Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Nesting Environment On Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Injury, Laura Grace Rollins

Graduate Masters Theses

Term neonates with hypoxic-ischemic (HI) injury are at risk for devastating neurological sequelae. The objective of this study is to determine if altering the early environment for maternal care-taking impacts the immediate and long-term sequelae of HI offspring. The Rice-Vannucci model was used to induce HI in postnatal day (PND) 7 Long-Evans pups. Litters were assigned to a closed nest (CN) or normal standard housing (SH) condition. Neurobehavioral development, cognitive ability, and stress response were assessed to establish any benefits of the CN condition. Finally, postmortem brain tissue was analyzed for morphometric markers of injury.

Book Review: How To Give Financial Advice To Couples, Alycia Degraff, D. Bruce Ross

Journal of Financial Therapy

How to Give Financial Advice to Couples is a financial advisor’s must-read text. Kingsbury allows the reader to become familiar with the daunting area of couple dynamics in this unintimidating and easy read.

Journal Of Financial Therapy Editorial, Volume 4, Issue 2, Kristy L. Archuleta

Journal of Financial Therapy

This is the editorial for Volume 4, Issue 2, featuring the 2013 Financial Therapy Association membership profile, articles on narrative financial therapy and Hoarding Disorder, two professional financial therapy profiles, and a book review.

Narrative Financial Therapy: Integrating A Financial Planning Approach With Therapeutic Theory, Megan A. Mccoy, D. Bruce Ross, Joseph W. Goetz

Journal of Financial Therapy

The article serves as one of the first attempts to develop an integrated theoretical approach to financial therapy that can be used by practitioners from multiple disciplines. The presented approach integrates the components of the six-step financial planning process with components of empirically-supported therapeutic methods. This integration provides the foundation for a manualized approach to financial therapy, shaped by the writings of narrative theorists and select cognitive-behavioral interventions that can be used both by mental health and financial professionals.

Hoarding Disorder: It’S More Than Just An Obsession - Implications For Financial Therapists And Planners, Anthony Canale, Bradley Klontz

Journal of Financial Therapy

Compulsive hoarders feel emotional attachments to their money and possessions, making it difficult for them to spend or discard accumulated items. Traditionally, hoarding has been seen as a symptom of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). However, hoarding behavior can be a problem in its own right, without someone meeting the diagnostic criteria for OCD or OCPD. Despite being a mental health disorder that poses a serious public health problem, social costs to the public, and strain on families, there is little empirical work that has examined Hoarding Disorder (HD) from a financial perspective. As with …

Researcher Profile: An Interview With Russell James, Jd, Phd, Cfp(R), Russell James

Journal of Financial Therapy

Russell James is a professor and the CH Foundation Chair in Personal Financial Planning in the Department of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University, where he is also the Director of Graduate Studies in Charitable Financial Planning. His research is focused on encouraging generosity and satisfaction in financial decision-making.

2013 Membership Profile Of The Financial Therapy Association: A Strategic Planning Report, Sarah Asebedo, Megan A. Mccoy, Kristy L. Archuleta

Journal of Financial Therapy

A second profile of the Financial Therapy Association (FTA) membership was conducted to continue the development of financial therapy as a new area of practice and study. The FTA was established in 2010 as an effort to bring together practitioners and researchers from diverse disciplines to share in a common vision of financial therapy. This profile report depicts the demographic profile (e.g., age, education, gender, occupation, income) and perspectives of members who participated in the survey commissioned by the FTA Strategic Planning Committee in 2013. The results of the membership profile survey highlight the future directions of and the challenges …

Practitioner Profile: An Interview With Amanda Clayman, Lmsw, Cfsw, Amanda Clayman

Journal of Financial Therapy

Amanda Clayman, is a Licensed Master of Social Work and a Certified Financial Social Worker who helps individuals, couples, and families bring money into balance. Since 2006, Amanda has led the Financial Wellness Program at The Actors Fund, a national non-profit human services agency that supports professionals in performing arts and entertainment. She maintains a private financial wellness counseling practice in New York City and is a public speaker on life and money topics. Amanda's work has been featured in media outlets, such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, SELF magazine, REAL SIMPLE magazine, Women's Health, Parenting, …

Racism And Anxiety In A Black American Sample: The Role Of Mediators And A Brief Mindfulness Manipulation, Jessica Rose Graham

