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Stradling A Cultural Doctrine: Exploring Historical Trauma On Ethnic Identity Development Among The Mestizo Peoples, Esmeralda Gill

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT STRADDLING A CULTURAL DOCTRINE: EXPLORING HISTORICAL TRAUMA ON ETHNIC IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AMONG MESTIZO PEOPLES

by Esmeralda Gill The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2020 Under the Supervision of Professor Marty Sapp, Ed.D.

The modern descendants from the territory now known as Mexico, the Mestizo, are known to primarily be an admixture of Indigenous and European ancestry. Mestizo ethnic nomenclature acknowledges the presence of Indigenous Peoples in an individual’s ethnic background. Though the Mestizo narrative is saturated in collective mass group trauma and chronic complex forms of racism, discrimination, and systemic oppressive forces that delineate from colonialism, the Mestizo are also known …

Proactive And Reactive Cognitive Control Under Threat Of Unpredictable Shock: A Combined Eye-Tracking And Eeg Study Using Multilevel Modeling, Salahadin Lotfi

Theses and Dissertations

We are constantly bombarded by environmental distractors in daily life which interfere with internal, ongoing goals, thus cognitive control processes need to be in place to adapt to maintain these goals in light of the environmental demands. These cognitive processes (generally referred to cognitive control) are thought to be adjusted reactively or proactively to deal with distractors. There is little evidence on how state anxiety dynamically interacts with these two modes of cognitive control. Taking advantage of a multimodal methodology, through two experiments, we replicated existing findings of reactive and proactive control processes via utilizing a Flanker task in a …

Associations Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Negative Sleep Health Among Young Adults, Yanzhou Lu

Theses and Dissertations

Poor sleep health has been marked as a major factor impacting young adults’ social, academic, and physical performance in a negative direction. Existing research has shown that stress related mental illness or disorder are significant risk factors that contribute to negative sleep health in a bidirectional relationship. Such stress can be contributed by stressors of daily life, as well as adverse experiences and other experiences from earlier in the development. Purpose of the current study aimed to contribute to the existing understanding of the mechanisms that connect early trauma and disadvantage to sleep difficulties in emerging adulthood. Results indicated that …

Restorative Potential And Working Memory Capacity Of Exposure To Vegetation In Indoor Built Environments, Jee Heon Rhee

Theses and Dissertations

This research seeks to understand how natural elements – specifically, vegetation in the indoor environment - influence people’s ability to restore attention and working memory capacity. Previous research demonstrates the benefits of nature on human beings in various ways. For instance, numerous studies show the positive effects of nature on stress reduction (Hartig, Mang, & Evans, 1991; Ulrich et al., 1991) and attention restoration (Staats, Kieviet, & Hartig, 2003). However, most of these studies focus on the effect of nature in outdoor settings. Relatively few studies focus on the presence of natural elements indoors. This is an important gap in …

Effects Of Values-Based Affirmation About Pets On Physiological And Emotional Arousal, Karen Floan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to explore whether valuing a pet dog after writing about a negative personal experience could facilitate cardiovascular recovery, reduce anxiety, and boost positive affect even in the absence of the pet. Data was analyzed using one-within and one-between repeated-measures ANOVAs. It was found that there were no significant between-group differences in cardiovascular responses to the affirmation manipulation such that HR decreased at roughly the same rate as the control condition. Self-reported ratings of anxiety significantly decreased for both groups across time, and there was no overall effect on positive mood. Therefore, it was …

Inactivation Of Nucleus Reuniens Impairs Spatial Memory In Mice, Miranda Schwabe

Theses and Dissertations

Episodic memory is a complex process requiring input from several regions of the brain. Coordinated activity in the Dorsal Hippocampus (DH) and medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) is required for episodic memory consolidation. Our laboratory demonstrated that simultaneous subthreshold chemogenetic inactivation of the dorsal hippocampus (DH) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) impairs the consolidation of object placement (OP) and object recognition (OR) memory in female mice (Tuscher et al., 2018), suggesting that these two brain regions work in concert to promote memory consolidation. However, the mechanisms through which the DH and mPFC interact to promote memory consolidation remain poorly understood. A …

