Psychology Commons^™

The Impact Of Cannabis Use On Neuropsychological And Neural Biomarkers Of Treatment Response In Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, Melanie B. Thies

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cannabis use among patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD) is at significantly greater levels than in healthy populations but the impact of cannabis on neural mechanisms of clinical improvement is poorly understood. Cognitive functioning and neural connectivity are disrupted as a result of both SSD and cannabis use, and research indicates that neuropsychological capacity and connectivity of the striatum, a region involved in salience and reward processing, may be integral to effective antipsychotic drug (AP) treatment response. Despite this overlap, no previous research has investigated the effect of cannabis on the brain functions implicated in AP treatment response. The present study …

Unexpected Arousal Suppresses Memory And Metamemory Predictions During Associative Face-Name Recognition Task, Sameer Sabharwal-Siddiqi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Successful recognition often depends on probabilistic estimation of memory-signal. Arousal has been shown to offset the influence of heuristic evidence on memory prediction. We conducted three experiments that tested whether arousal also suppresses predictions relevant to memory confidence. Experiments employed associative face-name memory tasks that included retrospective (Experiments 1 and 2) or concurrent (Experiment 3) judgements of confidence. During test, subjects were presented with a masked-affective face on a subset of trials. By timing the masked-affective face to precede a recognition judgement (Experiment 1), we replicated the finding that unexpected arousal offsets the influence of heuristic evidence on expectations of …

Anomalous Self-Experiences And Aberrant Salience In Schizotypy, Victoria Martin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Within this investigation, the self-disorder hypothesis of schizophrenia was assessed via an illusory perceptual paradigm. It has been proposed that alteration of basic (minimal) selfhood may underlie cognitive and perceptual disturbances in psychosis (Sass, 2014). Disturbed corporeality (i.e., anomalous experience of one’s body) is an identified component of basic self-disturbance. As it is difficult to empirically capture the spontaneous occurrence of anomalous bodily experiences as they arise, the Pinocchio Illusion (PI) has been employed to capture variations in the plasticity of bodily self-experience (specifically, body boundary plasticity) (Michael & Park, 2016). The PI paradigm provides for the sensations of arm …

Legal And Ethical Issues In Telepsychology: A Handbook For Psychologists, Dexter Chia

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This doctoral project sought to examine the various aspects of the modality of telepsychology in a handbook that can be referenced by licensed psychologists. Telepsychology’s growth in the general psychology community has caused greater attention towards its unique legal and ethical considerations when working with clients. We analyze legal and ethical issues inherent to the domains of licensure, clinical practice liability coverage, billing/payment, competence, client welfare, consent, confidentiality, and boundary navigation. After this analysis, we introduce a series of scenarios for readers to apply the discussed considerations to exercise critical thinking.

Dietary Approaches To The Treatment Of Autism Spectrum Disorders, Dhira Patel

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This chapter reviews the literature surrounding autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their relation to gastrointestinal (GI), behavioral, neurological, and immunological functioning. Individuals with ASDs often have poor GI health, including bowel motility issues, autoimmune and/or other adverse responses to certain foods, and lack of necessary nutrient absorption. These issues may be caused or exacerbated by restrictive behavioral patterns (e.g., preference for sweet and salty foods and/or refusal of healthy foods). Those individuals with GI issues tend to demonstrate more behavioral deficits (e.g., irritability, agitation, hyperactivity) and also tend to have an imbalance in overall gut microbiome composition, thus corroborating several …

The Community Resiliency Model In Health Decision-Making, Michelle Ngo

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This doctoral project reviews the literature to support the utilization of the Community Resilience Model (CRM) for health-related decision making, such as health behavior change and medication adherence. Research has shown that decision-making under significant stress can lead to making less advantageous choices, as the nervous system becomes dysregulated. The evidence in this literature review suggests that self-regulation using skills in the CRM Model can increase one’s ability to effectively making decisions.

Parent Treatment Manual For Adolescent Self-Harm, Miriam Mokhless Rizk

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This doctoral project is a treatment manual that was created for parents of self-harming adolescents. To date, no treatment manual currently exists to aide these parents in fostering healthy environments for adolescents completing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) intensive outpatient treatments; however, the literature describes the importance of creating validating environments as an important factor in positive treatment outcomes of adolescents who self-harm. This ten-week treatment manual was designed to provide these parents with DBT skills in order to learn the foundations of providing a positive environment in the home. The results of this treatment manual are projected to reduce parenting …

Lost In Digitization: Physical Products Are Vessels For Social Meaning, Oden H. Groth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The explosion in digitization means that consumers increasingly have the opportunity to choose between digital and physical versions of products — for example, between an eBook and a paperback book. However, despite the popularity of digital objects, many people nonetheless prefer physical equivalents. This dissertation explores one reason why this may be the case; namely, that physical versions of objects and products are better vessels for social meaning. In chapter 1, explore the specialness of physical objects, and posit that materiality is critical for holding and embodying significance. In chapter 2, I investigate the effects of product format on perceptions …

