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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Skin Stories And Family Feelings: The Contradictions Of Skin Picking In Mother And Daughter, Katrina Jacinto Jan 2023

Skin Stories And Family Feelings: The Contradictions Of Skin Picking In Mother And Daughter, Katrina Jacinto

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Skin picking, otherwise known as dermatillomania, is considered to be a medical disorder by the DSM-5. However, the embodied experiences of skin picking in myself and my mother do not align with the neat definitions offered by psychiatry. Through autoethnographic material and an ethnographic interview with my mother, I argue that skin picking is a bodily technique that is pathologized through stigma. In particular, I suggest that skin picking reveals the body as a polyvalent entity, in which the same features and practices take on different meanings in different bodies. This frames the discrepancies between mine, and my mother's, experiences. …


Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Online Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Support Community Members: Survey Study, B. Kaveladze, K. Chang, Jedidiah Siev, S. M. Schueller Feb 2021

Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Online Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Support Community Members: Survey Study, B. Kaveladze, K. Chang, Jedidiah Siev, S. M. Schueller

Psychology Faculty Works

Background: People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have faced unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research from the first two months of the pandemic suggests that a small proportion of people with OCD experienced worsening in their OCD symptoms since the pandemic began, whereas the rest experienced either no change or an improvement in their symptoms. However, as society-level factors relating to the pandemic have evolved, the effects of the pandemic on people with OCD have likely changed as well, in complex and population-specific ways. Therefore, this study contributes to a growing body of knowledge on the impact of the COVID-19 …


Designing, Delivering And Evaluating Resilience Programs In Post-Secondary Institutions In Times Of Covid-19: Ten Key Considerations, T. Rashid, Jane Gillham, S. Leventhal, Z. Zarowsky, H. Ashraf Jan 2021

Designing, Delivering And Evaluating Resilience Programs In Post-Secondary Institutions In Times Of Covid-19: Ten Key Considerations, T. Rashid, Jane Gillham, S. Leventhal, Z. Zarowsky, H. Ashraf

Psychology Faculty Works

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread and unprecedented disruptions in how we work, socialize, play, access health care and attain education. In higher education, the impact of these changes will be felt unevenly. Students from marginalized, racialized, and culturally diverse backgrounds, mirroring the realities of society, will likely bear the brunt. To deal with these challenges, resilience is the key. However, the bulk of resilience interventions are Eurocentric and fail to capture young adults’ socio-cultural and economic realities, especially in post-secondary and higher educational settings. This chapter discusses key considerations in devising, implementing, and evaluating the effectiveness of resilience programs …


The Negativity Bias, Revisited: Evidence From Neuroscience Measures And An Individual Differences Approach, Catherine Norris Jan 2021

The Negativity Bias, Revisited: Evidence From Neuroscience Measures And An Individual Differences Approach, Catherine Norris

Psychology Faculty Works

Past research has provided support for the existence of a negativity bias, the tendency for negativity to have a stronger impact than positivity. Theoretically, the negativity bias provides an evolutionary advantage, as it is more critical for survival to avoid a harmful stimulus than to pursue a potentially helpful one. The current paper reviews the theoretical grounding of the negativity bias in the Evaluative Space Model, and presents recent findings using a multilevel approach that further elucidate the mechanisms underlying the negativity bias and underscore the importance of the negativity bias for human functioning.


Attentional Bias And Training In Individuals With High Dental Anxiety, Jedidiah Siev, E. Behar, M. R. Fortune Jun 2020

Attentional Bias And Training In Individuals With High Dental Anxiety, Jedidiah Siev, E. Behar, M. R. Fortune

Psychology Faculty Works

Dental anxiety is common and associated with negative outcomes. According to information-processing models, anxiety is maintained by maladaptive patterns of processing threatening information. Furthermore, attention training interventions can reduce anxiety in one session. Fifty-three individuals with high levels of dental anxiety completed a Posner reaction-time task. Participants were randomized to attention training or control using a dot-probe task, and then attentional bias was remeasured using another Posner task. Participants then completed a script-driven imaginal exposure task. Results indicated that individuals high in dental anxiety exhibit threat-relevant attentional bias. There was mixed evidence about the efficacy of attention training. On the …


