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Spirituality, Well-Being, And The Role Of Oneness, Kelly S. Erickson Albonico

Psychology ETDs

Spirituality is generally found to have a significant but small positive association with well-being; however, the associations between spirituality and well-being vary greatly. One organizing framework for understanding the varying associations may be the degree to which spirituality and well-being measures capture connection, the pinnacle of which may be conceptualized as Oneness. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to begin exploring this hypothesis by examining the associations between beliefs in Oneness and dimensions of subjective well-being and to test possible conflating and contributing factors in the associations between beliefs in Oneness and subjective well-being. Results indicated preliminary support for …

Neurobiology Of Human Navigation Strategies In The Virtual Morris Water Task, Monica Goncalves-Garcia

Psychology ETDs

Strategies of navigation is a topic that has been investigated for decades and is still not well-understood. Organisms learn to navigate by using self-generated cues, distal cues, and proximal cues, however, how the different frames of reference are interpreted by different areas of the brain and translated into behavior is not clear. Animal studies have provided evidence for a preference for navigation by following a direction in the environment over place learning. This study investigated the performance of adolescents (mean age: 13.89) in a virtual version of the Morris Water Task with a probe trial manipulation attempting to categorize people …

Antagonizing Serotonin 2a (5-Ht2a) Receptors Does Not Attenuate Methamphetamine-Induced Expression Of Conditioned Place Preference In Female And Male Rats, Nicole C. Reyna

Psychology ETDs

Despite the need, there are currently no FDA-approved pharmacological treatments for methamphetamine use disorders. Cue-induced craving during drug withdrawal remains a significant contributor to high relapse rates. Thus, understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of cue-induced drug-seeking behavior is critical. Previous research indicates that the selective 5-HT_2A antagonist M100907 attenuates the acquisition of methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) in male and female adult rats. The present study examines the effects of M100907 on expression of methamphetamine-induced drug-seeking behavior using a biased CPP design in adult male and female Long Evans rats (PND 95-112). During conditioning, rats were administered either saline or …

The Role Of Affect And The Autonomic Nervous System (Ans) In Visuospatial Learning And Set-Shifting: Modulating Cardiac Vagal Tone Through Heart Rate Variability (Hrv) Biofeedback To Improve Cognitive Performance, Breannan C. Howell

Psychology ETDs

The fields of psychology and neuroscience have found an interconnection between the autonomic nervous system (ANS), affect, and cognitive performance. Heart rate variability (HRV) may be a useful index of this relationship, representing the regulatory processes that facilitate adapting to emotions and environments to modulate mood and executive function. The current project consists of a series of experiments to investigate the relationship between trait affect, HRV, learning, and set-shifting performance. In the first experiment associations are found between negative affectivity, HRV, and set-shifting performance during an attentional set-shifting variant of the Virtual Morris Water Task (VMWT). Participants that exhibited both …

Moderate Prenatal Ethanol Exposure, Sex, And Housing Modify Spatial Navigation Behavior And Hippocampal Cell Firing In Adult Rodents, Christy Magcalas

Psychology ETDs

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with structural and physiological changes that impact the central nervous system and can result in persistent negative consequences in a broad spectrum of cognitive and behavioral domains including deficits in spatial learning and memory and behavioral flexibility. The current study focuses on examining the behavioral and mechanistic consequences of PAE, sex and housing. Rats were tested in the Morris Water Task where they were trained to navigate to a goal location and tested in a pool shift manipulation. There were no significant differences between PAE treatment, sex, or housing groups during training, but there …

Relief And Reward Drinking Across Time In Community And Treatment-Seeking Samples, Julia E. Swan

Psychology ETDs

Classifying people with alcohol use disorder into homogenous groups based on observed characteristics (i.e., phenotypes) could match individuals to specific treatments. The reward-relief phenotype classifies individuals based on whether they drink to enhance rewarding experiences and/or to relieve negative states. The current study is a secondary data analysis of a community sample of non-treatment seeking heavy drinkers (n = 189) and two randomized clinical trial samples of individuals with alcohol use disorder (n = 1726, 1383) that aimed to determine if the reward-relief phenotype is identified across samples, is stable over time, and predicts long-term alcohol consumption and consequences. We …

