Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Exposure Learning Of Family-Resemblance Categories, Brooke Jackson

Psychology Dissertations

One important type of category follows a family-resemblance structure. Family-resemblance category members share an overall similarity, but no criterial attributes define all members of the category. Many of the world’s natural categories follow a family-resemblance category structure (e.g., Rosch & Mervis, 1975). We can learn a single family-resemblance category merely by being perceptually exposed to members of the category even when there is no discussion of their category membership (e.g., Homa & Cultice 1984; Palmeri & Flanery 1999; Zabberoni et al., 2021). Research has shown that pre-exposure to category members benefits learning two family-resemblance categories simultaneously (Jackson et al., 2023), …

An Exploration Of The Status Quo Bias In Nonhuman Primates, Maisy D. Englund

Psychology Dissertations

A status quo bias is a tendency to resist change and keep things as they are. This bias is robust in humans and likely a byproduct of heuristic decision-making mechanisms, indicating that it may be an evolutionarily-conserved process that is phylogenetically widespread. However, few status quo bias studies have been conducted with nonhuman animals, and the evidence was mixed. Studying this question with animals could help inform welfare decisions for animals directly and it can shed light on the degree to which a status quo bias (as seen in humans) may be a result of human-unique experiences or the consequence …

Does The Apoe Ε4 Allele Moderate A Ca1 Atrophy And Psychotic Symptomatology Relationship In Alzheimer’S Disease?, Kelly Rootes-Murdy

Psychology Dissertations

There are an estimated 6.1 million Americans currently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with this number expected to rapidly grow over the next 30 years. Delusions are reported in roughly one-third of individuals with AD ^{(Ropacki & Jeste, 2005)}. Delusions in AD are related to worse outcomes; greater caregiver burden, functional decline, and overall, worse general health (Murray et al., 2014). Current treatment options are limited given the health risks related to antipsychotics in the elderly (Creese et al., 2018). In the current study, we examined the relationship between APOE ε4 allele status, CA1 subfield volumes, and the presence …

Phenomenological Analysis Of Teen Mothers With A History Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Samantha Sabin

Psychology Dissertations

Intergenerational trauma occurs when a family's unresolved trauma, such as childhood sexual abuse, is passed down to future generations. This secondary qualitative analysis of interviews with women who experienced childhood sexual abuse and then became teen mothers utilizes a social-ecological approach to understanding intergenerational trauma by focusing on the multileveled forces at work in these families. The interviews addressed the women's parenting styles, relationships with their children, self-care, and resources. A phenomenological analysis was conducted using a qualitative took kit referred to as Sort & Sift, Think & Shift. This approach utilizes an emergent design that allows the data to …

Understanding The Integrated Prevention Effects Of Dating Matters On Bullying And Teen Dating Violence: Does Promotion Of Healthy Relationship And Conflict Resolution Skills Prevent Both Forms Of Aggression?, Hannah Joseph

Psychology Dissertations

Although bullying and teen dating violence (TDV) have similar behavioral manifestations and are likely to affect the same individuals throughout development in similar ways, interventions typically address bullying and TDV separately. This study used longitudinal data from middle school participants (N = 1,504) to test aspects of the Dating Matters (DM) program’s theory of change, which aims to prevent bullying and TDV by teaching youth healthy relationship skills (HRS) and conflict resolution strategies. First, latent class analysis was used to identify classes of co-occurring bullying, dating, and TDV perpetration at baseline and assess the association of those classes with HRS …

Examining Student Engagement With Safe Dates, Nickolas R. Langley

Psychology Dissertations

A growing body of evidence suggests that program implementation is significantly related to the efficacy of child and adolescent prevention programming. Moreover, participant responsiveness (also referred to as engagement) has been identified as a key component of the implementation of programs designed to prevent problems like school violence, bullying, and drug use. Teen dating violence (TDV) is another significant public health issue in the United States for which prevention programs are being designed and delivered. Perhaps one of the most popular and empirically supported of these programs is Safe Dates, though researchers have yet to investigate students’ engagement with …

