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An Event-Related Potential Study Of Social Information Processing In Adolescents, Danielle Difilipo, Jillian Grose-Fifer

Publications and Research

Increased social awareness is a hallmark of adolescence. The primary aim of this eventrelated potential study was to investigate whether adolescents, in comparison to adults, would show relatively enhanced early neural processing of complex pictures containing socially-relevant information. A secondary aim was to investigate whether there are also gender and age differences in the ways adolescents and adults process social and nonsocial information. We recorded EEGs from 12–17 year-olds and 25–37 year-olds (N = 59) while they viewed pleasant pictures from the International Affective Picture System. We found age-related amplitude differences in the N1 and the LPP, and gender-related differences …

Age-Related Changes In Hippocampal Arc Expression Following Minimal Behavioural Induction, Irina V. Odintsova

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Normal ageing is associated with significant changes in cognitive function, including the decline of some forms of memory. The hippocampal formation is critical to learning and memory function, and plasticity in this region declines with age. Additionally, age-related differences in plasticity are greatest at lower levels of stimulation, thus peri-threshold plasticity may be of the greatest relevance for age-related changes in cognition. Moreover, the hippocampus is prone to changes in the expression of gene products that mediate plasticity with age. The current thesis attempts to link these observations by measuring hippocampal expression of Arc, an immediate-early gene that is critical …

Holding Canada Accountable: An Evaluation Of Canada's Compliance To The United Nations Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples, Jackson A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Compliance of human rights norms requires the application of pressure from a multitude of directions and levels. It takes individual advocacy, micro-system/organizational/community-level pressure, and macro-level pressure from other nation-states and international organizations and governance bodies. This MA study focuses on the mechanisms employed by the United Nations to monitor the compliance of signatory nation-states to the standards established in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), with particular focus on Canada. A crucial goal of this study is to translate the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNSRRIP), James Anaya’s, findings on the …

Social Comparison And Self-Presentation On Social Media As Predictors Of Depressive Symptoms, Janet L. Uhlir

Scripps Senior Theses

Social media, an online arena for social behaviors such as self-presentation and social comparison, may have effects on users’ mood and mental health. Favorably presenting oneself is linked to positive outcomes such as higher self-esteem, whereas social comparison, in general and specifically upward social comparison to higher-performing others, is related to feelings of inadequacy, envy, and depression. Social comparison may explain the “Facebook depression effect,” acting as a mediator between time spent on social media and depressive symptoms. A correlational study is proposed that will ask 200 participants to report their time spent on various social media sites, self-presentation of …

Stressful Scriptures: Gender Role Ideology, Gender Role Stress, And Christian Religiosity, Tess A. Lommers-Johnson

Scripps Senior Theses

The Gender Role Stress paradigm asserts that individuals experience distress when they cannot or do not want to live up to the roles prescribed to their gender, and this stress is related to Gender Role Ideology. Within American Christian culture, gender roles are socialized and shaped according to tradition and the Bible. To investigate the intersection of these factors, Christian adults will respond to questionnaires about their Gender Role Ideology, Gender Role Stress, and religiosity. Significant positive correlational relationships between Gender Role Ideology and Gender Role Stress, between religiosity and Gender Role Ideology, and between religiosity and Gender Role Stress …

Program Evaluation Of The Wayne State University (Wsu) Transition To Independence Program (Tip), Dinah Ayna

Wayne State University Dissertations

Background: A significant number of children in the US are placed in the child welfare system every year. Among the multiple negative outcomes associated with being in the foster care system is a wide academic achievement gap between foster students and the general population, as well as other disadvantaged groups (e.g. low income). Low academic achievement is particularly pronounced in college. The government and higher education institutions are recognizing these educational gaps and developing specialized programs to address the unique needs of foster students; however, the effectiveness of these programs remains unclear. This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of …

Dancing My Adoptive Identity : An Autoethnographic Analysis Of Adoption Narratives And Performance Of Identity, Montana Jean Smith

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Family storytelling helps individuals make sense of the world around them. Stories not only help people understand their familial relationships, but understand the development of their identity. For adoptive children, family narratives are crucial to the creation of the child’s adoptive identity and how it intersects with the many other identities the child holds. This study considers the construction of identity from the adoptee’s point of view by use of autoethnographic and performance methods.