Data-Driven Approach To Dynamic Resting State Functional Connectivity In Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Carissa Weis

Theses and Dissertations

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a heterogenous psychological disorder that may result from exposure to a traumatic event. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), symptoms of PTSD have been associated with aberrations in brain networks that emerge in the absence of a given cognitive demand or task, called resting state networks. Most previous research in resting state networks and PTSD has focused on aberrations in the static functional connectivity among specific regions of interest (ROI) in the brain and within canonical networks constrained by a priori hypotheses. However, dynamic fMRI, an approach that examines changes in brain network characteristics over …

Are They Really Just Cosmetic? The Impact Of Cosmetic Items On Fortnite's Gameplay And Game Design, John Joseph Fennimore

Theses and Dissertations

Cosmetic microtransactions, the act of paying for virtual items that customize certain parts of video games and virtual worlds such as skins that change the appearance of the avatar, are looked upon more favorably in the gaming community than performance-enhancing microtransactions, where one pays for virtual items that enhance the abilities of avatars or speed up the progression of the game. Video game industry spokespeople have adapted this rhetoric and emphasized that the microtransactions in their games are for cosmetic items only with no bearing on gameplay. However, the way players use cosmetic items in games and the way cosmetic …

The Effects Of Long-Term Memory Prioritization On Attention During Visual Search, Joshua Hoelter

Theses and Dissertations

Attention has traditionally been divided into a dichotomy, however mounting evidence suggests a third attention process is at work, one that shows attention capture because of previous experiences with a stimulus, not its physical properties. In line with this, items that have been paired with a rewarding or aversive outcome, items held in working memory, and items incidentally retrieved from long term memory have all been shown to capture attention in an obligatory fashion similar to bottom-up attentional processes. More recent work into how items in working memory capture attention, has demonstrated that items can attain a special status that …

Medical Provider Reactions To An Adolescent Chronic Pain Complaint And A Dismissive Interaction, Eva Igler

Theses and Dissertations

Childhood chronic pain impacts approximately 15-33% of children and adolescents and can significantly impact physical and psychosocial functioning. Children and adolescents with chronic pain have a decreased ability to participant in normal childhood activities and are more likely to have sleep difficulties, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and sedentary behavior. The etiology underlying chronic pain can be particularly difficult to diagnose because often, it does not have a clear physiological etiology and assessment relies almost solely on patient report. This often leads to under-treatment of pain and can lead to pain dismissal, particularly by medical providers. The literature regarding diagnosis and …

Stability And Predictive Value Of Intellectual Functioning In Neurofibromatosis Type 1 Beginning In The Preschool Years, Gregor Nathanael Pau Schwarz

Theses and Dissertations

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a rare genetic disorder that affects multiple aspects of cognitive functioning, including intellectual functioning, attention, and executive functioning. The predictive value of intellectual functioning (IF) in the preschool years for IF in the school- age and early adolescent years has not been examined in youth with NF1. In this study, the reliability and predictive value of preschool IF for school-age IF were examined using both bivariate correlation and more complex linear mixed models. The participants were 55 youth with NF1 from ages 3 to 13 years. Intellectual functioning was measured with the Differential Ability Scales …

Counseling Psychologists' Experiences Addressing Sexual Health Of Clients: A Sex-Positive Perspective, Jennifer Watjen

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the lived experiences of counseling psychologists in assisting their clients with sexual health needs. Special attention was given to their understanding and feelings of competency in using a sex-positive framework to assist clients with their sexual health. The study used a phenomenological data analysis method to qualitatively study 5 semi-structured interviews of licensed counseling psychologists. Interview questions addressed counseling psychologists’ experiences in assisting clients with their sexual health and focused on the following areas: (a) counseling psychology values, (b) professional experiences with sexual health, (c) graduate training experiences in sexual health, and (d) value influences related to …

The Impact Of Task Load On Neural Entrainment To Attended Speech: A Dual-Task Magnetoencephalography (Meg) Paradigm, Michelle Tamar Kassel

