Digital Commons Network^™

Targeting Tobacco In A Community-Based Addiction Recovery Cohort: Results From A Computerized, Brief, Randomized Intervention Trial, Alison Breland, Lauren Almond, Jennifer Kienzle, Steven J. Ondersma, Alton Hart, Michael Weaver, Pamela Dillon, Dace Svikis

Psychology Publications

Introduction. Nearly 80% of substance dependent individuals also use tobacco, and smoking cessation efforts during treatment for other substance use is associated with similar or even improved outcomes. However, smoking cessation is not routinely addressed during treatment for substance use disorders. The present study tested a computerized brief motivational intervention (C-BMI) for smoking cessation in an understudied population: a cohort recruited from a recovery community organization (RCO) center.

Methods. Following baseline assessment, participants were randomly assigned to either a 30-minute C-BMI plus access to free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), or an information-only control group plus NRT access. Results. Reductions in …

Development Of Moral Didacticism In Children: A Cross-Cultural Study, Sixtus Obinna Iwuji

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The use of folktales and fables in explaining the physical and spiritual worlds to children is cross-cultural, and precedes recorded history. Prior studies indicate a developmental process in children’s understanding of fables and folktales (Jose, D’Anna, & Krieg, 2005; Narvaez, Gleason, Mitchell, & Bentley, 1999). However, no known study has examined whether this developmental process is cross-cultural or culture specific. No known study also, has examined whether children as young as 6 years of age are aware that fables and folktales are non-historical. The present study fills these observed gaps by examining moral didacticism in children aged 6-11 years. The …

Scaffolding As A Tool For Environmental Education In Early Childhood, Alex Zurek, Julia C. Torquati, Ibrahim H. Acar

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This paper describes the process of “scaffolding” as a teaching strategy in early childhood education, and demonstrates how scaffolding can promote children’s learning about the natural environment. Examples of scaffolding are provided from seventy-four running record observations made over a two-year period in a nature-based preschool program. Qualitative analysis examined the extent to which scaffolding was used to support children’s learning about nature; the types of scaffolding strategies used by teachers; whether high- and low-support strategies were used in specific types of situations; the effectiveness of scaffolding; and what children learned when teachers engaged them in scaffolding. Examples illustrate specific …

Girls’ Plays With Dolls And Doll-Houses In Various Cultures, Anna Chernaya

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

The article presents an analysis of the historical and contemporary context of girls’ plays with dolls and doll-houses. The anthropological materials about children's plays with dolls and doll-houses help to recreate the doll context as a cultural represent of evolutional development. The archaic functions of the doll used in rituals and traditional ceremonies objectivize the historically inherent cultural status of the doll. In traditional cultures, through dolls plays children who play with their peers and older children, receive relevant information about their natural and social environment, social relationships, symbols, values and ideals of adults’ world. Dolls plays enhance mastering ethical …

Where Is Uphill? Exploring Sex Differences When Reorienting On A Sloped Environment Presented Through 2-D Images, Daniele Nardi, Roberta Miloni, Marco Orlandi, Marta Olivetti-Belardinelli

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

One of the spatial abilities that has recently revealed a remarkable variability in performance is that of using terrain slope to reorient. Previous studies have shown a very large disadvantage for females when the slope of the floor is the only information useful for encoding a goal location. However, the source of this sex difference is still unclear. The slope of the environment provides a directional source of information that is perceived through dissociable visual and kinesthetic sensory modalities. Here we focused on the visual information, and examined whether there are sex differences in the perception of a slope presented …

Empathy In Other Apes, Kristin Andrews, Lori Gruen

Sentience Collection

A number of scholars have offered behavioral and physiological arguments in favor of the existence of empathy in other species (see Bekoff & Pierce 2009, Flack & de Waal 2000, Plutchik 1987). While the evidence is compelling, claims about empathy in nonhuman apes face two different challenges. The first challenge comes from a set of empirical findings that suggest great apes are not able to think about other’s beliefs. The argument here is based on a view that empathy is associated with folk psychological understanding of others’ mental states, or mindreading, and the existence of mindreading among the other apes …

