Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Pharmacological Manipulation Of Nmda Receptor Activation And Synaptic Norepinephrine Levels: Effects On Sustained Attention In Male Rats, Zach V. Redding

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Impaired attention is common in many neurological disorders. Normal attention promotes the selective processing of important sensory information. This selective processing relies on neurotransmitters, like glutamate, and neuromodulators, like norepinephrine, acting in frontal, parietal, and visual cortices. We tested treatments targeting the glutamatergic and noradrenergic systems using a rat model of attentional lapses.Rats were trained to respond quickly to stimuli in a two-choice reaction time task (2CRTT). Response times were split into initiation time (IT) and movement time (MT). Performance measures were derived from IT and MT distributions. IT mode represents sensorimotor processing speed when rats are attentive. IT deviation …

Stress, Depression, And Anxiety, Oh My: Examining The Effects Of A Single-Session Seminar On Depression And Anxiety Symptomatology, Katelyn Sharpe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Young adults (aged 18-25) were identified as the most stressed age group due to internal and external factors that are relatively unique to their group. High stress levels are alarming as they coincide with a multitude of adverse effects on psychological health, including difficulty falling and staying asleep, reduction in overall sleep quality, and exacerbated depression and anxiety symptomatology. Young adults attending post-secondary education institutions are at particular risk for developing and maintaining these adverse psychological effects of stress, especially considering the low rate in which they seek treatment for psychiatric difficulties. Limited literature exists to date regarding condensing a …

Components Of War: How Combat Shapes Political Behavior, Travis W. Endicott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After military service is over, veterans are left to try to acclimate to their new lives. They take the lessons learned through their military career and they apply it to their daily life. One area of veteran life that remains understudied is the way that military service, combat experience specifically, alters political attitudes and behavior. The main focus of this dissertation is to understand the way that military combat alters political attitudes among military veterans. Instead of analyzing military veterans as one homogenous group, I separate veterans by combat experience. Building from the military psychology literature on combat trauma, I …

Serving Motherhood: Analyzing The Balance And Justice Of Foodwork In The Lives Of Working Moms, Kaitlyn Paige Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the foodwork that working mothers do at work and at home in order to support and provide for their families. It explores how women in low-paid food service jobs talk about and manage the work of feeding their families at home and customers at work in order to better understand the gender dynamics of this work and the conditions necessary to achieve “work-family justice”—structural solutions to work/family conflict. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 12 mothers who are between the ages of 24 and 43 from Mississippi and Arkansas. While some held …

Your Presence Threatens Me! Experimental Examination Of Intergroup Threat Theory To Assess Prejudice Towards Muslims, Sukhmani Pal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prejudice towards Muslims has been longstanding and is on the rise in the World. To address this prejudice, it is important to understand the associated underlying mechanism. Intergroup Threat Theory (ITT) suggests that prejudice is motivated by the perceived symbolic and/or realistic threat a group represents. To date, the relationship between threat and prejudice towards Muslims has primarily been examined correlationally rather than experimentally. This project experimentally examines ITT to understand the role of threat in prejudice towards Muslims. Across three studies, I examine how manipulating the salience of threat leads to prejudice, support for harsh policies, and violence towards …

Acceptability, Anticipated Adherence, And Willingness To Begin Interoceptive Exposure: Examination Of The Influence Of A Values Rationale, Gina Quebedeaux Boullion

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interoceptive exposure (IE) is a treatment entailing induction of feared physiological sensations that has emerged as the most efficacious component of cognitive behavioral treatments for panic disorder. However, small-to-moderate effect sizes, wide variability in response rates, and dropout rates indicate that panic disorder treatments may benefit from modifications to improve upon retention, response rates, and symptom reduction. Patient motivation and lack of engagement have been identified as factors to intervene upon. One specific direction that has gained increasing empirical interest is the inclusion of values identification; however, research has not yet examined the influence of values on motivation to engage …

Relational Engagement At The Intersection Of Personal And Professional Identities: A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Experience Of Christian Therapists, Aaron Smith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Though Christian spirituality and therapeutic relationships are unique subjects, commonly found throughout literature pertaining to each topic is an emphasis on how people ought to approach and participate in relationship with one another. In other words, each subject represents a unique tradition of relational engagement. For therapists who practice Christian spirituality, it is possible, if not likely, that both traditions impact how they go about engaging with clients. Despite this, there is a lack of material exploring the experience of relational engagement when these traditions intersect. For this reason, I set out to explore what this experience is like for …

An International Pilot Study Of Volunteer Stream Monitoring Groups: The Role Of Place Attachment In Volunteer Motivations, Rachel Pierson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Engaging the public in scientific research through volunteer monitoring (a form of community science) has potential to expand knowledge of conditions and to improve collaborative decision-making. Many studies have sought to understand motivations for participation and potential resulting actions or behaviors that benefit the environment. Place-based connections have been demonstrated to lead people to adopt environmentally responsible behaviors. However, few studies have considered possible differences in motivations across countries or the role place attachment may play as a driver of initial or sustained participation.