Spontaneous Trait Inferences: Faces, Races, And The Inferences We Encode Because Of Them, Alesha Bond

Psychology Dissertations

Spontaneous trait inferences have been the focus of impression formation research for nearly a century. Spontaneous trait inferences impact the judgments and decisions we make about these objects and people particularly when the group membership of that object or person is meaningful to us, such as their race/ethnicity. Research on extralist cues has suggested the spontaneous trait interferences act via the encoding specificity principle: only items stored can be retrieved, and the effectiveness of retrieval depends on the contextual information that is stored with the word in episode memory. Other research suggests that stereotypes may disrupt the spontaneous inferences process. …

Imaging, Cognitive, And Functional Correlates Of Vascular Depression In Older Black Adults, Hannah Bogoian

Psychology Dissertations

Black older adults have a higher prevalence of vascular conditions (e.g., heart disease) and greater cerebrovascular disease burden compared to Whites. Decreased brain white matter integrity as a result of vascular burden is associated with a form of late-life depression, known as vascular depression (VaDep), which is marked by chronic vascular risk, executive dysfunction, poor treatment response, and high levels of functional disability. Older Black adults may be particularly vulnerable to developing VaDep; however, the literature examining VaDep in Black older adults is sparse. The present study used publicly available data from the Healthy Brain Project, a substudy of the …

Methodologies For The Successful Implementation And Dissemination Of Digital Mental Health Interventions: Improving User Attitudes Among Black, Indigenous, And People Of Color, Donovan Ellis

Psychology Dissertations

Mental illness is a leading global cause of disability and persists at disproportionately high rates for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). This European-style dissertation examines methods for improving user attitudes and treatment-seeking behavior for digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) among BIPOC. This dissertation comprises three studies that are situated within the broader context of efforts to successfully design, implement, and disseminate culturally responsive DMHIs as a mitigation strategy for barriers to mental health treatment. Study 1 is a systematic review and meta-analysis that explored culturally adapted DMHIs and examined the efficacy and acceptability of these interventions among racial …

"It's Always A Combination Of Things": An Intersectional Approach To Post-Migration Discrimination And Mental Health In Refugee Women, Jessica L. Kumar

Psychology Dissertations

Refugees face high rates of mental health problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Several pre- and post-migration risk factors for negative mental health outcomes have been identified, including discrimination. However, extant literature on the association between discrimination and refugee mental health has rarely attended to additional marginalized identities beyond refugee status, resulting in a limited understanding of individual differences. Guided by intersectionality theory, the goal of the present study is to address this gap with three primary research questions: 1) What are refugee women’s experiences of post-migration discrimination? 2) How do intersections of multiple marginalized identities shape …

Friendships, Anxiety, And Intergroup Bias: Optimizing The Contact Model For Minority And Majority Status Groups, Michelle Rattinger

Psychology Dissertations

The contact hypothesis, or the idea that contact with social outgroup members reduces explicit prejudice, is well established. Evidence suggests that intergroup anxiety mediates this relationship, such that increased intergroup contact lessens anxiety about intergroup interactions, which in turn contributes to decreases in prejudice. Since the contact hypothesis was introduced, it has remained relatively unchanged, despite advances in social and cognitive research, as well as changes in societal norms.

This study aimed, in several key ways, to optimize the contact model. First, this study narrowed the conceptualization of contact, based on current research that highlights the need to capture both …

Are Cartoons Pointless? Patterns Of Gesture And Speech Use In Young Children’S Television Programs, Stephanie D. Baumann

Psychology Dissertations

Screen time has become a prominent activity for many young children over the last several decades (Media and Young Minds, 2016). Earlier work has focused almost exclusively on the semantic content or educational features within programs. There is, however, no research that has examined the amount, diversity, and complexity of verbal and nonverbal language across a range of programs, and how these language outcomes may be influenced by program and character features. In this study, I examined 82 children’s television programs to explore how programs are utilizing speech and gesture, and whether their relative use of verbal and non-verbal input …

Identifying Brain Stimulation Targets For Improving Automaticity In Reading, Alexandra Ossowski

