who show them too much respect and liberality. Second, he must reframe certain facts about Christians that are too generally accepted to contradict, including memories of Arabs’ pre-Islamic and early Islamic contacts with Christians, and Christian intellectuals’ crucial role in perpetuating Greek scientific works. He turns these favorable perceptions into liabilities, arguing that Christians’ intellectualism diverts weak Muslims from the faith and their social position violates Christian-Muslim agreements. Finally, in contrast to the jurists’ approach, he argues for enforcing the original intention of these agreements rather than trying to demonstrate specific historical stipulations. Al-Jahiz’ ideology aligns with al-Mutawakkil’s Qur'anically charged edicts, in that Christians, far from being “closest in friendship” (5:82), are those with whom believers must not make any alliance (5:51). As such, the “Refutation” reveals the battle lines between more lenient, popular Muslim attitudes and a stricter position promoted by al-Jahiz and enforced by al-Mutawakkil., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America

: Cognitive and Affective Correlates of Husbands' and Wives' Satisfaction with Marital Discussions

: Cognitive and executive functioning in 15-month-old children following traumatic brain injury prior to age one year; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America, Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most common cause of death and acquired brain insult in American children, and therefore a major public health concern. Children less than one year of age are disproportionately likely to sustain a TBI, but this age group has been relatively neglected in the TBI research literature. In young school-age children, significant age-at-injury effects have been found in that children injured at younger ages tend to have worse outcome. This is in contrast to the predicted pattern of neuroplasticity, with younger brains tending to demonstrate greater plasticity. Additionally, studies of children after TBI reveal significant impact on control of attention, working memory, planning, and inhibitory control (executive functions (EF).) These areas often remain persistently compromised, even when overall cognitive functioning shows good recovery. Little is known about how the early components of EF may be affected when TBI occurs in infancy. The current study examined the relationship between injury variables (severity and age-at-injury) and cognitive and executive functioning in 15-month-old children following TBI sustained prior to one year of age. Nineteen children who sustained a TBI and 15 uninjured children were tested at 15 months of age. Cognitive functioning was measured with the Mental Scale of the Bayley-II. Working memory and inhibitory control were measured with a manual delayed response task (A-Not-B.) In the current study, children with TBI performed worse on average than uninjured children in overall cognitive functioning and executive functioning. Earlier age-at-injury was associated with poorer cognitive functioning at all severity levels. Earlier age-at-injury was associated with poorer EF performance in children with milder injuries, but not in those with more severe injuries. Results of the current study also support the use of an early "marker" task (the A-Not-B delayed response task) that appears sensitive to impairments in early components of executive functioning. The current study adds to the small body of knowledge about outcome after TBI in infancy and provides a strong case for routine neurodevelopmental follow-up as the standard of care for these children., Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:46:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Coleman_cua_0043A_10067display.pdf: 2749676 bytes, checksum: 467b87cf685bec3a7d63805254cc5e8d (MD5)

: Cognitive Bases of Nuclear Control Room Tasks

: Cognitive Behavioral and Integrative Treatment of Abused Children: Examining Cognitive and Emotional Processes and Developmental Considerations; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America, Maltreated and abused children often experience a wide range of psychological and physical problems, including emotional avoidance and negative post-traumatic cognitions, and present to treatment with a broad range of developmental abilities. The present study explored trauma-related beliefs, emotion regulation, and verbal engagement, and their relation to symptoms in 42 children with complex trauma histories who presented for a treatment outcome study of trauma-focused integrated play therapy (TF-IPT) and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). As predicted, emotion regulation deficits and negative trauma-related beliefs at baseline corresponded with greater psychological symptoms, with distinct patterns emerging. Across treatment conditions, negative trauma-related beliefs decreased significantly from pre- to post-treatment and verbal engagement increased significantly across sessions; both changes corresponded significantly with reductions in symptomatology. Contrary to prediction, no significant improvements in emotion regulation capacities were found (although for children in the TF-IPT condition means were in the expected direction), and improvement in emotion regulation was not related to change on any measure of psychological symptoms. Treatments also did not differ significantly in their ability to decrease trauma-related beliefs, improve emotion regulation, or facilitate verbal engagement, although only children in TF-CBT showed significant improvement in trauma cognitions. Additionally, simple meditational analyzes using a non-parametric bootstrapping approach indicated no indirect effect of treatment group by any mediators tested for symptom improvement. Even though the study's statistical power was limited by the presence of only 22 treatment completers and replication is needed, results suggest that remediating children's trauma-related cognitions is important in trauma treatment, while emotion regulation capacities may be more difficult to impact therapeutically (or to measure meaningfully). Additionally, future interventions that enhance children's verbal engagement in treatment may increase treatment effectiveness. Integrative treatments such as TF-IPT may hold promise, especially for young children with immature cognitive and language capacities. Further research, including a larger randomized controlled clinical trial of both TF-CBT and TF-IPT, would be beneficial in developing better understandings of these mechanisms of change for abused children and the differential effects of treatments on underlying process variables., Made available in DSpace on 2013-02-08T16:06:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Krueger_cua_0043A_10390display.pdf: 1159704 bytes, checksum: 517d91881ea6388c1af26411f32a95c0 (MD5)

: Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS): Adherence to a Flexible Clinical Framework; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America, The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality framework (CAMS; Jobes, 2006) has amassed more consistent empirical support to date than most other suicide-focused psychosocial approaches for actively treating adult patients. This support has led to multiple variations of CAMS training being delivered to mental health practitioners across several settings. However, no research has examined the extent to which such training impacts participants' self-reported adherence to the CAMS therapeutic philosophy and recommended CAMS practice behaviors, or whether adherence varies as a function of contextual variables (i.e., the type of training received, therapist factors, and primary work setting/agency support). The present study was designed to address this gap, using an online survey of 120 practitioners who completed some form of CAMS training or read the CAMS manual with the intention of applying it in clinical practice. Results indicated moderate to high adherence to the CAMS therapeutic philosophy, which is comparable to other studies gauging the impact of suicide-focused training. Similarly, participants reported relatively high adherence to CAMS practice, in line with other suicide-focused training studies and, in fact, higher than findings on adherence to interventions for other psychiatric issues. Older and more experienced clinicians, those with doctoral degrees, and those whose work was guided more from a CBT perspective had higher adherence to the CAMS therapeutic approach. Additionally, adherence to CAMS philosophy as measured by comfort using CAMS-consistent statements was higher for men, those with more of a CBT orientation, clinicians who received more intensive training, and those working in outpatient or Veterans Administration medical centers as opposed to counseling centers. Finally, therapist confidence in using CAMS with patients was positively related to both adherence types. On the whole, adherence to philosophy and practice did not vary consistently as a function of any contextual variable, which suggests that practitioners receiving CAMS training can successfully subscribe to the CAMS therapeutic philosophy and implement CAMS-specific practices regardless of their broader contexts. Future investigations of CAMS training should assess self-reported CAMS-related attitudes and beliefs before and immediately after training, as well as actual behavior change in clinical practice., Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-20T15:48:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Crowley_cua_0043A_10515display.pdf: 773733 bytes, checksum: f36b07d1936a3a2c9297326c68ff36f6 (MD5)

: The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) with Adolescents: An Empirical Investigation; Nearly one-fifth of U.S. high school students have seriously considered suicide (YRBS 2019), and 2,797 adolescents died by suicide in 2020 (Drapeau & Macintosh, 2021). There are limited options for suicide-specific treatments that address the developmental needs of adolescents, and many adolescents struggling with thoughts of suicide receive no mental health treatment beyond a visit to an emergency department for an acute suicidal crisis (Asarnow et al., 2022). Preliminary research suggests that the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS, Jobes, 2016) is effective at reducing suicide ideation among adolescents (Adrian et al., 2021). Given the low rate of engagement in mental health services in this population, further research is needed to determine the feasibility and utility of CAMS as a treatment for complex, high-risk adolescents. This quasi-experimental mixed-methods study used an archival dataset to compare differences in service use outcomes for adolescents who received CAMS and for a matched sample of adolescents who received standard treatment. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to create the matched sample. In order to further inform the development of CAMS-4Teens, qualitative responses from the Suicide Status Form (SSF-4, Jobes, 2016) were explored to describe the frequency and context in which adolescents mentioned their parents in relation to their suicidality. There were no differences between groups in the number of emergency department visits or inpatient admissions, but adolescents who received CAMS had a significantly higher rate of outpatient services than those in the comparison group, including more specific or more intensive services beyond their CAMS treatment. The qualitative data revealed that fewer than one-third of adolescents mentioned a parent on the SSF, but those who did were likely to mention a parent as a reason for living. The lack of a parent mention was associated with significantly higher ratings of suicide risk by clinicians. The results of this pragmatic comparison trial suggest that CAMS may facilitate ongoing engagement in mental health services after a suicidal crisis. They also highlight the important of ongoing assessment and of incorporating each individual patient’s perspective in order to provide patient-centered individualized treatment. , Psychology, adolescent, CAMS, service use, suicide, treatment, Psychology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America

: Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality--Integrated Training Model: Impact on Clinician Competency; Effective implementation of evidence-based practices is vital in clinical suicide prevention. Multiple factors influence the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs), including mental health care clinicians’ access to training as well as the quality of training they receive. This study investigated the impact of a multi-modal training program for a suicide-specific evidence-based practice: The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality – Integrated Training Model (CAMS – ITM). Survey data was used to assess the effectiveness of CAMS – ITM in increasing clinical competency to treat suicidal patients, as measured by improvements in clinicians’ self-report of skill in treating suicidal patients, knowledge of suicide-specific best practices, and attitude toward the treatment of suicidality. Pre-training survey responses compared to post-training survey responses were analyzed across groups of clinicians receiving CAMS training in the states of Oklahoma, Ohio, Colorado, and Alaska. The findings of this exploratory study showed good support for CAMS – ITM, as analyses showed improvements in attitude, knowledge, and skill by the end of training. Moreover, there was evidence that the first training, an online video course, was effective in improving competency in and of itself. This study adds to the extant literature on EBP training for mental health clinicians and adds to the body of evidence in support of CAMS as a tool for the dissemination and implementation of suicide specific best practices. , Clinical psychology, CAMS, clinical competency, clinician training, implementation, suicide-specific EBP, training outcome, Psychology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America

: Coming to Terms with Complexity: A Lens for the Human Sciences in the Twentieth Century

: A Comparative Study of the Teacher’s Religious Knowledge, Personal Faith Beliefs, and Personal Faith Practices that Impact the Teacher-Perceived Religiosity as Evangelizers in the Catholic Elementary/Middle School Classroom; The teacher’s role as evangelizer in a Catholic elementary school is important since most classroom teachers are expected to teach the content of the Catholic faith and every teacher, Catholic or non-Catholic, is encouraged to share their faith with the students. This study explored the relationship among teachers’ perceptions of their role as evangelizers, and their knowledge of Catholic doctrine and consistency of personal beliefs about Church teachings. A 71- item survey was completed by 593 K-8 teachers in Catholic elementary schools randomly selected from the six NCEA regions. In addition to demographic information, the survey contained items about perceived roles as evangelizers, and questions about knowledge of Catholic doctrine and personal beliefs about such. A factor analysis revealed six components of the evangelizer items, four concerned personal dispositions about their role as evangelizers and two specifically about intentional activities in their teaching. Teachers with more experience in teaching in a Catholic school compared with teachers with less experience reported putting God first in their lives and inviting their students to do the same, see every student as important to God, and strive to integrate Gospel teachings in all aspects of the curriculum. The important predictors of their view of teaching as a ministry were the teachers’ generational cohort, whether they taught religion and the number of years teaching in a Catholic school. Older teachers were also more intentional than younger teachers in efforts to form disciples of Jesus. Catholic teachers answered 74 percent of the doctrinal items consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church, compared with 60 percent of non-Catholic teachers. Catholic teachers in their personal beliefs answered 71 percent of the doctrinal items consistent with Catholic teachings, as compared to non-Catholic teachers with 52 percent. The results also showed that older teachers had a better understanding of Church doctrine than did younger teachers. This study provides Catholic leaders with a better understanding of how Catholic and non-Catholic elementary school teachers perceive themselves as faith evangelizers in the Catholic elementary classroom. This study also provides information about the importance of faith formation for Catholic elementary/middle school teachers., Elementary education, Middle school education, Religious education, Education, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Education. The Catholic University of America

: Comparing Judicial Instructions About Confession Evidence in a Criminal Case; Most false confessors will plead, or will be found, guilty at trial in the U.S. DNA exonerations indicate that false confessions are the second leading cause of wrongful conviction. Jurors have an incomplete understanding of the factors that affect confession evidence. This study sought to sensitize mock jurors to factors that can increase or decrease the strength of confession evidence, by way of a novel set of modified (“enhanced”) jury instructions. The enhanced instructions combined best-practice standard (“general”) criminal case instructions with empirical findings about factors occurring before, during, and after an interrogation that impact confession reliability. Participants (N= 314) read a weak or strong murder trial transcript online, followed by general or enhanced jury instructions. The key evidence in the trial was the defendant’s confession, gathered by police using either coercive (weak case) or appropriate (strong case) tactics. The cases differed in 11 key details. For example, in the weak case, police employed coercive tactics, such as lying about the existence of incriminating evidence against the suspect, whereas in the strong case, the police ensured the suspect’s sobriety prior to the interview and recorded the interview in its entirety. Altogether, 64% of the general instruction group convicted the defendant in the weak case and 74% in the strong case—a 10% difference that was not statistically significant. In contrast, 60% of the enhanced group convicted thedefendant in the weak case and 78% in the strong case—an 18% difference that was significant. The enhanced instruction participants were 1.47 times more likely to render a guilty verdict in the strong case than the weak case compared to the general instruction participants. This is the first study to demonstrate that jury instructions can sensitize jurors to confession evidence, without making them more skeptical about confession evidence in general. However, 30% of participants who considered the confession to be involuntary still convicted the defendant, and the enhanced instructions did not lower convictions for involuntary confessions. Implications are discussed for educating jurors and legal professionals about confession evidence., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America

