Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Changing Public Perception Of Dementia: The Effect And Credibility Of Three Informational Models., Diana Hedrick
Changing Public Perception Of Dementia: The Effect And Credibility Of Three Informational Models., Diana Hedrick
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Background: Since the 1970s, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia have been portrayed in a medicalized, symptom-focused manner to help spread awareness, improve diagnosis, and push for treatment research. In recent decades, there has been movement towards a biopsychosocial, person-centered approach that considers social and psychological factors that interact with biological diseases processes. Common biopsychosocial approaches retain an emphasis on deficits and symptoms. New research has integrated positive psychology constructs and dementia. This integration of positive psychology principles and dementia care and research has the potential to more accurately capture the experience of having dementia. Objectives: This dissertation tested how the portrayal …
The Role Of Autobiographical Memory Recall In Reappraisal Efficacy And Effort Across Age, Irina Orlovsky
The Role Of Autobiographical Memory Recall In Reappraisal Efficacy And Effort Across Age, Irina Orlovsky
Masters Theses
Socioemotional theories posit that the experience of overcoming unique life challenges over a lifetime enhances self-efficacy and emotional resilience among older adults. Older adults demonstrate greater emotional well-being and motivation to regulate emotions than younger adults, but specific regulatory mechanisms supporting late-life emotional resilience remain unclear. Cognitive reappraisal is an effective but cognitively demanding emotion regulation strategy and shows mixed efficacy in later-life. While a growing repertoire of autobiographical memories may be a resource with age, the role of autobiographical recall in momentary reappraisal has never been tested empirically. In this online study, older and younger adults were trained to …
Correlates Of Psychological Well-Being In Older Adults With Treatment-Resistant Depression, Selmi Kallmi
Correlates Of Psychological Well-Being In Older Adults With Treatment-Resistant Depression, Selmi Kallmi
Dissertations
The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that are associated with psychological well-being in older adults with late-life depression and determine if social participation moderates and/or mediates these relationships. This dissertation study utilized secondary pre-treatment data collected from the “Optimum: Optimizing Depression Treatment in Older Adults” study (Cristancho et al. (2019). Community dwelling older adults (N = 369) were included if they currently met criteria for MDD, had failed at least two prior trials of MDD medication treatment, and were able to visit the study site to participate in cognitive and physical functioning assessments. Hierarchical multiple regressions …
Neuroanatomy In Mild Cognitive Impairment: Relationship To Functional Skills, Treatment Expectancy, And Comorbid Depression, Sara Rushia
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a neurocognitive disorder defined by cognitive decline in older adults. Although MCI has been studied for decades, there remain important areas to be explored in order to adequately characterize aspects of this disorder that provide information valuable for possible interventions and disease progression to dementia, including a better understanding of the neuroanatomical variables relevant to this disorder. Such neuroanatomical variables include cortical thickness, hippocampal volume, and white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). This dissertation consists of three separate studies aimed at addressing gaps in the literature on MCI in relation to brain morphometrics and under-studied characteristics involved …
Does Anxiety Sensitivity Mediate Age-Related Differences In Anxiety In Middle-Aged And Older Adults?, Katherine F. Peterson
Does Anxiety Sensitivity Mediate Age-Related Differences In Anxiety In Middle-Aged And Older Adults?, Katherine F. Peterson
Theses and Dissertations
Anxiety is a mental illness that can have significant deleterious impacts on an individual’s functioning. Although anxiety has been studied in older adults, there is conflicting evidence on differences in anxiety as a function of age. Anxiety sensitivity is a construct that is positively related to anxiety but has limited research in older adults. Extant literature suggests that older adults experience less anxiety sensitivity than do younger adults. According to Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, this may be due to older adults letting go of the things that make them anxious. The current study proposed that age impacts self-rated anxiety such that …
The Coping Strategies Of Older Adults With Age Related Vision Loss (Arvl) – A Narrative Account, Zakara J. Stampp
The Coping Strategies Of Older Adults With Age Related Vision Loss (Arvl) – A Narrative Account, Zakara J. Stampp
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
The goal of this study was to share the stories of older adults with age-related vision loss (ARVL) and how they have coped to maintain meaningful occupational engagement. Grounded in a constructivist paradigm, data collection and analysis were guided by the narrative inquiry methodology. The participants consisted of six older adults aged 60 or older, diagnosed with one of the following ARVL conditions: macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and/or glaucoma. Participants were recruited from vision loss non-profit organizations such as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and the Alliance for Equity of Blind Canadians (AEBC). One older adult was …
