Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Depression Care For Older Home Health Patients, Sarah R. Schirmer

DNP Projects

Rates of depression in older home healthcare (HH) patients are highly prevalent. Although depression in this population is associated with increased rates of re-hospitalization, falls, and suicides, it is frequently under diagnosed and under treated. This Capstone Report examined this problem through three interrelated manuscripts. The first manuscript explored the problem through a review of the literature. This review determined that while there are many barriers to adequate depression care, programs that train clinicians to screen for depression and connect patients to depression care encourage adequate evaluation and treatment and can result in clinically significant changes in depression scores. This …

Emotional Enhancement And Repetition Effects During Working Memory In Persons With Mild Cognitive Impairment, Lucas S. Broster

Theses and Dissertations--Clinical and Translational Science

This dissertation introduces a framework for understanding differences in how emotional enhancement effects might influence memory in aging adults and then summarizes the findings of three studies of how repetition effects and emotional enhancement effects influence working memory in older adults without cognitive impairment (NC), older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and older adults with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In these experiments, individuals with AD showed cognitive impairment in terms of accuracy and reaction time, but individuals with MCI showed milder behavioral impairment that was confined to manipulations of working memory. Individuals with AD showed relative sparing of …

Effects Of Repeated Cue Exposure On Cannabis Craving, Jessica S. Fogel

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Craving is a key element of the cannabis withdrawal syndrome that has been associated with continued use and relapse. Although cue-induced cannabis craving has been established in single laboratory sessions, procedures to sustain craving over multiple sessions are needed. The purpose of the present study was to determine if cue-induced craving responses could be elicited in the same subjects across multiple sessions. It was hypothesized that exposure to cannabis cues would produce more robust craving responses than exposure to neutral cues and that elicited craving responses will be sustained across multiple cue exposures. Five experimental cue exposure sessions (1 neutral …

Parental Problem Drinking And Children’S Adjustment: Are Associations Moderated By Patterns Of Sympathetic And Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity?, Shuang Bi

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Parental problem drinking (PPD) is associated with various forms of child psychopathology, including hyperactivity, conduct disorder, delinquency, depression and anxiety. However, not all children share the same risk for developing adjustment problems in the context of PPD. In this study, we examined patterns of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity account for differential susceptibility to the adverse effects of PPD in middle childhood. We found that reciprocal SNS activation protects against child internalizing symptoms in the context of mother problem drinking. We also found consistent interactions between PNS and SNS in predicting child internalizing problems. Coinhibition is linked to more …

Purpose In Life In Als Patient-Caregiver Dyads: A Multilevel Longitudinal Analysis, Natasha E. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Despite the debilitating nature of this disease, some evidence suggests patients maintain their quality of life (QOL). Caregivers, on the other hand, experience decreased QOL. Evidence suggests existential aspects of well-being such as purpose in life (PIL) may be unique and stable sources of well-being for patients and caregivers. Furthermore, patients’ and caregivers’ well-being may impact one another. The present study examined the variance structure, trajectory, and dyadic relationship of PIL and QOL in patients with ALS and their caregivers (N = 110 dyads). Data from the Seattle ALS Patient …

The Effects Of Alcohol-Related Visual Stimuli On Inhibitory Control And Attentional Bias: Testing The Roles Of Classical Conditioning And Semantic Priming, Ramey G. Monem

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Alcohol research has shown that alcohol-related stimuli can disrupt behavioral control and attract more attention in alcohol drinkers. Stimuli typically used in tasks assessing these mechanisms are likely representative of an individual's history. Responses to visual stimuli that no longer closely resemble an individual's history may help shed light on whether these behaviors are due to classical conditioning or processes such as semantic priming. Hypotheses were tested using typical visual stimuli and modified, abstract versions in these tasks. 41 participants were exposed to these stimuli types while using a visual dot probe task. The difference in degree of attentional bias …

The Reciprocal Predictive Relationship Between Personality And Risky Behaviors: An 8-Wave Longitudinal Study In Early Adolescents, Elizabeth N. Riley

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

While the overall stability of personality across the lifespan has been well-documented, there is also evidence of meaningful personality change. This is particularly true when individuals are going through periods of developmental transition. Over time, one sees incremental changes not just in behavior but in basic personality as well. 1,906 early adolescents were assessed for urgency scores, levels of maladaptive behavior engagement (drinking, smoking, and binge eating), and pubertal status every six months for four years. Zero-Inflated Poisson structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the model of reciprocal influence between behavior and personality. Across most six-month intervals over …

Parenting Behaviors Of Sleepy Parents: Associations With Emotion Regulation And Stress, Lauren R. Gilbert