The Personal And Relational Impact Of Varying Responses To Fat Talk In The Context Of Female Friendship, Riley M. Sebastian

Psychology ETDs

The current study aimed to measure the immediate impact of various responses to Fat Talk on college women. Participants were given trait-level questionnaires followed by prompts to imagine a scenario in which they engaged in Fat Talk. Participants were presented with four counterbalanced audio response conditions followed by several single-item measures. Repeated-measures one-way ANOVAs examined the impact of response and significant differences in personal and relational factors across the four response conditions were found. A mixed-model ANOVA demonstrated that baseline variables did not impact participants’ reactions to the different Fat Talk responses. Finally, frequency of Fat Talk was correlated with …

The Reward Positivity In Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorder, Garima Singh

Psychology ETDs

The Reward Positivity (RewP) is a positive deflection in the EEG after receiving a reward. Recent evidence suggests that the RewP is modulated by both reward probability aside from affective liking. Here we examined the sensitivity of the RewP to affective and alcohol images in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). We recruited 55 participants (AUD =28, Control= 27). Participants completed an image rating task and a reinforcement learning task with picture feedback (puppy or alcohol images over a green or red screen). Although there was no between group differences in puppy image ratings, there was a significant group difference …

Factors Contributing To Activism Among Advantaged-Group And Disadvantaged-Group Undergraduate Students, Anne Guzman

Psychology ETDs

Identifying factors that contribute to activism may be helpful in increasing activism. This study investigated how experiences, personality characteristics, beliefs, attitudes, group membership (i.e., POC, women, LGBTQ, and disabled individuals), and intersectional group membership defined by social location related to reported engagement in racial justice activism. A sample of 155 undergraduate students completed measures of empathy, openness to diversity, authoritarianism, multicultural experiences, level of prejudice, motivation to respond without prejudice, allophilia, understanding of privilege, racial/ethnic identity, and social support. Results supported that engagement in activism differed based on group membership for gender, LGBTQ+, and primary race and based on social …

The Interaction And Progression Of Adolescent Substance Use And Co-Occurring Mental Health Problems And Social Support: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach, Jeremiah D. Simmons

Psychology ETDs

Background: Few studies have examined a reciprocal parallel process longitudinal trajectory of adolescent substance use and mental health problems simultaneously, and none have described this parallel process for adolescents receiving outpatient substance use treatment. No studies have examined how social support may account for deviations outside the overall trajectories for substance use or mental health problems. Method: Secondary data analysis examined a longitudinal parallel process latent growth model between mental health and substance use problems among adolescents who received outpatient substance use treatment. Results: Findings suggest that mental health and substance use problems are associated both initially and longitudinally, and …

The Efficacy Of Brief Attitudinal Familism And Body Image Interventions On Diet And Exercise Self-Monitoring Adherence In Hispanic/Latinx Women, Kelsey Nicole Serier

Psychology ETDs

Addressing health disparities in overweight/obesity is a key public health issue. Research supports the efficacy of behavioral weight loss (BWL) interventions, however, adherence to these interventions is often low, which negatively impacts outcomes. The efficacy of BWL interventions is consistently lower among communities of color. Thus, there is a strong need to design and test interventions that are culturally sensitive and address predictors of BWL adherence in diverse groups. Previous research suggests that for Hispanic/Latinx women with overweight/obesity, attitudinal familism (“family comes first”) and body dissatisfaction were informative in predicting BWL adherence. The current study builds on this previous research …

Of Mindfulness And Men: Mindfulness And Quality Of Life Of Distressed Prostate Cancer Survivors, Christopher G. Ford

Psychology ETDs

Many prostate cancer (PCa) survivors experience on-going distress that affects their quality of life (QOL). Psychosocial interventions designed to address such distress frequently include mindfulness components. To better characterize the relation between mindfulness and distress, an ethnically diverse sample (n = 120) of PCa survivors in New Mexico and New Jersey endorsing at least minimal distress completed a one-time survey. Greater mindfulness was related to less psychological distress (r = -.40) and better mental health-related QOL (r = .35). However, mindfulness explained little additional variance after controlling for relevant demographic, medical, and psychosocial variables. Other variables (e.g., social isolation and …