Theses and Dissertations

Speech comprehension in a noisy environment requires active cognitive control mechanisms to select the relevant speech signal while filtering out irrelevant distractions. When processing speech in a multitask scenario, neural resources underlying cognitive control are considerably burdened and interfering information becomes more difficult to ignore. The present study utilized magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate the impact of multitasking on selective attention to speech. Twenty healthy adults performed a multitask paradigm with varying levels of both competing auditory distraction and concurrent visual working memory load. While increased visual working memory load was associated with reduced selective attention to speech in both the …

Utilizing Cognitive Assessment To Predict Exposure And Response Prevention Treatment Response, Gregory Samuel Berlin

Theses and Dissertations

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is the first-line treatment for the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, a substantial portion of individuals in treatment may not see benefit, and efforts to find predictors of treatment outcomes have been challenging. Response inhibition (RI), which has been linked to OCD symptoms, is theoretically promising as a predictor of ERP treatment outcomes. In this study, we utilized inhibitory capabilities, measured at admission to partial hospitalization programs (PHP) at Rogers Memorial Hospital, to predict treatment outcomes in ERP. We hypothesized that worse performance in RI subdomains of action cancellation, action withholding, and interference control, as well …

The Role Of Ethnic Identity, Perceived Cultural Distance And Social Network Composition In Predicting Acculturative Stress Among Indian International Students In The U.S, Devyani Gore

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how ethnic identity, perceived cultural distance and cultural composition of social networks interacted to influence acculturative stress, among Indian international students studying in the United States. Acculturation models and the stress-buffering hypothesis served as theoretical frameworks. Participants consisted of 100 international students (56 % female, 44 % male; mean age = 24.72 years) who were mainly recruited with the support of Office of Student Affairs of a midwestern university. Data was collected through an online survey comprised of the Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (ASSIS), Multigroup Measure of Ethnic Identity-R (MEIM-R), Cultural Distance Index (CDI) and …

The Association Of Aerobic Fitness With Resting State Functional Connectivity And Verbal Learning And Memory In Healthy Young Adults, Kyle Joseph Jennette

Theses and Dissertations

The beneficial effects of exercise and cardiopulmonary fitness on general health, quality of life, and reduction of mortality are well known in older adults. There is evidence to support the positive effects of exercise and aerobic fitness on psychiatric and neurocognitive function in children, adults, and older adults. Indeed, many studies have explored the positive effects of aerobic fitness on slowing cognitive decline associated with normal and pathological aging. However, comparatively fewer empirical studies in the literature exist to support and understand the effects of aerobic fitness on the developing brain, particularly during adolescence and young adulthood, especially as it …

Factors Contributing To Executive Functioning In Children With Neurofibromatosis Type 1, Brianna Yund

Theses and Dissertations

Despite variability in the neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) cognitive phenotype, attention and executive functioning (EF) difficulties are often described, and high rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have long been associated with NF1. Despite the known clinical relation between NF1 and ADHD, there is a paucity of research exploring potential factors that contribute to ADHD vulnerabilities in children and adolescents with NF1. Furthermore, recent research suggests that impairment in EF, a construct highly associated with ADHD, occurs in children with NF1 independent of ADHD diagnosis suggesting that the presence of EF impairment in children with NF1 may not be uniquely associated …

Exploring The Effect Of Service Dogs On Ptsd Symptoms In Veterans, Lauren Floore-Guetschow

Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing psychiatric service dogs for PTSD is a relatively new area of research and treatment option for veterans. This qualitative research study aims to look at the effects of the use of psychiatric service dogs on veterans with PTSD for veterans who have or were previously receiving traditional mental health treatment. The researcher was looking to see: how does day-to-day life look for these veterans, have they noticed a change in PTSD symptoms, what are their views on mental health treatment, and how do they view being in public? 7 veterans, from a variety of conflicts and branches were interviewed …

Response To Uncertain Threat In Acute Trauma Survivors, Kenneth Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

