Digital Commons Network^™

Child Welfare: Trauma Informed Practice At Time Of Child Removal, Ester Garcia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

As of 2018, approximately 442,995 children are in the foster care system in the United States according to the federal statistics from the Children’s Bureau. Entry into the foster system involves the removal of children from their home, making it a traumatic experience. The purpose of this study was to examine social workers’ perceptions of what trauma informed practice means and what it looks like in child welfare removals. The study also clarifies what trauma informed practice (TIP) is and how it can be applied in child welfare’s organizational structure. This was a qualitative study in which child welfare social …

Neural Correlates Of Emotion Processing Comparing Antidepressants And Exogenous Oxytocin In Postpartum Depressed Women: An Exploratory Study, Tierney K. Lorenz, Hu Cheng, Julia R. Heiman

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Despite common use of antidepressants to treat postpartum depression, little is known about the impact of antidepressant use on postpartum brain activity. Additionally, although oxytocin has been investigated as a potential treatment for postpartum depression, the interaction between antidepressants and exogenous oxytocin on brain activity is unknown. We explored postpartum depressed women’s neural activation in areas identified as important to emotion and reward processing and potentially, antidepressant response: the amygdala, nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area. We conducted a secondary analysis of a functional imaging study of response to sexual, crying infant and smiling infant images in 23 postpartum depressed …

Using Misconceptions To Improve Education Programs That Aim To Prevent Gambling Problems, Brittany Keen, Alex Blaszczynski, Fadi Anjoul

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

No abstract provided.

Human Learning, Memory, And Student Development, Alan R. Erickson

Contemporary Issues in Educational Leadership

My educational interests have largely been informed by my career in the sciences and medicine. My professional education has been both formative and transformative, opening doors to the joy of learning and a realization in the importance of memory. As an educator, clinician, and student, I have been greatly impacted by issues of curricular design, curricular development, learning and memory. My current responsibilities in student affairs also have exposed me to the delicate balance between student development, curricular design, learning and memory. Patton, Renn, Guido, and Quaye (2016) noted the importance of educators being able to use different literature sources …

Social Media And Othering: Philosophy, Algorithms, And The Essence Of Being Human, Mark Ehlebracht

Consensus

No abstract provided.

Dramatizing The Void: Crime Fiction's Journey To Forgetting, Kylene N. Cave

Andrews Research Conference

Scholars often cite the transition from the golden age to the hardboiled tradition in the 1920s and 1930s as the most radical shift in crime fiction. By 1945, crime stories regularly exhibited destabilized language, increased interest in psychology of the mind, and a blatant rejection of conclusive endings as a means of exploring the unreliable nature of memory and eye-witness testimony. Whereas the crime fiction narratives preceding 1945 embodied a clear sense of logic and order, and established hermeneutics and signifying practices as the keys to unlocking the mysteries behind human behavior; post-45 crime fiction not only rejects these notions, …

Puppet Creation: A Lost Art In Treating Child Trauma, Keely Anderson

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Trauma does not discriminate between age, culture, or socioeconomic class; trauma can happen to anyone. Although we would like to think that children are exempt from these difficult experiences, unfortunately, that is not the case. The current extensive research about the effects that trauma has on children both emotionally and psychologically and how these effects can have long term consequences will be examined in this capstone thesis. The arts-based qualitative research within this thesis will explore the benefits of puppet creation as a way for children to externalize their traumatic stories and as a means to provide children with the …

Examining The Effects Of Exposure To Nature On Well-Being: Implications For College Campuses, Fatimah T. Majors

Honors College Theses

Humans attraction to the natural environment stems from our evolutionary tendencies. Biophilia is defined by E.O. Wilson as the “innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes (Wilson, 1984, p. 1).” Recent studies have shown that spending time outside in nature is beneficial to physical and mental health as well as well-being. Nature is filled with intriguing things such as animals, plants, fresh air and other aspects which can help an individual replenish. Some of these benefits include stress reduction, opportunities and motivation to complete tasks. Research indicates that adults who work in offices would perform better if they …

Attachment And Internalizing And Externalizing Problems In Adolescence: Exploring The Mediating Role Of Physiological Self-Regulation Capacity, Michelle A. Kuhn