Using a multi-methodological approach, this thesis uses interactive interviews, autoethnography, and performance methods as a way to assess what narratives are told within an adoptive family …

Psychological And Environmental Predictors Of Test Anxiety: A Structural Equation Model, Meredith Taylor Harris

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Test anxiety is a construct that includes cognitive, physiological, and behavioral symptoms occurring in response to anxiety prior to, during, or following examinations. The current literature on test anxiety has evaluated a number of possible predictors, including demographic variables, academic indicators, and self-perceptions. The movement toward school accountability and higher academic expectations of students has increased the severity of consequences occurring as a result of poor academic achievement. Thus, test anxiety is a critical concern that may impact student academic success. The current study evaluated a structural equation model to determine the strength of associations between trait anxiety, academic achievement, …

Successful Aging In Oldest-Old Adults: Role Of Physical And Social Factors, Katie Elizabeth Stanko

LSU Master's Theses

Successful aging, increasing in chronological age while maintaining health, is related to a multitude of factors including social and physical behaviors. Older adults may report that they are aging successfully while biomedical outcomes suggest otherwise. In the present study, sociodemographic characteristics, social engagement, physical activity in relation to frailty and health-related quality of life (HR QoL) were examined using a lifespan sample of adults (N = 732) from the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study (LHAS). Four age groups were compared: younger (21-44 years), middle-aged (45-64 years), older (65-84 years), and oldest-old adults (85 to 101 years). A main effect of age …

An Examination Of Autism Symptomatology In Young Children With Family History Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jasper Abarte Estabillo

LSU Master's Theses

Multiple genetic and environmental factors have roles in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Thus, researchers have become increasingly interested in studying family members of individuals with ASD in order to examine possible risk factors and to identify early markers of the disorder. While family history of ASD may put an individual at risk for developing autism, there is limited research examining how the degree of relationship to the affected individual may be related to an individual’s presenting ASD symptomatology. Because closer familial relationships (i.e., first-degree relatives) have more shared genetic material and tend to have increased common environment …

Control, Care, And Stress: Parenting's Effect On Child Internalizing Symptoms, Maysa Kaskas

LSU Master's Theses

Theoretical models of childhood psychopathology suggest that the parent-child relationship serves an influential role in the development and maintenance of internalizing disorders such as anxiety and depression. However, there is a great deal of inconsistency in the research literature on the predictive power of parenting variables such as parental control and parental care. Furthermore, these parenting variables are often poorly defined and inconsistently operationalized across studies, hampering interpretation of results and limiting conclusions on the strength of the effect. Additionally, few studies have examined the role of parenting with careful attention to moderators. In order to investigate these problems, 189 …

Caregiver Choice In Autism Intervention: Selections And Influential Factors, Hilary Lynn Adams

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although research on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) continues to increase, there is not yet a “cure” for the disorder. There is a lack of consensus regarding most effective treatments, much less an accepted treatment plan or course. Families may feel alone and lost in the treatment decision process. In order to best assist caregivers, psychologists must understand the selections caregivers make, their sources of information, and what influences them in their decision-making process. With this knowledge, clinicians may best effect change in caregiver choice by encouraging informed decision-making and use of empirically-based interventions. Thus, the purpose of the current study …

The Influence Of Lay Concepts And Causal Theories On Definitions Of Mental Illness And Social Outcomes, Kallen A. Bynum

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Lay concepts and causal attribution theories enable lay people to make sense of their social situations, more specifically, their encounters with those suffering from mental disorders by providing informational frameworks and explanations upon which to interpret their circumstances. Thus, lay concepts and causal theories about mental illness play a role in beliefs and behaviors toward those individuals. The current study surveyed 113 undergraduate students to investigate relations between knowledge of mental illness as well as causal attributions and explicit stigma associated with depression and schizophrenia, such as perceived dangerousness and desire for social distance. Scores for schizophrenia and depression were …

Prescription For Critical Thinking: A Discussion Of Psychotropic Medication And Counseling, Barton W. Biggs

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

This paper examines questions about the safety and efficacy of psychotropic medication, and looks at how these questions should impact the field of counseling. The paper first looks at increasing rates of use of psychotropic medication, and establishes that nearly every clinical mental health counselor will work with clients who are taking or considering taking such medication. The paper next examines the scientific literature and establishes that there is a legitimate basis for questions to be raised about the safety and efficacy of these medications. The paper goes on to establish that there is a foundation in ethical codes and …

Fearful Temperament Moderates The Association Between Positive Parenting And Children's Social Competence During Early Childhood, Jessica M. Grande

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Social competence during kindergarten has been linked to adaptive teacher-child and peer relationships. The quality of parents’ interaction with their children during the toddler years may promote better social development placing children on a trajectory towards social competence. Quite possibly, children vary in how responsive they are to parenting efforts. This study evaluated the extent to which positive parenting predicted change in social competence from child age 3 to 4 among 137 parent-child dyads. Observational measures of positive parenting and fearful temperament were analyzed when children were 3-years of age. Teacher reports of social competence in the classroom were collected …