Social Media Responses To Self-Concept Threats, Tess Wild , '19, John C. Blanchar Apr 2020

Social Media Responses To Self-Concept Threats, Tess Wild , '19, John C. Blanchar

Psychology Faculty Works

Several studies demonstrate that individuals carry out observable behaviors in order to achieve positive self-concepts. These behaviors can be related to engagements with social media. Thus, two studies tested whether the sharing of self-relevant symbols on user-heavy social media platforms is an engagement used to achieve positive self-concepts. In these studies, participants viewed resumes (Study 1) or Linkedin profiles (Study 2) intended to threaten their self-definition and then considered their own accomplishments in comparison. They were then asked to rate and choose one article, either relevant or irrelevant to their self-definition, to hypothetically share on their own social media page …


The Case For Care: Multiyear Teachers Are The Future Of Mobilizing Care In Education, Daisy Culkins Jan 2020

The Case For Care: Multiyear Teachers Are The Future Of Mobilizing Care In Education, Daisy Culkins

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Care is essential to the healthy development of children. If care is not provided within the child’s home, the second most influential sphere within a child’s life where care can be enacted is the school. Community psychology and motivational psychology shed light into how teachers can use care to understand the child as a part of their community and use this understanding to enhance the child’s ability to learn. Education researchers have studied caring teachers to define what care looks like in practice: getting to know students personally, listening to the wants and needs of the child, their parents and …


Impact Of Status-Based Rejection Sensitivity On Depression And Anxiety Symptoms In Gay Men, J. Simowicz, Jedidiah Siev, P. M. Brochu Jan 2020

Impact Of Status-Based Rejection Sensitivity On Depression And Anxiety Symptoms In Gay Men, J. Simowicz, Jedidiah Siev, P. M. Brochu

Psychology Faculty Works

Status-based rejection sensitivity refers to the anxious expectation and tendency to perceive rejection in ambiguous social scenarios based on one’s minority identification. This study evaluates the implications of sensitivity to rejection based on sexual orientation identity on negative mental health outcomes. Current minority stress models include rejection sensitivity as a factor that may contribute to adverse negative psychosocial outcomes in LGBT persons. This study evaluates the role of rejection sensitivity alongside demographically relevant predictors such as age, race, education, and level of sexuality disclosure in predicting the presence of significant depression and anxiety scores among a sample of gay men. …


Qualitative Inquiry, Jeanne Marecek, E. Magnusson Jan 2020

Qualitative Inquiry, Jeanne Marecek, E. Magnusson

Psychology Faculty Works

Qualitative inquiry is a form of psychological research that seeks in-depth understanding of people and their social worlds. Qualitative researchers typically study the experiences of people as meaning-making agents, relying on verbal material. Qualitative inquiry has a long history in psychology, beginning in the 19th century with founders of psychology like William James and Wilhelm Wundt. However, for much of the 20th century, qualitative inquiry has occupied a marginal position in the discipline. This marginalization is best understood in relation to the discipline’s early struggle to be regarded as legitimate. Adopting the methods of the natural sciences—notably quantification and measurement—was …


Examining Military Population And Trauma Type As Moderators Of Treatment Outcome For First-Line Psychotherapies For Ptsd: A Meta-Analysis, C. L. Straud, Jedidiah Siev, S. Messer, A. K. Zalta Oct 2019

Examining Military Population And Trauma Type As Moderators Of Treatment Outcome For First-Line Psychotherapies For Ptsd: A Meta-Analysis, C. L. Straud, Jedidiah Siev, S. Messer, A. K. Zalta

