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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Online Mindfulness Training Increases Well-Being, Trait Emotional Intelligence, And Workplace Competency Ratings: A Randomized Waitlist-Controlled Trial, Ruby Nadler, Julie J. Carswell, John Paul Minda Feb 2020

Online Mindfulness Training Increases Well-Being, Trait Emotional Intelligence, And Workplace Competency Ratings: A Randomized Waitlist-Controlled Trial, Ruby Nadler, Julie J. Carswell, John Paul Minda

Psychology Publications

A randomized waitlist-controlled trial was conducted to assess the effectiveness of an online 8-week mindfulness-based training program in a sample of adults employed fulltime at a Fortune 100 company in the United States. Baseline measures were collected in both intervention and control groups. Following training, the intervention group (N = 37) showed statistically significant increases in resilience and positive mood, and significant decreases in stress and negative mood. There were no reported improvements in the wait-list control group (N = 65). Trait mindfulness and emotional intelligence (EI) were also assessed. Following the intervention mindfulness intervention participants reported increases in trait …


The Effect Of The Presence And Familiarity Of A Dog On People’S Performance Of A Stressful Task, Lyn Brown Apr 2017

The Effect Of The Presence And Familiarity Of A Dog On People’S Performance Of A Stressful Task, Lyn Brown

Undergraduate Honors Posters

The purpose of the current study was to test whether the familiarity of a dog affects a person’s stress and task performance on a stressful task. Pets can improve people’s health mentally, physically, and socially. Dogs can lower people’s stress. This stress-reduction effect has been explained by the stress-buffering hypothesis. Dogs’ stress reducing capabilities have been applied with dog therapy in schools, hospitals, and with the elderly. In this study, dog-owning students performed mental arithmetic as a stressful task, with or without a dog present, during which their heart rate was measured as a stress indicator. The independent variables were …


Developmental Stress, Condition, And Birdsong: A Case Study In Song Sparrows., Kim L Schmidt, Elizabeth A Macdougall-Shackleton, Shawn P Kubli, Scott A Macdougall-Shackleton Oct 2014

Developmental Stress, Condition, And Birdsong: A Case Study In Song Sparrows., Kim L Schmidt, Elizabeth A Macdougall-Shackleton, Shawn P Kubli, Scott A Macdougall-Shackleton

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Sexual-selection theory posits that ornaments and displays can reflect a signaler's condition, which in turn is affected both by recent and developmental conditions. Moreover, developmental conditions can induce correlations between sexually selected and other traits if both types of traits exhibit developmental phenotypic plasticity in response to stressors. Thus, sexually selected traits may reflect recent and/or developmental characteristics of signalers. Here, we review data on the relationships between birdsong, a sexually selected trait, and developmental and current condition of birds from a long-term study of a population of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Field studies of free-living birds indicate that the …


Links Between White Matter Microstructure And Cortisol Reactivity To Stress In Early Childhood: Evidence For Moderation By Parenting., Haroon I Sheikh, Marc F Joanisse, Sarah M Mackrell, Katie R Kryski, Heather J Smith, Shiva M Singh, Elizabeth P Hayden Jan 2014

Links Between White Matter Microstructure And Cortisol Reactivity To Stress In Early Childhood: Evidence For Moderation By Parenting., Haroon I Sheikh, Marc F Joanisse, Sarah M Mackrell, Katie R Kryski, Heather J Smith, Shiva M Singh, Elizabeth P Hayden

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (measured via cortisol reactivity) may be a biological marker of risk for depression and anxiety, possibly even early in development. However, the structural neural correlates of early cortisol reactivity are not well known, although these would potentially inform broader models of mechanisms of risk, especially if the early environment further shapes these relationships. Therefore, we examined links between white matter architecture and young girls' cortisol reactivity and whether early caregiving moderated these links. We recruited 45 6-year-old girls based on whether they had previously shown high or low cortisol reactivity to a stress task at …


Paradoxical Reversal Learning Enhancement By Stress Or Prefrontal Cortical Damage: Rescue With Bdnf., Carolyn Graybeal, Michael Feyder, Emily Schulman, Lisa M Saksida, Timothy J Bussey, Jonathan L Brigman, Andrew Holmes Nov 2011

Paradoxical Reversal Learning Enhancement By Stress Or Prefrontal Cortical Damage: Rescue With Bdnf., Carolyn Graybeal, Michael Feyder, Emily Schulman, Lisa M Saksida, Timothy J Bussey, Jonathan L Brigman, Andrew Holmes

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Stress affects various forms of cognition. We found that moderate stress enhanced late reversal learning in a mouse touchscreen-based choice task. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) lesions mimicked the effect of stress, whereas orbitofrontal and dorsolateral striatal lesions impaired reversal. Stress facilitation of reversal was prevented by BDNF infusion into the vmPFC. These findings suggest a mechanism by which stress-induced vmPFC dysfunction disinhibits learning by alternate (for example, striatal) systems.


Prospective Evaluation Of A Cognitive Vulnerability-Stress Model For Depression: The Interaction Of Schema Self-Structures And Negative Life Events., Pamela M Seeds, David J A Dozois Dec 2010

Prospective Evaluation Of A Cognitive Vulnerability-Stress Model For Depression: The Interaction Of Schema Self-Structures And Negative Life Events., Pamela M Seeds, David J A Dozois

Psychology Publications

This study tested the diathesis-stress component of Beck's (1967) cognitive theory of depression. Initially, participants completed measures assessing cognitive organization of the self-schema and depressive symptoms. One year later, participants completed measures assessing cognitive organization of the self-schema, depressive symptoms, and negative life events. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses, controlling for initial depression, indicated that more tightly interconnected negative content was associated with greater elevations in depressive symptoms following the occurrence of life events. More diffusely interconnected positive content for interpersonal self-referent information also interacted with life events to predict depressive symptoms. Cognitive organization dimensions showed moderate to high stability across …


Ruminative Thought Style And Depressed Mood., Jay K Brinker, David J A Dozois Jan 2009

Ruminative Thought Style And Depressed Mood., Jay K Brinker, David J A Dozois

Psychology Publications

Recent research has suggested that the measure most commonly used to assess rumination, the Response Style Questionnaire (RSQ; L. D. Butler & S. Nolen-Hoeksema, 1994), may be heavily biased by depressive symptoms, thereby restricting the scope of research exploring this construct. This article offers a broader conceptualization of rumination, which includes positive, negative, and neutral thoughts as well as past and future-oriented thoughts. The first two studies describe the development and evaluation of the Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire (RTS), a psychometrically sound measure of the general tendency to ruminate. Further, the scale is comprised of a single factor and shows …