Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Musical Expertise Generalizes To Superior Temporal Scaling In A Morse Code Tapping Task, Matthew A. Slayton, Juan L. Romero-Sosa, Katrina Shore, Dean V. Buonomano, Indre Viskontas

Psychology

A key feature of the brain’s ability to tell time and generate complex temporal patterns is its capacity to produce similar temporal patterns at different speeds. For example, humans can tie a shoe, type, or play an instrument at different speeds or tempi—a phenomenon referred to as temporal scaling. While it is well established that training improves timing precision and accuracy, it is not known whether expertise improves temporal scaling, and if so, whether it generalizes across skill domains. We quantified temporal scaling and timing precision in musicians and non-musicians as they learned to tap a Morse code sequence. We …

Cruzando Fronteras: Liberation Psychology In A Counseling Psychology Immersion Program, Daniela Domínguez, Belinda Marie Hernandez-Arriaga, K. P. Sharon

Psychology

Using testimonio research, this study explores the immersion experiences of 15 counseling psychology students enrolled in an immersion program in Huejotal, Huaquechula. Based on core concepts of Liberation Psychology, this immersion program sought to increase students’ critical consciousness through conscientization, deideologization, denaturalization, and problematization. A thematic analysis of written testimonios includes coding, checks for internal validity, and the generation of important themes across student participants. Results revealed six themes: reclaiming identity; journeying with “nuestros ancestros and familias [our ancestors and families]”; “los niños [the children] as teachers”; cultural wealth; “comunidad como familia [community as family]”; and “cruzando fronteras [crossing borders]” …

Leveraging The Power Of Mutual Aid, Coalitions, Leadership, And Advocacy During Covid-19, Daniela Domínguez, Dellanira García, David A. Martínez, Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga

Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the norms, patterns, and power structures in the United States that privilege certain groups of people over others. This manuscript describes COVID-19 as an unprecedented catalyst for social transformation that underscores the need for multi-level and cross-sectoral solutions to address systemic changes to improve health equity for all. The authors propose that the American Psychological Association and its membership can initiate systemic change, in part, by: (a) supporting mutual aid organizations that prioritize the needs of vulnerable communities; (b) leveraging the efforts and strides APA psychologists have already made within the association, in …

Career Barriers And Coping Efficacy With International Students In Counseling Psychology Programs, Daniela Domínguez, Hsiu-Lan Cheng, Lisa De La Rue

Psychology

This study uses Lent, Brown, and Hackett’s (1994) Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) as a framework for understanding the career barriers and coping efficacy experienced by master’s counseling psychology international students. Grounded in SCCT, we described coping efficacy as international students’ perceived capability to navigate career barriers. Using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis (2006), we explored the career barriers and coping efficacy of 12 master’s counseling psychology international students. The first focus area, “international journey with multiple barriers,” includes five themes: interpersonal stress; language barriers; financial pressures; advising concerns; and visa and immigration-related stress. The second focus area, “agents of …

Finding The Middle Path Between Dependence And Autonomy: Recent Trainee Experiences In Dialectical Behavior Therapy Supervision, Helen Valenstein-Mah, Joyce Yang, Jennifer Staples, Elizabeth Neilson

Psychology

Originally published in DBT Bulletin Volume 3, Issue 1 pages 28-32 (2020). The DBT Bulletin is published by DBT California.

Race/Ethnicity And Geographic Access To Urban Trauma Care, Elizabeth L. Tung, David A. Hampton, Marynia Kolak, Selwyn O. Rogers, Joyce Yang, Monica E. Peek

Psychology

Importance Little is known about the distribution of life-saving trauma resources by racial/ethnic composition in US cities, and if racial/ethnic minority populations disproportionately live in US urban trauma deserts.

Objective To examine racial/ethnic differences in geographic access to trauma care in the 3 largest US cities, considering the role of residential segregation and neighborhood poverty.

Design, Setting, and Participants A cross-sectional, multiple-methods study evaluated census tract data from the 2015 American Community Survey in Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles (LA), California; and New York City (NYC), New York (N = 3932). These data were paired to geographic coordinates of all adult …

Ignatian Banners Of Hope And Support For Recently Detained Immigrant Families, Daniela Domínguez

Psychology

University of San Francisco (ASUSF) decided to allocate a portion of its annual budget each year to assist undocumented students with non-tuition dollars, most often used for the growingly expensive cost of living within the Bay Area. One year prior, in 2015, USF’s School of Law launched its Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic to represent unaccompanied children and migrant women with children in Northern California and the Central Valley.

Altogether, these acts of solidarity demonstrate how Jesuit institutions have strived for greater acceptance and empowerment of migrants and refugees. Contributing to this effort, the collection of essays in this book …

Foster Youth Perspectives: Self-Reported Strengths And Resilience, Julia Nelson, Rosana Aguilar, Saralyn Ruff Dr.

