Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Individual’S Self Awareness Of Mental Illness: The Effects On Implicit Bias, Microaggressions, And Racial Discrimination, Sarah Zoubaa

Student Theses

The purpose of the current study is to understand the factors that impact how persons experiencing subclinical psychological symptoms or an undiagnosed but clinically significant psychological problem perceive individuals who been diagnosed with mental illness. Previous literature has investigated the experiences of discrimination among those with mental health problems, but not their attitudes and behavior towards individuals among their in-group. It was hypothesized that individuals with an emerging mental health problem will have higher rates of implicit bias and perpetrate more microaggressions towards those with a mental illness in order to remove themselves from a group that is associated with …

“I’M The Greatest”: Pride, Impression Management, And Denial Of Coercive Control And Physical Abuse By Perpetrators Of Intimate Partner Violence, Benjamin Reissman, Kendra Doychak M.A., Angela Crossman Ph.D., Chitra Raghavan Ph.D.

Student Theses

Coercive control and physical abuse are two prominent forms of intimate partner violence (IPV), often accompanied by with impression management to conceal such behavior. However, intrinsic motives for engaging in impression management by male IPV offenders are not well-known. The present study makes use of archival data from 85 heterosexual men in a batterer treatment program to gauge how pride, shame, and guilt may relate to impression management and reported IPV. Admission to shame and guilt appear to be correlated with and predictive of both forms of reported abuse, along with the absence of impression management. This implies that internalized …

A Classroom Activity For Teaching Kohlberg’S Theory Of Moral Development, Cheryl L. Carmichael, Anna M. Schwartz, Maureen Coyle, Matthew H. Goldberg

Publications and Research

In two studies, we demonstrate an engaging classroom activity that facilitates student learning about Kohlberg’s theory of moral development by using digital resources to foster active, experiential learning. In addition to hearing a standard lecture about moral development, students watched a video of a morally provocative incident, then worked in small groups to classify user comments posted in response to the video according to Kohlberg’s six stages. Students in both studies found the activity enjoyable and useful. Moreover, students’ scores on a moral development quiz improved after completing the activity (Study 1), and students who completed the activity in addition …

Suicide Watch: How Netflix Landed On A Cultural Landmine, Shabnaj Chowdhury

Capstones

Following the premiere of the television series “13 Reasons Why” in 2017, Netflix stepped squarely on a cultural landmine, stirring controversy over its graphic depiction of teen suicide.

According to media experts, showing a teenager kill themselves on television was completely unprecedented. Mental health experts say the act has significant consequences for “at risk” audience members, or people who were already experiencing suicidal thoughts before watching the show. It is proven that entertainment, and television specifically, can strongly influence audience behaviors and thoughts.

Suicide is one of the only causes of deaths that’s on the rise in the United States, …

Climate Grief Hits The Self-Care Generation, Avichai Scher

Capstones

As the effects of climate change intensify, emotional anguish over the future of the planet is emerging. This piece looks at a 10-step program to deal with climate grief "Good Grief."

At Uplift Climate, a conference on climate change for people under 30 held annually, the creators of Good Grief presented their program. The conference focused on climate justice for Native Americans, who have been dealing with climate grief for a long time.

The setting highlighted the class divide of who is affected by climate change. The effects of climate change are now so strong, that climate grief is hitting …

Trustworthiness Appraisal Deficits In Borderline Personality Disorder Are Associated With Prefrontal Cortex, Not Amygdala, Impairment, Eric A. Fertuck, Jack Grinband, J. John Mann, Joy Hirsch, Kevin Ochsner, Paul Pilkonis, Jeff Erbe, Barbara Stanley

Publications and Research

Background

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is associated with sensitivity to signals of interpersonal threats and misplaced trust in others. The amygdala, an integral part of the threat evaluation and response network, responds to both fear- and trust-related stimuli in non-clinical samples, and is more sensitive to emotional stimuli in BPD compared to controls. However, it is unknown whether the amygdalar response can account for deficits of trust and elevated sensitivity to interpersonal threat in BPD.

