Digital Commons Network^™

Assuming Elder Care Responsibility: Am I A Caregiver?, Lindsey E. Wylie, Eve M. Brank

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Caregivers of the elderly face conflicting legal demands; they must make certain the elder’s needs are being met while not forcing undesired care on an adult capable of informed decisions. This dichotomy may be a reason a large volume of reported elder abuse derives from unintentional neglect on behalf of informal familial caregivers. The current research examines this possibility with exploratory interviews and an experiment. The interviews between elders and their family (30 dyads) revealed that many did not intend for the living arrangements to become permanent, and the nonelders were largely unprepared for the magnitude of changes and responsibilities …

Efficacy Of A Manualized And Workbook-Driven Individual Treatment For Social Anxiety Disorder, Deborah Roth Ledley, Richard G. Heimberg, Debra A. Hope, Sarah A. Hayes, Talia I. Zaider, Melanie Vandyke, Cynthia L. Turk, Cynthia Kraus, David M. Fresco

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Social anxiety disorder is a prevalent and impairing disorder for which viable cognitive-behavioral therapies exist. However, these treatments have not been easily packaged for dissemination and may be underutilized as a result. The current study reports on the findings of a randomized controlled trial of a manualized and workbook-driven individual cognitive-behavioral treatment for social anxiety disorder (Hope, Heimberg, Juster, & Turk, 2000; Hope, Heimberg, & Turk, 2006). This treatment package was derived from an empirically supported group treatment for social anxiety disorder and intended for broad dissemination, but it has not previously been subjected to empirical examination on its own. …

Juveniles’ Knowledge Of The Court Process: Results From Instruction From An Electronic Source, Christine Driver, Eve M. Brank

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Our study first determined what juveniles know about the juvenile court process. Second, it evaluated a DVD designed to be a systematic and simple way to improve this knowledge. A pre- and post-test design was used with two pilot samples and two samples from the population of interest. A sample from a juvenile detention center (n = 118) was the focus of this study. Initial knowledge of the court process was quite low for the detention sample (pretest M = 64.0%, SD = 14.2%). All samples experienced a significant improvement of knowledge after watching the DVD. Youth in the …

Procedural Justice In Resolving Family Disputes: Implications For Childhood Bullying, Michael R. Brubacher, Mark R. Fondacaro, Eve M. Brank, Veda E. Brown, Scott A. Miller

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

High levels of family conflict and poor family conflict resolution strategies are often associated with externalizing behaviors in children, including the behavior of bullying. Through family interactions, parents have the opportunity to convey a variety of messages to the child. Some of these messages are sent through the child’s appraisal of procedural justice, which refers to the judgments of fairness directed at the process by which a conflict is resolved. The current study investigated the relationship between appraisals of procedural justice in family conflict resolution and bullying among middle-school students. A sample of 1,910 sixth through eighth graders completed a …

Neuropharmacology Of The Interoceptive Stimulus Properties Of Nicotine, Thomas E. Wooters, Rick A. Bevins, Michael T. Bardo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Preclinical drug discrimination techniques play a significant role in advancing our knowledge of the receptor mechanisms underlying the interoceptive effects of nicotine. Early reports confirmed that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are critical for transduction of the nicotine cue. In recent years, advances in molecular biology and the discovery of novel ligands with greater selectively for specific nAChR subtypes have furthered our understanding of these mechanisms. There is now evidence regarding the specific nAChR subtypes involved in nicotine discrimination; in addition, there is also evidence suggesting that other systems (i.e., adenosine, cannabinoid, dopamine, glutamate and serotonin) may play a modulatory role. …

Nicotine, Tobacco Use, And The 55th Nebraska Symposium On Motivation, Rick A. Bevins, Anthony R. Caggiula

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Tobacco use is a worldwide health problem. As so well stated by Mackay and Ericksen (2002), “No other consumer product is as dangerous, or kills as many people. Tobacco kills more than AIDS, legal drugs, illegal drugs, road accidents, murder, and suicide combined” (p. 36). Imagine the lives saved, and the amount of pain, emotional suffering, and fiscal burden alleviated, if we could devise approaches that helped current tobacco users quit and remain abstinent, and prevented new smokers from emerging. Although these idealistic goals are worth pursuing, improving cessation rates by only a small fraction, or making small gains in …

Cue-Evoked Positive Affect, Depression Vulnerability And Smoking Years, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Neal Doran

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objectives—To evaluate whether cue-evoked affective response would moderate the relationship between depression-proneness and smoking years.