Psychology

This study examines the relational resilience, emotional self-efficacy, and self-reported strengths of foster youth, using a community based participatory research framework. The aggregate of research to date focuses on detrimental circumstances foster youth have experienced and the associated psychopathology. The present study expands the focus to individual strengths, informing our understanding of resiliency among foster youth.

A survey was co-created with foster youth focused on demographic background, perceptions of strengths, and resilience. This survey included items from the positive acceptance of change / secure relationships subscale of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-CDSC), and emotional self-efficacy subscale of the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire …

Social Justice Disaster Relief, Counseling, And Advocacy: The Case Of The Northern California Wildfires, Daniela Domínguez

Psychology

Using our professional experiences with natural disaster relief, as well as existing theory, the authors introduce an equity-oriented framework— Social Justice Disaster Relief, Counseling, and Advocacy. We then present the case of the 2017 Northern California wildfires using responses from 259 individuals who were living in the region of the Northern California wildfires—the most destructive fires in California state history. We collected qualitative and demographic data on each participant three months after the fires ended. Qualitative data included detailed written reflections to a prompt from each participant in response to an online questionnaire. A thematic analysis using open, axial, and …

A Modified Peer Rating System To Recognise Rating Skill As A Learning Outcome, Violet Cheung, Saera R. Khan

Psychology

The peer rating system used here advances the quantitative literacy goals outlined in social sciences. We instituted a mid-semester intervention to teach rating skills and used an objective index to track longitudinal changes of skill mastery over the course of the semester. Seventy-four students in five advanced research classes followed the procedure of the existing peer rating system by completing reading assignments, writing reflections online, engaging in class discussions, rating their peers’ reflections, and receiving feedback of their group effort. Unique to our modified system, peer ratings were compared with each other and also with the instructor ratings to derive …

Cognitive And Neural Consequences Of Memory Suppression In Major Depressive Disorder, M. D. Sacchet, Benjamin Levy, J. P. Hamilton, A. Maksimovskiy, P. T. Hertel, J. Joormann, Michael C. Anderson, A. D. Wagner, I. H. Gotlib

Psychology

Negative biases in cognition have been documented consistently in major depressive disorder (MDD), including difficulties in the ability to control the processing of negative material. Although negative information-processing biases have been studied using both behavioral and neuroimaging paradigms, relatively little research has been conducted examining the difficulties of depressed persons with inhibiting the retrieval of negative information from long-term memory. In this study, we used the think/no-think paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the cognitive and neural consequences of memory suppression in individuals diagnosed with depression and in healthy controls. The participants showed typical behavioral forgetting effects, but …

Recognition Of Depression, Anxiety, And Alcohol Abuse In A Chinese Rural Sample: A Cross-Sectional Study, Yu Yu, Mi Hu, Hui-Ming Liu, Joyce Yang, Liang Zhou, Shui-Yuan Xiao

Psychology

Background

Under-utilization of mental health services is a global health issue. Recognition of mental disorders, as the first step to seeking help from professional sources, has been well studied in developed countries, yet little is known about the situation in rural areas of developing countries like China. The purpose of the study is to understand the recognition of depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse and its predictive factors in a Chinese rural sample

Methods

Face-to-face interviews were conducted on a representative rural adult sample in a cross-sectional study in China (N = 2052). Respondents were presented with three vignettes depicting …

Binational Same-Sex Couples And Families, Daniela Domínguez, Jacqueline E. Coppock

Psychology

Historically, the topics of same-sex marriage and immigration reform have been debated as separate political issues. Both issues, however, have impacted the lives of LGBTQ immigrants and their American partners. Presently in the United States, families that include same-sex binational couples are part of the increasingly diverse family landscape. Binational couples are defined here as same-sex partnerships in which one spouse or partner is an American citizen or resident and the other is a foreign national. For years, the ideological underpinnings inherent in immigration laws separated committed couples, forced couples into exile, and resulted in the deportation of partners/spouses of …

Acculturation And Bicultural Efficacy Effects On Chinese American Immigrants’ Diabetes And Health Management, Kevin M. Chun, Christine M.L. Kwan, L. A. Strycker, Catherine A. Chesla

Psychology

The primary goal of this study was to examine effects of bicultural efficacy, or perceived confidence in dealing with bicultural acculturation stressors, on type 2 diabetes management and health for first-generation, Cantonese-speaking, Chinese American immigrants (N=162) recruited for a larger community-based diabetes intervention study (Chesla et al., 2013). The current study also tested whether a new Bicultural Efficacy in Health Management (BEFF-HM) scale is a more robust predictor of diabetes and health outcomes than proxy (years in the U.S.) and general acculturation measures. Hierarchical regression analyses of cross-sectional data revealed that high BEFF-HM was significantly related to positive outcomes on …

Mental Health Help-Seeking Intentions And Preferences Of Rural Chinese Adults, Yu Yu, Zi-Wei Liu, Mi Hu, Hui-Ming Liu, Joyce Yang, Liang Zhou, Shui-Yuan Xiao

Psychology

Purpose: We aimed to investigate mental health help-seeking intentions and preferences of rural Chinese adults and determine predictors of the intentions.