Methods

Facial stimuli were presented to 16 medication-free women with BPD and 17 demographically-matched healthy controls (total n = 33). Participants appraised fearfulness or trustworthiness …

Differences In Psychopathy And Associated Traits By Police Officer Rank, Rosanne Libretti

Student Theses

Most psychopathy research focuses on its manifestation in forensic populations, however these results may not generalize onto noncriminal, or “successful,” psychopaths. Lykken (1995) conjectured that socialization may enable “heroes,” like law enforcement, to utilize the interpersonal and affective aspects of psychopathy in a manner that benefits society. Previous research (Falkenbach et al., 2018a) suggests that psychopathy and its correlates differ between police recruits and individuals in the community. It is necessary to continue this work with other groups in the police force to see if the patterns found in these studies generalize to veteran officers who have worked in law …

Bumbling In The Dark: The Effect Of The Dark Triad, Online Dating, And Gender On Risky Sexual Behaviors, Rebecca Boudreau

Student Theses

The Dark Triad is used to describe three distinct yet related personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, which share several characteristics such as manipulation, exploitation, emotional coldness, and lack of empathy. The Dark Triad has been associated with several negative behaviors including infidelity and risky sexual behavior, however most of the current research focuses only on males high on the Dark Triad traits. The present study seeks to expand the literature by studying how the Dark Triad traits and online dating usage relate to the composite score of risky sexual behaviors. Further, we seek to examine if gender moderates this …

The Bully And The Beast: Correlations Between Psychopathic Traits And Bullying In A Sample Of University Students, Nascha Streng

Student Theses

Bullying is a concept mostly investigated in children, teenagers, and adults within the workplace. While there is research on bullying in college in general, gaps in the literature remain considering how personality characteristics in bullies relate directly to psychopathy and specific psychopathy traits. Although the literature suggests bullies have a tendency towards psychopathic traits such as violence, impulsivity, egocentricity, manipulativeness, rule-breaking, and intolerance, researchers have yet to assess the connection between college students who bully and psychopathy. The research on psychopathy suggests that those high on psychopathic traits may be more prone to use bullying as an apathetic means to …

Association Of Exposure To Police Violence With Prevalence Of Mental Healthsymptoms Among Urban Residents In The United States, Jordan E. Devylder, Hyun-Jin Jun, Lisa Fedina, Daniel Coleman, Deidre Anglin, Courtney Cogburn, Bruce Link, Richard P. Barth

Publications and Research

Importance Police violence is reportedly widespread in the United States and may pose a significant risk to public mental health.

Objective To examine the association between 12-month exposure to police violence and concurrent mental health symptoms independent of trauma history, crime involvement, and other forms of interpersonal violence exposure.

Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional, general population survey study of 1221 eligible adults was conducted in Baltimore, Maryland, and New York City, New York, from October through December 2017. Participants were identified through Qualtrics panels, an internet-based survey administration service using quota sampling.

Exposures Past 12-month exposure to police violence, …

Surface Acting, Emotional Exhaustion, And Employee Sabotage To Customers: Moderating Roles Of Quality Of Social Exchanges, Hui Zhang, Zhiqing E. Zhou, Yan Zhan, Chengbin Liu, Li Zhang

Publications and Research

Using the conservation of resources theory and social exchange theory as our conceptual frameworks, the current study examined how employee surface acting relates to their sabotage to customers through the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and explored the moderating roles of coworker exchange (CWX) and leader-member exchange (LMX). We collected two-wave time-lagged data from 540 clinical nurses and found that emotional exhaustion mediated the positive relationship between surface acting and employee sabotage to customers. In addition, we found that CWX buffered the positive effect of surface acting on emotional exhaustion, while LMX buffered the positive effect of emotional exhaustion on …

The Mediating Role Of Health Consciousness In The Relation Between Emotional Intelligence And Health Behaviors, Adriana Espinosa, Selma Kadic-Maglajlic

Publications and Research

The goals of this study were to identify groups of health-related behaviors among young adults (N = 314, Mage = 21.94, SD = 6.53), gauge the relation between emotional intelligence and health behaviors in this population, and assess health consciousness as mediator of said relation. Latent class analysis identified two mutually exclusive health behavior groups, which according to response patterns were labeled as Healthy and Unhealthy.The Healthy group(56%)was composed of individuals who had a healthy diet (i.e.,low fat and high fiber),exercised regularly,and who frequently engaged in behaviors that prevent oral and skin-related diseases. In contrast, the Unhealthy group (44%) rarely …

