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Adolescent Psychological Assets And Cardiometabolic Health Maintenance In Adulthood: Implications For Health Equity, Farah Qureshi, Anne‐Josee Guimond, Elaine Tsao, Scott Delaney, Julia K. Boehm, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Positive cardiometabolic health (CMH) is defined as meeting recommended levels of multiple cardiometabolic risk factors in the absence of manifest disease. Prior work finds that few individuals—particularly members of minoritized racial and ethnic groups—meet these criteria. This study investigated whether psychological assets help adolescents sustain CMH in adulthood and explored interactions by race and ethnicity.

Methods and Results

Participants were 3478 individuals in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (49% female; 67% White, 15% Black, 11% Latinx, 6% other [Native American, Asian, or not specified]). In Wave 1 (1994–1995; mean age=16 years), data on 5 psychological assets (optimism, …

Coping Mechanisms In Graduate School: A Discipline Comparison, Sandra P. Montenegro

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The current study aimed to provide an overview of graduate students’ stress and coping mechanisms. Per self-reported questionnaires, participants (N=95) rated their experiences with academic-related stressors, common coping mechanisms, and strain outcomes (somatic symptoms, insomnia, and burnout). This study found that task-related stressors were the most prevalent for graduate schoolwork. More specifically, graduate students in STEM, Arts & Humanities, and Social Sciences rated the amount and difficulty of the tasks (quantitative and qualitative properties of tasks) as the highest stressors in graduate school. The preferred coping strategies across all fields were planning and emotional coping. Additionally, students in STEM reported …

The Case Of The Disappearing Owner: Do Dogs Show Behavioral Evidence Of Violation Of Expectation?, Rita Kanagat

Theses and Dissertations

The What the Fluff challenge became a series of viral YouTube videos that started in 2018. In the videos, a person stood behind a blanket in a doorway in front of their dog and lifted and lowered the blanket revealing and obscuring themselves, and finally disappearing with a final blanket drop. The dogs’ reactions were varied but were suggestive of a violation of expectation response. We conducted a community science study that employed methodologies consistent with the What the Fluff Challenge paradigm that were conducted in the owners’ homes with their dogs. Each owner was required to run a control …

Peer Deviance As A Predictor Of E-Cigarette Use Pre And Post Pandemic, Jenna Dunham, Heather Kissel, Ty Brumback

Posters-at-the-Capitol

There is growing concern regarding the use of e-cigarettes among younger demographics. Also known as vaping, e-cigarettes have been posited as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes and have increased in popularity due to marketing, added flavors, and discreet delivery methods (Durkin et al., 2021; Hart et al., 2017). Research has shown dangerous and adverse outcomes of using e-cigarettes, including mood disorders, attention deficit, addiction, and lung injury (Durkin et al., 2021; Krishnasamy et al., 2020).

Peer group deviance is associated with risky external behaviors in young adults and youth (Durkin et al., 2021; Kendler et al., 2016). This research …

"Alcohol Is Not Fun Anymore!": A Study Of Alcohol Expectancies During Covid-19, Sara Mcfarland, Katie Ison, Heather Kissel Phd, Ty Brumback Phd

Posters-at-the-Capitol

College parties normalize alcohol use and students develop expectations about drinking due to peer influence and previous experience with alcohol. Our study investigated changes in alcohol expectancies by collecting cross-sectional data on predictors of alcohol use in young adults before and after the start of the pandemic. Data for 46 participants (mean age=20.74, 72% female) were collected prior to March 2020, while data for an additional 26 participants (mean age=19.27, 80.8% female) were collected starting in 2021. During the laboratory session, participants completed surveys and a structured clinical interview. We examined responses from the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ). This self-report …

Exploring Associations Between Military Identity And Well-Being Outcomes Among Post-9/11 Veterans After Separation, James David Lee

Dissertations and Theses

Approximately 200,000 service members exit the military each year; as of 2016, there were 19 million veterans in the U.S. As service members transition out of the military and acclimate to civilian life, they face a multitude of stressors. For example, estimates vary from 44 to 72% of veterans reportedly experience increased stress during their transition which often entails securing civilian employment, navigating interpersonal difficulties, and adapting to the challenges of civilian life. These stressors have harmful consequences and have been linked to physical and mental health, and suicide risk. Despite these findings, research examining the well-being of veterans following …

