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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Coping With Racial Discrimination: The Impact Of Substance Use, Emotional Eating, And Emotional Support On Mental And Physical Health, Maurice Endsley, Jr. Sep 2015

Coping With Racial Discrimination: The Impact Of Substance Use, Emotional Eating, And Emotional Support On Mental And Physical Health, Maurice Endsley, Jr.

Dissertations

Racial discrimination is a likely contributor to disparate health outcomes for African-American and Hispanic-Americans. The current study elaborates on previous research by assessing the impact of three coping variables, substance use, emotional eating, and social support, which may explain the relationship between racial discrimination and poorer perceptions physical functioning and three health maladies, including hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, the coping responses were hypothesized to serve as protective factors against the development of depression and anger symptoms. A total of 424 Hispanic, African-American participants between the ages of 18 and 65 completed an online survey. A six variable model …


Cultural Conceptualizations Of The Trauma Response: The Role Of Locus Of Control, Religiosity, And Religious Coping, Yu-Feng Emily Hu Aug 2015

Cultural Conceptualizations Of The Trauma Response: The Role Of Locus Of Control, Religiosity, And Religious Coping, Yu-Feng Emily Hu

Dissertations

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a relatively recent diagnosis that results in significant personal and societal costs. Given the diversity of American mental health consumers, a more thorough understanding of PTSD and its relation to cultural factors may have important implications for treatment implementation and refinement. Cultural factors such as locus of control, religiosity, and religious coping have been frequently overlooked in trauma research, yet show a clear link to PTSD risk and symptomatology. This study examined these cultural factors in more detail with relation to race and trauma type and their combined influence on PTSD symptomatology. A national sample …


Medication Non-Adherence In Community Dwelling Older Adults With Dementia: An Educational Intervention For Family Caregivers, Nika Renee George Jul 2015

Medication Non-Adherence In Community Dwelling Older Adults With Dementia: An Educational Intervention For Family Caregivers, Nika Renee George

Dissertations

Older adults with neurocognitive disorders are at high risk for medication non-adherence, while being vulnerable to great injury from regimen deviations. Informal caregivers often aid in healthcare management for these individuals. The current study compared the efficacy of two online health education interventions designed to increase caregiver health related knowledge for use with care recipients. Women (N=35) assisting a cognitively impaired older person with medications were randomly assigned to one of two online health education conditions (1) written materials and narrative vignettes depicting actors encountering common medication challenges or (2) written materials and didactic video clips of information from medical …


Decision Making And Association In Hoarding, Brianna Dora Mann Jul 2015

Decision Making And Association In Hoarding, Brianna Dora Mann

Dissertations

Hoarding is a serious and debilitating disorder that has a chronic course, is difficult to treat, and has a high treatment dropout rate. The most notable feature of hoarding is excessive clutter, which is driven by excessive acquiring of objects and difficulty discarding them. Two little researched factors that appear to be particularly central in contributing to acquiring and difficulty discarding are decision-making deficits and association. This study examined decision making and association, using self-report measures, a computerized decision-making task, and an association task, in a sample of 62 participants, consisting of 39 hoarders and 23 non-hoarding controls. These individuals …


Neural Correlates Of Rumination In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Before And After Cognitive Processing Therapy, Katherine Ruth Buchholz Jul 2015

Neural Correlates Of Rumination In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Before And After Cognitive Processing Therapy, Katherine Ruth Buchholz

Dissertations

The utilization of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques to examine biomarkers and neural activity patterns related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has provided a way to investigate mechanisms that underlie the development, maintenance, and recovery from PTSD. Studying the neural correlates of individual differences related to transdiagnostic factors has the potential to provide clinically relevant information beyond that of diagnostic categories. Rumination is one such factor. Rumination, defined as repetitive, negative, self-focused thinking is considered to be a transdiagnostic factor that is associated with depression, anxiety, and PTSD. In individuals with PTSD, rumination serves as a cognitive avoidance factor …


Affectivity, Brain Structure And Function, And Treatment Outcomes In Cognitive Processing Therapy For Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Wilson James Brown Jul 2015

Affectivity, Brain Structure And Function, And Treatment Outcomes In Cognitive Processing Therapy For Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Wilson James Brown

Dissertations

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) has been empirically validated as an efficacious treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Resick, Nishith, Weaver, Astin, & Feuer, 2002; Cloitre, 2009). However, a deficiency of affect regulation skills may act as a barrier to the successful implementation of CPT in some cases, as CPT does not contain a module that directly addresses affectivity. The current study examined the relationship between affectivity and CPT by utilizing neuroimaging methodology to assess brain regions consistent with an affect regulation model of PTSD. Thirty-eight female interpersonal trauma survivors with PTSD received CPT, participating in assessment and scanning sessions at …