Methods—Depression-proneness profiles were derived using clinician diagnosed personal and family histories of major depression, recurrent depression, trait-anhedonia, and ruminative coping styles (n=70). Affective distress was produced by idiographic, guided negative mood imageries in the presence of an in vivo cigarette exposure.

Results—Contrary to expectations, results showed that individuals less vulnerable to depression reported longer smoking histories. Stress-induced decreases in positive affect bolstered the association between depression vulnerability and smoking years.

Conclusion—Depression-proneness assumptions are challenged and implications to affective influences on smoking behavior are discussed.

Changing The Latitudes And Attitudes About Content Analysis Research, Eve M. Brank, Kathleen A. Fox, Tasha J. Youstin, Lee C. Boeppler

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The current research employs the use of content analysis to teach research methods concepts among students enrolled in an upper-division research methods course. Students coded and analyzed Jimmy Buffett song lyrics rather than using a downloadable database or collecting survey data. Students’ knowledge of content analysis concepts increased after a lecture on the topic of content analysis, but it further improved after participating in the song coding, data cleaning, and writing of results. Additionally, students reported high satisfaction with the project and believed it was an interesting and enjoyable technique for learning about research methods. We provide suggestions for incorporating …

Pavlovian Drug Discrimination With Bupropion As A Feature Positive Occasion Setter: Substitution By Methamphetamine And Nicotine, But Not Cocaine, Jamie L. Wilkinson, Chia Li, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Bupropion can serve as a discriminative stimulus (S^D) in an operant drug discrimination task, and a variety of stimulants substitute for the bupropion S^D. There are no reports, however, of bupropion functioning as a Pavlovian occasion setter (i.e., feature positive modulator). The present experiment seeks to fill this gap in the literature by training bupropion in rats as a feature positive modulator that disambiguates when a light will be paired with sucrose. Specifically, on bupropion (10 mg/kg IP) sessions, offset of 15-sec cue lights were followed by brief delivery of liquid sucrose; saline sessions were similar …

Nicotine-Evoked Conditioned Responding Is Dependent On Concentration Of Sucrose Unconditioned Stimulus, Jennifer E. Murray, Rachel D. Penrod, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Previous studies have shown that the interoceptive nicotine conditional stimulus (CS) functions similarly to exteroceptive CSs such as lights or environments. For instance, the appetitive conditioned response (CR) evoked when nicotine is repeatedly paired with sucrose presentations (the unconditioned stimulus; US) is sensitive to changes in training dose (CS salience) and the contiguity between the CS effects and sucrose. The current study was conducted to extend this research by examining the possible role of US intensity in CR acquisition and maintenance. Rats were trained using one of four sucrose concentrations: 0, 4, 16, or 32% (w/v). On nicotine sessions (0.4 …

Forced Abstinence Model Of Relapse To Study Pharmacological Treatments Of Substance Use Disorder, Carmela M. Reichel, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Understanding and preventing relapse to drug use is one of the most difficult challenges faced by clinicians and practitioners in the struggle to help people remain abstinent. In this paper, we review basic preclinical research on forced abstinence periods that identify the neural substrates involved and neural adaptations that occur after a drug-free period. Our attention focuses on forced abstinence after self-administration because of its promise for translational research in the development of candidate medications to reduce relapse. This model requires subjects (often rats) to initially acquire drug self-administration. However, rather than extinguishing behavior with daily drug-free sessions as in …