Effect Of Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Humanistic And Interpersonal Training Vs Internet-Based General Health Education On Adolescent Depression In Primary Care, Tracy R. G. Gladstone, Daniela A. Terrizzi, Allison Paulson, Jennifer Nidetz, Jason Canel, Eumene Ching, Anita D. Berry, James Cantorna, Joshua Fogel, Milton Eder, Megan Bolotin, Lauren O. Thomann, Kathy Griffiths, Patrick Ip, David A. Aaby, C. Hendricks Brown, William Beardslee, Carl Bell, Theodore J. Crawford, Marian Fitzgibbon, Linda Schiffer, Nina Liu, Monika Marko-Holguin, Benjamin W. Van Voorhees

Publications and Research

Importance: Although 13% to 20% of American adolescents experience a depressive episode annually, no scalable primary care model for adolescent depression prevention is currently available.

Objective: To study whether competent adulthood transition with cognitive behavioral humanistic and interpersonal training (CATCH-IT) lowers the hazard for depression in at-risk adolescents identified in primary care, as compared with a general health education (HE) attention control.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This multicenter, randomized clinical trial, a phase 3 single-blind study, compares CATCH-IT with HE. Participants were enrolled from 2012 to 2016 and assessed at 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months postrandomization in …

Dreamers And Values: An Urban And Suburban Community College Comparison, David A. Caicedo

Publications and Research

Although previous research on the role of post-secondary education in the lives of undocumented youth has offered insight regarding demographics, educational achievement, measures of well-being, and generational trajectories, less is known about these young immigrants’ values and beliefs regarding themselves, their relation to others, their futures, and the potential influence of their social surroundings on these values. The intersecting perceptual beliefs between self and higher education were investigated among 7 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) participants in 2 U.S. community colleges and were hypothesized to reflect two social environments: an urban (New York) and a suburban (New Jersey) setting. …

‘Affluent’ Justice: The Role Of Ses In Sentencing Severity, Sonia Pappachan

Student Theses

Imprisonment is the harshest punishment the law can give a defendant; it has considerable consequences on the incarcerated, during and after. Therefore, the sentencing phase of the criminal proceedings should be fair and balanced. However, the literature and researches that have explored the biases in sentencing found that there is a disparity in sentencing due to the characteristics of both the victim and the defendant. The current study used a sample of 209 online survey participants to explore the effect of the socioeconomic status of the victim and defendant on sentencing length. Participants reviewed a vignette of a criminal offense …

Parent Childhood Abuse And Neglect And Offspring Mental Health: An Examination Of Potential Mediators, Joanna Young

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Child maltreatment has been associated with difficulties in parenting (Bailey, DeOliveira, Wolfe, Evans, & Hartwick, 2012) and children of abused mothers have been found to be at risk of more negative emotional and behavioral mental health outcomes compared to children of mothers with no abuse history (Collishaw, Dunn, O’Connor, & Golding, 2007; Delker, Noll, Kim, & Fisher, 2014). However, research is limited in terms of studies that investigate mediators in the relationship between parental abuse and child psychopathology. In addition, the majority of past research has focused only on self-reported, maternal histories of abuse and on limited offspring outcomes (i.e. …

Resting-State Functional Connectivity In Youth With Gender Dysphoria, Felix L. Garcia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Current developmental models of gender identity and gender dysphoria (GD) lack sex-specific profiles of brain function that differentiate between typically-developing and cross-gender identified youth, as postulated by models like the unified theory of the origins of sex differences (Arnold, 2009) and the neurobiological theory of the origins of transsexuality (Swaab & Garcia-Falgueras, 2009). Previously, investigators have used brain imaging modalities such as Resting-State functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (R-fMRI) to demonstrate differences in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between typically-developing male and female youth, and between typically-developing and GID-diagnosed youth. In the present pilot study, I used R-fMRI to investigate differences in …

The Impact Of Defendant Gender And Attractiveness On Juror Decision-Making In A Sexual Offense Case, Georgia M. Winters