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

It is important to determine factors that may exacerbate the negative effects of experiences of racism on anxiety, as well as factors that might buffer racism's negative impact on anxiety in Black American samples. To examine these factors, we conducted two related studies. In study 1, 119 Black American individuals completed the Schedule of Racist Events, the five factor mindfulness questionnaire, the anxiety control questionnaire (assessing perceptions of control), the self-hatred subscale of the cross racial identity scale, and the depression anxiety and stress Scale. As hypothesized, frequency of racist experiences over the past week was significantly positively associated with …

Maternal Self-Efficacy And Perceived Stigma Among Mothers Of Children With Asd, Adhd, And Typically Developing Children, Sara D. Rosenblum-Fishman

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Maternal self-efficacy (a mother's beliefs about her parenting competence) is an important area of mothers' wellbeing and overall family functioning. This study examined environmental factors that are related maternal self-efficacy among mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD group), mothers of children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD group), and mothers of typically developing children (Typical group). Environmental factors included (a) messages of criticism or blame about one's parenting competence (parenting-related perceived stigma), (b) child problem behaviors, (c) maternal stress, and (d) social support. One hundred eighty mothers of school-age children living in the United States completed the measures on-line. Results …

Research On Second Language Teacher Motivation: From A Vygotskian Activity Theory Perspective, Tae-Young Kim, Qian-Mei Zhang

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

Second language (L2) teachers’ motivation has considerable influence on their students’ L2 learning motivation, personal satisfaction, and fulfillment. It has important influence on national educational reform and development. Although a number of studies have examined teachers’ motivation to teach, to date, few have focused on L2 teacher motivation. Based on the limitations identified in previous research, this paper articulates the inherent complexities of L2 teacher motivation and identifies its dynamic characteristics from the perspective of Vygotskian Activity Theory (AT). With a concise overview of AT, this paper elaborates on the applicability and relevance of AT to L2 teachers’ motivation by …

Beyond Perceptual Expertise: Revisiting The Neural Substrates Of Expert Object Recognition, Assaf Harel, Dwight J. Kravitz, Chris I. Baker

Psychology Faculty Publications

Real-world expertise provides a valuable opportunity to understand how experience shapes human behavior and neural function. In the visual domain, the study of expert object recognition, such as in car enthusiasts or bird watchers, has produced a large, growing, and often-controversial literature. Here, we synthesize this literature, focusing primarily on results from functional brain imaging, and propose an interactive framework that incorporates the impact of high-level factors, such as attention and conceptual knowledge, in supporting expertise. This framework contrasts with the perceptual view of object expertise that has concentrated largely on stimulus-driven processing in visual cortex. One prominent version of …

Do Storybooks Really Break Children's Gender Stereotypes?, Carla Abad, Shannon M. Pruden

Department of Psychology

A book review on An open book: What and how young children learn from picture and storybooks. Special Issue of Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.

Edited by J.S. Horst and C. Houston-Price

Stuck In The Moment: Cognitive Inflexibility In Preschoolers Following An Extended Time Period, Carolina Garcia, Anthony Steven Dick

Department of Psychology

Preschoolers display surprising inflexibility in problem solving, but seem to approach new challenges with a fresh slate. We provide evidence that while the former is true the latter is not. Here, we examined whether brief exposure to stimuli can influence children’s problem solving following several weeks after first exposure to the stimuli. We administered a common executive function task, the Dimensional Change Card Sort, which requires children to sort picture cards by one dimension (e.g., color) and then switch to sort the same cards by a conflicting dimension (e.g., shape). After a week or after a month delay, we administered …

Reid On Olfaction And Secondary Qualities, Jake Quilty-Dunn

Publications and Research

Thomas Reid is one of the primary early expositors of the “dual-component” theory of perception, according to which conscious perception constitutively involves a non-intentional sensation accompanied by a noninferential perceptual belief. In this paper, I will explore Reid's account of olfactory perception, and of odor as a secondary quality. Reid is often taken to endorse a broadly Lockean picture of secondary qualities, according to which they are simply dispositions to cause sensations. This picture creates problems, however, for Reid's account of how we perceive secondary qualities, including odors. Given Reid's insistence that we come to be aware of odors only …

