Psychology Commons^™

The Negative Consequences Of Positive Stereotypes: Positive Gender Stereotypes Elicit Negative Stereotype Beliefs But Not Stereotype Threat For Women In Stem., Elizabeth Scharnetzki

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Gender disparities are significantly pronounced within fields that have been perceived as prohibitive for women, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); for example, women make up only 29% of the entire STEM workforce (e.g., NSF, Science and Engineering Indicators, 2016). Efforts to promote inclusivity in STEM have historically focused on “debunking” negative stereotypes by highlighting socially desirable attributes of marginalized groups (i.e., positive stereotypes). Positive stereotypes are assumed to be benign because they ascribe favorable attributes to a disadvantaged group; however, research suggests that positive stereotypes can be associated with negative consequences, including feelings of depersonalization and attributions …

Examining Sucrose Subjective Response Among Individuals With Opioid Use Disorder, Taylor Anne Ochalek

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Aims: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and opioid agonist treatment (OAT) with methadone or buprenorphine represents the most efficacious treatment. However, data suggest that chronic administration of opioids may be associated with significant weight gain, possibly by altering an organism’s perception of and preference for sweet foods. The primary aim of this laboratory study was to rigorously examine sucrose subjective response among adults receiving OAT and a comparison sample without OUD. As secondary outcomes, we also sought to compare the groups on additional baseline characteristics that may influence subjective sucrose response and weight gain …

Determining The Different Trajectories Of Ptsd Symptoms During The Acute Post-Trauma Period, Zoe Brier

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The majority of adults in the United States will experience a potentially traumatic event (PTE) during their lifetime, yet only a small subset will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There is evidence to suggest that the period of time immediately following the trauma (the acute post-trauma period) may be particularly important in determining which individuals develop PTSD. The current study examined trajectories of PTSD symptom severity across the acute post-trauma period and if membership in these trajectories was predictive of PTSD symptom severity 1- and 3-months post-trauma. Utilizing Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA), four trajectories were identified: low and decreasing, …

The Role Of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Reactivity On The Association Between Childhood Adversity, Symptoms Of Psychopathology, And Metabolic Health, Kerry O'Loughlin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Extant literature suggests that experiences of childhood adversity put individuals at increased risk for deleterious emotional-behavioral and metabolic outcomes. However, the precise mechanisms through which early adversity confers risk for such outcomes remains poorly understood. Therefore, this project sought to examine the extent to which Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia reactivity (RSA-R), a metric of Parasympathetic Nervous System functioning, influences the relationship between adversity exposure and metrics of emotional-behavioral and metabolic health during childhood. Based on prior literature, we hypothesized that RSA-R would significantly moderate the association between exposure to childhood adversity and both emotional-behavioral and metabolic health. This hypothesis was partially …

Parenting Style And Relational Aggression: The Moderating Role Of Physiological Reactivity, Maria Lent

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Low levels of physiological arousal in response to stress (e.g., low skin conductance level reactivity; SCLR) have long been conceptualized as a marker of fearlessness and a risk factor for physical aggression (e.g., hitting). Less is known, however, about how individual differences in children’s SCLR and early caregiving experiences interact to produce aggressive behavior. Preliminary evidence suggests that children with low SCLR may be at an increased risk of aggression in the context of highly negative or low positive parenting. Additionally, although most early parenting socialization research has focused on physical aggression, mounting evidence implicates parenting style in the development …

Financial Incentives For Smoking Cessation Among Perinatal Women At Risk For Depression: Effects On Smoking Abstinence And Depressive Symptoms, Ivori Zvorsky

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Introduction: Financial incentives increase smoking abstinence among pregnant and postpartum women. They have also been reported to reduce psychological symptoms using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) in women at risk for perinatal depression. This prospective study aims to replicate and extend these findings using the BDI and Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS). Methods: Participants were 169 pregnant cigarette smokers who were assigned to one of two treatment conditions: Best Practices only (n=88), which entails brief counseling and a referral to a pregnancy-specific quit-line, or Best Practices + Incentives (n=81). Participants were categorized as at increased …

Towards A Developmental Theory Of Coping: The Structure And Function Of Coping In Emerging Adults, Virginia Diane Peisch

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Coping plays an important role in human adaptation and well-being. However, surprisingly little is currently known about the normative development of coping. The ‘coping families’ framework, outlined by Skinner and colleagues (2003), provides a promising approach to the study of coping in developmental samples. The current examination tested the coping families approach in emerging adults. A total of 425 individuals (63.5% female), aged 18-31 years (M age 25.04 years), were recruited online through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to complete questionnaires on demographic information, personality, childhood adversity, stress, coping behaviors in response to an interpersonal problem, mental health, emerging adult identity, …