Cultivating Positivity To Achieve A Resilient Society: A Critical Narrative Review From Psychological Perspectives, Andree Hartanto, Kasturiratna Tennakoon Appuhamillage Sandeeshwara Kasturiratna, Xun Ci Soh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

With the rapid speed of globalization and technological breakthroughs, current social issues have become more complex than in past decades. As many issues such as pandemics, terrorism, and interracial conflict are realistically unpredictable, the idea of resilience offers an intuitively plausible and attainable strategy to deal with these potential adversities. The current narrative review explores the cultivation of positive emotions and traits as a plausible way to achieve a resilient society. Based on research in the social and industrial organizational psychology literature, we reviewed the role of positive emotions and traits on resilience. Lastly, we highlight important experiences and interventions …

Well-Being Science For Teaching And The General Public, William Tov, Derrick Wirtz, Kostadin Kushlev, Robert Biswas-Diener, Ed Diener

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research on well-being has exploded in recent years to more than 55,000 relevant publications annually, making it difficult for psychologists—including key communicators such as textbook authors—to stay current with this field. Moreover, well-being is a daily concern among policymakers and members of the general public. Well-being science is relevant to the lives of students—illustrating the diverse methods used in the behavioral sciences, presenting highly replicated findings, and demonstrating the diversity of individuals and cultures. Therefore, in this article, we present eight major findings that teachers and authors should seriously consider in their coverage of this field. These topics include processes …

Insufficient Sleep And Onset Of Coronary Artery Disease, Pooja S. Raghani

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Coronary artery disease (CAD), a consequence of coronary atherosclerosis, is the most common form of cardiovascular disease. Recent research suggests that compared to individuals with normal sleep duration, those with insufficient sleep, defined as short sleep duration (i.e., less than 6 hours per 24-hour period) have a 79% higher risk of developing coronary artery disease. In this review, selected physiological factors (including vascular inflammation, sympathetic overactivity, and increases in blood pressure), behavioral factors (including sedentary behavior and dietary choices), psychological factors (including hostility, fatigue, and major depressive disorder/depressive affect), and sociocultural factors (including race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and health literacy) were …

It’S Not Black & White: Relationship Quality Within Interracial Couples, Alexandrea Craft

Doctoral Dissertations

Within the United States, there has been a significant rise in multiracial families and biracial children. Approximately 17% of marriages occur between spouses of different races and/or ethnicities while 1 out of every 7 children born identify as multiracial. In light of the growing number of racially and ethnically diverse families, it is of concern that interracial couples are at heightened risk for divorce or separation compared to monoracial couples. Little research has explored why these disparities exist. Poorer relational outcomes in multiracial families may be the result of heightened conflict caused by a greater difference in partners’ values and …

Trauma And Effects Of Being Raised By A Parent With Bipolar I Disorder: A Theoretical Approach Utilizing Internal Family Systems, Daniella Vasquez

Dissertations

Bipolar I disorder (BD) is a somewhat rare mental health disorder that impacts not only the person diagnosed but also their family (Chang et al., 2001; Cook et al., 2005; Wearden et al., 2008). Children of parents with BD may experience complex trauma as inconsistencies in parenting, conflict within the household, and possible neglect or abuse may be present (Chang et al., 2001; Rusner et al., 2009; Wearden et al., 2008). Multiple developmental areas can be impacted for individuals who have endured complex trauma to include attachment, somatic distress, affect regulation, biology, behaviors, cognition, and identity (Cook et al., 2005; …

Investigating Young Adult Cancer Survivors' Perspectives On Their Future And Interpersonal Relationships, Zeba N. Ahmad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For many young adults (YA, aged 18-39) who have recently survived cancer, planning and working towards goals for the future is a fraught process. Prior research consistently identifies the challenges of survivorship, including: rebuilding personal identity, accepting the impact of cancer-related interruptions on personal goals, navigating new roles in significant close relationships, and initiating new relationships as a survivor. However, there is limited research describing the mechanisms underlying these persistent challenges, which poses difficulties when tailoring evidence-based psychological intervention. The present study consolidates both established and newly hypothesized survivorship challenges into a novel conceptual model, hypothesizing that they are interrelated, …

The Effects Of False Heartbeat Feedback On Moral Judgment, Scott Koenig

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research on human morality is at a crossroads, with one side claiming that moral judgment is the result of rational inference and the other side claiming that it is the result of emotion-laden intuition. This study investigated whether emotion drives moral judgment by manipulating a core component of the experience of emotion: physiological arousal. The sample consisted of 77 undergraduate students at Brooklyn College (57% women, 43% men; mean age = 20.1). One group of participants was led to believe their heart was beating quickly, and another group slowly, while they read and evaluated a series of text vignettes depicting …

