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Application Of The States-Of-Mind Model With Rational Emotive Behavior Theory, Lina Cherkasova

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the role of positive and negative cognitions in psycho-emotional adjustment is essential to improve the effectiveness of CBT practice. Schwartz and Garamoni (1986; 1987) proposed a model for the dynamic relationship of negative and positive cognitions based on the golden-section hypothesis or the optimal balance: The States-Of-Mind Model (SOM). The model proposes an asymmetrical balance of positive and negative cognitions represented numerically by the golden-section ratio of .62 positive to .38 negative cognitions [positive cognitions / (positive + negative cognitions)]. To date, the SOM model has mainly been assessed with measures of automatic thoughts or self-statement, which represent more …

Cognitions, Emotions, And Discipline Style In Parents Of Adolescents With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Nicole Crispinelli

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the associations between parent cognitions, parent emotions and parent distress tolerance and overreactive or lax discipline strategies. Parent behavior was hypothesized to be predicted by parent cognitions, emotions, and distress tolerance. Parent behavior was evaluated to be a predictor of adolescent behavior among parents of adolescents diagnosed with ADHD and an undiagnosed group. Participants included 174 parents of adolescents aged 10-17, who completed several self-report measures. Both clinical and non-clinical groups were identified by the presence or lack of a diagnosis of ADHD. Parents of adolescents with ADHD had significantly less distress tolerance compared to the non-clinical …

School Psychologists’ Training And Practice Regarding Sexual And/Or Gender Minority Students, Ashley Hicks

Theses and Dissertations

As sexual and/or gender minority (SGM) youth are at-risk for discrimination and mental health problems, the purposes of this study were to document the state of SGM-related training and professional development for school psychologists, understand school psychologists’ engagement in SGM-related activities, and gain insight into barriers to engagement in those activities. Three data sources were analyzed: 145 syllabi from 35 school psychology graduate programs; 1,905 presentations from ten years of National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) annual conventions; and survey data from 205 school psychologists. SGM content was appropriately represented at NASP but not in graduate education. Most survey respondents …

Anger Regulation And Psychosis: Mechanisms Of Impact And Implications For Therapy, Naama Hofman

Theses and Dissertations

Paranoia is strongly associated with anger. This relationship is found across the psychosis spectrum, including individuals at high risk of developing psychosis. The relationship is commonly addressed in the measurement of anger but is rarely addressed in clinical studies. This study explored the relationship between anger regulation and paranoid ideation as well as factors that mediate and moderate this relationship. Specifically, the study examined whether the influence of anger regulation cognitive-behavioral interventions on paranoid ideation changed as aspects of emotional awareness changed. It also examined whether interventions for anger regulation that target different phases of anger generation impacted paranoid ideation …

(De)Valuing Digital Discourse: A Network Of Feminist Rhetoric In Women's New Media Dating Practices, Kainat Najmi Abidi

Theses and Dissertations

Online dating has become part of mainstream culture in the 21st century, yet using media to further or meet an individual’s goals of intimacy has been a centuries old practice. Starting in the 17th century, people turned to media to find mates through Lonely Hearts advertisements, but as with all rhetoric, the access to voice and agency within this arena has its limitations. This research investigates the landscape referred to here as media intimacy—turning to forms of media, be it print or digital, to find an intimate relationship or partner—to determine if digital settings have provided women with greater agency …

A Protocol For An Intervention To Increase Retention In Higher Education, Kimberly Ann Alexander

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Between 40 and 60 percent of high school students are chronically academically disengaged and large differences in post-secondary educational attainment and completion across race/gender and socioeconomic groups reflect highly uneven academic preparation in the K-12 years. As such, there is a need to examine students’ motivation to learn, both at the high school and post-secondary level to address the multitude of negative student outcomes associated with academic disengagement. This study examines students’ motivation to learn by 1) evaluating models of motivation that include the impact of both executive function and self-efficacy on motivation and to examine the extent to …