Methods: A total of 2052 representative rural residents aged 18-60 completed a cross-sectional survey by face-to-face interviews. The survey included seven questions asking about respondents' help-seeking intentions and preferences, and a series of internationally validated instruments to assess self-perceived health status, depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse, mental health literacy, and attitudes towards mental illness.

Results: Nearly 80% of respondents were willing to seek psychological help if needed, and 72.4% preferred to get help from medical organizations, yet only 12% knew …

Assessment Of Mental Health Literacy Using A Multifaceted Measure Among A Chinese Rural Population, Yu Yu, Zi-Wei Liu, Mi Hu, Xi-Guang Liu, Hui-Ming Liu, Joyce Yang, Liang Zhou, Shui-Yuan Xiao

Psychology

Objectives: The present study aims to assess mental health literacy (MHL) using a standardised multifaceted 20-item instrument called Mental Health Knowledge Questionnaire (MHKQ) developed by the Chinese Ministry of Health, among a rural Chinese population.

Setting: Four villages in Liuyang county of Hunan province, China.

Participants: This was a cross-sectional study. A multistage cluster-sampling method was adopted, leading to a final sampling frame of 2377 residents aged 18–60 years from four villages of Liuyang county. Included in the study were residents aged 18–60 years living in their village for at least half a year; excluded were those not living in …

This Is My Protest: What Psychologists Can Add To Conversations About Ferguson, Joyce Yang

Psychology

In the United States, while deaths of Black individuals at the hands of the police occur at unbelievable rates, many continue to proclaim that we live in a post-racial society or that racism is an artifact of the past. Psychologists can, and indeed must, make a unique contribution to conversations about recent race-related events such as Ferguson and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. On the one year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown, this letter briefly highlights several phenomena established in psychological literature on racial biases such as the Superhumanization bias and findings from Shoot, Don’t Shoot paradigms that may increase …

Factor Analyses Of A Social Support Scale Using Two Methods, Yu Yu, Cheng-Shi Shiu, Joyce Yang, Mingjiong Wang, Jane M. Simoni, Wei-Ti Chen, Joy Cheng, Hongxin Zhao

Psychology

Purpose: Evaluation and comparison of the factor structure of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) using both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with two samples of people living with HIV/AIDS in China.

Methods: Secondary analyses were conducted with data from two comparable samples of 320 people living with HIV/AIDS from the same hospital using the same inclusion criteria. The first sample of 120 was collected in 2006, and the second sample of 200 was collected in 2012. For each sample, CFA was first performed on the original four-factor structure to check model fit, followed …

Temporal Structure Of Human Gaze Dynamics Is Invariant During Free Viewing, C. A. Marlow, Indre Viskontas, A. Matlin, C. Boydston, A. Boxer, R. P. Taylor

Psychology

We investigate the dynamic structure of human gaze and present an experimental study of the frequency components of the change in gaze position over time during free viewing of computer-generated fractal images. We show that changes in gaze position are scale-invariant in time with statistical properties that are characteristic of a random walk process. We quantify and track changes in the temporal structure using a well-defined scaling parameter called the Hurst exponent, H. We find H is robust regardless of the spatial complexity generated by the fractal images. In addition, we find the Hurst exponent is invariant across all …

Doma's Demise: A Victory For Non-Heterosexual Binational Families, Daniela Domínguez

Psychology

An unprecedented number of American citizens faced the challenge o f being in a nonheterosexual binational relationship when the Defense o f Marriage Act (DOMA) was the law of the land. Although immigration laws are based on the principle o f family unification, under previous federal law lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans were not able to sponsor their samesex foreign national partners for residency in the United States. Consequently, an estimated 36,000 couples faced the threat of family separation because Am erica’s immigration policies narrowed the definition of “family” to exclude same-sex couples and their children. Despite the fact that …

Ethnic Differences In Therapy Outcome For Foster Youth, Breniel Q. Lemley, Rosana M. Aguilar, Saralyn C. Ruff, June Madsen Clausen, Foster Care Research Group

Psychology

No abstract provided.