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Over the last decade, the topic of sleep has garnered a great deal of interest from psychologists, due to the physiological, emotional, and behavioral outcomes associated with its deprivation. However, questions remain to be answered regarding sleep's influence in the day-to-day life of families. The current study examines the importance of sleep deprivation for parents’ parenting behaviors during problem solving discussions with their children; emotion regulation and stress reactivity are examined as mediators of these associations. Participants were 196 families with a child between the ages of 6-11. Parents filled out diaries for 7 days prior to their in-lab visit, …

Effect Of Social Peers On Risky Decision Making In Male Sprague Dawley Rats, Virginia Weiss

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Adolescence is a time associated with increased risk taking and peer relations. Research has shown that adolescents are more vulnerable to peer pressure compared to adults, leading to exacerbated risk taking. Preclinical research suggests that these findings may also be applicable to adolescent rodents, which find social interaction rewarding and are prone to risky behavior. There is, however, little research on the effect of social interaction on rodent models of risky decision-making. This thesis utilized social chambers, which consisted of adjacent operant chambers separated by wire mesh. Adolescent rats performed a risky decision-making task in which they had a choice …

On A(Pe)Theism: Religious Dehumanization Of Atheists And Other Outgroups, Ben Kok Leong Ng

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Research on the dark side of religion has recently found evidence that anti-atheist prejudice is embedded in distrust (Gervais et al, 2011). Anti-atheist prejudice though old in its form, has only been systemically researched on over the last couple of years. This study seeks to extend on research in anti-atheist prejudice by examining religious dehumanization of atheists in comparison with other religious outgroups – gays and Muslims. Study 1 utilized a two factor model of dehumanization (Haslam, 2006) to examine dehumanization. Study 2 serves as a conceptual replication and extension using two different measures of dehumanization. Study 1 failed to …

The Effects Of Alcohol And Hypoxia Exposure In The Developing Brain, Megan L. Carter

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Exposure to alcohol (ethanol (ETOH)) during fetal development results in a variety of cognitive/behavioral deficits. The effects of fetal ETOH exposure vary across individuals and numerous studies have shown that ETOH’s interaction with other variables can affect outcome in offspring. These studies investigated the effects of developmental ETOH and hypoxia. It was hypothesized that a history of ETOH during development alters the response to a subsequent hypoxic challenge, such as that which may occur during parturition; this results in central nervous system (CNS) damage and behavioral deficits.

The first study determined if developmental ETOH and hypoxia exposure produced behavioral deficits …

Factors Influencing The Association Between Religiosity And Drinking Behavior In Underage College Students, Hayley Cole

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Research has consistently demonstrated a negative association between religiosity and college students’ alcohol consumption. However, few studies have explored the unique roles religious beliefs and behaviors might play in this relationship. Using 283 underage college students, we investigated the influence of internal and external factors on drinking behaviors for students with differing combinations of religious beliefs and religious behaviors. Tests of mediation and mediated-moderation were used to help explain the unique influences beliefs and behaviors have on alcohol consumption. Results indicated that religious beliefs only functioned as a protective-factor against underage drinking when accompanied by religious behaviors; students with high …

Effects Of Headings On Processing Of Audio Texts, Hung-Tao Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Text-to-speech devices often do a poor job of translating signals such as headings from visual into audio mode. Previous research studies have attempted to address this problem but these studies have mainly used heading detection tasks. The current study seeks to investigate 1) whether listeners find the presence of audio headings useful in natural learning tasks, and 2) the type of heading rendering that is most useful in natural learning tasks. The three learning tasks in this study include note-taking, cued recall, and knowledge transfer. Results from this study reveal that listeners find audio headings useful in the note-taking task. …

Development Of An Avian Model For Identifying Individual Differences In Drug Vulnerability, Beth A. Rice

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The attribution of incentive salience to cues that become associated with drugs of abuse is a critical characteristic of individuals who may be vulnerable to drug addiction. Rodents with the propensity to sign track are thought to be vulnerable to drug abuse. The goal of the current work was to investigate whether sign trackers (STs) would acquire cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP) to a discrete cue using an avian species. In Experiment 1, sign and goal trackers (GTs) were first identified using a one third rank order split. Following identification, cocaine-CPP was conducted with a discrete cue in each end …

Distinguishing Among Within-Person Variability: Affective Intra-Individual Variability, Affective Psychological Flexibility, And Health In A National Us Sample, Jaime Hardy

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Affective intra-individual variability (IIV) and affective psychological flexibility (PF) are both types of within-person variability. Affective IIV is defined as the range of emotions experienced by an individual assessed at multiple time points. PF is defined as the ability to vary one’s responses in a contextually dependent manner in order to appropriately meet situational demands. Currently, there are no comparisons between affective IIV and PF demonstrating how these constructs might be uniquely different from each other. The current study proposed to examine affective IIV and PF in order to establish discriminant and convergent validity, and stability data for each construct. …