Private Flashbulb Memories: The Case Of Coming Out Memories, Gabrielle Weber

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Participants (N = 83) from Butler University and communities in Indianapolis, IN answered a three part questionnaire regarding their experience revealing their homosexual identity to their parents that included: a narrative, a set of probe questions, and a short demographic section. The narrative and probed recall data were scored in a similar fashion to flashbulb memory narratives with canonical features. The memory of revealing homosexuality to parents displayed flashbulb-like qualities. We found that those most confident in their probed recall answers were those with moderate arousal and few recounts. Also, those reporting moderate affect and fewer recounts had better memory …

The Interaction Of Post-Partum Depression And Maternal Knowledge Of Infant Development On Change In Sensitive And Responsive Parenting During Early Infancy, Julie Weiss

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Sensitive and responsive parenting during early infancy is highly understudied, particularly in families with a low socioeconomic status. Longitudinal data from 41 mothers and their 4 to 16 week old infants found that accurate maternal knowledge of infant development positively affected parenting contemporaneously and over time while depression did not affect parenting in this sample. Implications for intervention and research are discussed.

Philosophy And Counseling: A Case Study, Matthew Wegmann

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Philosophical tenets have been at the heart of the counseling process since its inception. This study explores the factors present within a graduate-level counseling class that directly teaches these philosophical foundations through an exploration of dialectics and its impact on the medium of conversation. Interviews were conducted with both the professor that created the class as well as its current instructor along with focus groups of both current program students and program alumni. The fundamental aim was to understand the processes at work within the class and their influence on its students. The results suggest that by bringing the students …

Hostile Attributional Bias In Aggression And Anxiety: The Role Of Perceived Provocateur Motivation, Melissa M. Kunimatsu

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Although internalizing and externalizing problems are often considered in isolation from one another, the frequently co-occur in individuals leading to unique behavior profiles. The current study examined the associations between the forms, functions, and subtypes of aggression, anxiety, hostile attributional bias (HAB), and perceived (proactive or reactive) provocateur motivation in a sample of youth (mean age = 13.84 years, 51% male, 37.5% Caucasian). Results indicated that only reactive relational aggression significantly predicted anxiety, while relational and reactive aggression did not. HAB was not significantly associated with either anxiety or any type of aggression. Perceived proactive provocateur motivation was significantly associated …

A Multi-Gene By Environment Perspective Of Adhd Symptomatology In Young Children, Amber L. Allison

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a heritable disorder, which has detrimental effects on childhood development and is associated with maladaptive functioning in adulthood. Despite this, we are far from an understanding of the etiology and possible trajectories of ADHD, possibly due to investigations focusing on the contribution of single genes. In fact, single genes are likely not influential enough to alter behavior, but the additive effect of many genes may predispose an individual toward certain behaviors. Further, environmental input can activate or suppress genetic expression, thereby leading to vast individual differences in both normative behavior and psychopathological illness, including …

The Effects Of Chronic Simvastatin Treatment On The Expression Of Behavioral Symptoms In A Transgenic Mouse Model Of Huntington’S Disease, Ashley Whitmarsh

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a heritable, neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor, cognitive, and psychiatric disturbances. An unstable CAG expansion within the gene normally encoding for the Huntingtin protein is responsible. The expanded mutant form of Huntingtin and the putative protein co-factor Rhes interact and cause cell death within the striatum. We hypothesized chronic treatment with simvastatin, a cholesterol lowering drug, would disrupt the biosynthetical pathway which gives both Rhes and its target cells binding sites and render Rhes inactive. Healthy and HD mice were treated with simvastatin or a vehicle. Animals’ motor behavior was assessed with three separate tests over …

Hurricane-Exposed Youth And Psychological Distress: An Examination Of The Role Of Social Support, Donice M. Banks

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Hurricane exposure places youth at risk for psychological distress such as symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression, while social support may contribute to resilience following disasters. This study examined associations among family and peer social support, level of hurricane exposure, and psychological distress using both a large single-time assessment sample (N = 1098) and a longitudinal sample followed over a six-month period (n = 192). Higher levels of hurricane exposure were related to lower levels of social support from family and peers as well as to higher levels of psychological distress. Higher levels of family …

Coupling Of The Hpa And Hpg Axes, Andrew Dismukes

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) and –Gonadal (HPG) axes have been considered mutually inhibitory; however, emerging evidence supports the proposition that this might not necessarily be the case. This idea is termed “coupling,” in which the HPA-HPG axis are mutually activated or deactivated. Coupling is examined across three data sets with different time-courses of stress exposure, and results demonstrate HPA-HPG co-activation occurs. Furthermore, stress exposure influences this relationship. The discussion shows how it is physiologically possible to have positive coupling or co-activation between these axes according to complex regulatory feedback systems and overlapping neural structures. Findings are interpreted developmentally, because adolescence may …