Psychology Faculty Works

There is conflicting evidence as to whether military populations (i.e., veteran and active-duty military service members) demonstrate a poorer response to psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to civilians. Existing research may be complicated by the fact that treatment outcomes differences could be due to the type of trauma exposure (e.g., combat) or population differences (e.g., military culture). This meta-analysis evaluated PTSD treatment outcomes as a function of trauma type (combat v. assault v. mixed) and population (military v. civilian). Unlike previous meta-analyses, we focused exclusively on manualized, first-line psychotherapies for PTSD as defined by expert treatment guidelines. Treatment …


Respuestas Al Afecto Positivo Y Ajuste Psicológico En La Adolescencia, D. Gomez-Baya, R. Mendoza, S. Paíno, Jane Gillham Apr 2019

Respuestas Al Afecto Positivo Y Ajuste Psicológico En La Adolescencia, D. Gomez-Baya, R. Mendoza, S. Paíno, Jane Gillham

Psychology Faculty Works

La investigación hasta la fecha ha prestado poca atención a la regulación del afecto positivo en la adolescencia. Nuestros objetivos fueron construir un cuestionario para evaluar las respuestas al afecto positivo en adolescentes y estudiar las relaciones que presentan con el ajuste psicológico. Una muestra de 1.810 adolescentes completó el cuestionario de respuestas al afecto positivo (con tres dimensiones: rumiación positiva centrada en la emoción, rumiación positiva centrada en uno mismo e inhibición) y tres autoinformes de ajuste psicológico (satisfacción vital, autoestima y síntomas depresivos). El cuestionario mostró buena fiabilidad por consistencia interna y la misma estructura factorial que estudios …


Social Context Modulates Tolerance For Pragmatic Violations In Binary But Not Graded Judgments, L. Sikos, M. Kim, Daniel J. Grodner Mar 2019

Social Context Modulates Tolerance For Pragmatic Violations In Binary But Not Graded Judgments, L. Sikos, M. Kim, Daniel J. Grodner

Psychology Faculty Works

A common method for investigating pragmatic processing and its development in children is to have participants make binary judgments of underinformative (UI) statements such as Some elephants are mammals. Rejection of such statements indicates that a (not-all) scalar implicature has been computed. Acceptance of UI statements is typically taken as evidence that the perceiver has not computed an implicature. Under this assumption, the results of binary judgment studies in children and adults suggest that computing an implicature may be cognitively costly. For instance, children under 7 years of age are systematically more likely to accept UI statements compared to adults. …


Abortion In Context, Jeanne Marecek Jan 2019

Abortion In Context, Jeanne Marecek

Psychology Faculty Works

Across the world, abortion is one of the commonest gynecological procedures and, properly carried out, one of the safest. However, some 25% of the world’s population lives in countries where legal statutes largely prohibit abortion, forcing women to seek clandestine abortions that often are unsafe. This chapter surveys legal, social, cultural, and political aspects of abortion, pointing to stark differences in women’s access to abortion in different locales and at various points in history. It also describes the wide range of methods that women have used to end an untenable pregnancy, including traditional methods such as botanical preparations and massage …


Long-Term Effects From A School-Based Trial Comparing Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training To Group Counseling, J. F. Young, J. D. Jones, M. D. Sbrilli, J. S. Benas, C. N. Spiro, C. A. Haimm, R. Gallop, L. Mufson, Jane Gillham Jan 2019

Long-Term Effects From A School-Based Trial Comparing Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training To Group Counseling, J. F. Young, J. D. Jones, M. D. Sbrilli, J. S. Benas, C. N. Spiro, C. A. Haimm, R. Gallop, L. Mufson, Jane Gillham

Psychology Faculty Works

Adolescence represents a vulnerable developmental period for depression and an opportune time for prevention efforts. In this study, 186 adolescents with elevated depressive symptoms (M age = 14.01, SD = 1.22; 66.7% female; 32.2% racial minority) were randomized to receive either Interpersonal Psychotherapy–Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST; n = 95) delivered by research clinicians or group counseling (GC; n = 91) delivered by school counselors. We previously reported the short-term outcomes of this school-based randomized controlled trial: IPT-AST youth experienced significantly greater improvements in depressive symptoms and overall functioning through 6-month follow-up. Here, we present the long-term outcomes through 24 months …