Psychology Dissertations

Adults with persistent reading disabilities (RD) continue to struggle with slow and dysfluent reading throughout their life, even following years of behavioral interventions. Research suggests that persistent fluency deficits result from an inability to develop automaticity in word recognition skills due to a hypothesized instability in activation or efficient connectivity within the brain’s reading network. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is known to affect cortical excitability and activation levels, and therefore may be capable of modulating variable activity in the brain’s reading network and enhancing automaticity in word recognition. This may ultimately translate to new approaches for remediation of fluency deficits. …

Genetic Models For Long-Term Neurocognitive Outcomes In Pediatric Medulloblastoma And Traumatic Brain Injury, Rella J. Kautiainen

Psychology Dissertations

Background: Children who suffer from brain insults (i.e., traumatic brain injury (TBI), chemotherapy and radiation treatment for brain tumors) are susceptible to late-emerging cognitive sequelae. Even with similar neurological risk variables, variability in long-term cognitive outcomes remains an area of investigation for researchers of acquired brain injury. Given the potential for genetic factors to influence response to chemoradiation, researchers have examined associations between germline, inherited, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and neurocognitive outcomes for cancer survivors. The study of TBI survivors’ genomic vulnerability is limited. This study aims to identify associations between genotype and long-term neurocognitive outcomes for acquired brain injury …

Multidimensional Inventory Of Black Identity-Short: An Investigation Of Reliability And Construct Validity In A Clinical Sample Of African American Women, Ciera Lewis

Psychology Dissertations

The Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI), derived from the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI), is frequently used to evaluate the meaning African Americans ascribe to race. The scale was developed for use with African American college students from predominantly working- or middle-class socioeconomic backgrounds and has primarily been studied with similar college samples. Despite its popularity, mixed findings regarding the scale’s psychometric properties call into question the extent to which the MIBI adequately captures the complexity of the MMRI for a wide range of African Americans. Many scholars have called for an examination of the MIBI’s applicability with …

The Roles Of The Ados-2 And Cognition In Measuring And Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder, Phebe Albert

Psychology Dissertations

Autism is a complex and heterogenous neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social communication skills and the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors or interests (RRB’s). While prevalence rates of autism have increased rapidly in the past decade, it remains a challenging disorder to measure and diagnose. Cognitive functioning can influence the presentation of autism symptoms and children’s performances on standardized autism measures like the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2), which contributes to misdiagnosis. This study examined retrospective chart review data from 188 children referred for clinical autism evaluations who were administered Module 3 of the ADOS-2. Findings …

(Statistical) Power To The People: Testing For Measurement Invariance Across Integrated Radicalism Research, Ari Fodeman

Psychology Dissertations

Radicalism, extremism, and related phenomena have been measured myriad ways, with little standardization. The most widely used metric—the Activism and Radicalism Intentions Scales (the ARIS: Moskalenko & McCauley, 2009)—has been translated, rescaled, reworded, reorganized, and used with populations never originally tested or necessarily intended for, with little scrutiny. To support the ARIS’s use across the past decade of research, Fodeman tested for Measurement Equivalence/ Invariance (ME/I), or potential bias in the measurement of radicalism across the past decade's use of the ARIS. Fodeman did so via Integrated Data Analysis (IDA)--an approach similar to, but more powerful than, meta-analysis. Among the …

Interpersonal Style Predicts Behavioral Heterogeneity During Economic-Exchange Task Gameplay In Individuals With Social Anxiety, Khalil Thompson

Psychology Dissertations

Recent evidence suggests that individuals who exhibit socially anxious (SA) symptoms endorse patterns of maladaptive interpersonal behavior that can be parceled into three subtypes based upon interpersonal circumplex theory: friendly-submissive, hostile-submissive, and hostile-dominant. It remains unclear, however, whether these subtypes translate into observable social behavior in laboratory contexts. I used two economic-exchange tasks, the prisoner’s dilemma game (PDG) and the ultimatum game (UG), as models of domains of social behavior to detect interpersonal differences in a sample of college students (N= 88) who endorsed mild-to-severe levels of SA based upon responses to the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Self-Report (LSAS-SR). Using …