Psychotic Symptom, Mood, And Cognition-Associated Multimodal Mri Reveal Shared Links To The Salience Network Within The Psychosis Spectrum Disorders, Chuang Liang, Godfrey Pearlson, Juan Bustillo, Peter Kochunov, Jessica A Turner, Xuyun Wen, Rongtao Jiang, Zening Fu, Xiao Zhang, Kaicheng Li, Xijia Xu, Daoqiang Zhang, Shile Qi, Vince D Calhoun

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Schizophrenia (SZ), schizoaffective disorder (SAD), and psychotic bipolar disorder share substantial overlap in clinical phenotypes, associated brain abnormalities and risk genes, making reliable diagnosis among the three illness challenging, especially in the absence of distinguishing biomarkers. This investigation aims to identify multimodal brain networks related to psychotic symptom, mood, and cognition through reference-guided fusion to discriminate among SZ, SAD, and BP. Psychotic symptom, mood, and cognition were used as references to supervise functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) fusion to identify multimodal brain networks for SZ, SAD, and BP individually. These features were then used to assess the ability …

Is Biological Death Final? Recomputing The Drake-S Equation For Postmortem Survival Of Consciousness, Adam J. Rock, James Houran, Patrizio E. Tressoldi, Brian Laythe

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This participatory team science project extended Laythe and Houran’s (2022) prior application of a famous probabilistic argument known as the ‘Drake equation’ to the question of postmortem survival. Specifically, we evaluated effect sizes from peer-reviewed, empirical studies to determine the maximum average percentage effect that ostensibly supports (i.e., "anomalous effects") or refutes (i.e., "known confounds") the survival hypothesis. But unlike the earlier application, this research included a study-specific estimate of the hypothesized variable of ‘living agent psi’ via a new meta-analysis of empirical studies (N = 17) with exceptional subjects vs participants from the general population. Our updated analysis found …

The Predictive Validity Of The Dial-4 With A Diverse Preschool Population, Lauren M. Pucci

Theses and Dissertations

School readiness refers to continuous, multi-faceted, abilities that develop during early childhood and encapsulate how prepared children are to learn as they enter their first formal school experience (Howard, 2011; Romano et. al., 2010; Stormont et. al., 2015). Children who exhibit greater school readiness skills, such as cognitive, language, and fine and gross motor abilities, prior to the start of kindergarten are more likely to succeed academically throughout their later school years (Ricciardi et. al., 2021; Schachter et. al., 2019; Williams & Lerner, 2019), while children who lack school readiness skills are more likely to demonstrate difficulties throughout elementary school …

The Association Between Covid-19 Exposure, Secondary Adversities, And Trauma Symptoms In Children, Maddi Gervasio

Theses and Dissertations

Natural disasters include direct exposure and secondary adversities (Chrisman & Dougherty, 2014). For youth, severity of disaster exposure and number of secondary adversities have been found to be positively associated with the severity of trauma-related psychopathology, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression (Giannopoulou et al., 2006). Preliminary studies suggest an interaction between trauma exposure severity and number of secondary adversities in the prediction of psychopathology. Notably, youth who experienced secondary adversities without directly experiencing the trauma exhibited heightened psychopathology (Kar, 2019), yet these children tend to be excluded from studies and missed when identifying children in need of services. …

A Replication Study Of The Factor Structure Of The Attitudes And Beliefs Scale-2: A Measure Of Irrational And Rational Beliefs, Mahdiya Fazel

Theses and Dissertations

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) states that irrational beliefs (IBs) are the core elements that lead to emotional and behavior-related disruptions. IBs are manifested through beliefs people have about how people should, must, or ought to be or act (Sacks, 2004). An example of an irrational belief (IB), is when one must be successful at all things in life, and the possibility of failing in even one is a disaster. On the other hand, rational beliefs (RB) allow people to accept negative situations without viewing them in extremes (Dryden et al., 2010). An example of rational beliefs (RBs) generally is …

Emotion Control, Overreactive Parenting, And Mothers’ Executive Functions, Serah Jaya Narine