Emotional And Autonomic Responding To Auditory Stimuli, Jeremy C. Peres

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Much of the research examining emotion induction, regulation, and suppression considers solely the visual modality (e.g., pictures of faces) for emotion elicitation. In reality, emotions are cued, expressed, and interpreted through multiple modalities by employing the extensive use of auditory stimuli in addition to visual stimuli. There have been some recent efforts to offset this imbalance in modality preference by using emotional auditory stimuli alone or in addition to visual stimuli. This project aims to further investigate emotional and autonomic responding to auditory stimuli with the added component of examining differential responding across social (nonlinguistic vocal expression) and non-social auditory …

Fearful Temperament Moderates The Effect Of Harsh Parenting On Early Childhood Problem Behaviors Within Dangerous Neighborhoods: A Multilevel Analysis, Brenna Sapotichne

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Interaction Of Parenting And The Serotonin Transporter Gene On Trajectories Of Fearfulness In Early Childhood, Moira R. Riley

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Children who are more fearful and inhibited during early childhood are at greater risk for social problems (e.g., loneliness, social isolation) and clinically significant internalizing disorders during adolescence and adulthood (e.g., Rubin, Chen, McDougall, Bowker, & McKinnon, 1995; Williams et al., 2009). While the impact of fearful temperament on adjustment indices are regularly the focus of study, less well understood are biological and social processes that may affect the development of fearful temperament. The present study considered the role of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and parenting on change in fearful and inhibited temperamental characteristics during early childhood.

The s/s genotype …

Effects Of Pharmacological De-Prenylation Of Rhes On Motor Behavior In A Beta-Nitropropionic Acid Animal Model Of Huntington's Disease, Ashley Whitmarsh

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a heritable, neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor, cognitive, and psychiatric disturbances. The progressive disease is caused by an unstable CAG expansion within the gene that normally encodes for the huntingtin protein (Htt). The expanded mutant form of Htt (mHtt) is expressed ubiquitously throughout patients’ bodies; however, neuronal degeneration is prominent only in the corpus striatum and, to a lesser extent, the cortex. The Ras homolog Rhes is also preferentially localized to the striatum. The putative co-factor Rhes has been shown to act with mHtt to cause neuronal death. Simvastatin, a lipid lowering drug, and zoledronate, a …

Maternal Predictors Of School Readiness Among At-Risk Head Start Preschool Children, Rachel Chase

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Preschool has been identified as a critical period during which children who are at-risk for school difficulties are most responsive to intervention (National Institute of Mental Health, 2002; National Research Council & Institute of Medicine, 2001). Because of this, school readiness has recently become a prioritized area of interest for the educational system, the health care industry, and the federal government. However, many efforts to comprehensively prepare a child to begin school have not been successful because factors beyond the educational system (e.g., parenting/parent attributes, environmental stressors, and other demographic characteristics) have not been closely considered nor adequately researched. Therefore, …

Dialectical Behavior Therapy In College Counseling Centers: Practical Applications And Theoretical Considerations, Carla Chugani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Authors over the last two decades have discussed the myriad of challenges present in managing college students with severe mental health disorders. During the same time period, Marsha Linehan developed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) as an empirically sound intervention for individuals with suicidal and self-injurious behaviors and this treatment grew to be an evidence-based practice for a range of challenging clinical issues. I argue that one solution to continued increases in college students who present for treatment to their college counseling centers with difficult-to-treat mental health issues, including but not limited to, borderline personality disorder (BPD), is to implement DBT …

Incentive Contrast As A Relative Reward, Alexandra Schmidt

Honors Projects

This study examines the relationship between rapid relative reward comparisons and incentive contrast among rats (n=5). Animals were trained to lever-press in order to obtain access to a sucrose solution (concentration used: 1%, 10% or 20% in tap water). These rewards were placed outside an operant box which could be reached through a small hole displaying sessions with mixed comparisons (1v20%, 20v1%) or single sessions (1v1%, 10v10%, 20v20%) that rotated between two spouts containing the pre-randomized order of paired blocks; allowing for comparative analysis between two spouts/concentrations and blocks of responses. Throughout weekly testing each animal experienced a …

Effects Of Repeated Quetiapine Treatment On Conditioned Avoidance Responding In Rats, Jun Gao, Min Feng, Natashia Swalve, Collin Davis, Nan Sui, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study characterized the behavioral mechanisms of avoidance–disruptive effect of quetiapine in the conditioned avoidance response test under two behavioral testing (2 warning signals vs. 1 warning signal) and two drug administration conditions (subcutaneous vs. intravenous). In Experiments 1 and 2, well-trained adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were tested under the subcutaneous (s.c.) quetiapine treatment (5.0, 15.0, 25.0, 50.0 mg/kg) for 7 days in a novel procedure consisting of two conditioned stimuli (CS) (white noise serving as CS1 and pure tone as CS2). Only the highest dose (50.0 mg/kg) produced a persistent suppression of the avoidance response without impairing the …

