Psychology Commons^™

Anxiety And Kinesiophobia In Patients With Cardiovascular Disease: Characterization Of The Population And Symptom Trajectories, William A. Middleton

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Background:Psychological difficulties are common surrounding cardiac events and may remain elevated for some time during patient recovery. Evidence suggests that depression, anxiety, and kinesiophobia, or the fear of body movement, may negatively impact patients’ recovery. A comprehensive grasp of these factors and their progression in cardiac patients is currently lacking, despite their significant health implications. Methods: Patients hospitalized for an acute cardiac event were eligible for the study. Participants completed a demographic and psychological questionnaire in hospital. The psychological battery included the 8 item Patient Health Questionnaire-8, the 7 item General Anxiety Disorder-7, and the 17 item Tampa Scale for …

Going To A Psychiatric Hospital Saved My Life And My Student Affairs Career, Jo Wilson

The Vermont Connection

The ongoing mental health crisis for college students has been a notable topic in recent years and while a necessary conversation, this often overlooks an underlying mental health crisis for higher education staff and the connection between both crises. As a former mentally ill graduate student and now (still) mentally ill student affairs practitioner, the connection is clear and a conversation now is critical. Using my personal narrative as a current practitioner, self authorship, and disability theory intersections, I am using this piece as a counternarrative and interruption to traditional student and staff development. Lastly, I seek to encourage a …

The Moderating Effects Of Perceived Social Support And Perceived Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Psychopathology Symptoms In Young Adults With A History Of Childhood Maltreatment, Sophia K. Majerske

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Childhood maltreatment places individuals at greater risk for developing psychopathology in adulthood. Social support has been shown to moderate mental health outcomes. The Coronavirus of 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in a pandemic that created an environment that increased isolation through quarantine rules, therefore decreasing opportunities to socialize and receive social support. The relationship between social support, the perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, depression, anxiety, and PTSD during the first year of the pandemic was explored in a sample of young adults with and without childhood maltreatment. It was hypothesized that social support and the perceived impact of the pandemic moderated …

The Role Of Dentate Gyrus Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase Activating Polypeptide (Pacap) In Contextual Fear Discrimination, Samantha Kelly Moriarty

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

When dysregulated, neural systems important for fear behaviors can contribute to mental health disorders such as anxiety, phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In PTSD, a myriad of symptoms is possible, but a hallmark feature of the disorder is generalizing fear. This occurs when fear is experienced inappropriately in relation to the environment or circumstances. To study this behavior in rodent models, contextual fear conditioning is used. Contextual fear conditioning is a learning theory preparation where rodents are conditioned with an aversive stimulus such as foot-shock in one distinct context (A), while concurrently being exposed to a safe context (B). …

The Development And Pilot Of A Broadband Caregiver-Informant Measure Of Autobiographical Memory, Kathryn Fagan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Autobiographical memory (ABM) is memory of the self. It is pervasive in our daily lives and subserves a range of social cognitive functions such as theory of mind (i.e., the capacity to understand and attribute mental states), self-concept, personal narrative development, and socio-cultural learning. Disruption of ABM can have enduring and detrimental developmental consequences which underscores the importance of early identification for the purpose of treatment planning. Currently, no normative measures exist to assess children’s ABM in a standardized and content-valid way. The purpose of this study was to complete the first steps in the development of a clinically useful …

Distinguishing Different Types Of Childhood Maltreatment On Resting-State Connectivity Networks During Emerging Adulthood, Zoe Morris Feldman Brier

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Childhood maltreatment is a major public health concern and is associated with both psychological and brain changes in adulthood. Conceptualization of childhood maltreatment can be categorized along two axes, threat and deprivation, each of which can be associated with varying outcomes of psychopathology and brain changes. The brain is organized into broad connectivity networks, including the Salience Network (SN), the Default-Mode Network (DMN), and the Central Executive Network (CEN). Prior work has examined the relationship between these networks and psychopathology associated with childhood maltreatment, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).

This study assessed the differences …

Promoting Music Therapy Referrals For Neurodivergent Children, Benjamin M. Glickman

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Music therapy is perhaps an underutilized, underfunded, and undervalued part of the tool kit available to physicians, parents and children with ASD and other developmental disabilities within Clinton County. There are opportunities to increase referrals for music therapy for children receiving care at the CVPH Family Medicine Center and within the county.