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, instances of educator sexual assault against students have flooded the media. In particular, female teachers who abused students have seized the public’s attention as they are often portrayed as attractive and a sexual fantasy. This portrayal can then impact the way society perceives these sexual assaults. Importantly, however, it is not known whether this perception influences the prosecution and sentencing of these cases. The current study examined the impact of gender and attractiveness of a teacher, as well as gender of the student victim, on juror decision-making in a teacher/student sexual assault case. Using a 2 (Teacher …

A Preliminary Program Evaluation Of A Narrative Therapy Intervention For Persons Incarcerated For Violent Crime, Brooke C. Greene

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Longtermers Project is a fifteen-session group therapy intervention that has been run in three prisons in New York state, two men’s facilities and one women’s, since 2010. The Coming to Terms curriculum, designed specifically for work with this population by Kathy Boudin and her partners at the Osborne Association, a non-profit organization that provides assistance to formerly and currently incarcerated persons in New York state, asks participants to think, write, and speak about their lives in general and particularly about the incident crime for which they were incarcerated. Now that the program has run for several years and a …

Linking Hostile/Helpless Maternal Representations In Pregnancy And Later Child Protection Involvement: A Pilot Study, Madeleine Terry

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present pilot study examined whether there are reliable indices in the narratives of pregnant women that can be used to identify child abuse and neglect potential before the birth of the child. The Hostile/Helpless (HH) Classification system (Lyons-Ruth et al., 1995-2005), which detects mental states associated with trauma, disturbances in early attachment, and severe pathology, was adapted for use with the Pregnancy Interview (PI), a semi-structured clinical interview (Slade, 2003) that assesses a woman's emotional experience of pregnancy, and quality of her developing relationship with her baby. The study sample was drawn from a replication study of the Minding …

The Role Of Self-Disclosure In Improving Workplace Cross-Race Mentoring Outcomes, Christine R. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While the racial diversity of the workforce is increasing, minority employees still do not appear to be advancing professionally at the same rates as White employees. There are many explanations for why minority employees do not experience the same rates of advancement as White employees. One key developmental relationship that can aid in increasing the opportunities for minority employees to advance and grow in an organization is the mentoring relationship. However, given the lack of diversity in the upper levels of organizational hierarchies, minorities are more likely to have a White mentor than they are to have a minority mentor. …

Adults’ Perceptions Of Children With Mental Illness Labels Who Tell Truths And Lies, Jessica Lynn Mccurdy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined whether children’s truth- and lie-telling is perceived differently by adults when the children have mental illness labels (MIL). Participants (N= 432) read a vignette and watched a video from each of four veracity/motivation (i.e., prosocial truth, antisocial truth, prosocial lie, antisocial lie) and child label (i.e., control, ADHD, depression, asthma) conditions. After each video/vignette combination, participants rated their impressions of and responses towards the child. Participants also completed measures of their implicit and explicit attitudes towards mental illness. The results indicated participants had more negative perceptions of children they rated higher on dangerousness and lower …

Curcumin Inhibits The Ikk:Nf-Kappa B Pathway In Neural Fear Circuits, Miguel A. Briones

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study of how the brain acquires fearful memories has attracted considerable experimental attention, due in part to the promise of discovering novel therapeutic approaches for psychiatric disorders that are characterized by unusually strong and persistent traumatic memories. In recent years, extensive research has focused on studying the neural and molecular mechanisms by which fear memories are acquired, stored, and retrieved in the brain. Once acquired, fear memories may be attenuated using one of 2 procedures: 1) fear extinction, which involves repeated presentation of the fear-arousing stimulus in the absence of an aversive consequence, or 2) interference with the reconsolidation …

Stereotype Threat And Racial Disparities At The Front End Of The Criminal Justice System, Megan J. O'Toole

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

To avoid initial contact with a racially disparate criminal justice system, Black men in the US must be hyperaware of how others perceive them in public. These efforts may be futile, though, as decades of stereotype threat research suggests that the targets of well-known stereotypes often become so overwhelmed with trying to deflect them that they underperform in relevant situations. Through a series of three online experiments, this research examines whether stereotype threat applies to Black men’s experiences at the front end of the criminal justice system. Results reveal that references to the criminal justice system lead Blacks but not …

