Psychology Commons^™

Small Individual Loans And Mental Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial Among South African Adults, Lia C. H. Fernald, Rita Hamad, Dean Karlan, Emily J. Ozer, Jonathan Zinman

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: In the developing world, access to small, individual loans has been variously hailed as a poverty-alleviation tool – in the context of "microcredit" – but has also been criticized as "usury" and harmful to vulnerable borrowers. Prior studies have assessed effects of access to credit on traditional economic outcomes for poor borrowers, but effects on mental health have been largely ignored.

Methods: Applicants who had previously been rejected (n = 257) for a loan (200% annual percentage rate – APR) from a lender in South Africa were randomly assigned to a "second-look" that encouraged loan officers to approve their …

Factors Associated With Self-Reported Depression In Arab, Chaldean, And African Americans, Hikmet Jamil, Mary Grzybowski, Julie Hakim-Larson, Monty Fakhouri, Jessica Sahutoglu, Radwan Khoury, Haifa Fakhouri

Psychology Publications

Although depression is a chronic illness with high morbidity and personal and economic losses, little is known about depression in immigrants with an Arab or Chaldean ethnic background.

Our primary objective was to determine the overall and ethnicity-specific prevalence of self-reported depression in Arab Americans, Chaldean Americans, and African Americans in the Midwest. The secondary objective was to evaluate the associations between potential risk and protective factors and the presence of self-reported depression.

A total of 3543 adults were recruited from the Arab and Chaldean communities in Metropolitan Detroit. The sample in this study was restricted to those of Arab, …

An Experimental Test Of The Maintenance And Vulnerability Hypothesis Of Depression In Consideration Of The Cognitive Hierarchy., Patrick Pössel, Kerstin Knopf

Faculty Scholarship

According to Beck's cognitive model of depression the activation of dysfunctional beliefs triggers negative automatic thoughts, which can be interpreted as the proximal “cause” for emotional, somatic, and motivational symptoms of depression. This top-down processes of beliefs causing thoughts and furthermore of thoughts causing symptoms can be called “cognitive hierarchy.” Besides these processes there are bottom-up influences as well with dysfunctional beliefs being activated by external and internal events. A differentiation between top-down processes and bottom-up influences can be drawn with the first being seen as causing thoughts and emotions while the latter only activate existing beliefs. To test Beck's …

Selective Attention To Threat Versus Reward: Meta-Analysis And Neural-Network Modeling Of The Dot-Probe Task., Paul A Frewen, David J A Dozois, Marc F Joanisse, Richard W J Neufeld

Psychology Publications

Two decades of research conducted to date has examined selective visual attention to threat and reward stimuli as a function of individual differences in anxiety using the dot-probe task. The present study tests a connectionist neural-network model of meta-analytic and key individual-study results derived from this literature. Attentional bias for threatening and reward-related stimuli is accounted for by connectionist model implementation of the following clinical psychology and affective neuroscience principles: 1) affective learning and temperament, 2) state and trait anxiety, 3) intensity appraisal, 4) affective chronometry, 5) attentional control, and 6) selective attention training. Theoretical implications for the study of …

Depression-Related Differences In Learning And Forgetting Responses To Unrelated Cues, Paula T. Hertel, A. Mahan

Psychology Faculty Research

Using the think/no-think paradigm, we examined the effect of a meaningful connection between emotionally neutral cues and targets on initial learning and later recall by students in dysphoric or nondysphoric mood states. Compared to meaningfully connected cue-target pairs, unrelated pairs were less easily learned and more easily forgotten, even when initial learning was controlled. Depressive deficits were obtained in initial learning (only marginally) and final recall. When examined separately within each cuing condition, the recall deficit associated with depressed mood was restricted to the unrelated condition, but when initial learning differences were controlled this deficit was only marginally significant. Results …

Peer Victimization, Depression, And Suicidality In Adolescents, Anat Brunstein Klomek, Frank Marrocco, Marjorie Kleinman, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Madelyn S. Gould

Publications and Research

The association between specific types of peer victimization with depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts among adolescents was examined. A self-report survey was completed by 2,342 high-school students. Regression analyses indicated that frequent exposure to all types of peer victimization was related to high risk of depression, ideation, and attempts compared to students not victimized. Infrequent victimization was also related to increased risk, particularly among females. The more types of victimization the higher the risk for depression and suicidality among both genders. Specific types of peer victimization are a potential risk factor for adolescent depression and suicidality. It is important …

The Prevalence Of Delinquency In Depressed And Substance Abusing Adolescent Girls, Susan C. Hunt

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Research conducted on the role of depression in delinquency among adolescent girls has found that depression can predict delinquency. It has been indicated that research should be conducted on how substance use and abuse play a role in depression and delinquency. Several studies have been conducted on adolescent girls in juvenile delinquent centres and institutions. Few studies have sampled subjects from community-based resources, i.e., street youth clinics, youth programs, or alternative schools. The central goal of the study was to explore delinquency in a group of depressed and substance-abusing adolescent girls in community-based settings including street clinics, youth programs, and …

Is There Something Unique About Marriage? The Relative Impact Of Marital Status, Relationship Quality, And Network Social Support On Ambulatory Blood Pressure And Mental Health, Wendy C. Birmingham, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Brandon Q. Jones

Faculty Publications

Background Having close social relationships and being married specifically have been reliably associated with health benefits including lower morbidity and mortality. Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of marital status, relationship quality, and network support on measures of psychological and cardiovascular health. Method We examined ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) among 204 married and 99 single males and females (N=303). Results We found that both marital status and marital quality were important. Married individuals had greater satisfaction with life (SWL) and blood pressure dipping than single individuals. High marital quality was associated with lower ABP, lower …