Positive Family Intervention For Families Of Children With Fragile X Syndrome: Using Telehealth To Reduce Problem Behavior And Improve Maternal Mental Health Author(S): Carmen Ann Kemper Mootz, Carmen Ann Kemper Mootz

Theses and Dissertations

The present study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of Positive Family Intervention (PFI), delivered via teletherapy, for a family of a child diagnosed with Fragile X syndrome (FXS). PFI combines elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and positive-behavior support (PBS). A single-subject AB design was used across one participant to evaluate changes in observed problem behavior. Following nine weeks of baseline data collection, the participating mother was administered PFI via WebEx for eight 90-minute sessions, once per week. After the treatment was complete, three weeks of post-treatment follow-up data on problem behavior were collected from video- recordings. The participant uploaded …

Social Constraints As A Mediator Of The Relations Of Discrimination To Anger Expression In A Community Sample, Sahira Hamid

Theses and Dissertations

Research has consistently demonstrated that anger is the dominant emotional response following experiences of racial discrimination. Studying anger itself may not be sufficient because anger can be expressed in a variety of ways, therefore it is necessary to examine different forms of anger expression. I hypothesized that social constraint would mediate the relations between discrimination and anger expression. Social constraint in the context of discrimination refers to an individual’s perception that communication about episodes of discrimination will be invalidated or minimized by others (either the same race or other race individuals). Social constraint, in turn, may influence the expression of …

Importance Of Knowledge Of Behavior In Predicting Parent Perception Of Problem Behaviors, Ronnit Nazarian

Theses and Dissertations

The influence of familial factors (e.g., child-related, parental, and environmental characteristics) on child problem behaviors has regularly been studied. An under-researched area is how these variables work to predict how well parents understand their child’s problem behavior function. 338 parents, recruited through MTurk and Facebook, of children between 3 to 5 years old displaying early onset problem behavior participated in this research. Of the 338 children, 206 (61%) indicated significantly problematic behaviors. This research examines parent knowledge of behavior and their understanding of the function of their child’s problem behavior. Moreover, whether a parent’s understanding of the function of their …

Finding Agreeableness: A Replication Of Its Lower Order Factor Structure And An Exploration Of Cognitive And Psychopathology, Gerald Armando Pantoja

Theses and Dissertations

Although some effort has been made to reach an empirical consensus on the structure of agreeableness (Crowe, Lynam, & Miller, 2017; Davies, 2014), research exploring how facets of agreeableness relate to important psychological outcomes is lacking. Two studies were conducted to address these issues. In Study 1, in a large sample of 722 participants, we carried out an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis on agreeableness items from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 2006) to determine the lower-order structure of agreeableness and examined whether the facets were differentially related to cognitive outcomes. In Study 2, in an …

The Novel-Manifesto: Modernist Kunstlerromane And The Discourse Of Modernist Aesthetic Theory, Edward Stephen Marks

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes the modernist kunstlerroman as a site for aesthetic theorizing. Like the aesthetic manifestos that proliferated between 1890 and 1939, the kunstlerromane of this period advance a set of aesthetic criteria and values. The modernist kunstlerroman’s formal qualities—it’s an art object about art—as well as the period in which it is written—the aesthetically revolutionary modernist period—provide the foundation for reading modernist kunstlerromane as manifesto-like novels. Through close reading, three kunstlerromane of the period are explored as examples of the novel-manifesto: The Tragic Muse (1890), by Henry James; Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), by James …

Examining Start Times Among Schools In New York State: Patterns, Rationale, And Implications, Danielle Lundgren

Theses and Dissertations

School start times have a significant impact on students’ academic (Keller et al., 2015; Kelley et al., 2017; Lewin et al., 2017), social/emotional (Wahlstrom et al., 2017), and behavioral functioning (Keller et al., 2017). This present study examined the patterns, rationale, and implications for school start times among schools within New York State (NYS). School principals/CEOs completed a survey that included various questions about their school and start times, with additional data collected from the NYS Education Department website. Overall, this study found that a majority of schools in NYS start before 8:30 a.m. Factors rated to contribute most greatly …