Detecting Cognitive, Functional And Behavioral Response To Donepezil In Alzheimer’S Disease: The Role Of Attention Tasks, Clara Vila-Castelar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Introduction: Cholinesterase Inhibitors (ChEIs) used in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) have modest effects, heterogeneous treatment response, and it has been difficult to detect treatment response. The standard research and clinical outcome measure, the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog) aggregates multiple cognitive domains, and has limited sensitivity. We propose that because acetylcholine is directly linked to the cognitive domain of attention, and ChEIs increase available acetylcholine, measures of attention under high-load conditions could predict long-term cognitive, functional and behavioral response, and thus, unlike global measures, could be sensitive to treatment efficacy.

Method: We conducted a longitudinal, open label donepezil trial …

Can Mindfulness Training Reduce Stress Reactivity In First-Year College Students?, Liat Zitron

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

ABSTRACT

Can Mindfulness Training Reduce Stress-Reactivity in First-Year College Students?

By

Liat Zitron

Advisor: Yu Gao, PhD

The positive effects of mindfulness-based practices on stress reactivity have been gaining steady attention in recent years. Yet, the effects of mindfulness training on stress responses via the autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning, and in particular, changes in cardiovascular activity, have rarely been researched. The polyvagal theory (Porges, 1995) offers a theoretical framework in which the roles of the subdivisions of the ANS in regulating emotion and behaviors are delineated, and closely connected to the concept of heart rate variability (HRV) and its …

Colorism In Assessor Ratings: Exploring The Roles Of Social Dominance Orientation, Metaphorical Associations And Skin Tone Stereotypes, Tiwi D. Marira

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, public awareness of colorism, or discrimination based on skin tone, has grown. A previous study (Marira & Sommer, 2014) revealed that Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) (i.e., the desire for group-based hierarchy) predicted Black participants’ discriminatory résumé ratings and hiring decisions in favor of lighter-skinned over darker-skinned, African American job applicants. This investigation focused on replicating and extending these findings by utilizing a more racially inclusive sample of Black and White adults and by examining more realistic candidate evaluation and hiring assessments. These simulated workplace assessments were embedded in an online business simulation requiring participants to make …

Casualties Of Racism: Racial And Ethnic Discrimination And Suicidal Thoughts And Behaviors Among Racial And Ethnic Minority Emerging Adults, Lillian Anais Polanco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The evidence demonstrating that experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination is detrimental to the mental health of racial/ethnic minority youth is unequivocal. What remains unclear, however, is whether racial/ethnic discrimination increases vulnerability for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in particular, and if so, what are the underlying mechanisms to explain this relation. Drawing upon the Race-based Traumatic Stress Theory (Carter, 2007), which suggests that some individuals may experience racial/ethnic discrimination as a traumatic stressor, and thus, eliciting a traumatic stress response, the present study examined posttraumatic stress reactions (i.e., posttraumatic stress, depression, dissociation, stress sensitivity) as mediators in the relation between racial/ethnic discrimination …

A Functional Neuroimaging Study Of Self-Regulatory Control In Adults With Gambling And Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, Nidhi Parashar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: Recent findings suggest phenomenological similarities across gambling and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The key similarity between the disorders is the failure to inhibit or control a repetitive behavior (or urges to engage in a behavior) and intrusive thoughts. Our current understanding of the neural pathophysiological mechanisms linking gambling and obsessive-compulsive disorders is limited. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the functioning of frontostriatal brain regions that support self-regulatory control in adults with gambling and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Methods: The study compared functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygen level dependent response in 19 adults with pathological gambling (PG), …

Parents Frame Childhood For The World To See In Digital Media Postings, Aysenur Benevento

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With the wellbeing of children being at the center of contemporary media discourse (Livingstone & Bovill, 2013), developmental studies are ever more challenged to understand both children’s and adults’ behavior in online spaces. Parents and children are involved in the human development process in complementary ways (Johansson, 2010; Uprichards, 2008) while using media platforms. As the development and use of innovative media technology are accelerating at a fast pace, theory and methods for analyzing uses of digital media for human development have lagged behind. This study examines adults’ postings of photos of their children on social media and offers a …