Coyotes On The Web: Understanding Human-Coyote Interaction And Online Education Using Citizen Science, Zuriel Anne Rasmussen

Dissertations and Theses

Coyote (Canis latrans) numbers are increasing in urban areas, leading to more frequent human-coyote interactions. Rarely, and particularly when coyotes have become habituated to humans, conflicts occur. Effective education about urban coyotes and how to prevent habituation reduces conflict. Citizen science, in the form of online education, can be used to engage and educate city dwellers about urban coyotes. In this research, I explore Portland Metropolitan Area (PMA) residents' baseline experiences with, and attitudes toward, urban coyotes. Next, I investigate citizen science as a tool for education. Using the Portland Urban Coyote Project (PUCP), a citizen science project, as a …

Experiential Avoidance Post-Trauma: Investigating Predictors Of Traumatic Stress And Problematic Behavior., Elise Trim

Honors Theses

Experiential avoidance (EA) is the unwillingness to remain in contact with distressing thoughts, feelings, memories, and other private experiences (Hayes et al., 2004; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999). Although the use of EA may lead to immediate reductions in distress, prolonged use can result in problem behaviors such as substance misuse (Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996). Although a strong temporal relationship has yet to be established, findings suggest a possibility that EA could be a mechanism by which posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are developed and maintained (Krause, Mendelson, & Lynch, 2003; Rosenthal, Polusny, & Follette, 2006; Dvorak, …

Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case Study Of Mikey, Gabrielle Lober

Honors Theses

This paper describes Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) including diagnostic criteria, suspected causes, prevalence, comorbidities, and influences on client factors. A hypothetical case study is presented to give readers an illustration of what someone with ASD might look like. Possible treatment based on evidence and selected frame of references will be given for the hypothetical client. This paper is not all inclusive of the role of occupational therapy in the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder, but gives an illustrative example.

Understanding Emotion In Relation To Drinking Motivation, Melissa C. Hinely

Honors College Theses

Recent research has uncovered the interactions between implicit alcohol motivations and drinking behaviors after emotion inductions (Ostafin & Brooks, 2011). However, little research has supplemented such findings. This longitudinal two-part study examined the impact of a personalized emotion induction on implicit alcohol-related associations in a college sample enrolled at southern university. 215 participants were randomly assigned to one of three emotion-induction conditions (negative, neutral, or positive). During phase I, participants completed a baseline Implicit Association Tests (IAT; Greenwald et al., 1998) to assess implicit alcohol-related cognitions related to valence and motivation. Based on condition, participants were also asked to describe …

The Effects Of Size And Principal Axis Difference Ratio On The Use Of Featural And Geometric Cues, Spencer J. Price

Honors College Theses

Enclosure size has been shown to affect an animal’s reliance on featural and geometric cues when reorienting in space. Previous research has shown that humans and animals rely primarily on geometric cues in smaller enclosures, and on featural cues in larger enclosures. The multiple-bearings hypothesis predicts that directional information is more discriminable than distance information when landmarks are father away from a goal. As the size of the environment increased, the distance information was less discernible than featural information. In the current study, we tested to see if the reliance on geometry changes across enclosure size. Three different Principal Axis …

Feasibility Of A Peer Support Oriented Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training Massive Open Online Course For Emotion Dysregulation, Rachel Gill

Senior Theses

Public interest in mental health care modernization has steadily gained momentum since ratifying The United States Health Care Affordability Act (U.S. Office of the Legislative Counsel, 2010). Furthermore, with 1 in every 1000 people seeking online support for mental health issues (DeAndrea & Anthony, 2013), research concerning the development of virtual mental health applications is critical to ensure science guides their innovation. To this end, this study explores the feasibility of a mental health intervention that unites the experiential, recovery-oriented, and self-determined values of mental health peer support (Kaufman et al., 2014) with dialectical behavior therapy skills training (DBT-ST) (Linehan, …

Adherence And Dosage Contributions To Parenting Program Quality, Thomas J. Gross, W. Alex Mason, Gilbert R. Parra, Robert Oats, Jay Ringle, Kevin P. Haggerty

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

Objective—The 3 most frequently examined elements of treatment fidelity are adherence, dosage, and quality. The relationships between these fidelity elements are complex, and additional research is needed to provide clarity. Improving clarity may be especially relevant to parenting programs, which tend to include direct explicit instruction (DEI) elements (i.e., instruction, modeling, and practice). The adherence to and dosage of these DEI elements are frequently assumed to improve program quality; however, little information is available to determine if such adherence and dosage affect program quality. This study examines whether adherence to and dosage of DEI elements predict quality ratings for …