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Internalizing and externalizing problems impact functioning and health in adolescence. Therefore, understanding risk and protective factors related to these behaviors is of practical interest. The proposed study examined the relationship between parent-adolescent attachment security, self-regulation capacity, and internalizing and externalizing problems. Previous studies have supported prospective links between parent-child attachment security and self-regulation capacities. Similarly, self-regulation is as a protective factor from internalizing and externalizing problems. This study proposed a mediation model combining these findings. It was hypothesized that youth with stronger parent-adolescent attachment security would demonstrate fewer internalizing and externalizing problems, and that this relationship would be mediated by …

Physiological Feelings, Edward F. Pace-Schott, Marlissa C. Amole, Tatjana Aue, Michela Balconi, Lauren M. Bylsma, Hugo Critchley, Heath A. Demaree, Bruce H. Friedman, Anne Elizabeth Kotynski Gooding, Olivia Gosseries, Tanja Jovanovic, Lauren A.J. Kirby, Kasia Kozlowska, Steven Laureys, Leroy Lowe, Kelsey Magee, Marie-France Marin, Amanda R. Merner, Jennifer L. Robinson, Robert C. Smith, Derek P. Spangler, Mark Van Overveld, Michael B. Vanelzakker

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The role of peripheral physiology in the experience of emotion has been debated since the 19th century following the seminal proposal by William James that somatic responses to stimuli determine subjective emotion. Subsequent views have integrated the forebrain's ability to initiate, represent and simulate such physiological events. Modern affective neuroscience envisions an interacting network of "bottom-up" and "top-down" signaling in which the peripheral (PNS) and central nervous systems both receive and generate the experience of emotion. "Feelings" serves as a term for the perception of these physical changes whether emanating from actual somatic events or from the brain's representation of …

The Differential Effects Of An Interspersing Procedure Among Students At Different Instructional Levels, Samantha Dehaan Sullivan

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports the results of a research project that examined the effects of varying rates of reinforcement on students’ math performance and assignment preference. The relationship between students’ instructional level and the rate of reinforcement threshold for influencing assignment preference was also explored. Participants were fourth and fifth grade elementary students who were receiving remedial math services through the school’s Response to Intervention program.

Twenty elementary students (12 females, 8 males) completed all parts of the study and were included in the analyses. All participants completed a series of control-experimental assignment pairs with varying rates of interspersing at each …

Seeking Mirrors: Representation And Identity At Asian Pacific Islander Film Festivals, Yang Jiang

Dissertations

Media representation plays an important role in shaping how we perceive ourselves. For ethnic and racial minorities, studies have confirmed that exposure to stereotypical and negative representations can harm the development of ethnic and racial identity. Currently, however, there is little understanding of how representation can support the development of ethnic and racial identity. Essentially, what might visibility, rather than invisibility, in media representation look like, and what is the relationship between visibility and ethnic and racial identity?

This dissertation sought to address these questions by looking at the experience of Asian Pacific Islander (API) attendees at API film festivals. …

A Trauma-Informed Art Therapy Approach For Boys With Sexualized Problematic Behaviors: A Group Method, Rebecca Cyr

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Treatment of sexualized problematic behaviors (SPB) in children and adolescents is a clinically significant issue that has little research to support the fundamental need for treatment. Sexualized problematic behaviors (SPB) can be an indication of a child’s own complex trauma and sexual abuse history. Using a relational, trauma-informed, and developmental approach to treatment in combination with art therapy, children demonstrating SPB can learn how to better express themselves, respect themselves and others, and heal a fragmented sense of self. Developmentally, these children and adolescents are in the stage where identity formation is the main task. Therefore, this series of art …

Digital Music Making: Developing A Method For Using Technology In Music Psychotherapy, Sangeetha Kavety

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The use of technology, specifically digital songwriting and music making, in the context of psychotherapy is a subject that is not yet as well researched or practiced in the field of music therapy. The majority of the existing literature acknowledges the assistive function that technology such as tablets, smartphones, and computers can play in treatment of populations with cognitive and motor difficulties. However, there is little regarding the use of technology as the main means of creating music, and even less in the context of treatment of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents in family settings. For this capstone project, …

Considering Art Therapy For Adults With Fear Of Cancer Recurrence (Fcr): A Literature Review, Max Roberts

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a major problem for many cancer survivors. As cancer treatments improve and more people are surviving cancer, FCR will likely become a larger problem in general for the healthcare system. Art therapists working with cancer survivors need to be prepared for addressing FCR as they are likely to encounter this clinical issue. A literature search was conducted and no research investigating art therapy specifically for FCR was found, indicating there is currently no empirically supported approach to art therapy for FCR. Mindfulness and acceptance-based therapies appear to be efficacious for reducing effects of FCR. …