Toward A Relational Ethic, Kenneth J. Gergen Jan 2019

Toward A Relational Ethic, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

We confront today two major but opposing movements in ethical posture, both with corrosive consequences. On the one side, global conditions lend themselves to an increasing commitment to fundamentalist beliefs in right and wrong. The outcome is increasing global conflict. At the same time, with increasing secularism there is a dwindling of ethical deliberation of any kind. The result is an erosion of moral order. It is against this backdrop that I explore the potentials of relational ethics. If we locate the origins of all claims to the good within relational process, it is essential to nurture, protect, and enhance …


Positive Education: Promoting Well-Being At School, D. Gomez-Baya, Jane Gillham Jan 2019

Positive Education: Promoting Well-Being At School, D. Gomez-Baya, Jane Gillham

Psychology Faculty Works

What is positive education, and are there different conceptual boundaries? Why does it arise now? What is its origin? What is positive education about? What does it contribute that has not already been done and how does it differ from other existing orientations and practices? Where are the interventions implemented and why in these scenarios? What characteristics do they meet? When are these interventions carried out, i.e. what are the stages of the life cycle for which they are most oriented, and why in them? Who are the people in charge of positive education, how are they organized, or what …


Do Explicit Estimates Of Angular Declination Become Ungrounded In The Presence Of A Ground Plane?, Umi I. Keezing , '19, Frank H. Durgin Oct 2018

Do Explicit Estimates Of Angular Declination Become Ungrounded In The Presence Of A Ground Plane?, Umi I. Keezing , '19, Frank H. Durgin

Psychology Faculty Works

In a series of seven experiments (total N = 220), it is shown that explicit angular declination judgments are influenced by the presence of a ground plane in the background. This is of theoretical importance because it bears on the interpretation of the relationship between angular declination and perceived distance on a ground plane. Explicit estimates of ground distance are consistent with a simple 1.5 gain in the underlying perceived angular declination function. The experiments show that, in general, functions of estimates of perceived angular declination have a slope of 1.5, but that an additional intercept can often be observed …


Assessing Sexual Orientation Symptoms In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Development And Validation Of The Sexual Orientation Obsessions And Reactions Test (Sort), M. T. Williams, T. H. W. Ching, G. Tellawi, Jedidiah Siev, J. Dowell, V. Schauldt, J. C. Slimowicz, C. T. Wetterneck Sep 2018

Assessing Sexual Orientation Symptoms In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Development And Validation Of The Sexual Orientation Obsessions And Reactions Test (Sort), M. T. Williams, T. H. W. Ching, G. Tellawi, Jedidiah Siev, J. Dowell, V. Schauldt, J. C. Slimowicz, C. T. Wetterneck

Psychology Faculty Works

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) includes many symptom presentations, which creates unique diagnostic challenges. Fears surrounding one’s sexual orientation are common within OCD (also called SO-OCD), but SO-OCD is consistently misdiagnosed by physicians and psychologists. To address this issue, we describe the development of a self-report measure for assessing SO-OCD to help distinguish OCD from distress caused by a sexual orientation identity crisis. The current paper details two studies that established the psychometric properties and clinical utility of this measure. In Study 1, the factor structure, validity, and reliability were examined for the measure’s 12 items in a sample of 1,673 university …


Brief Mindfulness Meditation Improves Attention In Novices: Evidence From Erps And Moderation By Neuroticism, Catherine Norris, Daniel R. Creem , '16, R. Hendler, H. Kober Aug 2018

Brief Mindfulness Meditation Improves Attention In Novices: Evidence From Erps And Moderation By Neuroticism, Catherine Norris, Daniel R. Creem , '16, R. Hendler, H. Kober

Psychology Faculty Works

Past research has found that mindfulness meditation training improves executive attention. Event-related potentials (ERPs) have indicated that this effect could be driven by more efficient allocation of resources on demanding attentional tasks, such as the Flanker Task and the Attention Network Test (ANT). However, it is not clear whether these changes depend on long-term practice. In two studies, we sought to investigate the effects of a brief, 10-min meditation session on attention in novice meditators, compared to a control activity. We also tested moderation by individual differences in neuroticism and the possible underlying neural mechanisms driving these effects, using ERPs. …