The Association Of Blood Glucose With The Daily Self-Regulation Of Everyday Life Stress In Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes, Laura Bethany Cohen

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Adolescents with type 1 diabetes must learn to balance the complexities of managing a chronic disease with managing non-disease-related experiences in their daily life that also contribute to stress. For example, in addition to diabetes management, these adolescents must also balance ongoing demands from everyday life stressors including school, social interactions, and home and family life. However, it remains unclear if daily diabetes management might contribute to experiences of everyday life stress. The present study assessed the association between daily everyday life stress and blood glucose regulation in adolescents with type 1 diabetes using both linear and nonlinear models. Thirty-nine …

Differences In Attentional Processing Of Sexual Stimuli For Men With Varying Degrees Of Sexual Arousal Function, Robert Brandon Wyatt

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Sexual arousal problems remain prevalent for many men despite the availability of medications such as phosphodiesterase type 5 (PED5) inhibitors used to treat sexual dysfunction. Theoretical models that attempt to explain the underlying psychological mechanisms of sexual dysfunction highlight the important role of attention during sexual arousal (e.g., Barlow, 1986; Janssen, Everaerd, Spiering, & Janssen, 2000), but fail to integrate a contemporary understanding of attentional processes (i.e., preattentive and selective; Broadbent, 1958, Driver, 2007; Triesman, 1969) to explain why individuals with and without sexual arousal problems direct their attention toward or away from a given stimuli during sex. Moreover, these …

Association Of Anxiety And Executive Function With Attendance And Fitness Improvement In Cardiac Rehabilitation, William A. Middleton

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Psychological factors such as anxiety and executive function (EF) may impact patient health outcomes from cardiac rehabilitation (CR). High anxiety and low executive function could reduce attendance or impede fitness improvements yielded from CR. Other research on exercise performance suggests, in certain circumstances, moderate levels of anxiety can be beneficial towards fitness gains. The current study evaluated the associations of anxiety and EF with attendance and fitness improvement in CR through retrospective analyses of two datasets from studies conducted at the University of Vermont Medical Center CR program. One sample contained a representative sample of CR patients, and the other, …

A Network Intervention Analysis: Exploring Patterns Of Symptom Change Over Winter Depression Treatment With Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Vs. Light Therapy, Richard J. Norton

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This is an exploratory network intervention analysis (NIA) of a larger randomized controlled trial comparing two first-line treatments for winter seasonal affective disorder (SAD): light therapy (LT) and group cognitive-behavioral therapy for SAD (CBT-SAD). Of 177 adults with SAD randomized in the parent study, this study included the 159 participants (88 LT, 75 CBT-SAD) who completed treatment. NIA was applied to examine the relation of treatment type to changes in four previously identified symptom clusters on the Beck-Depression Inventory-II extended version. There were no differences between LT and CBT-SAD in the magnitude of symptom cluster score changes in the interval …

Examining The Effect Of Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes On Weight Among Smokers With Psychiatric Conditions Or Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Roxanne Harfmann

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Introduction: There is a pharmacological effect of nicotine on weight, such that reductions in nicotine exposure lead to weight gain. Weight gain may be an unintended consequence of a nicotine reduction policy. To our knowledge, two studies have examined the relationship between very low nicotine content cigarettes (VLNCs) and weight, both in general-population smokers. As would be expected, only smokers adherent to VLNCs gained weight. The aim of this study is to examine associations between VLNCs and weight among vulnerable populations.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a double-blind, randomized controlled trial evaluating the effects of VLNCs among individuals …

Cbt In Primary Care, Brianna J. Spano

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This is a community improvement project designed to address the growing need for and shortage of mental health care in Vermont. The project focuses on creating a brief training tool and guide for primary care physicians to be able to incorporate cognitive behavioral therapy in their practice.

Addressing Post –Covid-19 Pandemic Depression, Aria Elahi

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This community project explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, particularly focusing on depression, and introduces an intervention in the form of a pamphlet distributed at Newtown Primary Care. The pamphlet addresses individuals experiencing worsened depression due to the pandemic, regardless of COVID-19 infection status, and includes the PHQ-2 and PHQ-9 screening questionnaires for self-assessment. Insights from interviews with Newtown Primary Care were instrumental in designing the pamphlet.

Results reveal that the pandemic has substantially affected patients' mental health, increasing the need for resources. Patients diagnosed with pre-existing depression experienced worsening symptoms due increased stressors due to …

An Examination Of Response Inhibition In Operant Conditioning, Michael Steinfeld

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Operant or instrumental behaviors become inhibited in a number of experimental procedures. In extinction, a reinforced response is allowed to occur without reinforcement, and the response declines over time. The results of recent experiments from this laboratory and others have suggested that extinction of an operant response occurs because the animal learns to inhibit the specific response. Operant responses can also be inhibited in discrimination procedures. For example, in a feature-negative procedure, animals learn that responding is reinforced during cue A (AR+) but not when A is compounded with cue B (ABR-). Experiments using this sort of method have produced …

Determining The Effects Of Castration And Estrogen Replacement On Habit Development In Adult Male Long Evans Rats, Francesca Carasi-Schwartz