The aim of this research was to determine the extent to which place attachment influences people’s …

Healthcare Provider Communication In Teens With Type 1 Diabetes: Parental Overprotection And Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills, Tori Humiston

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a complex chronic illness requiring both complex daily treatments and ongoing healthcare provider interactions to support optimal glycemic levels necessary for long-term health and quality of life. Adolescents do not manage their T1D by themselves but rather in collaboration with parents who often help in health tasks and navigating healthcare provider interactions. Although parental support is critical for the adolescent’s development of disease-management skills, it requires parents maintain a delicate balance of allowing adolescent autonomy and providing parent support. When parental support shifts to parental overprotection, i.e., restricting and limiting an adolescent’s activity engagement, it …

The Role Of Acetylcholine In Attention And Lapses In Attention In Rats Using The Mode And Deviation From Mode Of Reaction Time Latency, Scott Lee Mitchell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is currently the neurodevelopmental disorder most commonly diagnosed in children in the United States, and one of the defining characteristics of ADHD is inattention. Inattention is marked by increased lapses in attention, and when assessed clinically, it has been highly correlated with reaction-time variability (RTV). Evidence from the human/clinical literature has shown an inherently higher RTV to be the primary quantitative indicator of an ADHD diagnosis. Reaction-time distributions are characterized by an asymmetrical rightward skew, and because of the prevalence of this presentation, it has been theorized that the distribution peak and skew represent separate phenomena, …

The Trajectory Of Resilience, Meaning In Life, Social Support, Posttraumatic Growth, And Posttraumatic Stress For Emerging Adult Trauma Survivors, Marcela C. Weber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: The literature suggests the relationship between posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic stress (PTS) is curvilinear, and that type or severity of trauma may affect this relationship. The relationship between depression, anxiety, and PTG is understudied. It is well established that meaning in life predicts PTG, PTS, and resilience, yet most of the research has measured general perceived meaning rather than meaning beyond-the-self, specifically, which was initially theorized by mid-century Humanistic psychologists. Mixed findings about whether searching for meaning is beneficial or harmful suggests potential moderators of search for meaning should be explored. METHOD: Participants (N = 628) were emerging …

Effect Of Chronic Pain On Prospective Memory Performance, Alexander Joseph Kuka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chronic pain is among the most widespread and disabling conditions worldwide. In the United States, approximately 50 million people suffer from chronic pain, and nearly half that number experience daily chronic pain. Diagnostic testing, treatments, and operations related to chronic pain cost Americans over $600 billion annually. Prospective memory, the process by which people remember to perform an action in the future after a delay, appears to be affected by the experience of pain, especially when a prospective memory task is more cognitively demanding. While self-report studies of individuals with chronic pain suggest that pain adversely affects both their retrospective …

Economic Development Policy And Economic Growth In The American States, Mohammed Shariful Islam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American states routinely adopt various economic development policies but those policies do not always contribute to economic growth in the state. Scholars identify several reasons to explain why the policies do not always work. First, policies that do not address market demand; rather, provide economic incentives to bring inward industrial investments do not contribute to economic growth because the cost it takes to create jobs by such industrial recruitments is too high. Second, policies that are adopted out of inertia chosen from traditionally practiced policies do not work because they are not evaluated for their effectiveness in terms of …

Body Mass Index And Atypical Balance Score As Predictors Of Treatment Outcomes For Seasonal Affective Disorder, Praise Iyiewuare

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Efficacious treatments for winter seasonal affective disorder (SAD) include light therapy (LT) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT-SAD); however, it is unknown whether patient baseline characteristics differentially predict treatment outcomes. The present study investigated body mass index (BMI) and atypical balance as prognostic and prescriptive predictors of SAD treatment outcomes using data from a parent study in which 177 adults diagnosed with Major Depression, Recurrent with Seasonal Pattern were randomized to either CBT-SAD (n = 88) or LT (n = 89). At pre-treatment, BMI was assessed and atypical balance was derived using the Structured Interview Guide for the Hamilton Rating Scale for …

Associative Structures Underlying Discriminated Three-Response Behavior Chains, Noelle Loren Michaud