Eeg Features Of Explore-Exploit Decision-Making In Alcohol Use Disorder, Ethan Campbell

Psychology ETDs

Little research has assessed explore-exploit behavior in addiction using drug cues and even fewer studies have measured the neural activity underlying these behaviors. The present study aims to explore brain mechanisms of disordered decision-making in alcohol use disorder (AUD) through electroencephalography (EEG) during performance of a novelty bandit task with alcohol imagery and using a validated computational model of explore-exploit dynamics. Individuals with AUD (n = 28) and age and sex-matched controls (n = 27) showed differences in choice behavior and showed differences in EEG activity as a function of exploratory behavior, chosen stimulus type, and explore-exploit computational …

Directional Integrity And Landmark Anchoring Of The Head Direction Cell System In The Tgf344-Ad Rat Model Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Laura E. Berkowitz

Psychology ETDs

Spatial navigation and memory are impaired in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and are prominent behavioral markers of preclinical AD. The TgF344-AD rat model of AD exhibits similar behavioral and pathological features to humans and thus serves as an excellent model to investigate the mechanisms underlying spatial impairment in AD. Brain regions in the parahippocampal cortex contain spatially responsive pyramidal cells that support spatial navigation and memory including place cells, grid cells, and head direction cells. Furthermore, GABAergic interneurons in these regions support precise temporal organization of spike dynamics and may play a critical role in maintaining reliable …

The Trauma, Substance Use, And Crime Connection: Characteristics And Recidivism Outcomes Of Adult Offenders, Kathryn F. Fokas

Psychology ETDs

Despite exceptionally high rates of trauma and substance use among incarcerated offenders, treatments remain limited in scope and availability within the criminal justice system. Identifying shared underlying mechanisms and potential gender differences could facilitate the development of interventions to target the vicious cycle of trauma, substance use, and crime. This study aimed to test a novel conceptualization of trauma, substance use, and criminal history as a composite risk factor for recidivism, including posttraumatic world assumptions as a hypothesized mediator and gender as a potential moderator. Participants were adult offenders from a community corrections program. Due to many institutional barriers and …

The Role Of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor In The Link Between Physical Activity And Psychosocial Recovery From Alcohol Use Disorder, Adam D. Wilson

Psychology ETDs

Objective: Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a common, chronically relapsing condition with substantial health and economic costs. United States federal agencies have put out calls in the last decade to expand the scientific evidence base for broad biopsychosocial recovery from AUD and other substance use disorders (SUD). The present study examined the role of physical activity and exercise in early recovery from AUD, with specific attention to changes in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as a marker of neuroplasticity and a potential mechanism for instantiation of recovery-aligned behaviors. Method: Individuals in the first year of recovery from AUD were …

Examination Of Intuitive Eating At The Momentary Level, Jamie M. Smith

Psychology ETDs

Background: Intuitive eating involves following internal cues of hunger and satiety to guide eating choices, as opposed to responding to external signals, strong emotions, or dietary rules. This style of eating consistently has been shown to be related to better physical and psychological health indicators. This construct would be better understood if studied at the individual momentary level instead of globally or cross-sectionally. Therefore, the proposed study sought to employ ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine the validity of intuitive eating at the momentary level. Additionally, the acceptance and expanded acceptance models of intuitive eating and the roles of weight …

Closing The Loop And Opening The Possibilities: Augmenting Sleep-Dependent Consolidation To Improve Long Term Memory, Aaron Paul Jones

Psychology ETDs

Memory consolidation occurs during slow-wave sleep. This is a complex process that can be studied using electroencephalography (EEG) and modulated with brain stimulation. Previous studies have shown that transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can be used to entrain or disrupt endogenous oscillations in cortical networks and can be used for the manipulation of consolidation processes during sleep. In this series of experiments, sleep-dependent memory consolidation was modulated using closed-loop tACS (CL-tACS to improve memory performance for three tasks: a verbal paired associates task (PAT), an interference paired associates task (iPAT), and a visual category learning task. EEG was collected during …

Client Heart Rate Variability In Motivational Interviewing For Alcohol Use, Brigitte R. Stevens

Psychology ETDs

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a useful tool for clinical practice and substance use research, as it may provide insight into liability for relapse or development of addiction, as well as provide indicators of recovery outcomes and response to treatment. Psychotherapy would benefit from an integrated understanding of physiological regulation systems such as what are measured by HRV, as HRV is linked to psychopathology and substance use disorders.