The Business Of Fashion: Fashion Group International, 1928-1997, Larissa Marie Knopp

Theses and Dissertations

In 1931 a group of women formed an organization that would serve as a clearing house for American fashion and as a support group for women professionals in the fashion industry. Members included Dorothy Shaver, Edith Head, and Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as other well-known professionals. Fashion Group soon grew into an international organization that helped launch careers in every area of the industry. Fashion Group International helped women create space for themselves in the upper echelons of the fashion world. Through a careful examination of archival documents, including letters, meeting minutes, newsletters, and speeches, this thesis shows how Fashion …

Moving Up The Pipeline: Factors Associated With Interest In School Psychology Programs, Amrita Singh

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the growing number of minority students in U.S. public schools, only a small percentage of school psychology graduate students, trainers and practicing school psychologists identify themselves as racial minorities. Analyses were conducted on 512 responses to a national survey that investigated demographic and other qualitative factors that are associated with interest in school psychology master’s and doctoral programs. Additionally, analyses were also conducted to examine demographic differences that exist between undergraduate students interested in PsyD versus PhD school psychology programs. The study aimed to investigate whether there was: (a) a significant relationship between doctoral interest and higher household incomes, …

Hidden In Detail: Triangulating Shakespeare Through Sixteenth-Century Prose Pamphlets, Scott Donald Koski

Theses and Dissertations

Part of what has led to fetishizing Shakespeare both inside and outside of the academy is the inexplicable way he arrived on the London writing scene. Though scholars have searched for years trying to trace the path that led a young Shakespeare out of rural Warwickshire to the bustling streets of London, very little is known about the man himself in the time leading up to his arrival and first being called an “upstart crow” by Robert Greene in 1592. This void has become known as the “lost years,” and because there is so little information save a few documents …

Reaching In & Speaking Out: Performance And The Construction Of Identity In The Poetry Of Una Marson And Louise Bennett, Tejan Green Waszak

Theses and Dissertations

Reaching in & Speaking Out examines gender, race, and class in the poetry of Una Marson (1905-1965) and Louise Bennett (1919-2006). This dissertation takes a multidisciplinary approach to these two Jamaican women’s groundbreaking poetry, prioritizing the emotional stakes and historical traditions connected to their words through the varied performances within their poetry. This means keeping in mind each poet’s individual influences and vulnerabilities, based on their background, education, and social standing, and identifying how those aspects merge with their social climate and become visible through each poet’s work.

Bennett’s and Marson’s poetic style, delivery, and public personas differ greatly: while …

Identifying Mcmi-Iv Personality Disorder Subgroups Using Exploratory Factor Analysis And Latent Class Analysis, Amanda Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Patients diagnosed with personality disorders (PDs) have higher morbidity and mortality rates than those without PDs. The DSM-5 PD diagnoses and the cluster system lack a theoretical and empirical basis, which hinders the development of knowledge about PDs and interventions for PDs. This present study attempts to add to this literature by forming PD groups using a combination of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and latent class analysis (LCA) based on PD scores from the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV (MCMI-IV), a method recommended by Gorman and Primavera (1983). Participants were 251 English speaking males and females ages 18 to 75 seeking …

Parenting And Physical Aggression Across Infancy, Brooke Edelman

Theses and Dissertations

While physical aggression is known to be common in toddlerhood, new research suggests that aggression is evident even in infancy. Further, early aggression is stable and predicts maladaptive outcomes later in life. Research supports close associations between harsh, overreactive discipline and physical aggression in early childhood. Harsh discipline encourages and maintains coercive processes in which reciprocal, transactional interchanges escalate aversive behaviors in both parent and child. In accordance with a developmental system perspective, we hypothesized that the congruency between parenting and aggression would increase with age as a result of these transactional interactions on the dyad. A normative US sample …

Dark Love: Polish Identity And The Holocaust In Krzysztof Baczyński’S Poetry, Anna Michalik

