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Trajectory Of Quality Of Life In Advanced Parkinson's Patients Receiving Bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation, Karl S. Chiang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quality of Life (QOL) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients after Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) neurosurgery generally improves between 3 to 24 months post-operatively. However, QOL beyond 2 year follow-up is generally unknown. This study examined the QOL in 16 advanced PD patients who received DBS at an average of 7.5 year follow-up with the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). Participants had an average Disease Duration of 20.57 years (SD 5.7) and a mean Age of 63.50 (SD 8.05). Linear regression analyses suggested a constellation of changes involving Time, Age, and Disease Duration. As Time progressed since DBS intervention, the PDQ-39 Cognitions …

The Humiliation Experience: Causes, Emotional Correlates, And Behavioral Consequences, Kendall Elyse Mccarley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to provide a comprehensive investigation of the emotional experience of humiliation by examining: (1) the direct effects of self-esteem and narcissism on emotional responses to potentially humiliating events; (2) the direct effects of the emotional correlates of humiliating experiences (i.e. sadness, humiliation, and anger) on the related behavioral reactions to such events (i.e., withdrawal, retaliation, and minimization); and (3) a process model to determine whether or not the emotional correlates of potentially humiliating events mediated the predicted effects of self-esteem and narcissism on the behavioral consequences on those events.

Participants, ranging in age from …

Relational Financial Satisfaction Of Cohabiting Couples, Christine C. Mcdunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study tested a model of factors affecting cohabiting couples' relational financial satisfaction, defined as the contentment an individual has with how financial issues are handled within his or her domestic romantic relationship, and examined the relations within these factors. This study was a cross-sectional online survey of 266 participants (81% female; 85% Caucasian) recruited from listservs and subsequent snowball sampling. Measures assessed couples' financial strain, dedication commitment, financial conflict, financial trust, financial equality and financial communication. Relational financial satisfaction (RFS) was significantly related to financial conflict, financial strain and dedication commitment. Financial conflict mediated the association between …

Gene X Environment Interactions In Developmental Dyslexia, Lauren M. Mcgrath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this project was to advance understanding of the complex multifactorial etiology of developmental dyslexia, or reading disability (RD), by investigating gene x environment (G x E) interactions. This project tested for G x E interactions using molecular genetic methods and measures of psychosocial and bioenvironmental risk factors. There are two competing predictions that can be derived from existing G x E models about the expected direction of interactions in RD. There could be "diathesis-stress" interactions in which the effects of genotype are stronger in risk environments, or there could be "bioecological" interactions in which the effects of …

Humiliation And Its Relationship To Embarrassment And Shame, Danielle Jean Pulham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to expand our knowledge of humiliation by examining the cognitive correlates of this emotion. Since norm violations may often elicit this emotion, attributions of blame and perceived devaluation of the self from others were investigated as possible cognitions that may both link and distinguish this emotion from close emotion relatives, namely embarrassment and shame.

Participants were presented with vignettes that described a social versus moral norm violation. Blame for the event was manipulated by varying who/what caused the norm violation. Perceived devaluation was manipulated by varying what the observing audience knew about the cause of the norm …

Mitigating Risk For Anxiety Among Preschool-Age Children Living In Poverty: Evaluating The Impact Of Adult-Provided Social Support On Autonomic Stress Reactivity, Brian Cory Wolff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Poverty increases children's exposure to stress, elevating their risk for developing patterns of heightened sympathetic and parasympathetic stress reactivity. Repeated patterns of high sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal place children at risk for anxiety disorders. This study evaluated whether providing social support to preschool-age children during mildly stressful situations helps reduce reactivity, and whether this effect partly depends on children's previously assessed baseline reactivity patterns. The Biological Sensitivity to Context (BSC) theory proposes that highly reactive children may be more sensitive than less reactive children to all environmental influences, including social support. In contrast, conventional physiological reactivity (CPR) theory contends …