Markers Of Alcohol Use Disorder Outpatient Treatment Outcome: Prediction Modeling Of Day One Treatment, Geoffrey J. Schaubhut

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

Background: Alcohol use disorders (AUD) affect health and wellbeing, and have broad societal costs (Bouchery, Harwood, Sacks, Simon, & Brewer, 2011; Rehm et al., 2009; Sudhinaraset, Wigglesworth, Takeuchi, & Tsuker, 2016). While treatments have existed for decades, they are limited in success and expensive to administer. As such, understanding which factors best predict who will benefit most from treatment remains a laudable goal. Prior attempts to predict factors associated with positive treatment outcome are limited by methodology including statistical methods that lead to poor predictive power in new samples. This study aims to use a data-driven approach to clarify …

Complex Systems Analysis In Selected Domains: Animal Biosecurity & Genetic Expression, Luke Trinity

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

I first broadly define the study of complex systems, identifying language to describe and characterize mechanisms of such systems which is applicable across disciplines. An overview of methods is provided, including the description of a software development methodology which defines how a combination of computer science, statistics, and mathematics are applied to specified domains. This work describes strategies to facilitate timely completion of robust and adaptable projects which vary in complexity and scope. A biosecurity informatics pipeline is outlined, which is an abstraction useful in organizing the analysis of biological data from cells. This is followed by specific applications of …

An Investigation Of The Relationships Between Callous-Unemotional Traits, Emotion Regulation, Antisocial Behavior, And Gender, Amanda Falcon

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Callous-Unemotional (CU) Traits, a subset of psychopathic traits often used to characterize youth, affect community wellbeing via associated antisocial behaviors such as aggression, substance use, and additional criminal acts. One possible mechanism of the association between CU traits and antisocial behavior is emotion regulation, impairment in which contributes to both internalizing and externalizing behavior. Further, emotion regulation, like CU traits, appears to manifest inconsistently across genders. Given this discrepancy in both the CU trait and emotion regulation literature, an examination of CU traits, emotion regulation, and antisocial behavior within the context of gender is warranted. The current study tested three …

Shame, Pride, And Disclosure: Exploring Paths To Distress In Individuals With Paraphilic Fantasies, Wilson Alexander Captein

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Despite the newfound prevalence of paraphilias, few studies have directly examined paraphilic populations. Fewer still have examined the experience of distress and dysfunction in these populations, which is surprising given the importance of these outcomes in distinguishing between a paraphilia and paraphilic disorder. While prior studies have examined distress/dysfunction in paraphilic populations via the constructs of sexual compulsivity and sexual distress, the current study sought to evaluate possible mechanisms that might mediate the relationship between paraphilic interests and these outcomes. Specifically, the current study proposed and tested an adapted Minority Stress model framework examining disclosure, sexual shame, and sexual pride …

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Of Two Contraceptive Services Interventions For Women Receiving Medication For Opioid Use Disorder And At Risk Of Unintended Pregnancy, Heidi S. Melbostad

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Background: In the BCII randomized clinical trial, women receiving medication for opioid use disorder (OUD) and at risk of unintended pregnancy who received contraceptive services interventions co-located with an OUD treatment facility had significantly higher rates of prescription contraceptive use than those who received usual care. To support informed decision-making about using these interventions in community-based settings, I conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis to determine the costs and health benefits associated with these interventions.

Methods: I used the standard practice of calculating incremental cost effectiveness ratios (ICERs) between the trial conditions (i.e., usual care, contraceptive services, and contraceptive services + incentives) …

Cognitive Predictors Of Depressive Symptoms: Cognitive Reactivity, Mood Reactivity, And Dysfunctional Attitudes, Jessica Perez

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Cognitive vulnerability-stress models explain depression as the result of an interaction between negative cognitive styles and stressful life events; however, the specific content of the cognitive diathesis varies from model to model. This study examined three cognitive diatheses (i.e., unprimed cognitions, cognitive reactivity, and mood reactivity) in a prospective longitudinal design assessing currently non-depressed college students (N = 322) at the start of the semester with follow-up at the end of the semester, approximately 3 months later. At baseline, depressive symptoms, major depression history, negative life events in the past year, unprimed dysfunctional attitudes, and both cognitive reactivity and mood …