HRV was measured in non-treatment-seeking adult drinkers as they underwent a motivational interviewing (MI) session. Subjects’ HRV from the interview was then regressed on therapist MI-consistent behaviors. The subjects’ drinking at both …

Changes In Pain During Buprenorphine Maintenance Treatment Among Patients With Opioid Use Disorder And Chronic Pain, Karlyn A. Edwards

Psychology ETDs

Objective: Opioid use disorder (OUD) and chronic pain frequently co-occur. Little is known about changes in pain during buprenorphine/naloxone (BUP/NX) maintenance and whether outcomes vary by pain levels. The current study examined changes in pain intensity and pain interference over 12 weeks of BUP/NX maintenance among participants with OUD and chronic pain (N=194). Differences in outcomes were assessed during BUP/NX maintenance (week 12) and two months following a BUP/NX taper (week 24). Method: Data from Phase 2 of the Prescription Opioid Addiction Treatment Study were used. Two latent transition models were conducted to characterize profiles and transitions between …

Are Only The Unskilled Overconfident? Deconstructing The Dunning-Kruger Effect Through An Individual Differences Approach, Danielle N. Sanchez

Psychology ETDs

This study sought to determine whether individuals suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect are prone to misassessing their performance due to underlying personality and cognitive characteristics. To test this hypothesis, we first collected theory-informed measures of cognitive and personality traits. Next, we used three different performance estimate measures to assess the degree to which participants misestimated their abilities across two performance tasks (e.g., English grammar and logical reasoning). We found that some individuals are more prone to misassessing their performance and self-reported general Metacognitive Ability, Openness to Experience from the Big-Five personality Inventory, and an External Locus of Control orientation can …

Hippocampal Functional Activity Following Prenatal Alcohol Exposure, Ryan E. Harvey

Psychology ETDs

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is among the most common developmental insults to the nervous system and is characterized by spatial memory disruption. There is a pressing need to identify physiological alterations that help explain this memory impairment. The hippocampal (HPC) formation and connected regions are a compelling candidate for this purpose as they are vital for navigation, spatial memory, and memory consolidation. This document is broken up into 3 main parts, a detailed review of the prior literature followed by several experiments. First, It starts out with a comprehensive review on spatial behavioral impairments following PAE and the synaptic & …

Challenging The Empirical Utility Of The Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale: Revisiting Factor Structure Across Race/Ethnicity And Gender Through Measurement Invariance, Alexandra Hernandez-Vallant

Psychology ETDs

The Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) is the most commonly used scale to measure domains of color-blind racial ideology (CBRI). CBRI broadly refers to the denial of racism on individual and societal levels. The factor structure of CoBRAS has yet to be rigorously tested to confirm the replicability of the factor structure and demonstrate measurement invariance across multiple groups. This study examined the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and measurement invariance of the CoBRAS across race/ethnicity and gender in 911 diverse college students. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and measurement invariance of the CoBRAS were tested across race/ethnicity (Black, Latinx, and …

Effects Of Chronic Stress On Anxiety-Like Behavior And Fear Learning In The Tgf344-Ad Rat Model Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Samuel James Bouquin

Psychology ETDs

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative brain disorder that leads to severe cognitive and functional impairments. Many AD patients also exhibit neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) such as anxiety and prior to the clinical diagnosis of dementia. The prodromal manifestation of NPS is highly prevalent among patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and the co-occurrence of preclinical NPS and MCI is associated with an increased risk of developing AD. Prolonged or repeated exposure to stress can result in behavioral disturbances (e.g., anxiety) and accelerated global cognitive decline. Importantly, AD patients exhibit altered stress systems and AD-related neuropathology has been linked to …

Predictors Of Recovery In Advocacy-Based Refugee Treatment Outcome: The Role Of Prior Traumatic Experiences And Current Chronic Stressors, Meredith A. Blackwell