An Examination Of Family Level Factors And Health-Related Psychosocial Concerns In Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease, Sharon Shih

Psychology Dissertations

The overall theme of this dissertation is an examination of the relationship between family level factors and health-related psychosocial concerns in pediatric sickle cell disease (SCD). In the first chapter, overviews of SCD, common health-related psychosocial concerns in SCD, and family level factors in pediatric conditions are provided. Rationale is provided for the need to further investigate family level factors in SCD, particularly as it relates to child health-related psychosocial outcomes. Additionally, areas of growth related to assessment, analytic methodology, and intervention are discussed in the context of understanding the relationship between family level factors and health-related psychosocial outcomes in …

The Influence Of Reading Intervention On Language And Narrative Development In Children With Mild Intellectual Disability, Casy Walters

Psychology Dissertations

Narrative language provides unique information about the use of language above and beyond other component language skill measures (e.g., Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, CELF). The use of language as described by Bates (1976) requires integration of social, linguistic, and cognitive abilities. Prior research has theorized that narrative language may influence the relationship between language and reading skills (Snow, 1991, 1993; Westby et al., 1989), but few studies have tested this theory directly. To better understand this relationship, we evaluated the relationship between component language, narrative language, and reading among elementary school children with mild intellectual disability (MID) who participated …

Civic Action Among Immigrant Youth Of Color In The U.S.: Contributions Of Critical Reflection, Sociopolitical Efficacy, And Immigrant Optimism, Maria Alejandra Arce

Psychology Dissertations

Civic action describes participation in political and prosocial activities aimed at benefiting one’s communities. A growing literature rooted in critical consciousness (CC) theory suggests that engaging in critical action, or action that challenges societal inequities, is particularly important for empowering youth of color. Although valuable, this literature has paid little attention to the ways immigrant optimism may differentially influence the civic participation of youth of color who also have an immigrant background. Also, this literature has failed to consider the range of civic actions these youth engage in. The purpose of this study was to (1) operationalize immigrant optimism and …

Morphological Knowledge Assessment Features And Their Relations To Reading: A Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling Study, Gal Kaldes

Psychology Dissertations

Morphemes are the smallest meaningful unit of language (e.g., affixes, root words, base words) that express grammatical and semantic information. Theoretical models of reading suggest that morphological knowledge is multidimensional in its support of literacy skills (Levesque et al., 2020). However, few studies have used large morphological assessment batteries to investigate the differential effects of various morphological knowledge dimensions (i.e., assessment features, such as oral versus written and context clues versus no context clues) to reading outcomes. The current study used systematic review, meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM), and univariate meta-analysis techniques to elucidate whether 1) previous studies containing morphology …

Moving Toward Successful Implementation Of Digital Mental Health Interventions: Improving User Attitudes And Evaluating User Behavior, Anthony Molloy

Psychology Dissertations

This European-style dissertation examines strategies to improve user attitudes, encourage uptake, and evaluate user engagement for digital mental health interventions. This research is discussed in the context of efforts to successfully design, implement, and sustain digital mental health services in clinical settings. In the first chapter, I discuss the need for digital mental health interventions and strategies to implement them sustainably. This includes the burden of mental illness in the United States, poor access to traditional mental health treatment, the efficacy of digital mental health interventions, and challenges in implementation. In the second chapter, I present an experimental study that …

Exploring Sexual Minority Stress Related Aggression, Miklos B. Halmos

Psychology Dissertations

Intimate partner violence among sexual minority individuals is a unique public health disparity in frequency and severity compared to heterosexual individuals. Existent research suggests experiencing sexual minority stress (SMS) is associated with negative health outcomes for individuals, including intimate partner violence. Research to date has not yet established the causal association between SMS and aggression perpetration nor its underlying mechanisms. Utilizing the Psychological Mediation Framework and the General Aggression Model, the current investigation sought to assess the proximal and temporal associations between induced state SMS and cyber aggression perpetration via an online experimental study. Furthermore, the investigation sought to evaluate …

