Psychology Commons^™

A Long-Term Follow-Up Of Crossover Youth: Young Adult Outcomes For Maltreated Youth In The Juvenile Justice System, Carly Lyn Baetz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Crossover youth, those with histories of childhood maltreatment and delinquency, may be at high risk for negative outcomes compared to other youth. However, very little is known about the long-term outcomes for this population. This dissertation compared four groups: youth with histories of child maltreatment and juvenile arrest (n = 180), youth with a history of maltreatment only (n = 428), youth with a history of juvenile arrest only (n = 91), and youth with no history of maltreatment or juvenile arrest (n = 496), on a range of outcomes, including mental health, education, employment, and criminal behavior. Data from …

Development Of A Naturalistic Observational Parenting Practice Assessment Tool For Externalizing Behavior Research, Thailyn L. Alonso

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Externalizing behavior problems have severe clinical implications. In fact, they have been found to be the primary basis for mental health referrals in early childhood. Findings from research on the etiology and development of externalizing behavior problems indicate these in addition to having significant effects throughout the life span effects also extend across multiple generations. Family and child development research consistently finds that one of the most significant modifiable factors in the prevention and treatment of externalizing behavior problems in early childhood is parenting practices. Unfortunately, much of the extant literature is limited by parenting measures that are prone to …

Working Memory Deficits And Emotion Dysregulation In Youth With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Understanding Relationships And Treatment Implications, Jodi Zehava Uderman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Evidence suggests that working memory (WM) impairment is a primary deficit in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), underlying core symptoms of the disorder and associated impairments. However, the relationship between deficits in different WM components and emotional problems specifically in ADHD has not yet been studied. Knowledge of the cognitive substrates contributing to emotional deficits in ADHD could inform efforts toward refining cognitive remediation as a treatment for emotion dysregulation in this population.

The first aim of this study (Aim 1) investigated whether WM deficits, as a global construct, were related to and mediated the relationship between ADHD and emotion dysregulation. The …

The Sensitive Psychopath: Assessing Construct Overlap Between Secondary Psychopathy And Borderline Personality Disorder, Trevor H. Barese

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The literature suggests substantial overlap between secondary psychopathy and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The current study evaluates the degree of construct overlap between BPD and secondary psychopathy within a sample of offenders mandated to treatment in the community. Diagnostic overlap and associations with clinically relevant correlates were assessed to estimate the degree of convergence between the two disorders and divergence from primary psychopathy. The goal of this study was to evaluate the pragmatic utility of maintaining discrete diagnostic categories for secondary psychopathy and BPD rather than identifying secondary psychopaths as offenders with BPD. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis …

The 'In-Group Advantage' For Perceiving Emotion Across Demographic Groups And Communication Channels, Thomas Myers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ability to perceive emotions in others is critical to successful social interaction. While much research has been conducted on some of the factors affecting emotion perception, other areas have received relatively little attention and, thus, are not well understood. There is growing evidence to suggest that various demographic factors, as well as their interactions, impact the accuracy of emotion perception. The impact of these factors seems to vary as a function of the particular channel (e.g., facial, prosodic, and lexical) through which emotions are perceived and may even be influenced by the presence of an 'in-group advantage' (IGA; Elfenbein …

A Cognitive-Based Indicator Of Deviant Sexual Arousal: Concurrent Validation Of The Emotional Stroop, Ashley H. Spada

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

One of the strongest dynamic predictors of sexual recidivism among sex offenders is deviant sexual arousal (DSA; Hanson & Bussiére, 1998). Phallometric testing, the most commonly used method of assessing DSA, has elicited numerous methodological, ethical, and financial criticisms, while self-report measures are vulnerable to social desirability and lack of self-awareness. In an effort to overcome the limitations of previous measures of DSA, researchers have employed cognitive measures including a modified version of the Stroop task to measure DSA among sexual offenders (Price & Hanson, 2007; Smith & Waterman, 2004). These original studies used victim selection to assess the concurrent …