Psychology ETDs

Refugees are at an increased vulnerability to mental health disorders compared to citizens of wealthier nations. The present study looks at the symptom trajectories of 290 refugees in a psychosocial community-based participatory intervention. A three-level generalized linear mixed model examined the predictive impact of exposure to trauma and chronic stress at baseline on posttraumatic stress and mood symptoms over time. Results showed that only higher chronic stress at baseline was associated with a steeper decrease in both PTSD and mood scores, but these effects differed by nationality. However, with chronic stress entered as a time-varying covariate instead only African participants …

Effects Of Closed Loop Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Targeting Slow Oscillation Sleep On Post-Sleep Object Location Learning, Bradley M. Robert

Psychology ETDs

Modulating sleep architecture to augment memory performance can provide valuable insight into how sleep contributes to memory. Slow wave activity has been identified as an important contributor to sleeps impact on memory. While the beneficial role of SWS in offline consolidation is well established research investigating SWS’s role in post-sleep memory formation is limited. Here we investigated the relationship between SWS and post-sleep learning by modulating slow wave oscillations (SWO) with closed loop transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) with an aim toward enhancing learning capacity for object location associations. Thirty-six subjects were randomly assigned to either sham (21) or verum …

Socioeconomic And Neuroanatomic Contributions To Language Performance In Children Born Very Preterm At Preschool And School Age, Rebecca E. Avila-Rieger

Psychology ETDs

Background: Children born very preterm are more likely to have difficulties with language acquisition and use that persist throughout childhood. Preterm birth occurs at a critical time in brain development and interrupts neurodevelopment, which has downstream implications for altered neural structure and function. Prematurity and socioeconomic status greatly impact language performance in children, but the neural substrates are poorly understood. Here the neural constituents of language performance are examined in select cortical and subcortical regions.

Methods: Fifty-one children born preterm (24-31 weeks) and 20 born full-term were seen at preschool (mean age = 47 months) and school age (mean age …

Subjective Cognitive Complaints, Affective Distress, And Objective Cognitive Performance In Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Brandi Seaman

Psychology ETDs

Background: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among adults in the US (Ma, Chan, & Carruthers, 2014; Raj et al., 2015). According to epidemiological estimates put forth by the CDC, of the 1.7 million TBIs that occur annually in the United States, 80% are mild TBI (mTBI) (Ma, Chan, & Carruthers, 2014). At the sub-acute stage, mTBI patients often report experiencing post-concussion symptoms that include somatic (nausea, headache, dizziness), cognitive (poor attention, memory, and executive function), and behavioral or emotional changes (irritability, depression, emotional lability, anxiety) following their injury (Levin & Diza-Arrastia, 2015).

Study …

Intersectionality Between Sex/Gender And Race/Ethnicity On Cognitive Trajectories And Development Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Justina Frances Avila-Rieger

Psychology ETDs

The current study examined the interactive effects of race/ethnicity and sex/gender on cognitive trajectories of older adults. Participants were a total of 5258 non-Hispanic White (NHW), Black, and Hispanic men and women in the Washington/Hamilton Heights/Inwood Columbia Aging Project. Multiple-group latent growth curve modeling was used to examine trajectories across sex/gender by racial/ethnic groups and to determine the relationship between specific socio-cultural/health indicators and cognitive decline, including childhood socioeconomic position, years of education, adult income and occupation, cardiovascular risk factors, and marital status. Sex/gender differences in baseline cognitive test performance varied as a function of race/ethnicity and racial/ethnic differences in …

Sexual Victimization, Mental Health, And Protective Factors Among Women With Multiple Marginalized Statuses, Gabriela López

Psychology ETDs

Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) and minority stress (Meyer, 2003) frameworks were used as theoretical foundations to examine associations among sexual minority status (e.g., lesbian and bisexual) and race/ethnicity (e.g., White, Black, Latinx), adult sexual victimization and revictimization, mental health symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms), and protective factors (i.e., religiosity, spirituality, social support). Participants were 673 women who identified as lesbian/mostly lesbian or bisexual who completed wave 3 of the Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women (CHLEW) survey. Participants were racially and ethnically diverse, with slightly more women identifying as White (37.4%, n = 261), than Black (36.0%, …