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Reports Of Transpersonal Experiences By Non-Native Practitioners Of The Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony: A Critical Appraisal, Whit Hibbard

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Interviews with 30 experienced non-native practitioners of the Native American sweat lodge

ceremony revealed 184 reports of transpersonal experiences. Interview questions sought to (a)

disclose how practitioners discern or critique their own experiences, (b) consider alternative

explanations for practitioners’ experiences, and (c) critically reflect on the sweat lodge

ceremony per se as a spiritual practice. It was found that practitioners generally (a) interpreted

their experiences as trustworthy interactions with a spiritual reality, (b) did not seriously

consider alternative explanations for their experiences, and (c) neglected to reflect critically

on the sweat lodge ceremony per se as a spiritual practice.

A Meeting Of East And West: Can Eastern-Influenced Therapies Be Effective In The Treatment Of Stress And Mood Disorders?, Paula Pelavin

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

Given that the human brain is plastic and that structural alterations have been seen in monks who meditate on a regular basis, the question arises of whether these two facts are actually related. Furthermore, if this is in fact the case, would it be possible to apply these findings to the public? In this paper I will present the different conditions that induce neuroplasticity as well as give an overview of meditation and the ways that it is practiced nowadays. To this end I will argue that if monks are able to alter the structure of their brains and the …

Crf–Crf1 System Activation Mediates Withdrawal-Induced Increases In Nicotine Self-Administration In Nicotine-Dependent Rats., Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Ketamine-Enhanced Psychotherapy: Preliminary Clinical Observations On Its Effects In Treating Death Anxiety, Eli Kolp, Scott M. Young, Harris Freidman, Evgeny Krupirsky, Karl Jansen, Laurie-Ann O’Connor

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic commonly used by US physicians, has recently been

shown to be a powerful anti-depressant and is also capable of eliciting transpersonal experiences

that can be transformative. Although currently approved in the US only for use as an

anesthetic, physicians there can legally prescribe it off-label to treat various psychological/

psychiatric problems and it has been used for these non-anesthetic purposes in Argentina,

Iran, Mexico, Russia, and the UK, as well as in the US. The literature on using ketamine

psychotherapeutically is reviewed and two case studies using ketamine-enhanced psychotherapy

(KEP) for treating death anxiety in terminally-ill …

Scientific Foundations (Chapter 2 Of Integrative Psychotherapy), Mark R. Mcminn

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

No abstract provided.

Adolescent Nicotine Exposure Produces Less Affective Measures Of Withdrawal Relative To Adult Nicotine Exposure In Male Rats, Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Viral Vector-Induced Amygdala Npy Overexpression Reverses Increased Alcohol Intake Caused By Repeated Deprivations In Wistar Rats, Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Attachment And Adolescent Psychopathology In A Correctional Setting, Lindsay A. Lounder

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

It was the purpose of this research to better understand the role of attachments and related clinical issues in relation to the development of criminality in late adolescence. This study involves designs comparing the youth at a maximum-security correctional facility versus controls matched on demographic variables using the Attachment and Clinical Issues Questionnaire (ACIQ). Within group data is also analyzed to study differences and similarities among the offenders. Significant differences were found between the offenders and control group on attachment classifications as well as other clinical scales. Offenders are more likely than controls to have insecure attachments to their mother, …

Ap-Ls Teaching Techniques: Deliberating The Benefits Of Learning Through Focus Groups, Garrett Berman, Judith Platania

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

This article describes how students in an undergraduate legal psychology class utilized focus group research (i.e., a jury simulation exercise) to assist in planning strategies for trial. In addition to conducting the focus group, students were responsible for providing an analysis of the results, and preparing their team for trial. Ultimately, students reported the focus group exercise helped them develop trial strategies, understand the role of trial consultants, and gain a better understanding of scientific jury selection. Rationale, course objectives, and a description of the activity are outlined, as well as suggestions for including this exercise in an upper-level legal …

Predictors Of Middle School Girls' Engagement In Suspendable School Offenses., Barbara Harlow Cavanaugh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite research evidence that social context and personal characteristics are related to girls' violent behavior, little is known about the relative contribution of such antecedents. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the relative strength of predictors of school violence among a sample of middle school girls. Of special interest were the intervening variables, because knowledge of their relative strength could enable schools to design targeted interventions to reduce school violence. Social learning theory formed the theoretical foundation for the study. A four-part survey consisting of sociodemographic items, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, an amended version of the Attitudes …