What Do Zebrafish Want? Impact Of Social Grouping, Dominance And Gender On Preference For Enrichment, Paul Schroeder, Soffia Jones, Iain S. Young, Lynne U. Sneddon

Sentience Collection

Although environmental enrichment is known to improve laboratory rodent wellbeing and enhance scientific data collection, relatively little is known with regards to the type of enrichment that might be useful for zebrafish (Danio rerio). Therefore, this study explored if zebrafish displayed preferences for a range of enrichments, including substrates, artificial plants, combinations thereof and airstones. Tanks divided into two compartments containing different enrichment cues were used to determine the preferences of zebrafish housed in pairs and groups of eight. When comparing time spent in enriched versus barren compartments, dominant individuals in a pair displayed a preference for substrate and behaviourally …

Individual Personality Traits Influence Group Exploration In A Feral Guppy Population, Culum Brown, Eleanor Irving

Sentience Collection

We examined whether variation in group exploratory behavior was linked with variation in personality traits (boldness, activity, and sociability) in a population of feral guppies (Poecilia reticulata). A huge amount of variation was observed in dispersal tendency between shoals. Surprisingly, no significant correlations were found between group exploratory behavior and average group personality scores, which suggests that the movement of the shoal was not generated by group conformity. However, our analysis revealed correlations between group exploration and the activity score of the least active member of a group and the sociality index of the most social member of a group. …

Hatching Success Of Rainbowfish Eggs Following Exposure To Air, Lois J. Oulton, Penelope Carbia, Culum Brown

Aquaculture Collection

Translocation of fishes within and between drainage basins is widely recognised as a threatening process to Australian native fishes. While many translocations are deliberate, for example for fisheries enhancement, it is possible that translocation can occur naturally. In the Wet Tropic region of Australia, the widespread eastern rainbowfish, Melanotaenia splendida, has begun to colonise the Atherton tablelands. This is of particular concern because the area is home to several endangered endemic species such as the Lake Eacham rainbowfish, M. eachamensis, and its allies. It is likely that some of the translocations have occurred through the use of this species as …

Applying Ethological And Health Indicators To Practical Animal Welfare Assessment, F. Wemelsfelder, S. Mullan

Animal Welfare Collection

There is a growing effort worldwide to develop objective indicators for animal welfare assessment, which provide information on an animal’s quality of life, are scientifically trustworthy, and can readily be used in practice by professionals. Animals are sentient beings capable of positive and negative emotion, and so these indicators should be sensitive not only to their physical health, but also to their experience of the conditions in which they live. This paper provides an outline of ethological research aimed at developing practical welfare assessment protocols. The first section focuses on the development and validation of welfare indicators generally, in terms …

Qualitative Behavioural Assessment Of The Motivation For Feed In Sheep In Response To Altered Body Condition Score, C. A. Stockman, T. Collins, A. L. Barnes, D. Miller, S. L. Wickham, E. Verbeek, L. Matthews, D. Ferguson, F. Wemelsfelder, P. A. Fleming

Sentience Collection

Qualitative behavioural assessment (QBA) has been used to quantify the expressive behaviour of animals, and operant tests have been used to quantify measures of behavioural need. In this study we compared measures of behavioural expression and behaviour in operant tests. We examined the behavioural expression of pregnant ewes of body condition score (BCS) 2 and 3. The ewes were exposed to a feed motivation test in which they received a food reward. Pregnant ewes (48–70 days gestation) were assessed during a food motivation test after they had been maintained at BCS 3 (n = 7) or given a decreasing plane …

Apes Communicate About Absent And Displaced Objects: Methodology Matters, Heidi Lyn, Jamie L. Russell, David A. Leavens, Kim A. Bard, Sarah T. Boysen, Jennifer A. Schaeffer, William D. Hopkins