Theses and Dissertations

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, nom de plume “Jan Bugaj” (22 January 1921, Warsaw – 4 August 1944, Warsaw) was a Polish poet. In his short life Baczyński, who was killed at the age of 23 during the first days of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, had proven to be an individual of great talent and poetic maturity. After the war, the legend of Baczyński steadily grew. Today, he is recognized in Poland to be the greatest poet of the war generation. In the case of Baczyński, however, it needs to be acknowledged that many elements of his life have been manipulated by …

Conceptions Of Internalizing And Externalizing Symptoms: Identifying Parent And Child Differences Using Psychometric Analyses, Jenna Winarick

Theses and Dissertations

One of the most prevalent ways to assess child and adolescent symptomatology is with a multiple-informant approach (Kraemer et al., 2003; De Los Reyes et al., 2015), yet mental health professionals commonly run into the problem of informant discrepancies in ratings of symptomatology (Achenbach, 2006). These comparisons are made on the observed scores; however, we argue that to simply compare mean scores may not be accurate and instead, researchers must examine the role of measurement invariance. We hypothesized that information discrepancies between parent and self-report on the YOQ is due to lack of measurement invariance. Our assessment of measurement invariance …

Women For Ireland: Republican Feminism In The Northern Ireland Troubles, Laura Jacobsen

Theses and Dissertations

This paper studies the involvement of republican women in the Northern Ireland conflict, a struggle which defined life in Northern Ireland from 1969-1998. Too often, the Troubles, as the conflict is known, has been conceptualized as a struggle of men, while women are seen to be little more than suffering wives, girlfriends, and mothers. The image of “Mother Ireland” reinforces this notion: in this trope, Ireland is a woman begging for her sons to save her from British subjectivity. Similarly, contemporary feminist critics did not consider republican women to be equal to men. It was their belief that republican women …

Humor As A Moderator Of Neuroticism’S Effect On Psychopathology And Life Satisfaction, Adir Pinchot

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research studies evaluated self-enhancing humor (also referred to as coping humor) as a coping strategy that enables an individual to better manage the negative emotions elicited by external stressors. Research has not, however, adequately considered the role that humor may play for neurotic individuals who are characterized by a propensity to experience stress and negative emotions and are, therefore, more susceptible to developing depression, anxiety, and low life satisfaction. Nor has research adequately explored how self-enhancing humor interacts with the maladaptive form of self-directed humor, namely, self-defeating humor. This study attempts to address these lacunae by analyzing whether self-enhancing …

The Effects Of Interpersonal Discrimination On Social Cognition And Depressive Symptoms, Emilia Eva Mikrut

Theses and Dissertations

Interpersonal racial/ethnic discrimination is a risk factor for poor psychological well-being, including symptoms of depression. Emerging research suggests that changes in social cognition, including relational schemas about the self and others that facilitate navigation of the social world, may be one mechanism underlying the relation between exposure to discrimination and psychological distress. Prior studies have often examined the mediating role of one or two negative relational schemas in isolation. However, less is known about the unique and combined effects of multiple dimensions of social cognition on the relation between exposure to interpersonal racial/ethnic discrimination and depressive symptoms. This study tested …

Investigating The Patterns And Mechanisms Of Alternative Splicing Of Cav1.3 In The Mouse., Samuel Sabzanov

Theses and Dissertations

AL-type voltage-gated calcium channel Cav1.3 contains a pore-forming α-1 subunit that is encoded by Cacna1d, a gene which has been shown to undergo alternative splicing (AS). Mutations in CACNA1D have been associated with neurological diseases such as spontaneous seizure disorder and epilepsy. Previous studies have shown that AS of the C-terminus of Cav1.3 results in a truncated variant of exon 42 (E42) that, when compared to the full-length exon, lowers the voltage threshold needed to activate the calcium channel. Therefore, AS of the a1-subunit can modulate the physiological properties of Cav1.3. As a lower voltage threshold of calcium channels increases …

Colonial Trauma And Testimony In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein And Jamaica Kincaid’S Autobiography Of My Mother, Leana Rene