Dimensions Of Religiousness And Cancer Screening Behaviors Among Church-Going Latinas, Jennifer D. Allen, John E. Perez, Claudia R. Pischke, Laura S. Tom, Alan Juarez, Hosffman Ospino, Elizabeth Gonzalez-Suarez

Psychology

Churches are a promising setting through which to reach Latinas with cancer control efforts. A better understanding of the dimensions of religiousness that impact health behaviors could inform efforts to tailor cancer control programs for this setting. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between dimensions of religiousness with adherence to cancer screening recommendations among church-going Latinas. Female Spanish-speaking members, aged 18 and older from a Baptist church in Boston, Massachusetts (N = 78), were interviewed about cancer screening behaviors and dimensions of religiousness. We examined adherence to individual cancer screening tests (mammography, Pap test, and colonoscopy), …

Antiretroviral Therapy (Art) Side Effect Impacted On Quality Of Life, And Depressive Symptomatology: A Mixed-Method Study, Wei-Ti Chen, Cheng-Shi Shiu, Joyce Yang, Jane M. Simoni, Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, Tony Szu-Hsien Lee, Hongxin Zhao

Psychology

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is known for its side effects. In this paper, we describe ART side effects as experienced by Chinese HIV+ individuals. This study presents two stages of a research project, combining qualitative in-depth interviews (29 HIV+ participants) with quantitative statistical data analysis (N = 120). All data was collected between July 2005 to March 2008 at Beijing's Ditan Hospital. Consent was obtained from each participant for the qualitative interview and again for the quantitative survey. During in-depth interviews, Chinese HIV+ patients reported experiencing digestive discomfort, skin rashes, numbness, memory loss, nightmares, and dizziness, which not only brought them …

Fatigue And Sleep Disturbance Related To Perceived Stress In Chinese Hiv-Positive Individuals: A Mixed Methods Study, Wei-Ti Chen, Cheng-Shi Shiu, Joyce Yang, Shih-Yu Lee, Tony Szu-Hsien Lee, Jane M. Simoni, Mei-Juan Bao, Hong-Zhou Lu

Psychology

Background

Few studies of HIV+ individuals in China have examined the associations between HIV-related stress with sleep disturbance and fatigue, which are common complaints among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). We carried out this study to examine the relationships among perceived stress, sleep disturbance, and fatigue in PLWHA in China.

Methods

A mixed methods study design was used during data collection in Shanghai, China, from December 2009 to March 2010. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 HIV+ females. Additionally, cross-sectional audio computer-assisted self-interviews (ACASI) were conducted to collect quantitative data from a convenience sample of 107 HIV+ patients (84% …

Do More, Say Less: Saying "I Love You" In Chinese And American Cultures, Catherine Caldwell-Harris, Ann Kronrod, Joyce Yang

Psychology

Reticence to express emotions verbally has long been observed in Chinese culture, but quantitative comparisons with Western cultures are few. Explanations for emotional reticence have typically focused on the need in collectivist culture to promote group harmony, but this explanation is most applicable to negative emotions such as anger, not positive expressions such as Wo ai ni [I love you]. A survey on verbal usage of Wo ai ni was administered to university students in Beijing and Shanghai, and compared to uses of I love you by American students in the United States. Chinese respondents were not only overall more …

The Impact Of Long-Term Psychotherapy For Very Young Foster Children, Rosana M. Aguilar, Kimberlin Borca, June Madsen Clausen, Foster Care Research Group

Psychology

No abstract provided.

The Final Year Of Psychotherapy With Foster Youth, Kimberlin Borca, Tzipporah Dang, Corie Schwabenland, Foster Care Research Group

Psychology

No abstract provided.

Exploring Resiliency In Foster Youth Receiving Long-Term Psychotherapy, Kimberlin Borca, Ashley Plushnik, June Madsen Clausen, Foster Care Research Group

Psychology

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Open Ended Psychotherapy With Adults Formerly In Foster Care, Audrey Rhodes, Breniel Q. Lemley, Rosana M. Aguilar, June Madsen Clausen, Foster Care Research Group

Psychology

No abstract provided.

Look Out – It’S Your Off-Peak Time Of Day! Time Of Day Matters More For Alerting Than For Orienting Or Executive Attention, Marisa Knight, M Mather

Psychology

Background—Older adults’ peak performance on memory and cognitive inhibition tasks tends to be in the morning while younger adults’ peak performance tends to be in the afternoon. Although these tasks require efficient attentional processes for optimal performance, previous research examining age differences in the effects of time of day has not measured the distinct aspects of attention quantified by the attentional network test (ANT; Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, & Posner, 2002).

Methods—We examined the relationship between time of testing and the efficiency of alerting, orienting and executive attention networks by randomly assigning younger (18–28 years; N = 27, M = 21.37 …