Sentience Collection

Displaced reference is the ability to refer to an item that has been moved (displaced) in space and/ or time, and has been called one of the true hallmarks of referential communication. Several studies suggest that nonhuman primates have this capability, but a recent experiment concluded that in a specific situation (absent entities) human infants display displaced reference but chimpanzees do not. Here we show that chimpanzees and bonobos of diverse rearing histories are capable of displaced reference to absent and displaced objects. It is likely that some of the conflicting findings from animal cognition studies are due to relatively …

Practice Patterns Of Equine Assisted Psychotherapists, Haley Gresham

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Modeled after Doherty & Simmons’ (1996) study on the practice patterns of marriage and family therapists, this project explored similar questions about equine assisted/facilitated psychotherapists who are members of two main certification organizations, EAGALA and PATH Intl. An Internet survey distributed to equine assisted/facilitated practitioners across the country explored demographic information of the clinician, their clients, and their typical work setting. Equine assisted/facilitated psychotherapy is a growing field and gaining an understanding of the current position of the field allows for growth in areas that are currently underdeveloped within this sector of the mental health field.

What Constitutes Evidence In An Evidence-Based Psychology Of The Whole Person?, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

Walking Between Worlds: Holding Multiple Worldviews As A Key For Ecological Transformation, Jeanine M. Canty

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The current ecological, social, and personal crises spark the need for radical transformation

to shift from one world that is mechanistic, destructive, and egocentric to another that is

relational, life affirming, and embedded in the widest understandings of interconnected

selves. The author employed an organic research inquiry to depict the patterns of people

making this shift, identified six qualities, and found that embracing these crises provides

opportunity to enlarge individual and collective perspectives in a way that aligns with larger

systems of life opening one up to what has been called the multicultural self, the ecological

self, or the self-transforming …

An Anatomical, Biochemical, Biophysical And Quantum Basis For The Unconscious Mind, James L. Oschman, Maurie D. Pressman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This article suggests that it may now be possible to develop some theoretical and experimental bases for organic substructures involved in psychological phenomena including the unconscious. Our inquiry arose from mutual interest in the mechanisms involved in peak athletic and artistic performances and in deep therapeutic encounters. We are referring to a state of consciousness is often described by performers as “the zone.” This is a state in which individuals or groups function at an extraordinary level of perception and coordination; or a state in which therapists develop a deep connection with their clients’ repressed feelings or traumatic memories. Here …

Ayurvedic Psychology: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science, Daniel Rhoda

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Ayurveda is a holistic medical system based on ancient Indian texts that utilizes natural treatments, botanical medicines, and lifestyle and dietary practices to promote healing of the body, mind, senses, and spirit. Interest in Ayurveda has grown in the United States over the last two decades, as consumers, therapists, scientists, and health regulators have recognized its holistic and preventative benefits. According to Ayurveda, every human being is composed of a unique proportion of these elemental energies, a foundational theory in Ayurveda known as tridosha. The three doshas (vata, pitta, kapha) represent three psychobiological constitutional types that govern …

Beneficial Assessment Outcomes From Frequent Testing, Abdulrazaq Imam

Psychology

When faced with deadlines, people tend to procrastinate. Students do this by delaying study time until examinations are so close the only option left is cramming. This procrastination scallop is a well-established behavioral phenomenon in both human and infrahuman species. Distributed practice also has been demonstrated to be superior to massed practice in the cognitive literature. Frequent testing provides opportunities for distributed practice and rehearsals that fill the gap between acquisition and the big test, creating its own mini-scallops. In sections of Introductory Psychology, Research Design, and Learning and Behavior courses, standard pre-post testing was conducted at the start and …

Transpersonal Healing: Assessing The Evidence From Laboratory And Clinical Trials, Marilyn Schlitz