Uncertainty is often associated with subjective distress and a potentiated anxiety response. The heightened response to uncertainty may be a central mechanism via which anxiety-, trauma-, and stressor-related disorders are developed and maintained. The current study compared the neural response to predictable and unpredictable threat in acute trauma survivors to clarify the role of the response to uncertain threat in fear circuitry and further inform the nature of the development of PTSD in the context of uncertain threat. The novel study showed that anticipating unpredictable (primarily negative images) relative to predictable images increased activation in a frontoparietal network and was …

Treatment Predictors Of Dialectical Behavior Therapy Among Adolescent Females In Residential Care, Taylor Davine

Theses and Dissertations

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive intervention for the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD), which is characterized by significant emotion dysregulation and associated parasuicidal behaviors. Findings from 21 randomized-controlled trials indicated that DBT is effective in the treatment of BPD symptoms. While effective, some individuals do not obtain symptoms reductions after completing DBT. The aim of the current study was to identify factors that predict treatment response among adolescent females (N = 107) receiving DBT in a residential setting. It was hypothesized that residents with elevated scores of emotion regulation difficulties, intolerance of uncertainty, experiential avoidance, social anxiety …

Psychosocial Experiences That Support Positive Self-Concept In Children With Cleft Lip And/Or Palate Adopted From China, Samantha Everhart

Theses and Dissertations

Cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) is the most common birth defect occurring in the United States (Parker et al., 2010). Children diagnosed with CL/P and their families face significant burden associated with frequent and costly medical appointments (Tolarova, Al-Kharafi, & Tolar, 2018). Children with CL/P are at higher risk for associated genetic conditions, neuropsychological correlates (Conrad, Richman, Nopoulos, & Dailey, 2009), and psychosocial stressors such as social difficulties and internalizing symptoms (Richman, McCoy, Conrad, & Nopoulos, 2012). Self-concept and other self-perceptions have been found to mediate the relationship between negative events and internalizing symptoms (Feragen, Borge, & Rumsey, 2009; Rumsey …

School Psychologists' Beliefs, Perceived Competence, Knowledge, Social/Norms Expectations, And Implementation Of School-Based Trauma-Focused Interventions, Amanda Rian Hanrahan

Theses and Dissertations

Two out of every three children will experience a traumatic event before the age of 16 (APA, 2008). Due to a variety of barriers, many of these children will not receive the mental health treatment and support they need (GAO, 2009). Researchers have identified School Psychologists as the primary school-based mental health professionals to provide services in schools (Jaycox et al., 2007). The present study aimed to better understand the prevalence of childhood trauma, analyze the factors that lead to increased intervention implementation for School Psychologists, and identify factors that decrease the negative association between barriers and implementation frequency of …

Gender Role Conflict, Emotion Regulation, And Ptsd Symptom Severity In Acutely Injured Trauma Survivors, Katelyn Elaine Heyrman

Theses and Dissertations

Within the acutely injured population, men are at an increased risk for trauma exposure and hospitalization. Previous literature has suggested that emotional dysregulation and masculine gender roles are associated with psychological distress and maintenance of PTSD symptoms. Despite these findings, researchers have focused their attention on masculine gender roles within the Veteran and college populations. The current study aimed to assess the Gender Role Conflict within the acutely injured population and determine if emotion regulation strategy moderated the relationship between masculine gender roles and PTSD symptom severity. Participants consisted of 90 traumatically injured, cisgender males (Mage= 44.88 years; 60% White) …

Rest Day Stress In Runners, Hanna Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Exercise has long been known to promote psychological well-being and resilience against stress. More recently, research has shown that habitual exercisers who are deprived of exercise experience negative psychological changes as a result. It is not completely known how planned non-exercise (“rest”) days affect exercisers affectively, physiologically, or behaviorally, nor how factors like exercise dependence or cognitive appraisal may moderate these effects. This study used an in situ methodology to monitor stress in 18 runners on a run day and a rest day, in comparison to 21 non-exercising controls who ran on neither day. Stress was assessed via affective self-reports, …