Parentification And Separation-Individuation In Siblings Of Individuals With A Chronic Illness Or Disability, Danielle Benveniste Stevens

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Well siblings of children with an illness or disability constitute a population of growing interest in psychological research. Past research suggests that these individuals may be likely to adopt increased caretaking responsibilities, or a parentified role, within the family. However, to date, few studies have examined the experiences of well siblings as they relate to late adolescent development. This study extends the well sibling research to the period of emerging adulthood and examines the degree to which 18 to 25 year-old well sibling and control groups report different levels of parentification and endorse different patterns of adolescent separation-individuation. In addition, …

Emotion Dysregulation: A Predictor For Cbt Treatment Outcomes In A Comorbid Ptsd And Sud Population, Jennifer Robin Wallach

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Trauma has been shown to disrupt self-regulatory processes; emotion regulation deficits have also been implicated in the initiation and maintenance of substance use disorders (SUDs). Treatments for these complex comorbid problems utilize a variety of approaches. However, to date, few studies have examined the effect of various available treatments on emotion dysregulation in this population. This study extends the research on emotion regulation among the population with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and SUD. This study is a secondary analysis of part of the data from a randomized clinical trial assessing the relative efficacy of two active treatment conditions for …

The Relationship Between Maternal Depression And Negative Outcomes In Children: Parenting Deficits' Impact On Children's Emotional Regulation And Behavioral Expression, Gabrielle Francesca Cione

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study examined the relationships between maternal depression, parenting practices and children's emotional and behavioral expressions. The study was a secondary analysis of a previous cross-sectional and cross-generational study (Maternal aggression, self-regulation and adverse child outcomes, DA 08963) funded by the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) that examined the pathways between maternal impairments (crack/cocaine use disorder, general psychopathology, and self-regulation deficits), child-rearing deficits (parenting deficits, child neglect, child physical/ sexual abuse), and adverse child outcomes (substance abuse, aggressive/ delinquent behaviors, and child self-regulation deficits).

The population for the current study was chosen because children of depressed mothers in …

Beauty Practices Among Latinas: The Impact Of Acculturation, Skin Color And Sex Roles, Angelica Flores

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study sought to explore if and how Latinas use of beauty products (cosmetics) was influenced by their degree of acculturation to U.S. American culture, their phenotype (skin color and facial features) and sex role orientation. While beauty practices are often regarded as trivial, they are important because they reflect women's internalization of societal values and speak to the importance placed on impression management. Although it can be easily observed that people go to great lengths to decorate their exteriors in order to manage others perceptions of them, very few studies look at variables that influence these behaviors. Also, while …

Maternal Substance Use Disorder, Difficult Temperament And Child Psychopathology: Examining A Biopsychosocial Model For The Intergenerational Transmission Of Vulnerability, Wendy Carolina Franco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Substance abuse is a significant issue that affects the lives of adults and children in our society. Children of substance abusing parents are at greater risk for poor psychosocial adjustment and psychopathology. The present study drew on biopsychosocial and epigenetic approaches to study vulnerability and resilience in children. The aim was to advance the understanding of child psychopathology and of intergenerational effects of maternal substance use disorder (SUD) by examining the independent and combined contributions of risk factors for child psychopathology in children of mothers with SUD. Employing a "goodness of fit model," which posits that adverse child outcomes …

Psychosocial Sequelae Of Homicide Among Murder Victims' Family Members: An Appraisal Of Depression, Grief, And Posttraumatic Stress, Sarah Kopelovich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current investigation explored what is known regarding the psychological sequelae of the post-homicide experience for murder victims' family members and friends (MVFM). Participants were also asked about whether they felt they had attained closure, a term which populates anecdotal and theoretical accounts of MVFM's experience. Previous literature guided a theoretical definition of closure as a dimensional construct that represents adaptive functioning following a murder, and includes (1) absence of disabling symptomatology, (2) absence of ruminations about the event or murder victim, and (3) subjective return to baseline functioning. This quasi-experiment consisted of a between-subjects cross-sectional design. The dependent variable …