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Transpersonal or distant healing intention (DHI) is one of the most commonly used forms of complementary and alternative healing. While it is popular, its efficacy is uncertain and the mechanism of action unclear. This article provides an overview of both the laboratory research and clinical trials of DHI, summarizing the state of the field. There appears to be support, based on controlled laboratory studies, for a transpersonal dimension to DHI. Results of randomized, controlled clinical trials are more equivocal. While results do not offer clear evidence to support DHI as an evidence-based modality, this provocative field reveals important epistemological and …

Anterior And Posterior Types Of Neuropsychological Deficits In Parkinson’S Disease: A Subgroup Classification Of Cognitiveoutcome, Megan Risi

Undergraduate Review

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a pervasive neurodegenerative disorder with a prevalence rate of approximately 150 out of 100,000 individuals in the United States and Western Europe (Checkoway & Nelson, 1999). The most widely recognized motor symptoms associated with PD include a resting tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement (i.e., bradykinesia), freezing, and gait abnormalities. Non-motor symptoms typically consist of depression, hallucinations, sleep disturbances, fatigue, autonomic nervous system impairment, and cognitive deficits (see e.g., Stacy, 2011). The frequency and severity of these nonmotor impairments typically increase with disease duration, and they are not exclusively linked to the motor symptoms (see e.g., Yu …

Environmental Crisis And Transitional Phenomena: Brenda Hillman’S Ecopoetic Playing, Brian Glaser

English Faculty Articles and Research

Many writings in ecopsychology make reference to “the environmental crisis” as an apocalyptic scenario, but few define the cause of this crisis. This essay proposes that the cause for apocalyptic rhetoric of environmental crisis is as much psychological as environmental. It draws on Winnicott’s idea of playing as haunted by the otherness of reality to offer a therapeutic reading of the poetry of Muriel Rukeyser and Brenda Hillman in which the imaginative resources of trope, apostrophe, dedication and allusion serve to make bearable the anxiety that leads to apocalyptic rhetoric in ecopsychological writings.

Results Of A Transpersonal, Narrative, And Phenomenological Psychotherapy For Psychosis, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Erik Jul, Barbara Mainguy

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

In our academically based, psychiatric outpatient practice, we have encountered those who wish to avoid medications for treatment for psychosis. This study is a qualitative/quantitative study in progress of a patient population diagnosed with psychosis and managed primarily without medication. We reflect upon the transpersonal foundations of an approach in which voices and visions are accepted as real, given full ontological status, and addressed within a dialogical framework. We present interim data on a series of 51 patients over 20 years old who presented with psychosis and who remained with us for at least six months in their effort to …

Intuitive Impressions: Comparing Law Enforcement And The General Population’S Perception Of Stress In Others, Lukas Klapatch

Undergraduate Review

Although much research has addressed the physiological and behavioral differences between challenged and threatened stress levels (Blascovich, 2008; Frings, et al., 2012; McEwen, 2000; Vine, et al., 2013), limited attention has been paid to the ability of an observer to read behavioral cues in others and correctly identify the type of stress the target might be feeling. The purpose of the current work was to help address this gap in the literature and to compare the accuracy of participants from two groups, the general population and those with law enforcement training, who classified targets in silent video clips as challenged …

Bilateral Saccadic Deficits Following Large And Reversible Inactivation Of Unilateral Frontal Eye Field., Tyler R Peel, Kevin Johnston, Stephen G Lomber, Brian D Corneil

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Inactivation permits direct assessment of the functional contribution of a given brain area to behavior. Previous inactivation studies of the frontal eye field (FEF) have either used large permanent ablations or reversible pharmacological techniques that only inactivate a small volume of tissue. Here we evaluated the impact of large, yet reversible, FEF inactivation on visually guided, delayed, and memory-guided saccades, using cryoloops implanted in the arcuate sulcus. While FEF inactivation produced the expected triad of contralateral saccadic deficits (increased reaction time, decreased accuracy and peak velocity) and performance errors (neglect or misdirected saccades), we also found consistent increases in reaction …