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Instrumental behavior often consists of sequences of responses, or chains, that lead to a primary reinforcing outcome. These responses often differ in terms of both topography and the discriminative stimuli that set the occasion for them. Previous studies have focused on two response chains. They have shown that extinction of R1 weakens the associated R2, and conversely that extinction of R2 also weakens R1. To expand what little we know about discriminated instrumental chains, as well as the associative structure that underlies them, in the present experiments we test the effects of separately extinguishing individual responses on other target responses …

The Development And Validation Of The Supportive Other Experiences Questionnaire: Integrating The Perspectives Of The Social Support Provider After Traumatic Injury, Katherine Ann Van Stolk-Cooke

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Social support is considered to be a protective factor against the development of PTSD after trauma. However, examinations of the social support-PTSD relationship have relied primarily on the self-reports of trauma-exposed individuals to the exclusion of their support providers. A new measure, the Supportive Other Experiences Questionnaire (SOEQ) was developed based on social support theory, prior research and psychometrics in order to capture important components of social support from the perspective of the support provider. Concerned Significant Others (CSOs) recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform who served as support providers to a traumatically injured romantic partner were recruited to …

The Incredible 5-Point Scale Board Game, Brooke A. Maupin

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Game-based learning has become a staple of the educational community. However, it has not always reached the psychological community. Board games and game-based learning provide an opportunity to teach individuals about psychological concepts in a more engaging and entertaining way. Games are an ideal way to teach emotion related skills because they offer a safe and more accepting environment for mistakes. Further, board games encourage an active learning environment which can improve acquisition of knowledge. The current discussion focuses on taking a therapeutic tool (The Incredible 5-Point Scale) and developing it into a board game for use in session and …

Minding The Body: Mind-Body Interventions For Substance Use Disorders, Shelby J. Smith

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Substance use disorders (SUD) have a great impact on individual, social, and economic resources in the United States. In 2018, 19.3 million individuals – 7.8% of the population – aged 18 or older met criteria for SUD. There is a persistent gap in treatment needs for individuals with SUD and no single treatment approach is appropriate for everyone. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) utilize the mind-body connection to attend to the various needs of individuals with SUD. Mindfulness practices promote emotional regulation and interoception by increasing awareness of private experiences in order to respond to those experiences in a reflective, rather than …

School-Aged Children Of Incarcerated Parents: Information And Behavioral Interventions For Minimizing Negative Effects Of A Parent’S Absence, Rena L. Harp

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

The growing population of incarcerated individuals in the United States has resulted in 2.6 million minor aged children with at least one parent living in a correctional facility. Incarcerated parents are the beginning of a ripple effect whose unique challenges directly and indirectly impact the overall well-being of their children as well as their children’s home caregivers. With this image in mind, the benefits of empirically supported data and behavioral interventions can do the same producing a positive ripple effect starting from the inside out. To evoke this positive ripple effect, resources were compared to the literature and those most …

Creative Endeavors Through Therapy: How Artistic Expressions Can Help Foster Growth, Savannah Campbell

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

A person’s story is something that is very connected to who they are and the life they have led. It consists of many individualized characteristics and details of their experiences. This narrative is rooted in many different aspects the person creates for him or herself through interpersonal relationships and intrapersonal emotional experiences. The autobiographical interpretation a person creates is often divulged, examined, and utilized through the psychotherapeutic process. Expressive techniques often help tell a person’s story the way he or she wants it to be told. The following research project examines many factors such as emotional well-being, posttraumatic growth, self-expression, …

Adapting The Collaborative Assessment And Management Of Suicidality (Cams) To Correctional Settings, Sydney A. Mims

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Inmate suicide is an increasing problem in prisons and jails across the United States of America. This Doctoral Specialty Project highlights the current protocols in place for inmates experiencing suicidal ideation in various correctional settings, including the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), several state prisons and local jails across the U.S. This project introduces the entirety of the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) framework as a possible suicide assessment and intervention tool that could streamline suicide focused evaluation and treatment across correctional settings, thus increasing continuity of care. Specifically, this project focuses on the effectiveness of existing adaptations …

Utilizing Virtual Reality Therapy In The Treatment Of Generalized Anxiety Disorder In College Counseling Centers, Kaitlyn Barker

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Anxiety is a leading mental health concern among college students. A growing number of students are presenting with symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which is one of the most common anxiety disorders. As demands for treatment of this disorder increase, counseling centers are also facing limited funding for providing such services. The result is that there is a need to provide more cost effective, and empirically supported approaches to treatment. Therefore, implementing a program that will allow students to utilize already accessible technology to teach themselves how to combat anxiety is merited. Virtual reality therapy (VRT), is one such …