The Association Between Hostile Attribution Bias, Social Intelligence, And Relational Aggression In Detained Boys, Gregory M. Fassnacht

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Research on factors that contribute to the forms and functions of aggression (reactive, proactive, relational, and overt) is important for informing intervention efforts with aggressive youth. Previous research shows that aggressive youth often have cognitive and social deficits associated with their aggressive behavior. For example, aggressive youth may exhibit deficits in social variables such as social intelligence (i.e., the understanding of behaviors of people and ability to predict outcomes of situations). Hypothetically, this lack of social intelligence may be related to how youth interpret social situations, and could conceivably lead to hostile attributional bias, or the tendency to interpret ambiguous …

Do Organizational Culture And Climate Matter For Successful Client Outcomes?, David A. Patterson Silver Wolf (Adelv Unegv Waya) Phd, Catherine N. Dulmus Phd, Eugene Maguin Phd, Maria Cristalli

Brown School Faculty Publications

Objectives: The existing literature on the impact of workplace conditions on client care suggests that good cultures and climates provide the best outcomes for clients. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and climate and the proportion of children and youth successfully discharged from a large organization in New York State. Method: Thirty-three child and youth programs with existing culture and climate data evaluated outcome information from 1,336 clients exiting its services. Results: Programs reported as having bad culture and climate yielded superior client outcomes, measured as discharge to a lower level of …

Big Five Personality Traits, Pathological Personality Traits, And Psychological Dysregulation: Predicting Aggression And Antisocial Behaviors In Detained Adolescents, Katherine S. L. Lau

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study tested the utility of three different models of personality, namely the social and personality model, the pathological personality traits model, and the psychological dysregulation model, in predicting overt aggression, relational aggression, and delinquency in a sample of detained boys (ages 12 to 18; M age = 15.31; SD = 1.16). Results indicated that the three personality approaches demonstrated different unique associations with aggression and delinquency. The psychological dysregulation approach, composed of behavioral dysregulation, emotional dysregulation, and cognitive dysregulation, emerged as the overall best predictor of overt aggression, relational aggression, and delinquency. After controlling for the Big Five personality …

Anxiety Sensitivity And Its Association With Parenting Behaviors, Rebecca Graham

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to examine the association between parent and child anxiety sensitivity in the context of parenting behaviors, specifically by testing parenting behaviors as moderators or mediators of the association between parent and child anxiety sensitivity. Past research implies that parent anxiety sensitivity may be more related to child anxiety sensitivity (moderation) in girls and in the context of certain parenting. Alternatively, parenting behaviors may better account for the association (mediate) between parent and child anxiety sensitivity. To test the hypotheses 191 families (n = 255 youth aged 6-17 and their parents) completed measures of …

Assessing Risk In Adolescent Offenders: A Comparison Of Risk Profiles Versus Summed Risk Factors, Katherine A. Gottlieb

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Research supports interventions for high-risk juvenile offenders to reduce recidivism. Methods for assessing delinquent risk vary, however. Aggregate risk scores (i.e. number of risk factors) and specific risk profiles (i.e. types of risk factors) are both empirically supported techniques. This study compared aggregate scores versus profiles for predicting measures of criminal severity among detained adolescents (n=292). Twenty-four risk factors from the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) were summed to calculate aggregate scores. Using latent class analysis (LCA), profiles were identified based on scores from the following theoretically important SAVRY risk factors: Risk Taking/Impulsivity, Anger Management …

Eeg Methods For The Psychological Sciences, Cheryl L. Dickter, Paul Kieffaber

Arts & Sciences Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Effects Of A Cross-Age Peer Tutoring Program On Reading Performance Of Hispanic Title I Second And Third Grade Students, Ana Isabel Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

Hispanic students are falling behind their peers in reading fluency and are struggling to close the gap. This study examined the reading fluency influence on 73 Hispanic second and third grade students while receiving reading fluency support from middle school Hispanic tutors. These students were compared to Hispanic second and third grade students not receiving tutoring reading support. All students were assessed before the tutors gave reading support, mid-year and after the reading support finished using a school district fluency measurement. Findings found that students made rapid growth in reading fluency from the beginning of the tutoring support to mid-year. …