Theses and Dissertations

Evidence suggests that mothers’ emotion control difficulties are associated with their self-reported and observed overreactive parenting. Specifically, mothers who have difficulties managing their negative emotions and experience more anger, are more likely to discipline harshly. In addition to this emotional process, evidence suggests that poorer cognitive executive function (EF) is also associated with mothers’ use of overreactive discipline. However, the association between EF performance and overreactive parenting is inconsistent. The purpose of this study is to assess how different EFs may moderate the association between emotion control and overreactive parenting. I hypothesized that (1) mothers’ emotion control would be negatively …

The Impact Of Face Masks On Emotional Recognition Accuracy: Differences Among Emotions And Between Men And Women, Khaled Jamal Alharbi

Theses and Dissertations

Emotional recognition is central to social interactions. This study aims to explore the impact of face masks on the recognition of six emotions, including a neutral emotion condition. In addition, the impact of face masks on the well-established superiority of women at emotion recognition is investigated. A total of 135 college age participants (106 women and 29 men) were recruited. Participants were shown five replications of male and female targets exhibiting 6 emotions in masked and unmasked conditions for a total of 120 stimuli, and the six emotions included Anger, Fear, Disgust, Happiness, Sadness and Neutral. After each stimulus was …

Emotions, Cognitions, And Discipline Style In Parents Of Youth With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Brooke Catanzaro

Theses and Dissertations

Raising a child with a neurodevelopmental disorder places tremendous stress on parents, which can interfere with their parenting skills more than the stress of raising a typically developing child. Parents’ levels of emotions, irrational and rational beliefs, self-compassion, psychological flexibility and overreactive and lax parenting discipline style were analyzed. Two hundred and eighty-five parents of children and adolescents aged 6-18 completed several self-report measures. Results indicated that there were significant correlations between parents’ irrational beliefs, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, and negative emotions in both the clinical and non-clinical groups. Further, parents of ADHD youth reported experiencing less psychological flexibility and less …

The Role Of Self-Regulation And Mindset In The Academic Outcomes Of Low-Income Students, Jamilah Shanice Lindo

Theses and Dissertations

The present study builds upon the existing research regarding the role of self-regulation and mindset as they relate to academic achievement. Currently, little is known regarding how self-regulation and mindset relate to the academic outcomes of low SES students as identified by their qualification for free or reduced-priced lunch (FRPL). The present study examined the relationship between self-regulation, mindset, and achievement for a sample of 44 low SES students in grades four through six to understand if these factors can predict academic outcomes in ELA and mathematics. This information is particularly valuable as schools often make investments in intervention programming …

Uncovering The Mental World Of Children: Attachment Quality, Mentalization, And Children’S Drawings, Holly Rosen

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Although we have long been aware of the widespread benefits of drawing for children (Goodenough, 1926), there is much to learn from a clinical perspective about children’s attachment patterns and mentalization capacities in analyzing their drawings. The present study utilized archival data to uncover trends associated with children’s drawing characteristics, attachment qualities, and mentalization capacities. This study further explored the extent to which mentalization mediates the relationship between attachment quality and Formal Elements (FE) scores as well as the relationship between attachment quality and Content scores of children’s drawings. Two samples of 5–12-year-old children and their caregivers were recruited: one …

Is The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Adult Belief In Paranormality Moderated By Locus Of Control?, Michelle Alessia Cardone M.S., M.A.

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Research has established a relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and belief in paranormal phenomena (Lawrence et al., 1994). In the present study, I sought to replicate this finding in more detail by examining seven dimensions of paranormality. Further, the current study investigated whether locus of control moderated the relationship between ACEs and paranormal belief. I hypothesized that ACEs positively correlated with paranormal belief. Further, I hypothesized that the relationship between ACEs and paranormal belief would be moderated by locus of control, such that, the stronger the internal locus of control, the weaker the relationship between ACEs and paranormal belief. …

Transgender Family Transitions: A Sibling Perspective, Mariessa Robles M.S.