The Role Of Intimate Partnership Among Older Adults On Pain Severity And The Engagement In Preventative Health Behaviors, Lauren Fox
Doctoral Dissertations
Bodily pain is a frequently disabling condition among older adults, which has broad biopsychosocial implications on health and wellbeing. As adults age, diminishing support systems can result in poor health outcomes and the presence of an intimate partner relationship can positively impact physical health, including influencing pain severity. The number of adults in the United States over 65 is expected to double by 2030, meaning that a significant portion of the population will be entering a stage of increased healthcare utilization. Therefore, behaviors which improve physical health will only become increasingly important over time. While previous research has pointed to …
Quality Of Life And End-Of-Life Plans: The Inclusion Of Sexual Health., Jacinta Dickens
Quality Of Life And End-Of-Life Plans: The Inclusion Of Sexual Health., Jacinta Dickens
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Sex and intimacy are important components of quality of life (Syme, 2014). Previous research found a positive relation between quality of life and sexual satisfaction (Chao et al., 2011), but how this relation may or may not impact end-of-life plans was unexplored. This study explored if the relation between quality of life and sexual satisfaction determined if community-dwelling middle-aged or older adults in the US have or was willing to incorporate sexual health within their formal or informal end-oflife plan. Correlation analyses examined cross-sectional survey data. Findings revealed a statistically significant correlation between quality of life and sexual satisfaction, no …
Methodological Considerations For The Study Of Cognitive Reserve And Its Relationship To Cognitive Decline In Older Adults, Kerry A. Howard
Methodological Considerations For The Study Of Cognitive Reserve And Its Relationship To Cognitive Decline In Older Adults, Kerry A. Howard
All Dissertations
Cognitive reserve (CR) is a key construct in promoting healthy cognitive aging. Methodological inconsistencies have limited the ability for researchers to make broad conclusions about relevant life experiences that may build CR and delay cognitive decline. This dissertation explored notable issues within the operationalization of CR based on proxy life experiences by applying a systematic approach toward understanding the use of CR, as well as an understanding of consequences of inconsistent operationalization. The project had three aims: review and explore the association between various CR proxies utilized in the literature and develop a composite score for CR, describe differences in …
Development And Testing Of The Mueller Assessment Of Transition (Mat): A Tool For Measuring Older Adults' Wellbeing When Transitioning Into Assisted Living Facilities, Kaitlin Mueller
All Dissertations
Transitions into assisted living facilities (ALFs) may influence older adults’ wellbeing. Positive influences on older adults’ wellbeing are referred to as adjustment strategies, whereas negative influences are called constraints to wellbeing. Theoretical underpinnings for these influences are found in the Hierarchical Leisure Constraints Theory and the Transition Process Framework. Past research indicates a few influences on older adults’ wellbeing, such as family relationships, perceived physical health, and connections to the community. However, no assessment existed to quantify their wellbeing when relocating into an ALF. Therefore, this dissertation details the development and factor structure of the Mueller Assessment of Transition (MAT), …
Put On Your Dancing Shoes: Boosting Divergent Thinking In Older Adults, Megan Itagaki
Put On Your Dancing Shoes: Boosting Divergent Thinking In Older Adults, Megan Itagaki
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis will explore the influence of two dance modalities (dance improvisation and Zumba dance) on divergent thinking (i.e., an aspect of creativity) in older adults using a quasi-experimental design. Given the existing research on dance as a creativity intervention in the younger half of the population, this study may address a gap in the literature by extending these findings to older adults. Once prescreened to ensure cognitive competence and adequate physical mobility, participants will complete a divergent thinking task before their designated 20-minute dance intervention. After the intervention, participants will complete a divergent thinking task. It is hypothesized that …
Associations Between Self-Reported Awe And Heart Rate, Laura E. Bernstein
Associations Between Self-Reported Awe And Heart Rate, Laura E. Bernstein
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
Fredrickson’s (1998, 2013) broaden and build theory states that positive emotions can expand our social and cognitive awareness and provide health benefits. Some positive emotions, such as awe, may operate differently. We sought to understand how subjective reports of awe, induced through videos, correlate with HR. We know that HR tends to decrease with age (Umetani et al., 1998), individuals have less physiological reactivity as they age (Blanchard-Fields, 2007), and older adults report more positive emotions than negative emotions (Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998). Given these findings, we were interested in understanding whether there were age differences in self-reported awe and …