Browsing by Author "Dr. Denis Gray, Committee Member"
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- Assessing Attitudes Towards Violence Among African American Male Youth: The Influence of Ecological Factors.(2004-04-16) Carr, Jamal; Dr. Marsha Alibrandi, Committee Member; Dr. Denis Gray, Committee Member; Dr. Craig Brookins, Committee ChairOver the last few decades the issue of youth violence has continued to be a major concern in the Unites States. Due to the prevalence of violence in communities, schools, and homes, more emphasis has been placed on building youth competencies in conflict resolution and anger management. One of the major problems facing violence prevention program developers is determining whether programs should target youth or youth environments. A common attitude held by some individuals is that youth are the problem. As a result many programs target youth and underestimate the influence of the environment on their attitudes towards violence. In order to develop appropriate violence prevention programs, it is essential to understand the ecological context in which violent attitudes are fostered. The present study examined youths' attitudes towards violence within an ecological context in a sample of 151 African American adolescent males in North Carolina afterschool programs. Participants completed a 62-item survey that was comprised of the Neighborhood Characteristics Questionnaire, the Authoritative Parenting Index, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Attitudes Towards Violence Scale. It was hypothesized that neighborhood characteristics, parenting styles, and self-esteem would significantly correlate with youths' attitudes towards violence. Significant correlations were found between neighborhood disorder, parental responsiveness and demandingness, and youths' attitudes towards violence. Findings are discussed as they relate to current literature on youth violence along with the limitations and implications for this study.
- The Influence of Reference-Mark Density and Saliency on Time-To-Passage(2009-04-02) Ornan, Rachelle Nitzanne; Dr. Chris Mayhorn, Committee Member; Dr. Katherine Klein, Committee Member; Dr. Denis Gray, Committee Member; Dr. Donald Mershon, Committee ChairGogel & McNulty (1983) demonstrated that the greater the density of vertical reference or hatch marks in a display, the greater the perceived velocity of a laterally moving object. Their study corroborates the findings of other researchers that the addition of reference-marks or a reference frame lowers the motion threshold (Liebowitz, 1955; Brown, 1931a, 1931b). The current study’s first experiment successfully replicated the results of Gogel & McNulty’s study using a flat panel LCD screen and a predicted-motion task. Subsequent experiments examined the effect of object and reference-mark characteristics on accuracy. In general, accuracy increased as the extrapolation distance (ED) and reference-mark density increased. There was a consistent interactive effect between ED and reference-mark density such that medium and long EDs coupled with high density of reference-marks produced the greatest increase in accuracy. There was an interactive sex effect with ED which was present in the results, but was not consistent. Though accuracy was not affected by object size, horizontal extent, shape, familiarity, color or offset, the effect of high reference-mark density on improving accuracy disappeared when marks were less salient. The results of these experiments have application to the design of displays used for military, air traffic control and cockpit applications, laparoscopic surgery, assembly-line manufacturing, highway-construction tasks, and on-orbit space manufacturing and construction.
- Thought Suppression: Divergent Implications for Explicit and Implicit Memory(2008-04-20) Bratton, Kevin Michael; Dr. Chris Mayhorn, Committee Member; Dr. Denis Gray, Committee Member; Dr. Kitty Klein, Committee Chair; Dr. Lynne Baker-Ward, Committee Member