Task-Positive And Default Mode Network Components And Their Relation To Attention And Working Memory In Adult Survivors Of Childhood Brain Tumors, Michelle Fox

Psychology Dissertations

Assessments of functional connectivity of resting state and task-based networks using independent component analysis (ICA) in this population may help describe long-term effects of childhood brain tumors and adjuvant treatments in hopes of identifying potential neuronal markers that may aid in prognosis and inform innovative interventions to optimize outcomes. The present study used ICA to evaluate presence and strength of functional connectivity networks in 23 adult survivors of childhood posterior fossa tumors (9 low grade, 14 high grade) at least 5 years past diagnosis compared to 40 age- and sex-matched healthy peers. Across groups, functional connectivity networks and their task-related …

Does Imaging Genetics Reveal Shared Mechanisms Behind Psychotic Symptom Profile?, Wenhao Jiang

Psychology Dissertations

Current diagnoses of schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) are classified by phenomenological principles and clinical descriptions. The boundaries of the disorders are merging with accumulating shared genetic and brain mechanisms being uncovered. Imaging genetics is a useful tool to understand the impact of genetic variations on the brain. It also enables capturing the behavioral implication of those genes and associated brain alterations.

This study aimed to reveal the associations among sets of genetic variations, structural brain abnormalities, and clinical symptom profiles shared in schizophrenia and bipolar disorders by imaging genetics and multivariate approaches. First, we mapped the symptom profiles …

Behavioral, Cognitive, And Genetic Factors Underlying Socio-Communicative Development In Bonobos, Sara Skiba

Psychology Dissertations

Although it is clear that behavioral, cognitive, and genetic factors all contribute to socio-communicative development in humans, it remains a significant challenge to disentangle the contribution of each to the emergence of socio-communicative abilities. Recent research has demonstrated that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are linked to social behavior and cognition in humans and nonhuman mammals. Bonobos, one of the species most closely related to humans, exhibit complex socio-communicative behavior and cognition, and exhibit similar connections between genetic factors and individual-level social behavior to those observed in humans. This study is the first comprehensive assessment of the behavioral, cognitive, and genetic …

Why Should I Help You? An Exploration Of The Contextual And Individual Factors Influencing Capuchin Monkeys' Prosocial Behavior, Mackenzie F. Webster

Psychology Dissertations

Humans are an exceptionally prosocial species, but prosocial behavior is seen across the animal kingdom. Despite widespread observation of such behaviors, however, phylogenies of prosocial behavior have been difficult to establish, and little is known surrounding the proximate mechanisms in animals. This is in part because comparative experimental studies of prosocial behavior have had inconsistent results. There are likely many factors contributing to the variations in prosocial behavior, but the context within which a decision is made may be of particular importance, including experimental design, the social context, and the behavior of the partner. Recent research efforts have also begun …

Effect Of Family Socioeconomic Status On Brain Structures Involved In Statistical Learning In Children, Leyla Eghbalzad

Psychology Dissertations

Children’s early ability to implicitly learn the underlying patterns in their environment, also known as statistical learning (SL), is a crucial component of typical cognitive development. SL is essential for visual perception and language processing in infants, children, and adults. However, previous studies have not explored the association between children’s environment and underlying neural mechanisms of SL ability in children. Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the most important indicators of the quality of this environment. Children who live in low SES families have less exposure to cognitive and linguistic stimulation and show atypical structural and functional neural patterns compared …

Maternal And Paternal Overcontrol: Relationships With Child Anxiety, Rachel Weinstock

Psychology Dissertations

Anxiety is a highly prevalent childhood condition. Multiple factors contribute to the onset and maintenance of anxiety among children; parenting behaviors constitute one such factor, and research has yielded evidence linking parenting strategies to the development of childhood anxiety. Understanding these relationships is important, given that many parenting behaviors are modifiable; targeting these behaviors through intervention may help to alleviate and prevent anxiety. A focus of research has been on a strategy termed “Parental Overcontrol” (PO). PO is defined as an excessive amount of involvement in, and control over, a child’s environment and experiences, and has been shown to relate …