Browsing by Author "Howell, Andrew J."

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Academic procrastination: the pattern and correlates of behavioural postponement
    (2006) Powell, Russell A.; Howell, Andrew J.; Watson, David; Buro, Karen
    Using a series of computer-based assignments, we examined whether students’ submission patterns revealed a hyperbolic pattern of temporal discounting, such that few assignments are submitted far ahead of the deadline and submission of assignments accelerates at an increasing rate as the deadline becomes imminent. We further examined whether variables related to self-regulation – namely, self-reported procrastination, implementation intentions, say-do correspondence, and perceived academic control – correlated with behavioural postponement. Results revealed strong behavioural evidence of temporal discounting, especially among those who identified themselves as procrastinators. Among the self-regulation measures, only say-do correspondence consistently correlated with procrastination.
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    Character strengths of teaching and research award-winning professors
    (2018) Symbaluk, Diane; Howell, Andrew J.
    This study examined online student feedback to determine the extent to which students identify strengths of character in their perceptions of professors and whether student-identified character strengths could distinguish between teaching-award winners (n = 120) and research-award winners (n = 119). A content analysis of posted comments on RateMyProfessors.com revealed the most commonly identified character traits to be perspective, kindness, leadership, humor, creativity, vitality, and fairness. Teaching-award recipients averaged a greater number of traits compared to research-award winners. Future research is needed to determine how character strengths among teaching faculty can best be applied to teaching practices, faculty development strategies, and institutional priorities for optimal faculty and student outcomes.
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    Cultivating incremental theories regarding anxiety to reduce student academic and general anxiety
    (2017) Doherty, Kyla; Howell, Andrew J.
    An incremental view of a personal attribute (i.e., a growth mindset) often confers significant affective and psychological advantages relative to an entity view (i.e., a fixed mindset). For example, a fixed mindset regarding anxiety has recently been shown to be associated with higher anxiety and poorer emotional coping skills (De Castella et al., 2014). No research to date has examined the causal impact of incremental vs. entity views toward anxiety on levels of anxiety. In the current proposed study, undergraduate participants will be randomly assigned to receive either an intervention that trains an incremental view of anxiety or to receive a control intervention. Three weeks later, academic and general anxiety will be measured in both groups along with their incremental vs. fixed views toward anxiety. It is predicted that that those who undergo cultivation of an incremental view toward anxiety will exhibit less anxiety than control group participants. Supportive findings would suggest that preventative interventions may be effective for protecting students from anxiety throughout the school year and from more general health risks connected to long-lasting anxiety.
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    Effectiveness of treatment for dissociative identity disorder
    (1998) Powell, Russell A.; Howell, Andrew J.
    In a study by J. W. Ellason and C. A. Ross (1996), patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder reported a decrease in symptoms on the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory–II over a 2-yr follow-up period. Patients judged to have achieved integration of their personalities rated themselves as more substantially improved on the Millon–II than did patients judged not to have achieved integration. Ellason and Ross suggested that this improvement reflected the influence of treatment; however, for several reasons, their findings are open to alternative interpretations. First, in the absence of proper control conditions, one cannot rule out the contribution of other factors to the over-all improvement of patients such as regression of symptoms toward the mean following the initial assessment. Second, patients' self-reported improvement was less substantial when data were reanalyzed using more appropriate statistical criteria. Third, the greater improvement observed among integrated patients relative to nonintegrated patients may reflect influences other than differential responsiveness to treatment, such as less severe pathology prior to treatment. More systematic research is needed to clarify the effect of treatment on Dissociative Identity Disorder.
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    Essentialist beliefs, stigmatizing attitudes, and low empathy predict greater endorsement of noun labels applied to people with mental disorders
    (2014) Howell, Andrew J.; Ulan, Justine A.; Powell, Russell A.
    Maass, Suitner, and Merkel (2014) identified several negative consequences of the use of noun labels (e.g., John is a schizophrenic) applied to people with mental disorders. The current studies examined whether the endorsement of noun labels is associated with individual differences in essentialist beliefs, stigmatizing attitudes, and empathy, seeking to replicate and extend the findings of Howell and Woolgar (2013). In Study 1 (N = 282), undergraduates with high scores on measures of essentialist thinking and stigmatizing attitudes were more likely to endorse noun labels. In Study 2 (N = 258), undergraduates with low empathy scores and high stigmatizing attitude scores were more likely to endorse noun labels. These findings are discussed with respect to additional implications of noun labels applied to those with mental disorders, such as perceived treatability.