Does Perceived Angular Declination Contribute To Perceived Optical Slant On Level Ground?, Z. Li, Frank H. Durgin Aug 2018

Does Perceived Angular Declination Contribute To Perceived Optical Slant On Level Ground?, Z. Li, Frank H. Durgin

Psychology Faculty Works

When one looks at a spot on level ground, the local optical slant (i.e., surface orientation relative to the line of sight) is geometrically equivalent to the angular declination (i.e., sagittal visual direction relative to horizontal). In theory, angular declination provides an unbiased proximal source of information for estimating optical slant on level ground. Two experiments were conducted to investigate whether human visual systems take advantage of this information. An aspect ratio task was used as an implicit measure for assessing perceived optical slant. Participants gave verbal estimates of the perceived aspect ratio of an L-shaped arrangement, formed by three …


Mind, Rationality, And Cognition: An Interdisciplinary Debate, N. Chater, T. Felin, D. C. Funder, G. Gigerenzer, J. J. Koenderink, J. I. Krueger, D. Noble, S. A. Nordli, M. Oaksford, Barry Schwartz, K. E. Stanovich, P. M. Todd Apr 2018

Mind, Rationality, And Cognition: An Interdisciplinary Debate, N. Chater, T. Felin, D. C. Funder, G. Gigerenzer, J. J. Koenderink, J. I. Krueger, D. Noble, S. A. Nordli, M. Oaksford, Barry Schwartz, K. E. Stanovich, P. M. Todd

Psychology Faculty Works

This article features an interdisciplinary debate and dialogue about the nature of mind, perception, and rationality. Scholars from a range of disciplines—cognitive science, applied and experimental psychology, behavioral economics, and biology—offer critiques and commentaries of a target article by Felin, Koenderink, and Krueger (2017): “Rationality, Perception, and the All-Seeing Eye,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. The commentaries raise a number of criticisms and issues concerning rationality and the all-seeing-eye argument, including the nature of judgment and reasoning, biases versus heuristics, organism–environment relations, perception and situational construal, equilibrium analysis in economics, efficient markets, and the nature of empirical observation and the scientific …


Identifying Moderators Of Response To The Penn Resiliency Program: A Synthesis Study, S. M. Brunwasser, Jane Gillham Feb 2018

Identifying Moderators Of Response To The Penn Resiliency Program: A Synthesis Study, S. M. Brunwasser, Jane Gillham

Psychology Faculty Works

To identify moderators of a cognitive-behavioral depression prevention program’s effect on depressive symptoms among youth in early adolescence, data from three randomized controlled trials of the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP) were aggregated to maximize statistical power and sample diversity (N = 1145). Depressive symptoms, measured with the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs 1992), were assessed at six common time points over two-years of follow-up. Latent growth curve models evaluated whether PRP and control conditions differed in the rate of change in CDI and whether youth- and family-level characteristics moderated intervention effects. Model-based recursive partitioning was used as a supplementary analysis …


Aging Is Associated With A Prefrontal Lateral-Medial Shift During Picture-Induced Negative Affect, C. M. Van Reekum, S. M. Schaefer, R. C. Lapate, Catherine Norris, P. A. Tun, M. E. Lachman, C. A. Ryff, R. J. Davidson Feb 2018

Aging Is Associated With A Prefrontal Lateral-Medial Shift During Picture-Induced Negative Affect, C. M. Van Reekum, S. M. Schaefer, R. C. Lapate, Catherine Norris, P. A. Tun, M. E. Lachman, C. A. Ryff, R. J. Davidson