: Comparing Teaching Aids for how to Evaluate Eyewitness testimony in a Criminal Case; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America, Although eyewitness identifications are a common form of evidence presented in criminal trials, analyses of actual cases and studies of mock jurors suggest that people are not skilled at evaluating eyewitness accuracy. Laypeople tend to rely on factors that are not diagnostic of identification accuracy, such as the eyewitness's confidence, and they tend to underestimate factors that are diagnostic of identification accuracy, such as proper interview and lineup procedures. The present study compared the effects of three teaching aids on participants' sensitivity to eyewitness evidence in either a strong or weak eyewitness identification scenario. The interview-identification-eyewitness (I-I-Eye) experimental aid directed participants to first attend to how law enforcement interviewed the eyewitness, second evaluate the identification procedures, and third determine what eyewitness factors during the crime could have impacted the eyewitness's identification accuracy. The Neil v. Biggers control aid presented five criteria that are the current legal standard for evaluating eyewitness evidence. The Jury Duty control aid described aspects of the criminal trial process. The strong and weak transcript scenarios differed on factors relevant to the fairness of the eyewitness interview and the lineup (system variables). Participants were 293 undergraduate students. A 3 (teaching aid) x 2 (trial transcript strength), between-groups factorial design was employed. Participants in the I-I-Eye group rendered significantly more correct verdicts for the strong case and marginally more correct verdicts for the weak case than those in either control group. Importantly, only the I-I-Eye participants demonstrated sensitivity by ruling guilty more often in the strong case (55%) than in the weak case (16%). Thus, the I-I-Eye participants not only learned about eyewitness factors, but were able to integrate this information with other case details so as to reach a correct verdict. Moreover, participants in the I-I-Eye group were more likely to list characteristics of the crime scene (estimator variables) and police procedures (system variables), and less likely to list the lack of forensic evidence in the case, as the reason for their verdict. We discuss how to use the I-I-Eye heuristic to teach laypersons and professionals in the criminal justice system how to evaluate eyewitness evidence., Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-24T17:13:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pawlenko_cua_0043A_10201display.pdf: 1032885 bytes, checksum: 90e296418992bf9c1cbf68b945c40db0 (MD5)

: Comparing the Interactive Effects of State and Trait Emotion Regulation on Memory; Cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression are two common emotion regulation (ER) strategies that have been widely studied in relation to affective, cognitive, and social outcomes. Research on affective and social outcomes of ER yield consistent results, with cognitive reappraisal relating to more adaptive outcomes, and emotion suppression relating to worse outcomes. The findings regarding relationships between ER and cognitive variables, however, are less consistent, particularly for studies examining ER and memory. Potential explanations for these inconsistent findings are differences in 1) the methods of measuring ER strategies, and; 2) the types of memory assessed. The first chapter of this dissertation discusses the rationale for incorporating measurement of ER as both trait and state variables in future research, while the second chapter reviews the existing literature regarding ER and various types of memory. The third chapter presents an original research study examining the relationships between both state and trait ER and two different types of memory (verbal and non-verbal), and testing for potential interactive effects between state and trait ER on memory. Data was collected from 75 Catholic University of America undergraduate students age 18 and older. Participants completed computerized questionnaires (demographics and trait ER) and a computerized task consisting of three state ER conditions (cognitive reappraisal, emotion suppression, no-regulation). Participants were then tested on their memory for information presented during the state conditions. Results showed trend interactive effects of state and trait ER on verbal memory only. Individuals performed better on verbal memory tests while cognitively reappraising and emotionally suppressing emotions when they were high trait cognitive reappraisers, suggesting that, regardless of the state ER strategy used, individuals who typically use cognitive reappraisal tend to have better verbal memory. However, when emotionally suppressing emotions, individuals only performed better on memory tests when they were high trait suppressors, suggesting that habitual use of the instructed strategy may have led to decreased cognitive load. These findings illustrate the importance of including both trait and state ER measures in future research, as the way in which individuals regulate in an experimental setting is likely affected by how they typically regulate emotions., Developmental psychology, Psychology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America