Solution Focused Brief Expressive Arts Therapy, David Sherman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This graduate capstone thesis paper and project proposes a new therapeutic intervention called Solution-Focused Brief Expressive Arts Therapy (SFBExAT). This intervention and approach is based on the synthesized theories, techniques, and principles of Expressive Arts Therapy (ExAT) and Solution- Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). A review of relevant literature on the combined use of SFBT, ExAT and expressive therapies, as well as on the foundational literature of the individual theories establishes conceptual grounds for a SFBExAT model. A SFBExAT intervention is developed and explained. The intervention was ultimately applied in a hospital outpatient setting with a teenage client. The process, results …

Are Menstrual Cycles A Biological Determinant Of Well-Being Amongst Sierra Leonean Schoolchildren?, Ashwini Shridhar

Master's Theses

The influence of hormones and biology on behavior is a topic that is rife with controversy, especially when it comes to sexual hormones. There is even more murkiness when it comes to the topic of menstruation and knowledge about women’s menstrual cycles. Recent research on this topic have seen a link between the hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and various behavioral implications on competition, cooperation, and risk behavior. This study tries to expand existing knowledge by examining whether there is a link between hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and risk preferential behavior using economic experiments in the largely understudied context …

Quantitative Reasoning: Individual Differences In Heart Rate And Response Latency, Abigail L. Van Nuland

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Math is something that all students are required to use at some point during their academic careers. Then they must use it again in the real world. Unfortunately, many students struggle with quantitative processing. In the current study, participants answered first grade level math problems in order to assess cognitive effort when solving math problem. Participants were then assigned randomly to one of two conditions; Answer or Equation. In the Answer Condition participants were asked to solve a series of math problems, whereby they were given a math equation and then they were asked to choose an answer. In the …

Watering Black Roots: Exploring Black Ecological Identity Development Within Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy, Stormy Saint-Val

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Nature-based expressive arts therapy promotes the holistic healing and recovery of individuals by interweaving the practices of ecopsychology, ecotherapy, and expressive arts therapy. These interventions have been proven to mediate ranges of symptomologies, such as anxiety disorders and PTSD. Research conducted by the U.S. National Park Services indicates that African- Americans are less likely to have a positive relationship to nature than all other racial groups. The amplification of this report without introspection of its context perpetuates racialized generalizations. This can limit a black individual’s ability to embrace their ecological identity and be receptive of nature-based expressive arts therapy interventions. …

Orthorexia Nervosa Among Collegiate Female Student-Athletes, Maryse Bard-Martel

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is a specific style of disordered eating defined as an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food, or going to extremes in the pursuit of a diet that is supposed to be good for you. The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of orthorexia nervosa tendencies in college female soccer players in the NCAA Division 1. Purposive sampling was used, and participants were current student-athletes from the Missouri State women’s soccer team (n=18). Survey research was utilized to assess athletes’ attitudes and behaviors related to various aspects of diet and training, and the control it …

Executive Function Deficits In Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment: Exploring The Impact Of Substance Use, William C. Dooley

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Substance use is pervasive in the United States. With overdose deaths on the rise for the past decade, studies have examined the detrimental effects of a range of substances. Substance use has been shown to affect the domains of executive functioning, while diseases such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Hepatitis-C (Hep-C) have been shown to increase the severity of these deficits when comorbid with substance use. Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD) also affects many of the same domains of executive functioning as substance use. However, because of the rapid degenerative nature of the disease, individuals clinically determined to have Mild Cognitive …

Frankenstein’S Fixations: A Psychoanalytic Evolutionary Approach To Childhood, Sexuality, And Outsiders, Kaitlin Harris

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

By using Frankenstein as a case study, my project explores readers’ and characters’ experiences with others who might appear threatening. Furthermore, I intend to apply theories from psychoanalysis and evolutionary psychology to deconstruct the ambiguity of relations with others and the self in answering: can a psychoanalytic reading of Frankenstein display how evolutionary literary criticism, sublime, and the uncanny affect and inform us about human relations. My argument has displayed how castigating a living being away from society recapitulates an evolutionary cycle of unconscious abuse which the critics, themselves, have also encountered.