Altering The Motivational Function Of Nicotine Through Conditioning Processes, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The collection of chapters in this 55th Nebraska Symposium on Motivation Volume clearly highlights that effective strategies for reducing compulsive tobacco use will require a multifaceted approach in which genetic, neurobiological, individual, and cultural factors are considered. It is difficult, if not impossible, to predict where the next important breakthrough will come from (Bevins & Bardo, 2004; Dethier, 1966; Laidler, 1998). Accordingly, further research that extends and challenges current theory and practice at each of these levels of analysis is needed. The continuing focus of our research program, and the topic of the present chapter, is on the role of …

Mecamylamine, Dihydro-Β-Erythroidine, And Dextromethorphan Block Conditioned Responding Evoked By The Conditional Stimulus Effects Of Nicotine, Amanda M. Struthers, Jamie L. Wilkinson, Linda P. Dwoskin, Peter A. Crooks, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Current smokers express the desire to quit. However, the majority find it difficult to remain abstinent. As such, research efforts continually seek to develop more effective treatment. One such area of research involves the interoceptive stimulus effects of nicotine as either a discriminative stimulus in an operant drug discrimination task, or more recently as a conditional stimulus (CS) in a discriminated goal-tracking task. The present work investigated the potential role nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the CS effects of nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) using antagonists with differential selectivity for β2*, α7*, α6β2*, and α3β4* receptors. Methyllycaconitine (MLA) had no effect on nicotine-evoked …

The Relationship Among Social Phobia, Objective And Perceived Physiological Reactivity, And Anxiety Sensitivity In An Adolescent Population, Emily R. Anderson, Debra A. Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Physiological theories may be important in the development and maintenance of social phobia in youth. A limited literature base indicates that youth with social phobia experience increases in objective physiological arousal during social-evaluative situations and are more aware of such increases compared to nonanxious youth. Recent research suggests that youth with social phobia also evidence heightened levels of anxiety sensitivity, which may lead to interpretation of physiological arousal as dangerous or distressing, and, as a result, in avoidance of situations which produce increased physiological arousal. The purpose of the current study was to examine interaction among objective physiological arousal, perceived …

Acute Tryptophan Depletion And Sweet Food Consumption By Overweight Adults, Sherry L. Pagoto, Bonnie Spring, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Brian Hitsman, Malaina Smith, Bradley Appelhans, Donald Hedeker

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Serotonergic involvement has been implicated in preferential consumption of treat foods. We tested the effect of acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) on food consumption by overweight and lean adults with and without a history of recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). ATD and taste-matched placebo challenges were administered double-blind in counter-balanced order. Participants were classified as lean (n = 36) or overweight (n=19) on the basis of body mass index (BMI). Total calorie, carbohydrate, protein, and sweet food consumption were assessed via a test meal 8-hours following ATD. Four food items of comparable palatability were offered as a part of the test: …

Emotional Reactivity Across Individuals With Varying Trauma And Substance Dependence Histories, Alicia K. Klanecky, Dennis E. Mcchargue

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Background—Research has reported a high rate of substance dependence in traumatized individuals who do not develop PTSD (TWP). While past studies have failed to consistently demonstrate that TWP individuals experience PTSD symptoms, findings have indicated that TWP and a history of substance dependence aside from nicotine dependence (SDH) are linked to affect disruption.

Aims—The present study explored positive and negative affective mechanisms across four groups with varying SDH and TWP including TWP + SDH, TWP only, SDH only, or no history. Researchers hypothesized that adults (n = 78) would be more emotionally reactive to an experimentally-induced negative mood compared to …

Meeting John Glover, Kenneth A. Kiewra

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Viewing Preschool Disruptive Behavior Disorders And Adhd Through A Developmental Lens: What We Know & What We Need To Know, Anil Chacko, Lauren Wakschlag, Carri Hill, Barbara Danis, Kimberly A. Espy