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

During instrumental learning, behavior transitions from goal-directed actions to habits. Goal-directed behavior is driven by the value of the outcome while habitual responding develops with increased training and is characterized by the automaticity with which it occurs independent of outcome value. The dorsal striatum, one of the many regions of the brain that has been implicated in the conversion of goal-directed actions to habits, is sexually dimorphic, and ovarian hormones are known to modulate the expression of habit in females. The present experiments were performed to begin deciphering how gonadal steroid hormones influence habit development in male rats. In each …

The Impact Of Parent Training On Epigenetic Age Acceleration In Disadvantaged Children, Alexandra Sullivan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Early adversity exposure impacts many children annually, putting them at risk of prospective health problems. This study tests whether participating in a behavioral parent training intervention predicts differences in a biomarker predictive of health outcomes, epigenetic age acceleration, in a sample of majority Latinx three-year-old children (n = 62) with developmental delay and elevated behavioral problems. Participation in the parenting intervention was unrelated to a) between-group differences in epigenetic age acceleration at follow-up and b) differences in within-group change from baseline to follow-up. However, some evidence suggested the presence of an effect of parent training on decreased epigenetic age acceleration …

Autonomic Reactivity In Emerging Adulthood : Relationships Between Cyberbullying , The Autonomic Nervous System, And Clinical Outcomes., Aya Cheaito

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, online environments have become critical ways of connecting among college students. With the increase in online interactions, cybervictimization has been identified as a public health issue. This study aims to examine whether cybervictimization among college students is associated with clinical adjustment outcomes such as depression and alcohol consumption. This study also aims to examine whether reactivity in the two branches of the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic) jointly moderate the relationship between cyberbullying and depression/alcohol consumption, indicating sensitivity to the environment. Participants (n =164, 69% female, M age = 19.92, SD = …

Testing Resilience As A Moderator Of The Torture-Mental Health Relationship In Refugee Survivors Of Torture, Phyu Pannu Khin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

There may be as many as 1.3 million refugee survivors of torture currently living in the United States (Center for Victims of Torture, 2015). Torture is a unique predictor of various debilitating mental health conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety (Quiroga & Jaranson, 2005). The current study focuses on a clinical sample of refugee survivors of torture to examine resilience-promoting factors including external protective factors, community engagement, employment, and English fluency, and an internal protective factor, psychological flexibility. This study conducted moderation analyses utilizing the PROCESS program in SPSS (Hayes, 2013) to better understand the moderating impacts …

The Developmental Course Of Adhd In The Preschool Classroom: Toward A Prevention Treatment Framework, Caroline Martin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The objective of this study was to examine the developmental trajectories of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptom levels during preschool among a majority Head Start sample of 261 three- to five-year-old children (87% Head Start; 59% Caucasian; 53% boys; Mage = 3.97 years). Teacher ratings of ADHD symptom levels across four time points within the academic year demonstrated, on average, a course of increasing inattention that decelerated over time and a course of steadily increasing hyperactivity/impulsivity. When accounting for the clustering of children within classrooms, both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity showed an average increasing trajectory over the year with no deceleration. Group-based …

Language Problems And Adhd Behaviors: Associations With School Readiness In An At-Risk Preschool Sample, Marissa Dennis

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the unique and interactive effects of preschoolers’ receptive language ability and ADHD behavior levels on social-emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, and mathematics school readiness, over and above the effects of socioeconomic status (SES). At the start of the preschool year, 49 predominantly low-SES preschool children completed a receptive language task and teachers rated their ADHD behavior levels. School readiness data were collected approximately three months after the start of the school year. First, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for covariates and the non-focal predictor (i.e., ADHD behaviors or receptive language ability), higher levels of receptive …

Predictors Of Suicidal Ideation Among Formerly Incarcerated People During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Rachel Matthes Gehman

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Background and purpose: Formerly incarcerated people die by suicide at a rate 6.75 times higher than the general population, but previous research has not identified factors that contribute to this heightened risk. The conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate both suicide risk factors and the stressors of reentry. In the framework of stress proliferation theory, this study uses path analysis to identify paths from incarceration history to environmental factors (i.e., financial stress), interpersonal factors (i.e., social support and conflict), psychological factors (i.e., depression and existential isolation, the feeling of being alone in one’s subjective experience), and their subsequent relationship …

Healthcare Provider Communication In Teens With Type 1 Diabetes: Parental Overprotection And Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills, Tori Humiston

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a complex chronic illness requiring both complex daily treatments and ongoing healthcare provider interactions to support optimal glycemic levels necessary for long-term health and quality of life. Adolescents do not manage their T1D by themselves but rather in collaboration with parents who often help in health tasks and navigating healthcare provider interactions. Although parental support is critical for the adolescent’s development of disease-management skills, it requires parents maintain a delicate balance of allowing adolescent autonomy and providing parent support. When parental support shifts to parental overprotection, i.e., restricting and limiting an adolescent’s activity engagement, it …