The Fluid Representations Of Networks Estimating Liquid Viscosity, Jan Jaap R. Van Assen, Shin'ya Nishida, Roland W. Fleming

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

Indigenization Of Genocide Healing: A Grounded Action Of Culturally And Contextually Relevant Educational And Psychosocial Strategies To Reduce Impacts Of Societal Toxic Stress In Rwanda Post-Genocide, Jean Pierre Ndagijimana

Master's Theses

Sixty percent of the current Rwandan population were born after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and those born since or who were young at the time of the genocide have remained among those affected most. Although Western trauma theorists and interventionists have played the role of experts in the genocide healing, the exclusion of the indigenous population’s experiences, knowledge, and wisdom has limited them from meeting local needs. The post-genocide situation raises various issues, genocide ideology, and increasing family homicides; however, locals do not want to seek counseling services, or run the risk of being labeled as mentally ill. …

Effects Of Age And Gender On Spatial Navigation: Evidence From Samoan Primary School Children, Jacqueline Moses, Jessica Kubert

Modern Psychological Studies

This study examined the effects of age and gender on spatial navigation ability. Samoan Primary School students (N = 40) aged 7-12 years were tested on performance of a Size Test and a Corsi Test, followed by a Spatial Navigation Test. It was hypothesized that older children would perform better at all tasks, especially the Spatial Navigation Test. It was further hypothesized that males would perform better than females at the Spatial Navigation Test and that males would employ more detailed strategies in traversing the spatial navigation space. Lastly, it was hypothesized that increased performance on the Size and Corsi …

Coupled Correlates Of Attention And Consciousness, Ravi Varkki Chacko

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have been shown to restore lost motor function that occurs in stroke using electrophysiological signals. However, little evidence exists for the use of BCIs to restore non-motor stroke deficits, such as the attention deficits seen in hemineglect. Attention is a cognitive function that selects objects or ideas for further neural processing, presumably to facilitate optimal behavior. Developing BCIs for attention is different from developing motor BCIs because attention networks in the brain are more distributed and associative than motor networks. For example, hemineglect patients have reduced levels of arousal, which exacerbates their attentional deficits. More …

Moral Pathology, Katie Rapier

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the relationship between morality and mental illness. Mental illness is often thought to impair moral functioning but careful examination reveals that mental illness offers its own insight into moral functioning. While we learn a great deal about moral responsibility and exempting conditions (psychopathy and addiction), we also discover that there a multiple ways to be moral and that many individuals act morally despite ongoing conditions (high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and recovered borderline personality disorder). I conclude that these insights ought to shape our ethical theories.

The Function Of Role Models In The Identity Development Of African American Male Adolescents And Young Adults, Gensis Galan

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The function of role models in the lives of adolescents has been linked to many positive outcomes, including academic success and enhanced physical activity (Assibey-Mensah, 1997; Babey, Wolstein, & Diamant, 2016); however, it remains unclear who adolescents and young adults are seeking and identifying as role models. This two-part interdisciplinary project started with literary analyses of a memoir and semi-autobiographical novel that depicted the experience of two African American male adolescents and their exploration of identity; during this time, each male developed the desire for a role model whose behavior he could imitate. The second part of this project included …

S’Klallam Wellness: Community Engagement Project, Rachel Smart

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The S’Klallam Nation, composed of three federally recognized tribes, has experienced historical, intergenerational, acute, and complex trauma. Supporting S’Klallam wellness requires cultivation of an understanding of how Native people have faced, and continue to face, and overcome these challenges. A review of literature related to Native wellness, reveals the importance of enculturation. A community engagement project, reveals how exploring cultural arts and activities as modes of fostering wellness is beneficial to the S’Klallam people. The relationship between the expressive arts therapies, including dance/movement therapy, as defined by western academic institutions is questioned.

Traversing Mass Tragedies: Material Religion Between The 9/11 And Newtown Memorials, Kate Deconinck

Journal of Global Catholicism

In keeping with recent anthropologists and scholars of religion who are re-imagining the phenomenon of pilgrimage as including more than just journeys to traditional “religious” sites, this article focuses on visitation to multiple sites of remembrance associated with mass tragedies. At the same time, my interest lies not only in the human actors who move between different memory sites, but also in the things that journey alongside or independent of them. In this article, I trace the movement of one particular object—an angel statue—that was initially created to memorialize individuals killed in the September 11 attacks and was later gifted …