The Politics Of Teen Women’S Sexuality: Public Policy And The Adolescent Female Body, Michelle Fine, Sara I. Mcclelland

Publications and Research

Teen women's sexual and reproductive lives are shaped by laws and public policies that expand or constrict their educational and health supports. Most adolescents depend substantially on the public sector to help support their healthy sexual development and to protect them from sexual violence, disease, and pregnancy. Thus, it is critical to examine the ways in which public policies concerning young women's sexualities have been forged within religious and "moralizing" discourses. The explicit pairing of law and religious ideology has transformed the role of law and public policy in young women's lives from a supportive function to one that censures …

Relationship Of Coping And Social Support To Depression, Perceived Pain, And Health-Related Outcomes In Post-Surgical Coronary Bypass Grafting Patients , Theresa A. Kovacs

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This research proposal highlights the potential outcomes: post-surgical CABG patients with little or no positive coping methods will reflect signiflcant levels of depression, pain and lower HRQL scores and that post-surgical CABG with low levels of social support will show significant levels of depression, pain and lower HRQL scores. This research will also define and clarify the interrelationships between these mechanisms that affect the recovery process in CABG patients. Furthermore this research wiIl help to identify a clinical need for treatment in CABG patients that would reduce further cardiac complications and ultimately reduce overall health related costs. This proposal will …

The Relative Sensitivity Of An Olfactory Identification Deficit In Individuals With Schizotypal Personality Features, Vidyulata Kamath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Olfactory identification deficits have received recent attention as a potentially useful endophenotype for schizophrenia. Examination of this deficit in individuals with schizotypal personality features (SPF) offers an alternative approach to multiple confounds present when examining individuals with schizophrenia. The aim of the current study was to compare the relative sensitivity of performance on measures of olfaction identification and sustained attention to the presence of SPF. Twenty-six undergraduates were defined as having SPF based on scoring in the top 10% of the Abbreviated Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ-B; mean age 19.6, SD = 1.1; 62% female). These individuals were compared to twenty-six …

Real-World Face Recognition: The Importance Of Surface Reflectance Properties, Richard Russell, Pawan Sinha

Psychology Faculty Publications

The face recognition task we perform most often in everyday experience is the identification of people with whom we are familiar. However, because of logistical challenges, most studies focus on unfamiliar-face recognition, wherein subjects are asked to match or remember images of unfamiliar people's faces. Here we explore the importance of two facial attributes - shape and surface reflectance - in the context of a familiar-face recognition task. In our experiment, subjects were asked to recognise color images of the faces of their friends. The images were manipulated such that only reflectance or only shape information was useful for recognizing …

Divorce Transitions: An Exploration Of The Risk And Protective Factors Associated With Children's Psychological Adjustment ; Divorce Transitions: Identifying Risk And Understanding Resilience In Children's Adjustment To Parental Separation, Esther Kint

Theses : Honours

This review provides a critical analysis of the risk and protective factors associated with children's adjustment to divorce. By drawing together some of the key findings and assumptions to emerge from the literature, it attempts to show that although divorce presents elevated stressors for children, their adjustment is influenced by multiple operating factors that combine to either protect them or make them more vulnerable to adversity. Since the majority of children are able to cope successfully with the divorce transition, a resiliency approach is adopted to establish how positive aspects of children's lives combine with stressful events or risk to …

Attitudes Toward Mental Illness: The Effects Of Electronic Media And The Social Desirability Bias, Brandi A. Klein

Modern Psychological Studies

This study examined the effects of mental illness portrayal in film and the social desirability bias on participants' attitudes toward mental illness. Participants watched video clips of a mentally ill character acting either normally or abnormally, and were given either anonymous or confidential questionnaires. Participants who viewed abnormal behavior reported more negative attitudes toward mental illness than participants who watched normal behavior (p < .001) on the Beliefs Toward Mental Illness Scale (Hirai & Clum, 2000). No difference was found between the anonymous and confidential conditions, and these scores did not vary by the viewed behavior. These results suggest that the electronic media influenced participants' attitudes toward mental illness, but participants were not influenced by the social desirability bias.

