Psychology Commons^™

Worrying In Cato Manor: A Case Study Analysis On The Influence Of Context, Samantha Garbus

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Social Causation theory states that social and economic circumstances cause people to be at a higher risk of mental illness (Lund 2011, p.1). South Africa has high inequality, with racial disparities prevalent in multiple indicators of socioeconomic status. Moreover, mental health in South Africa has often not been prioritized. This project aimed to assess how context impacts relevant aspects of mental health, such as worrying and the mind/body stress-response in Cato Manor. An additional theme of community beliefs on stress emerged from the interviews which is also presented.

For this project, I used a Mixed Methods-Case Study research design. I …

The Maps Of Us: Generational Trauma, Community Building, And Creative Resistance In Amman, Jordan, Neha Malik

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research study focuses on the intersections of generational trauma, community-building, and creative resistance to observe the impacts of intergenerational trauma on social-political processes, including the role of community spaces and creativity in building social movements in Amman, Jordan. Understanding the implications of generational trauma can help bring an understanding of its prevalence, what populations need to thrive in the face of generational trauma, organizing successful social movements, and the political implications of generational trauma in Jordanian society. By conducting interviews with local Palestinian families, psychologists, activists, community leaders, and creatives, the research study found that generational trauma plays a …

The Contributing Factors To Adolescent Depression, Josie H. Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Objective: This paper reviews individual, familial, peer, and societal factors influencing adolescent depression in developed countries. Background: Depression usually onsets at adolescence and contributes to high DALYs. Since depression is treatable, efforts should be made to reduce its prevalence and effect. Methods: The research consisted of looking at literature relevant to the topic and age group and conducting interviews with experts who know about and have worked with adolescent depression. Discussion: Adolescents begins at the onset of puberty, allowing different biological factors such as genetics, stress of puberty, and cognitive changes to increase vulnerability to depression. Adolescents who had substance …

Informally Shaping A Child's Mind Around Genocide Within Rwandan Families, Cameron Voss

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

While policy and education are subject to change from research oriented projects, my research rather drives to understand and record how caregivers portrayed their own, others, and their country’s past to the next generation. The informal aspects of family structures, while highly influential, are difficult to navigate and track, and this research endeavors to unveil some of the hidden trends that are throughout Rwandan families with children born after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The generation that has matured in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda have faced many challenges that few outside of …

The Aftermath Of War: Improving Psychosocial Measures To Address Trauma In Child Refugees In The Schengen Zone, Nivedha Meyyappan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

With the large number of refugee children currently displaced due to war and conflict, there is a necessity to look into alleviating any resulting trauma so that these children don’t face further social or health effects later in life. The study focuses on how to improve psychosocial care for child refugees in the Schengen zone suffering from war trauma. Through a combination of research done using existing literature and interviews with experts, there were three main findings on improving psychosocial support for this population. These include improving consolidation of psychosocial programs and focusing on education, having greater cultural awareness when …

Caring For Caregivers: Challenges Facing Informal Palliative Caregivers In Western Kenya, Hartlee Johnston

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Chronic illnesses like cancer, HIV, and other non-communicable disease are increasing globally, especially in developing countries, necessitating development of palliative care and symptom management systems. In Kenya, the burden of care for chronically ill patients often falls to unpaid, informal caregivers like family members or friends. Thirty-five current or past informal caregivers from Kisumu, Kenya were interviewed about their experience, challenges they faced, and interventions they felt would be helpful. Major challenges identified included lack of finances for treatment and other living expenses; inadequate, unaffordable, or interrupted medical care; emotional stress exacerbated by juggling many responsibilities, pressure to emotionally support …

Remembering Negdels: Nostalgia, Memory & Soviet-Era Herding Collectives, Maya Sutton-Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

During the socialist period Mongolia’s nomadic herders were grouped into collective herding units called negdels. Today, over twenty years after Mongolia transitioned to democracy, herding has been privatized completely and negdels are a distant memory. This study explores the history of negdels by conducting twenty-five oral interviews with herders about their memories of collective herding. This study focuses on a soum in the Mongolian countryside, Bayandelger, while also incorporating interviews with people from Ulaanbaatar. Bayandelger is a unique location for this project because it was selected by the Soviets to receive assistance in an effort to make it a model …

“Always A Double-Edged Sword”: How Women And Health Care Providers Navigate Issues Of Contraception In Differing Senegalese Communities, Angelina Strohbach

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper examines how women and health care providers in two distinct Senegalese settings—Dakar and Mouit, a village located within the Gandiol region-- navigate contraception as both a social and medical good. Contraception is an invaluable tool in terms of advancing women’s right to reproductive health, but major discrepancies in its usage exist across a variety of social lines in Senegal, including level of education, marital status, occupation, age, and living in a rural versus urban setting. What socially constructed thought processes and lived experiences contribute to these discrepancies? In a cultural context heavily based upon tradition and Islamic faith, …

Ouch, That Hurts: Childbirth-Related Pain Management And The Inappropriate Replacement Of Traditional Obstetrical Knowledge In Kumaon, Uttarakhand, India, Sabrina Zionts

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Throughout India, obstetrical knowledge and practice has been developed and passed down by generations of women. In many Indian societies, traditional birth attendants, or dais, remain the gatekeepers of childbirth-related knowledge. Yet with the push towards institutional delivery, traditional knowledge and practices are being increasingly replaced with modern and Western ones. While the trend of hospital deliveries has yielded positive health outcomes, its socio-cultural consequences remain unclear. Situated in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon Himalayas, this study employs a bio-social framework and begins to reveal these consequences. Using labor pain management as an entry point, this study argues that the push towards institutional …

A Resistance, Remembered? Remembrance, Commemoration And The Parallel System In Prishtina, Kosovo, Conner Gordon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Though the 1999 war that liberated Kosovo from Serbian control is over fifteen years in the past, memories of the 1990s still remain in a state of chaos. This paper approaches the development of these collective memories through interviews with Prishtina residents about the memories and legacy of Ibrahim Rugova’s parallel structures in the 1990s. Though they draw from similar narratives as memories of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s armed resistance, memories of the nonviolent resistance play a vastly different and largely underrepresented role in current Kosovar Albanian public discourse. Through competing deployments of resistance memories, disproportionate memorialization of Kosovo’s violent …

Assessing Mental Health Care For Iraqi Refugees In Jordan Looking To New Solutions For The Future, Hannah B. Egan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Across the globe citizens flee their native countries in search of newfound safety and stability. These people are known as refugees. Since 2003 refugees from Iraq have entered Jordan in search of a better life. Unfortunately, the terrors that Iraqi refugees escape do not disappear after crossing country lines. These memories cause serious mental health conditions for Iraqi refugees. Such conditions are intensified by the living environment in Jordan where Iraqis are not granted legal status. While some refugees are wealthy and others are resettled to the United States or Europe, the majority remain “stuck” in Jordan.

This study seeks …