Psychology Faculty Works

The capacity to adaptively respond to negative emotion is in part dependent upon lateral areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Lateral PFC areas are particularly susceptible to age-related atrophy, which affects executive function (EF). We used structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to test the hypothesis that older age is associated with greater medial PFC engagement during processing of negative information, and that this engagement is dependent upon the integrity of grey matter structure in lateral PFC as well as EF. Participants (n = 64, 38–79 years) viewed negative and neutral scenes while in the scanner, and completed cognitive …


Differential Angular Expansion In Perceived Direction In Azimuth And Elevation Are Yoked To The Presence Of A Perceived Ground Plane, Frank H. Durgin, Umi I. Keezing , '19 Jan 2018

Differential Angular Expansion In Perceived Direction In Azimuth And Elevation Are Yoked To The Presence Of A Perceived Ground Plane, Frank H. Durgin, Umi I. Keezing , '19

Psychology Faculty Works

It has been proposed that perceived angular direction relative to straight-ahead is exaggerated in perception, and that this exaggeration is greater in elevation (or declination) than in azimuth. Prior research has suggested that exaggerations in elevation may be tied to the presence of a visual ground plane, but there have been mixed results across studies using different methods of dissociation. In the present study, virtual environments were used to dissociate visual from gravitational upright while human participants (N = 128) made explicit angular direction judgments relative to straight ahead. Across these experimental manipulations, observers were positioned either upright (Experiments 1A …


Setting The Stage: Gender, Sex, And Sexualities In Psychology, N. Dess, Jeanne Marecek, L. Bell Jan 2018

Setting The Stage: Gender, Sex, And Sexualities In Psychology, N. Dess, Jeanne Marecek, L. Bell

Psychology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.


The Performative Movement In Social Science, Kenneth J. Gergen, M. Gergen Jan 2018

The Performative Movement In Social Science, Kenneth J. Gergen, M. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.


Human Essence: Toward A Relational Reconstruction, Kenneth J. Gergen Jan 2018

Human Essence: Toward A Relational Reconstruction, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

This chapter opens with a social constructionist perspective on human essences. As proposed, essences are not given in nature, but constructed within cultural traditions. Thus, the major challenge is not that of “getting it right” about the essence, but generating accounts that may contribute to society. A criterion of reflective pragmatism is proposed in which questions of contribution and critique prevail. In this light the chapter places in critical light the bio-cognitive and neurological explanations of human nature, especially focusing on the ideological and political implications of these orientations. In contrast, discussion opens on relational conceptions of human essence. Several …


Social Psychology And Social Justice: Dilemmas, Dynamics, And Destinies, Kenneth J. Gergen Jan 2018

Social Psychology And Social Justice: Dilemmas, Dynamics, And Destinies, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

The emergence of this handbook on social justice represents a groundbreaking event in the history of social psychology. In this summary discussion, I outline significant limits to social justice work embedded in the empiricist tradition of inquiry and point to ways in which the current work transcends these limits. However, I also view the present endeavors as in a fledgling state. In the service of enriching and rendering these pursuits more effective, I discuss five domains in which tensions currently prevail and suggest directions for future undertakings. Challenges are discussed in terms of epistemological schisms, presumed ontologies, value pluralism, explanatory …


Gender, Sex, And Sexualities: Psychological Perspectives, N. Dess, Jeanne Marecek, L. Bell Jan 2018

Gender, Sex, And Sexualities: Psychological Perspectives, N. Dess, Jeanne Marecek, L. Bell

Psychology Faculty Works

For decades, the field of gender, sex, and sexualities has been a focal point of increasing interest. This inquiry has been ignited by successive waves of dramatic social change, chief among them: the re-emergence of feminist movements in the U.S. and Europe in the late 1960s; the sustained (and increasingly successful) bids for legal, social, and religious acceptance of non-heterosexual sexualities in many parts of the world; and the burgeoning number of people (whether cisgendered, gender-variant, trans, or questioning) whose individual and collective experiences of gender and sexuality warrant deeper understanding and further progress toward a fuller realization of human …


Foreword: Why Business Needs Virtue, Barry Schwartz Jan 2018

Foreword: Why Business Needs Virtue, Barry Schwartz

Psychology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.