Ability Status, Self-Advocacy, And Individuals With Neurodevelopmental Disabilities: Neurodiversity-Informed Training For Professionals And Caregivers, Allison N. Simpson

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Ability status in U.S. society is a critical social and cultural identity. “Disability” is often viewed through the lens of pathology as an illness. This kind of view affects not only the personal identity of individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities, but also their treatment by others in the community, employers, caregivers, and others in their system of interaction. Even individuals who are strong self-advocates can be silenced by this kind of lens. A more empowering way to view individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities is through the lens of neurodiversity in order to see their abilities, needs, wishes, and lives. The current project …

The Developmental Course Of Adhd In The Preschool Classroom: Toward A Prevention Treatment Framework, Caroline Martin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The objective of this study was to examine the developmental trajectories of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptom levels during preschool among a majority Head Start sample of 261 three- to five-year-old children (87% Head Start; 59% Caucasian; 53% boys; Mage = 3.97 years). Teacher ratings of ADHD symptom levels across four time points within the academic year demonstrated, on average, a course of increasing inattention that decelerated over time and a course of steadily increasing hyperactivity/impulsivity. When accounting for the clustering of children within classrooms, both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity showed an average increasing trajectory over the year with no deceleration. Group-based …

Divine Narcissism: Raising A Secure Middle-Aged Adult, Rachel Sachs Riverwood

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Utilizing an arts-based feminist autoethnographic stance and method, this dissertation is an evocative exploration of the process and experience of attempting to develop a cohesive identity and build a secure attachment to the self. The author uses countercultural methods—prioritizing and centralizing her experience and uncovering and acting in defiance of oppressive norms—to identify and experience their impact on her identity and intra- and inter- personal relationships. Various tensions are explored, including the suppression of self and desire, self-objectification, fearful-avoidant attachment, and shame; and their influence on engaging in emotional and sexual intimacy is examined. Critique on the role of female …

Using Principles Of Seascape Ecology To Consider Relationships Between Spatial Patterning And Mobile Marine Vertebrates In A Seagrass-Mangrove Ecotone In Bimini, Bahamas, Sarah Rebecca Taylor Driscoll

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Seagrass meadows and mangrove forests are ecologically and economically important systems that are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic activity. This study used a non-invasive method, baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVS), to observe mobile marine vertebrates in the seagrass-mangrove ecotone in North and South Bimini, the only area where mangroves remain in the northwestern Bahamas. An extensive area of mangroves and seagrass was removed for coastal development in North Bimini, where a marine protected area, the North Bimini Marine Reserve (NBMR), has been under consideration for decades. This research applied principles of seascape ecology to assess species abundance, diversity, and richness …

“We’Re More Than A Daycare”: Reported Roles And Settings For Early Childhood Professionals And Implications For Professionalizing The Field, Rachel E. Schachter, Qingyu Jiang, Shayne B. Piasta, Erin E. Flynn

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the US, recent efforts have focused on professionalizing the field of early childhood. One way to indicate professionalism is through the terms used to describe both the field and the workers. However, few have examined how practitioners or researchers describe early childhood professionals’ work. Using multiple data sources and analytic strategies, we examined the ways that those working with young children described their role and setting, as well as how these were described in research and practitioner journals. “Teacher” was the preferred term for both journals and professionals, and terms for setting reflected traditional K-12 school structures. Professionals linked …

Evaluating The N/Ne Preference Policy, Amie Thurber, Lisa Bates, Susan Halverson

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

North/Northeast Portland has long been the heart of Portland's Black community. By 2010, the area had lost two-thirds of its Black residents to displacement. In response, the City adopted a Preference Policy that prioritizes displaced affordable rental and homeownership applicants. This report describes findings from the first phase of a study to understand what difference this policy is making in the lives of residents.

Ready? Set? Go?: Examining Organizational Readiness For Change In A Quality Improvement Intervention For Youth Mentoring Programs, Renee Spencer, Alison L. Drew, Carla Herrera, Bowen Mcbeath, Thomas E. Keller

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The number of youth mentoring programs has risen significantly in recent decades. This trend, coupled with evidence that programs employing a greater number of empirically supported practices achieve more positive effects for youth participants, has prompted increasing interest in how to promote more widespread use of evidence-based practice standards in mentoring programs. In an effort to describe and better understand efforts to implement recommended standards, we studied a multi-level initiative sponsored by a national advocacy organization in which its state-level Affiliates guided local mentoring programs through a structured quality improvement process. Specifically, we examined organizational readiness for change among mentoring …

Tailored Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity (Sogi) Education: Assessing Network Needs Through A Survey Of Knowledge And Attitudes, Luke M. Higgins

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

No abstract provided.