Collaboration Without End: The Case Of The Positive Aging Newsletter, M. M. Gergen, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

A League Of Their Own:Demographics, Motivations And Patterns Of Use Of 1,955 Male Adult Non-Medicalanabolic Steroid Users In The United States, Jason Cohen, Rick Collins, Jack Darkes, Daniel Gwartney

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Rule violations among elite-level sports competitors and tragedies among adolescents have largely defined the issue of non-medical anabolic-androgenic steroid (NMAAS) use for the public and policy makers. However, the predominant and oft-ignored segment of the NMAAS community exists in the general population that is neither participating in competitive sports nor adolescent. A clearer profile of NMAAS users within the general population is an initial step in developing a full understanding of NMAAS use and devising appropriate policy and interventions. This survey sought to provide a more comprehensive profile of NMAAS users by accessing a large sample of user respondents …

Anhedonia And Depression: Anticipatory, Consummatory, And Recall Deficits, Kaitlin Hanley

Honors Theses

Current conceptions of anhedonia as a key symptom of depression do not consider the importance of anticipatory, consummatory, and recall deficits involved in anhedonia. Sixty-one depressed and non-depressed, college-student participants provided reports of anticipated pleasure to tasting chocolates, tasted chocolates and rated their experience of pleasure, and provided recalled reports of pleasure to the experience one day later. Results demonstrated a deficit in the ability to anticipate experiencing pleasure for depressed participants when compared to non-depressed controls, however, their reports of consummatory pleasure and recalled pleasure did not differ significantly from non-depressed control participants. This study suggests that actual experiential …

Presenting Problems And Treatment Outcome Of College Counseling Center Clients: The Role Of Gender And Academic Major, Erik Lennart Timothy Fister

Masters Theses

The current study examined whether gender and/or academic specialization had any relationship to students presenting issues, symptom severity, and treatment outcome at a university counseling center. The participants were 484 clients and the data were collected at an East Coast university counseling center. Clients were included for the analyses if they were a new intake, clearly fit into one of six categories for academic major, and attended more than one session. Each client filled out both the Personal Information Form (PIF) and Behavioral Health Questionnaire (BHQ) at intake, and was administered the BHQ prior to each subsequent session. Based on …

Science And Application: A Comparison Of Graduate Training In Counseling And Clinical Psychology, Nupur Jain

Masters Theses

Often times, when considering training and careers in psychology, students have difficulty deciding whether to pursue clinical psychology or counseling psychology as a career. The decision made might be a result of limited or biased information. Additionally, students often fail to make important distinctions between counseling psychology and the professional field of counseling, which has implications for the career path they pursue. The purpose of the current literature review is to provide readers with the range of knowledge and ideas, including contrasting perspectives and viewpoints that have been established in this area.

Students also often fail to make important distinctions …

Existential Anxiety And Religious Commitment, Daniel J. Pelak

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Paul Tillich's theory of existential anxiety and religious commitment. The study attempted to determine if there was type of existential anxiety that religion might perpetuate or alleviate. Two hundred and twenty-nine individuals who endorsed a Christian or Catholic belief system completed a series of surveys on an internet website; participants were recruited through various Christian message boards or a standardized email that was sent to various church leaders; the measures of the assessment were Tillich's theory of existential anxiety, death anxiety, moral anxiety, meaninglessness anxiety, religious commitment, and personality …

Factor Structure And Clinical Implications Of Child Behavior Checklist/1.5-5 Ratings In A Sample Of Girls Adopted From China, Tony Xing Tan, Robert F. Dedrick, Kofi Marfo

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Objective: This study assessed psychometric properties of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/1.5-5) and explored clinical insights from its use in a sample of adopted Chinese girls.

Methods: Parental ratings were obtained on 707 adopted Chinese girls, ages 1.50-5.92 years (M = 3.24, SD = 1.26). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), employing robust weighted least squares estimation, was used to evaluate the instrument's seven-factor correlated structure. Profiles of scores were analyzed descriptively for clinical insights.