Short-Duration Stimulation Of The Supplementary Eye Fields Perturbs Anti-Saccade Performance While Potentiating Contralateral Head Orienting., Brendan B Chapman, Brian D Corneil

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Many forms of brain stimulation utilize the notion of state dependency, whereby greater influences are observed when a given area is more engaged at the time of stimulation. Here, by delivering intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) to the supplementary eye fields (SEF) of monkeys performing interleaved pro- and anti-saccades, we show a surprising diversity of state-dependent effects of ICMS-SEF. Short-duration ICMS-SEF passed around cue presentation selectively disrupted anti-saccades by increasing reaction times and error rates bilaterally, and also recruited neck muscles, favoring contralateral head turning to a greater degree on anti-saccade trials. These results are consistent with the functional relevance of the …

The Human-Animal Bond And Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress, Melissa White

2010-2016 Archived Posters

This study explored the lived experiences of Operational Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) service members with combatrelated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms who had a companion animal postdeployment. Twelve OEF and OIF veterans participated in semi-structured interviews analyzed using Moustakas’ phenomenological approach. Four themes emerged: (a) rich descriptions of deployment events, (b) the experiences of returning from a deployment, (c) participants’ perceptions on their pets’ influence on posttraumatic stress symptoms, and (d) other comments and opinions related to participants’ experiences. These findings illuminate the experience of combat-related posttraumatic stress and the importance of animals in the therapeutic …

Religiosity-Spirituality And Risky Drinking Over The Transition To College: A Multi-Wave Longitudinal Study, Brian J. Klassen

Wayne State University Dissertations

Although the relationship between religiosity-spirituality and risky alcohol use is one of the most frequently studied topics in mental health, relatively little is known about how these variables relate to each other over time, especially during specific developmental periods such as the transition from high school to college. This study analyzed three waves of self-report data collected from a sample (N=623) of college students over a two-year period. Analyses examined (1) the stability of religiosity-spirituality and risky drinking over the transition to college, (2) the magnitude and direction of relationships between religiosity-spirituality and risky drinking, (3) the degree to which …

Understanding The Role Of Nutritional Stress In The Adult And Developing Zebra Finch, Jessica Bayley Thompson

Wayne State University Dissertations

Songbirds are particularly susceptible to stress during the sensitive period for song learning. Thus the developmental stress hypothesis (DSH) proposes that adult song reflects a male's early life environment during this period. Nutritional stress (NS) has been shown to cause deficits in song learning and adult song output that are salient to females. Female song birds consistently prefer control males over those raised under NS, yet the effects NS on females are still unclear. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) has been implicated in this process. However, evidence directly linking HPA functioning to the deficits due to NS have inconsistently shown elevations …

Self-Construal Moderates Testosterone Reactivity To Competitive Outcomes, Keith Welker

Wayne State University Dissertations

Previous research shows that testosterone reactivity to competitive outcomes predicts aggressive behavior in men. However, some studies have failed to find these effects, and it has been suggested that individual differences moderate the relationships between competitive outcomes, testosterone fluctuations, and aggressive behavior. The current research examined whether one individual difference--self-construal--would moderate these effects. In Study 1, participants were assigned to win or lose a competitive video game and engaged in a reactive aggression task. Results indicated that increases in testosterone in response to winning and decreases in response to losing occurred in men with independent, not interdependent, self-construals. These changes …

Toward Sustainable Development Through Nurturing Diversity, Leon Jackson, Deon Meiring, Fons Van De Vijver, Erhabor Idemudia, William Gabrenya

IACCP Proceedings of the Biennial International Conferences

A peer-revieved book based on presentations at the XXI Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2012, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

(c) 2014, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (ebook) ISBN 978-0-620-60283-9