Moderated Mediation Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd) Symptoms And Peer Relations, Christine A. Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience frequent and persisting peer rejection, yet current social skills training is ineffective. The current study focused on emotion dysregulation as a possible mediator between ADHD symptoms and poor peer outcomes with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms as a moderator. Participants included 145 elementary-age children ranging from 8-10 years old. Parents and teachers rated children’s ADHD and ODD symptoms as well as their social skills. Parents also rated children on their emotion regulation abilities. Children then participated in a three-hour playgroup with unfamiliar peers in six structured and unstructured tasks. Research assistants provided global ratings …

Bidirectional Relations Of Impulsive Personality And Alcohol Use Over Two Years, Alison J. Kaiser

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Impulsive personality traits have been found to be robust predictors of substance use and problems in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research. Studies examining the relations of substance use and impulsive personality over time indicate bidirectional effects, where substance use is also predictive of increases in later impulsive personality. The mechanism(s) accounting for the impact of substance use on later personality remain unknown. The present study sought to explore the bidirectional relations of alcohol use with the impulsive personality traits over three time points, and to examine two potential mechanisms that could account for the impact of alcohol use on personality: …

The Behavioral Effects Of First-Generation Electronic Cigarettes After 24-Hour Tobacco Deprivation, Arit M. Harvanko

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Little is currently known about the ability of electronic cigarettes to manage tobacco withdrawal symptoms and their abuse liability. In the current study eight conventional cigarette smokers completed nine within-subject study sessions. In the first session participants practiced using an electronic cigarette containing 16 mg/ml of nicotine over six 10-puff bouts. Remaining study sessions were comprised of four two-day blocks (one for each condition), which assessed measures of tobacco withdrawal symptoms and abuse liability following unrestricted cigarette smoking and 24-hour tobacco deprivation. Study conditions included an electronic cigarette with 0, 8, or 16 mg/ml nicotine concentrations, or preferred brand of …

Affective Instability Across Diagnostic Models, Whitney L. Gore

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC; Insel et al., 2010; Sanislow et al., 2010) were established in an effort to explore underlying dimensions that cut across many existing disorders as well as to provide an alternative to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; APA, 2013). The present dissertation aimed to study one major component of the RDoC model, negative valence, as compared to other models hypothesized to be closely related, as well as its relationship to a key component of psychopathology, affective instability. Participants were adult community residents …

Adolescents' Gender Typicality, Psychological Well-Being, And Experiences With Teasing, Bullying, And Rejection, Jennifer A. Jewell

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The current study examined whether adolescents’ gender-based victimization experiences (i.e., teasing, bullying, and rejection) mediated the association between gender typicality and psychological well-being. The current study also investigated whether daily experiences with the three types of gender-based victimization negatively impacted adolescents’ immediate emotional reactions. Participants were 570 seventh and eighth grade students (49.5% boys, 50.5% girls). During four visits over the course of two weeks, participants completed surveys about their own gender typicality, their psychological well-being (i.e., depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and body image), their experiences with gender-based teasing, bullying, and rejection, and their emotional responses to experiencing this victimization. Results …

Developmental Trajectories Of Excessive Exercise And Fasting Across The Middle School Years, Heather A. Davis

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Repeated excessive exercise (EE) fasting behavior, in the absence of binge eating and purging, are important eating disorder behaviors that are not captured by the current diagnostic system. Though they appear to be harmful and distressing for adults, little is known about these behaviors in youth. To begin to understand their development, I studied the course of the behaviors across the three years of middle school (n = 1,195). Both behaviors were present in middle school girls and boys, and youth progressed along different developmental trajectories of engagement in the behaviors. Youth involved in either behavior experienced elevated levels of …

The Balloon Analogue Risk Task And Behavioral Correlates In Pigeons, Aaron P. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Individuals experience risk ubiquitously, but measuring risk taking is difficult. The balloon analogue risk task (BART) was developed in order to assess risk taking through having subjects press a key that accrues reward but also risk losing all reward with each press. In humans, greater responding in this task is associated with other maladaptive risk taking behaviors. The present research modeled this relationship in pigeons due to their previously shown propensity towards risk taking behavior. Experiment 1 used an unsignaled balloon task in which losing could only occur after 5 pecks. Results showed below optimal performance with greater pecks associated …

Using Commercially Available Picture Activity Schedules And System Of Least Prompts To Teach Lego Assembly, Lauren A. Sherrow

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

This study investigated effects of commercially available picture activity schedules (PAS) and system of least prompts (SLP) to teach recreation skills to four high school students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and intellectual disabilities using Lego sets. Results were evaluated through a multiple probe across participants design and indicate that a combination of PAS and SLP was effective for teaching the students to build Lego sets. All students improved their ability to build and were able to generalize the skill to novel sets after the completion of intervention. Limitations and implications for future practioners are discussed.