The Bright And Dark Sides Of Upward Social Comparison: Knowledge Sharing And Knowledge Hiding Directed At High Performers, Soohyun (Ashley) Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present research investigated when and why employees might share or hide their work information from coworkers who perform better than themselves. Drawing from social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) and social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), I predicted that upward social comparison would lead to both pleasant reactions (inspiration, perceived gain of work resources) and unpleasant reactions (envy, perceived loss of work resources), which in turn would differentially affect knowledge sharing/hiding behaviors targeting high-performing coworkers. I further predicted that individual differences in directing behaviors toward goals (goal orientation) and task structures requiring reliance on coworkers (task interdependence) would moderate the relationships …

Impact Of Immigration Parent-Child Separation Policies On Children’S Attachment Experiences, Daisy Casasnovas

Dissertations

This critical literature review (CRP) project explores the consequences of child-parent separation by deportation laws. Considering the number of Latinx immigrant families immigrating to the United States, this review focused on how the unexpected separation by deportation impacted immigrant families and how these separations affect their children’s development, attachment style, and overall well-being. The review explored the short- and long-term consequences for immigrant children and their families, including children who are U.S.-born and remain in the country without their parents. Results from the review indicate an extensive and significant impact on attachment style and overall developmental impairments. The unexpected separation …

First Responder Coping And Its Impact On Resilience, Ptsd Symptomology, And Hypervigilance, Bianca Bullock

Dissertations

The present study investigated coping strategies utilized by first responders and how those strategies relate to resilience, PTSD symptomology, and hypervigilance. The purpose of this study is to help provide more detailed information as to how first responders’ coping impacts their overall functioning. First responders (N = 181), including law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians, completed online surveys measuring whether engaged or disengaged coping strategies were used to manage stressful situations. Self-perceived resilience, PTSD symptoms, and hypervigilance were also measured. A one-way between-groups multivariate analysis of variance was performed to test the relationships between engaged versus disengaged …

The Impacts Of Problematic Social Media Use On Youths: Evaluation And Treatment Recommendations, Carianne Archer

Dissertations

Youths’ frequency and time spent on social media continues to increase over the years parallel to the growing concern of the status of the mental health of youth. This critical literature review project focuses on the impacts that social media use has on youth (ages 8 to 18 years) and what methods of evaluation and treatment are being used clinically, with recommendations provided to clinicians based on the available literature. The questions that guided this review included: What are the impacts of social media on the self-concept and interpersonal functioning of youths?; What clinical presentations are associated with youths who …

Coercive Control And Trauma-Coerced Attachment In Commercial Sexual Exploitation: A Mixed-Method Examination, Kendra Doychak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Commercial sexual exploitation (i.e., sex trafficking) can lead to myriad negative consequences for its victims, including exposure to coercive control and the development of trauma-coerced attachments. Scholars have offered theoretical conceptualizations of the relation between coercive environments and traumatic attachments, but this relationship is rarely empirically examined. The current study used data from 68 semi-structured interviews with former victims of sex trafficking to first, formally identify coercive control and second, empirically classify trauma-coerced attachment in this population. Mixed-method analysis were used to identify associations between coercive control and TCA in order to better explain how this abuse dynamic leads to …

The Role Of Mortality Salience And Social Identity In Police Officers And Students Reporting Misconduct, Anna M. Stenkamp

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the past several decades, high-profile police shootings, police brutality, and police misconduct have contributed to a decreased trust in policing in the United States. Beyond the severity and abuse of power, many of these incidents have also revealed that officers have covered up these incidents from the public. The refusal of police officers to both report misconduct or cover it up is well established and known as the “blue wall of silence.” However, no previous studies have examined the psychological processes behind this failure to report fellow officer misconduct. Two psychological theories that may explain this failure are Terror …

Demonstrate Values: Behavioral Displays Of Moral Outrage As A Cue To Long-Term Mate Potential, Mitch Brown, Lucas A. Keefer, Donald F. Sacco, Faith L. Brown

Faculty Publications

Recent findings suggest that moral outrage signals trustworthiness to others, and such perceptions play a uniquely important role in identifying social opportunities. We conducted four studies (N = 870) investigating how displays of moral outrage are perceived in the specific context of mating. Results indicated participants, particularly women, found prospective mates describing outrage-signaling activism to be more desirable for long-term mating (Study 1), and this perception of desirability was similarly inferred among same-sex raters (Study 2). We further replicated findings in Study 1, while additionally considering the basis of women’s attraction toward outraged behavior through candidate mediators (Studies 3). Although …

Wandering Into Psychology And Law, Phoebe C. Ellsworth

Book Chapters

Some people have a passion for a single topic that motivates and engages them for life. I’m not one of them. I can get interested in almost anything, and my career looks more like a random walk through a candy store than a single-minded pursuit of a goal. I am both a theorist and researcher in the field of emotion and a contributor to the application of psychology to legal issues. In this piece I will focus on my work in psychology and law. A review of my research on emotion can be found in Ellsworth and Scherer (2003).