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

There is now little doubt that DSM-IV behavior disorders are present and identifiable during the preschool years (1,2). With only minor modifications to DSM-IV Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBDs) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) nosology, multiple, independent studies have shown similar prevalence rates and correlates as in older children (1). In the preschool age range, these disorders also have modest stability (3-6). It is clear that the behaviors that comprise DBDs and ADHD (e.g., noncompliance, rule-breaking, aggression, destruction of property, hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity) impair children’s functioning and that caregivers of young children often experience considerable difficulty in managing those who exhibit …

The Relevance Of The International Classification Of Functioning, Disability And Health (Icf) To Mental Disorders And Their Treatment, Geoffrey M. Reed, William D. Spaulding, Lynn F. Bufka

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This article examines the potential usefulness of the ICF in the treatment of mental disorders.We suggest that there is a poor fit between the nature of mental disorders and the dominant model of health care based on the treatment of acute medical illness. An overemphasis on diagnosis has contributed to a bias toward pharmacotherapy and underuse of psychological treatments for people with mental disorders. Mental disorders are more accurately conceptualized as chronic conditions, in which the person’s pattern of functioning rather than diagnosis is most important in determining what services are needed. This is particularly the case for people with …

The Effect Of Online Chapter Quizzes On Exam Performance In An Undergraduate Social Psychology Course, Bethany C. Johnson, Marc T. Kiviniemi

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Assigned textbook readings are a common requirement in undergraduate courses, but students often do not complete reading assignments or do not do so until immediately before an exam. This may have detrimental effects on learning and course performance. Regularly scheduled quizzes on reading material may increase completion of reading assignments and therefore course performance. This study examined the effectiveness of compulsory, mastery-based, weekly reading quizzes as a means of improving exam and course performance. Completion of reading quizzes was related to both better exam and course performance. The discussion includes recommendations for the use of quizzes in undergraduate courses.

Attention Shaping: A Reward-Based Learning Method To Enhance Skills Training Outcomes In Schizophrenia, Steven . M. Silverstein, William D. Spaulding, Anthony A. Menditto, Adam Savitz, Robert P. Liberman, Sarah Berten, Hannah Starobin

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Disturbances in sustained attention commonly interfere with the ability of persons with schizophrenia to benefit from evidence-based psychosocial treatments. Cognitive remediation interventions have thus far demonstrated minimal effects on attention, as have medications. There is thus a gap between the existence of effective psychosocial treatments and patients’ ability to effectively engage in and benefit from them. We report on the results of a multisite study of attention shaping (AS), a behavioral intervention for improving attentiveness and learning of social skills among highly distractible schizophrenia patients. Patients with chronic schizophrenia who were refractory to skills training were assigned to receive either …

Bupropion Attenuates Methamphetamine Self-Administration In Adult Male Rats, Carmela M. Reichel, Jennifer E. Murray, Kathleen M. Grant, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Bupropion is a promising candidate medication for methamphetamine use disorder. As such, we used a preclinical model of drug-taking to determine the effects of bupropion on the reinforcing effects of methamphetamine (0.025, 0.05 or 0.1 mg/kg/infusion). Specificity was determined by investigating the effects of bupropion on responding maintained by sucrose. In the selfadministration study, rats were surgically prepared with indwelling jugular catheters and trained to self-administer methamphetamine under an FR5 schedule. A separate group of rats was trained to press a lever for sucrose. Once responding stabilized, rats were pretreated with bupropion (0, 10, 30 and 60 mg/kg IP) 5 …

Tests Of The Dynamic Field Theory And The Spatial Precision Hypothesis: Capturing A Qualitative Developmental Transition In Spatial Working Memory, Anne R. Schutte, John P. Spencer

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study tested a dynamic field theory (DFT) of spatial working memory and an associated spatial precision hypothesis (SPH). Between three and six years of age there is a qualitative shift in how children use reference axes to remember locations: 3-year-olds’ spatial recall responses are biased toward reference axes after short memory delays, whereas 6-year-olds’ responses are biased away from reference axes. According to the DFT and the SPH, quantitative improvements over development in the precision of excitatory and inhibitory working memory processes lead to this qualitative shift. Simulations of the DFT in Experiment 1 predict that improvements in precision …