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    Evidence for vicarious hope and vicarious gratitude
    (2015) Howell, Andrew J.; Bailie, Thomas; Buro, Karen
    Theorists posit that well-being reflects an optimal balance of self- and other-interest. An index of other-interest may be the degree to which hope and gratitude concern others (termed vicarious hope and vicarious gratitude) in addition to concerning the self. We examined the frequency of vicarious responses generated by participants (N = 350) invited to list ten things for which they were hopeful or grateful. Results showed that, on average, about 13 % of participants’ responses were other-oriented, that such responses were more likely to occur in the hope than in the gratitude condition, and that they were more likely to occur in conditions where task instructions primed inclusion of others. The generation of vicarious responses correlated with the trait of empathic concern. Implications of these findings for future work on vicarious hope and vicarious gratitude are discussed.
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    John "drinks"? Or John is "a drinker"? Implying a disordered identity affects perceived functioning
    (2017) Williams, Sarah; Howell, Andrew J.
    Using noun phrasing to refer to an individual's maladaptive behavioral pattern (e.g., "John is a drinker.") may lead to inferences of lower functioning or poorer adaptation compared with non-noun phrasing (e.g., "John drinks"). Building on research from developmental and social psychology, the current study examines the impact of noun labels in the mental disorder domain. The study will randomly assign 220 undergraduate participants to one of four conditions comprising a 2 (noun label vs non-noun label) x 2 ( alcohol vs gambling) experimental design. While participants read a paragraph about the target individual, "John", they will describe him by actively writing down the noun phrase "is a drinker" (or "is a gambler") or the non-noun phrase, "drinks" (or "gambles"), by filling in several blank spaces within the paragraph. They will then make ratings of John's personal functioning (e.g, the extent to which he feels happy, is successful at school, feels a sense of purpose in life). The prediction is that conceiving John as a being a "drinker" or "a gambler" will lead to lower ratings of personal functioning compared to the non-noun conditions. Findings could broaden our understanding of the effects of language which implies identity in the domain of mental disorders.
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    Measuring and predicting student well-being: further evidence in support of the flourishing scale and the scale of positive and negative experiences
    (2015) Howell, Andrew J.; Buro, Karen
    An increased focus on well-being in university settings has spurred the development of brief scales of both functioning well and feeling good. The objectives of the current study were to generate descriptive findings concerning psychometric properties (e.g., factor structure; reliability) of the recently devised Flourishing Scale (FS) and Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences (SPANE; Diener et al., Soc Indic Res 97:143–156, 2010) with an English-speaking university student sample, and to test associations between the scales and potential predictors of eudaimonic and hedonic aspects of well-being. The FS and SPANE scales were completed by 478 undergraduate students, along with scales measuring 10 human values and both time and material affluence. Descriptive statistics (e.g., means, standard deviations, reliability coefficients) for the FS and SPANE scales were highly similar to those reported by Diener et al. (Soc Indic Res 97:143–156, 2010) and confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized three-factor model (i.e., flourishing, positive feelings, and negative feelings). Self-transcendence and conservation value types were significant predictors of FS scores, whereas only the conservation value type predicted affect balance scores from the SPANE. Time and material affluence were significant predictors of both FS and affect balance scores. Results are discussed in relation to the distinction between eudaimonic and hedonic aspects of well-being.
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    Psychological flexibility and well-being: testing the Eudaimonic Activity Model
    (2020) Demuynck, Katie; Howell, Andrew J.
    Psychological flexibility (PF) is made up of six processes that are characterized by flexibly embracing life events and acting in favor of personal values (see Figure 1). Self-determination theory proposes that meeting basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness culminates in well-being. The Eudaimonic Activity Model (EAM; see Figure 2) proposes that need satisfaction mediates the relationship between doing well (eudaimonic motives and activities) and feeling well (subjective well-being). Our study will be measuring participants’ levels of PF, need satisfaction, and subjective well-being to test the associations proposed by this model.
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    The effects of noun-labelling by others and the self in the domain of mental disorders
    (2018) Williams, Sarah; Howell, Andrew J.
    Using noun phrasing to refer to an individual's maladaptive behavioral pattern (e.g., "John is a drinker.") may lead to stronger inferences of identity, compared with non-noun phrasing (e.g., "John drinks"). Building on research from developmental and social psychology, the current studies examine the impact of noun labels in the mental disorder domain. In Study 1, 171 undergraduate participants read descriptions of hypothetical individuals’ behaviour (e.g., gambling, drinking, overeating) phrased using either noun labels or non-noun phrasing, depending on the condition randomly assigned. The hypothesis that participants would rate behaviours described using nouns as more stable and resilient compared with behaviour described using non-nouns was not supported. Self-labelling was investigated in the Study 2, 167 undergraduate participants were randomly assigned to either a drinking or gambling condition. In response to a series of questions regarding which of two phrases would reflect greater amenability to change, participants chose between a noun-label phrase (e.g., “I am a gambler”) or a non-noun equivalent (e.g., “I gamble whenever I can”). As predicted, participants’ perceived the noun-label phrase (e.g., “I am a drinker”, “I am a gambler”) as more in-keeping with an intent to change. These findings broaden our understanding of the effects of language which implies identity in the domain of mental disorders.