The Relationship Between Community Policing, Police Profiling And Brutality, And How It Relates To Minority Communities’ Perceptions Of Police, Tamela Ali

Dissertations

Ethnic communities in the United States are at a greater risk of police-related mortality and experiencing racial profiling by the police and are more likely to report negative perceptions of the police than White Americans. Community policing has been proposed as a viable solution to this problem. Residents’ perceptions of the police seem to be predicted by race, where they live, and other factors. Studies also show that the intensity of racial profiling and brutality by the police differs in urban and suburban areas. Therefore, it is difficult to generalize the perceptions of the police across all communities. This study …

Fathers Are Fathers Are Fathers: How Sociocultural Context And Sexual Orientation Influence The Gendering Of Children, Sarah M. Frantz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Though the body of literature on gay father-headed families indicates there is no significant differences on measures of gender normativity and well-being between children raised with two dads and their peers raised by heterosexual parents, there is a proliferation of anti-LGBTQ+ policies throughout the United States aimed at limiting this community’s rights and silencing their lived experiences. Given that sociocultural and political environments vary greatly state-to-state, it is important to see how the specific context in which fathers live may impact their differential parenting of sons and daughters, their gender beliefs, and the way they feel they would navigate gender …

Serial Position Effect Profiles And Their Neuroanatomical Correlates: Predictors Of Conversion To Alzheimer's Disease, Isabelle K. Avildsen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current study was designed to determine whether targeted, premorbid, neuropsychological measures of the serial position effect (SPE) can detect and explain risk for later development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study tested the utility of SPE measures in healthy controls (HC) and individuals already diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or AD. Aim 1 was to determine whether these sensitive, valid neuropsychological measures can explain disease risk. SPE of list-learning are highly sensitive cognitive markers that capture important elements of both linguistic and amnestic mechanisms of encoding, learning, and retrieval. Using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), we …

Teaching Siblings To Encourage And Praise Play: Supporting Interactions When One Sibling Has Autism, Holly R. Weisberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sibling relationships may be strained when one sibling is typically developing (TD) and one has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). TD siblings have been taught to encourage play in their siblings with ASD but there is limited literature examining the impact of intervention on the quality of the siblings’ relationships. In this study, we taught four TD siblings to encourage and praise play skills in their siblings with ASD as well as self-monitor those play skills. We measured changes in social-communicative behaviors during siblings’ interactions. All TD siblings learned the targeted play skills and increased social-communicative behaviors. Only …

A Pilot Feasibility Trial Of Mindfulness And Modification Therapy For Males Who Use Aggression, Jenny Mitchell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Physical aggression incurs substantial harm to victims and witnesses, particularly when it occurs within close relationships such as family, friendships, or intimate partnerships. Men who use aggression against partners and other adults frequently experience high levels of psychopathology, including depression, posttraumatic stress symptoms, anxious/insecure attachment, paranoia, bipolar disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, personality disorders, and substance abuse, which contribute to use of aggressive behaviors. However, existing treatments for aggression often do not address these symptoms. It is important that treatments for aggression are grounded in theoretical literature and backed by empirical support in order to increase treatment engagement and effectiveness. Treatments …

Ssri-Induced Emotional Blunting: A Study Of Cognitive Changes In Pharmaceutically Treated Depression, Carly Tocco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: In recent years, approximately 12.7% of the American population are on a prescribed antidepressant medication. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are a widely used pharmacological treatment for depressive and anxiety disorders, primarily due to their tolerance levels, mild side effects in comparison to other antidepressants, and broad range of clinical indications. However, there are still numerous concerns about SSRIs’ ability to improve depressive symptoms without adding side effects such as sexual dysfunction, gastrointestinal upset, and a restricted range of emotions. Although patients typically claim that they have less emotional pain while on SSRIs than they do during a depressive …

Linguistic Abstractions In Children’S Very Early Utterances, Qihui Xu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How early do children produce multiword utterances? Do children's early utterances reflect abstract syntactic knowledge or are they the result of data-driven learning? We examine this issue through corpus analysis, computational modeling, and adult simulation experiments. Chapter 1 investigates when children start producing multiword utterances; we use corpora to establish the development of multiword utterances and a probabilistic computational model to account for the quantitative change of early multiword utterances. We find that multiword utterances of different lengths appear early in acquisition and increase together, and the length growth pattern can be viewed as a probabilistic and dynamic process.

Chapter …