Parent Status And Post-Traumatic Stress Severity Experienced By Refugees, Holly Taylor Weldon

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Rates of post-traumatic stress in adult refugees are exceedingly high, occurring at ten times that of the general United States population. The current study examines an understudied, but common, potential risk factor to the exacerbation and maintenance of severe post-traumatic stress symptoms in refugee populations: parenting. While parent status is an established correlate of PTSD in other populations (i.e., veterans, broadly defined immigrants), no studies have examined how parent status is related to post-traumatic stress symptoms in refugee populations. The current study draws upon a clinic-presenting sample of 150 refugee adults. Linear regressions were employed to determine (1) whether parent …

The Development And Validation Of The Supportive Other Experiences Questionnaire: Integrating The Perspectives Of The Social Support Provider After Traumatic Injury, Katherine Ann Van Stolk-Cooke

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Social support is considered to be a protective factor against the development of PTSD after trauma. However, examinations of the social support-PTSD relationship have relied primarily on the self-reports of trauma-exposed individuals to the exclusion of their support providers. A new measure, the Supportive Other Experiences Questionnaire (SOEQ) was developed based on social support theory, prior research and psychometrics in order to capture important components of social support from the perspective of the support provider. Concerned Significant Others (CSOs) recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform who served as support providers to a traumatically injured romantic partner were recruited to …

Implications Of Attitudes On Environmental Challenges: Understanding The Human Dimensions Of Invasive Insects In New England Landowners, Ariana Margarita Cano Gomez

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Many scientists argue that the threat of invasive insects is one of the most pressingenvironmental issues of our time. Decades of research quantify the threat and risk invasive species pose to the New England Forest, yet there is little research combining both the ecological impacts of invasive insects and human attitudes of the potential threats they pose. This dissertation aims to understand the current attitude of landowners in the New England region that are experiencing the threat of hemlock woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer, or Asian longhorned beetle. This dissertation includes three different studies focusing on social psychology frameworks and …

Associative Structures Underlying Discriminated Three-Response Behavior Chains, Noelle Loren Michaud

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Instrumental behavior often consists of sequences of responses, or chains, that lead to a primary reinforcing outcome. These responses often differ in terms of both topography and the discriminative stimuli that set the occasion for them. Previous studies have focused on two response chains. They have shown that extinction of R1 weakens the associated R2, and conversely that extinction of R2 also weakens R1. To expand what little we know about discriminated instrumental chains, as well as the associative structure that underlies them, in the present experiments we test the effects of separately extinguishing individual responses on other target responses …

The Use Of Technology For Mental Wellbeing In The Era Of Covid-19, Adam Fakhri

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Prevalence of mental health issues has increased during the time of COVID-19. There are many contributing factors to consider, the main one reported has been social isolation due to quarantine precautions. Members of the community have spent extended periods of time at home and away from their loved ones during this pandemic. Many patients have reported many life events occurring including deaths in the family without the ability to even mourn with their family members. This has taken a toll on the community, especially in Vergennes where this small tight knit community that has relied on its tight social bonds …

The Relationship Between Dominant And Submissive Sexual Fantasies And Behaviors And Sexual Satisfaction, Lilian Rae Dalton

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Sexual fantasies of dominance and submission are commonly reported as preferred fantasies in healthy women, yet little is understood regarding whether these fantasies affect other aspects of sexuality (Leitenberg et al., 1995). Even less research exists regarding associations between dominant and submissive fantasies, dominant and submissive sexual behavior, and resulting sexual satisfaction. It is not well understood how sexual fantasy may translate into sexual behavior in non-clinical populations, and what factors might facilitate or inhibit individuals’ engagement in sexual behavior that matches their sexual fantasies.

The current study measured the relationship between dominant and submissive sexual fantasies, dominant and submissive …

Adhd Behaviors And Social Functioning In Preschool Children: The Moderating Roles Of Inhibitory Control And Emotion Recognition, Allison Krasner

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the moderating roles of inhibitory control and emotion recognition on the association between preschoolers’ ADHD behaviors and social functioning outcomes. Fifty-six preschoolers were recruited from Head Start-affiliated classrooms. Teacher-rated ADHD behaviors and objective measures of children’s inhibitory control and emotion recognition were assessed at the beginning of the school year. Teacher ratings of social functioning outcomes were obtained approximately three months after the start of school. Hierarchical regressions examined the unique and interactive effects of ADHD behaviors and each focal moderator (i.e., inhibitory control or emotion recognition) on preschoolers’ social functioning outcomes (i.e., oppositional behaviors, peer behavior …