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will examine Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle to examine the colonial trauma and loss found in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Jamaica Kincaid’s Autobiography of My Mother, not just on a character level, but in a much larger colonial context. Some scholars have suggested that Shelley’s monster is a symbol of a colonized other (due to his appearance and certain features he has). Kincaid’s Xuela is for sure a colonized other because of the heritage of her mother. This thesis explores their abandonment by their creators as the abandonment of colonized nations from their colonizers. Even now, formerly colonized …

Relation Of Conscientiousness, Hostility, And Negative Affect To Blood Pressure Measured In An Unrestriced And In A Restriced Condition: Supplemental Analyses Of Data Generated From Hypertension Optimal Treatment (Hot Study)., Samantha Vazquez

Theses and Dissertations

he relationship between personality and blood pressure (BP) was examined under two conditions. Six hundred and sixty-six participants were selected from the original HOT study data set and asked to complete the Big Five Inventory, Cook Medley Hostility Scale, and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale. The two conditions were enrollment blood pressure, when the treatment of BP was unrestricted and qualifying blood pressure, when treatment of BP was restricted. Results revealed that conscientiousness had a strong relation to blood pressure in both conditions but had a stronger relation to blood pressure in the unrestricted condition. Hostility and negative affect …

Signaling Characterization Of Up-Regulation Of Mouse And Human Bile Salt Export Pump (Bsep) By Berberine, Yuan Le

Theses and Dissertations

Bile salt export pump (Bsep) is primarily responsible for biliary excretion of bile salts in the liver. Genetic mutation or drug-induced dysfunction of Bsep often leads to disruption of enterohepatic circulation of bile acids and consequently cholestatic liver injury. Berberine (BBR), a traditional herbal medicine, promotes bile flow and has been suggested to treat liver diseases, including cholestasis. We recently reported that BBR induces Bsep expression in mouse liver. However, the underlying mechanism by which BBR induces Bsep expression is unknown. My dissertation project showed that BBR induced mouse and human Bsep/BSEP mRNA and protein expression. In addition, BBR increased …

Gm-1111 Preserves Phagocytic Function Of Macrophages Exposed To Prolonged Hyperoxia Via Interruption Of Hmgb1-Mediated Signaling, Leanne Daley

Theses and Dissertations

Supraphysiological levels of oxygen (i.e. hyperoxia) are used to treat patients with respiratory distress. Prolonged exposure to hyperoxia can impair alveolar macrophage functions and increase susceptibility to ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Hyperoxia-induced alveolar macrophage dysfunction is, in part, mediated by high airway levels of the pro-inflammatory mediator, high mobility group box-1 (HMGB1). An early generation glycosaminoglycan (GAG), 2-O, 3-O desulfated heparin (ODSH), attenuates hyperoxia-compromised innate immunity by preventing the binding of HMGB1 with receptors that activate pro-inflammatory pathways. In this study, we investigated whether the next generation GAG, GM-1111, can attenuate hyperoxia-compromised macrophage function. GM-1111 (100μM) prevented hyperoxia-induced (95% O2 for …

Vaginal Delivery Of Salmon Calcitonin In Self-Emulsified Nanoemulsion, Prachi Jirwankar

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Chemical Space Exploration Around Thieno[3,2-D]Pyrimidin-4(3h)-One Scaffold Led To A Novel Class Of Highly Active Clostridium Difficile Inhibitors, Xuwei Shao

Theses and Dissertations

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is the leading cause of healthcare-associated infection in the United States. Therefore, development of novel treatments for CDI is a high priority. Toward this goal, we began in vitro screening of a structurally diverse in-house library of 67 compounds against two pathogenic C. difficile strains (ATCC BAA 1870 and ATCC 43255), which yielded a hit compound, 2-methyl-8-nitroquinazolin-4(3H)-one (2) with moderate potency (MIC = 312/156 µM). Optimization of 2 gave lead compound 6a (2-methyl-7-nitrothieno[3,2-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one) with improved potency (MIC = 19/38 µM), selectivity over normal gut microflora, CC50s >606 µM against mammalian cell lines, and acceptable stability in …