Measuring Outcome Expectations In Academic Persistence, Michael Kozlowski

Theses and Dissertations

Academic persistence, or a student’s decision to leave an institution of higher education, has remained an inveterate puzzle to researchers, theoreticians, institutions, and counselors. Despite a large body of theoretical and empirical literature, the rate at which students leave institutions of higher education has remained stable over the past 50 years. The discipline of counseling psychology has a long tradition of investigating academic persistence from a psychological perspective. Earlier investigations in counseling psychology focused on identifying psychopathological traits, cognitive abilities, and contextual factors associated with a student’s decision to leave. These investigations were met with a sociological reaction that has …

A Psychometric Evaluation Of Computerized Attention Measures In Young Children With Neurofibromatosis Type 1, Sara Katharine Pardej

Theses and Dissertations

Children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) often demonstrate difficulties with attention and executive functioning that can be evident even starting at a young age. Despite this consistent finding in the literature, there has been no research to determine which measures of attention are most suitable for use with children with NF1. Recently, there have been several computerized measures of attention and executive abilities that have become available to researchers and clinicians. This study explored the National Institute of Health Toolbox Flanker, Dimensional Change Card Sort, and List Sort Working Memory; Cogstate Identification; and Conners Kiddie Continuous Performance Test, second edition …

Shaped By The Environment: The Influence Of Childhood Trauma Exposure, Individual Socioeconomic Position, And Neighborhood Disadvantage On Brain Morphology, Elisabeth Kathleen Webb

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between an individual’s socioeconomic position (SEP) and their overall physical and mental health has been well demonstrated. Far less is known about how area-level factors, such as neighborhood disadvantage, “get under the skin”. Previous research indicates lower SEP and childhood trauma negatively effects brain structure and function. The hippocampus, amygdala, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are particularly vulnerable to adversity. The current study investigated how individual SEP, childhood trauma, and neighborhood disadvantage impact these structures. Two-hundred and fifteen individuals were recruited from an Emergency Department in southeastern Wisconsin. Two-weeks post-traumatic injury, participants completed a structural magnetic resonance imaging …

From Playing To Directing: A Qualitative Inquiry Into The Athlete To Coach Transition, Jamie M. Zalasin

Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertation explored six (n = 6), current, professional baseball coaches' experience with transitioning from playing to coaching. Some experiences associated with athletic transitions based on the literature include missing sport or competition, body changes, social status changes, and vocational concerns (Wylleman & Reints, 2010; Park & Lavallee, 2015). Additionally, the salience of one's athletic identity can create difficulties such as identity loss, emotional distress, and grief (Lally, 2007; Fortunato & Marchant, 1998; Grove, Lavalle, & Gordon, 1997). Within vocational concerns, there can be uncertainty about the next career's link to sports. For many professional athletes, their age of …

Attention Capture By Episodic Long-Term Memories: Evidence From Eye Movement Data, Allison Eleanor Nickel

Theses and Dissertations

Successfully navigating the world on a moment-to-moment basis requires the interaction of multiple cognitive processes. Therefore, studies that examine when and how these fundamental processes interact can provide important insights into how we behave. Many studies indicate that long-term memory can facilitate search for a target object (e.g., contextual cueing), however, the ways in which long-term memory might capture attention and disrupt goal-directed behavior have not been well studied. In five experiments, questions about whether encoded objects might capture attention, even when they are task-irrelevant, were addressed. Each experiment began with an encoding phase, where participants were instructed to commit …

Stereotype Threat: Searching For A Double Dissociation Of Race-Based Effects And An Explanatory Mechanism, Chandler Jae Zolliecoffer

Theses and Dissertations

Stereotype threat (ST) has been established as a leading theory through which investigators have come to understand and account for discrepancies in performance between stereotyped and non-stereotyped groups. ST has been demonstrated to be a plausible explanation for such discrepant performances favoring White over Black respondents in IQ tests and Black over White respondents in tests of athleticism. The present study was designed to address several gaps in the literature. The current study used ex-Gaussian parameters on traditional simple and two-choice reaction time (RT) tasks of mental ‘speed’ in place of ‘power’ measures to address the confound between threat and …