Effectiveness Of Psychological Techniques In Increasing Deviant Sexual Fantasy Self-Disclosures, Christian Maile

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The assessment of deviant sexual fantasy and interests is an important component in sex offender risk assessment and subsequent treatment planning. However, clinicians and researchers have long acknowledged that sex offenders often distort or underreport details related to their sex offenses, particularly details relating to offense-related deviant sexual fantasy and interests. Some of the common methods used to minimize underreporting of deviant sexual fantasy and interests include the use of phallometry (or plethysmography) and polygraphy; however, not all assessment/treatment facilities or private practitioners providing services to sex offenders have access to such resources. Thus, the development of more efficient, cost-effective …

Triple Stigma In Forensic Psychiatric Patients: Mental Illness, Race, And Criminality, Michelle Leigh West

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Stigma involves negative beliefs and devaluations of people in socially identified groups (e.g. race, mental illness). Although people have many reactions to social stigma, some labeled people internalize these attitudes. Research has increasingly explored mental illness self-stigma, when people with mental illness begin to believe that society's negative beliefs are true of them (e.g., that they are hopeless due to mental illness). Self-stigma predicts poorer functional and treatment outcomes. Stigma research has typically investigated stigmatized labels individually. Forensic psychiatric patients, people with mental illness with history of criminal conviction, by definition experience multiple stigmas, yet no research has explored how …

Electrophysiological Markers Of Short-Term Visual Adaptation: An Examination Across The Schizophrenia Spectrum, Gizely N. Andrade

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The experiments comprising this dissertation sought to contribute to the understanding of basic sensory processing in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and risk-liability. We leveraged the sensitivity of visual processing deficits along with widely reported sensory-gating deficits (in other modalities) to develop a new paradigm assaying short-term visual adaptation to repetitive stimuli. In the first experiment, adaptation properties of the visual system were characterized in neurotypical adults using a classic "paired adaptation paradigm" and a more taxing "block adaptation paradigm," using high-density EEG. In the second experiment, we deployed our new visual adaptation assay in a clinical population. We replicated classic early VEP …

Factors That Affect Treatment Compliance Among Individuals With Mental Illness, Marsha Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Approximately 6% of the American population suffers from a severe mental illness such as Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Treatment compliance in individuals with severe mental illness is imperative as without treatment these individuals may experience homelessness, unemployment, and a decreased life expectancy of up to 34 years. Consequently, researchers have increasingly examined factors that may affect overall compliance among these individuals, such as insight, social support, symptom severity, and substance abuse. However, many of these studies focus on compliance with prescribed medications and few examine compliance with recommended psychological treatment. The current …

Held And Dropped: A Study Of Metaphor And Subjective Experience In A Psychoanalytic Treatment, Alison Michele Ferst

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores particular patterns of change that might unfold over the course of an intensive psychoanalytic treatment by mapping the forms of change that might take place in terms of a patient's subjective experience and the meaning that the patient attributes to it as reflected in the effort to express that experience in figurative language (i.e., metaphors). The data set was treatment session transcripts provided by P. A. Dewald over a period of 2 years and is partitioned by Dewald into three sequential phases.

Figurative language in general and metaphor in particular consists of essential forms of representation of …

Reflective Functioning In Patients With Panic Disorder With Or Without Agoraphobia: An Examination Of The Effects Of Comorbid Personality Disorders, Tempe Watts

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined reflective functioning (RF) in patients who experience a combination of panic and personality disorders (PD). Despite broadly accepted beliefs that comorbid personality and Axis I disorders indicate poor prognosis, limited research has examined how these two axes interact within a panic disorder population. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders typifies personality disorders as fitting different clusters categorization: cluster A referring to "odd" personality disorders, including schizoid, schizotypal and paranoid PDs; cluster B referring to "dramatic" personality disorders, including borderline, narcissistic, histrionic and antisocial PDs; and cluster C referring to "anxious" personality disorders, including avoidant, dependent …