Results: The CFAs indicated that the fit of Achenbach and Rescorla's (2000 Manual for the ASEBA preschool forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Centre …

Factors Influencing Mid Career Redirection Decisions In Professionals, Mark J. Halliday

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship of factors affecting a professional’s decision to change the direction of their career in during mid career and develop a comprehensive model incorporating each of these factors. There are four hypotheses in this study: la) higher scores in the personality attributes of openness to experience and extraversión will be correlated with a larger change in career redirection than those professionals with lower scores; lb) a higher score in the career attitude of risk-taking style and a lower score in the career attitude of career worries will be correlated with a …

Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge Of Evolution And The Nature Of Science Lead To Greater Advocacy For The Teaching Of Evolution In Schools?, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

This study investigated whether or not an increase in secondary science teacher knowledge about evolution and the nature of science gained from completing a graduate-level evolution course was associated with greater preference for the teaching of evolution in schools. Forty-four precertified secondary biology teachers participated in a 14-week intervention designed to address documented misconceptions identified by a precourse instrument. The course produced statistically significant gains in teacher knowledge of evolution and the nature of science and a significant decrease in misconceptions about evolution and natural selection. Nevertheless, teachers' postcourse preference positions remained unchanged; the majority of science teachers still preferred …

Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge Of Evolution And The Nature Of Science Lead To Greater Advocacy For The Teaching Of Evolution In Schools?, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

This study investigated whether or not an increase in secondary science teacher knowledge about evolution and the nature of science gained from completing a graduate-level evolution course was associated with greater preference for the teaching of evolution in schools. Forty-four precertified secondary biology teachers participated in a 14-week intervention designed to address documented misconceptions identified by a precourse instrument. The course produced statistically significant gains in teacher knowledge of evolution and the nature of science and a significant decrease in misconceptions about evolution and natural selection. Nevertheless, teachers' postcourse preference positions remained unchanged; the majority of science teachers still preferred …

The Effect Of Mood And Individual Differences On Implicit Learning, Kathryn M. Sentman '07

Honors Projects

This study investigated the relationship between mood, cognitive style, and implicit learning. Ninety-four participants were induced with a positive, neutral, or negative mood. We predicted that a positive mood would enhance implicit learning, while a negative mood would depress it. Additionally, we expected that participants with a more intuitive cognitive style would perform better on implicit learning. Implicit learning was measured using the Artificial Grammar (AG) and Serial Reaction Time (SRT) tasks. Our results suggest surprising differences between the tasks; positive mood and intuitive cognitive style seem to help the SRT, while negative mood and analytical cognitive style seem to …

Role Of The Medial Septal Area In Regulating Prefrontal Theta Rhythm In Rats, Leo Kelly '07

Honors Projects

Theta rhythms are electroencephalogram (EEG) waveforms between 4-12 Hz and are correlated with arousal, orientation, exploration, attention, learning and memory, motivational drives and emotions and movements. The last sixty years have been witness to a greatly increasing understanding of the underlying anatomical pathways and mechanisms necessary for theta rhythms. Today, it is well established that cells of the medial septal area (MSA) fire in a rhythmic bursting pattern to pace the theta rhythm in the hippocampus (HPC) and that lesioning the MSA abolishes theta rhythm in the HPC. However, comparatively little is known about the anatomy driving the theta rhythm …

Influence Of Contrast Effects On Attractiveness Of Individual Faces And Facial Prototypes, Kelly Irvin '07

Honors Projects

This study investigated the influence of attractiveness contrast effects on individual and prototypical faces. In two experimental conditions, males (N= 38, M age = 19.21 years) and females (N= 78, M age = 19.13 years) were adapted to high or low attractive opposite-sex faces. Following adaptation, participants responded to a mate selection questionnaire and rated individual faces on attractiveness. Participants also rated prototypes on attractiveness and familiarity, either during the same session (males and females) or after a 1 week delay (females). Results indicated a weak contrast effect for male participants' attractiveness ratings for individual faces but not for prototypes. …

Bipolar Disorder, Disclosure, And Their Effects On Employment Opportunities, Melissa B. Finch '07

Honors Projects

People with psychological disorders often experience stigma and discrimination, which can impact their ability to gain and maintain employment (Goldberg, Killeen, & O'Day, 2005). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of disclosure of a severe mental disorder (bipolar disorder) on employers' reactions. In addition, the study assessed the impact of diversity education on employers hiring recommendations for persons with severe mental disabilities. Participants listened to an interview of a student job applicant in one of three conditions (no disclosure, implicit disclosure, or explicit disclosure.) They rated the applicant on personal characteristics and likeability, as well as …