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

As more families are seeking professional help to navigate issues surrounding gender, there is a growing need for clinicians who can assist in the family transition that accompanies an individual’s gender transition process (Coolhart, Ritenour, & Grodzinski, 2018). While family therapy literature is currently expanding to address families with a transgender member, existing psychological thought mostly centers therapeutic focus on the identified transgender individuals and their parents, neglecting the roles and experiences of siblings in this process (Blumer, Green, Knowles, & Williams, 2012). The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of those who had a sibling …

Schizotypy And Theory Of Mind: The Roles Of Emotion Regulation Difficulties And Negative Affect, Richard Andrew Norman Glisker

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

Theory of mind (ToM) impairment, emotion regulation (ER) difficulties, and negative affect have been identified as major deficits in schizotypy. The existing literature on schizotypy and ToM has yielded inconsistent findings, with some studies finding ToM deficits in overall schizotypy, other studies finding ToM deficits in only specific schizotypy dimensions, and other studies finding no ToM deficits in schizotypy at all. The current study proposed to address these discrepant findings by using a measure of overall schizotypy, the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised (Updated; SPQ-BRU) and a new measure specific schizotypy dimensions, the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale (MSS). The current study used …

Aggression, Avoidance, Shame And Narcissism In Fragile Masculinity, Israel Zev Meth

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

The overwhelming representation of males in physically aggressive acts and violent crime suggests that masculinity contributes to the gender discrepancy. Fragile masculinity, a term denoting the cultural mandate and the individual’s perception that manhood is precarious, has been posited as particularly meaningful in understanding the etiology of aggression and relational avoidance in men. Empirical work suggests that there is a link among these constructs (Vandello, 2013), but the literature has not fully explored variables that may inform or impact these connections. Based on psychodynamic theories of narcissism, shame and aggression, this study aimed to empirically test their impact. Mediation and …

The Avoidance Of Shame: A Function Of Anxiety In Insecure Attachment, Sasha Justine Mann

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a distressing condition characterized by excessive worry, and treatment outcomes are often unsatisfactory. Research has identified worry as an avoidance mechanism to manage interpersonal and emotional distress. Insecure attachment creates vulnerabilities for GAD, and research has demonstrated that emotion dysregulation plays an explanatory role in the association between insecure attachment and anxiety symptoms. The current study supported the role of emotion dysregulation in GAD for individuals with insecure attachment. Shame, measured explicitly and implicitly, was investigated as an additional mediator in the relationship between insecure attachment and anxiety. A sample of 355 adults completed self-report …

Experiences Of Self And Other In The Development Of Psychopathy: Examining The Effects Of Childhood Maltreatment Through Attachment, Mentalization, Cognitive Empathy, And Dissociation, Jenna Adele Rose

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

Though psychopathy is a construct that garners much attention for its insidious and destructive impact on society, its etiology has been understudied. Conceptualized as being comprised of factor 1 (affective, interpersonal) and factor 2 (behavioral) traits, much existing research focuses on the development of the more easily observable factor 2 traits. Childhood maltreatment and disorganized attachment have been identified as key factors leading to the development of psychopathy. The current study utilized psychodynamic theories to narrow in on additional factors that may influence this relationship, such as mentalization, cognitive empathy, and dissociation, and sought to test them empirically. While all …

The Effects Of Music On Emotion Regulation And Stress In Test Performance, Jorge Eduardo Alvarenga

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of music on stress and emotion regulation and whether the emotional valence of the music attended to would result in differences in the resulting stress and emotion dysregulation experienced by individuals. A sample of 181 college students, ages 18-50 were recruited via posted flyers and a digital portal for students to volunteer in studies in exchange for class credit and were then randomly assigned to one of two music conditions (music with positive or negative emotional valence). The sample completed a number of self-report measures related to positive and …

No Pain, No Gain? Attachment Anxiety, Sensory Processing Sensitivity, And Empathy In A Therapist Sample, Dara Salem

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

This study used the wounded healer phenomenon, which suggests that people who have undergone experiences of suffering may have acquired empathic strengths allowing them to be more effective healers (e.g., Wolgien & Coady, 1997), as a springboard from which to explore issues related to distress and empathy in a therapist sample. It proposed anxious attachment and sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), constructs which have been associated with both distress and empathic ability, as operationalizations of the wounded healer phenomenon. Using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET-R; Baron-Cohen et al., 2001), this study explored whether these variables may promote …

The Mental Health Impact Of Intensive Mothering Ideology On Contemporary Mothers, Allison Kresch Levine B.A., B.F.A., M.S.

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

This research explored how exposure to Intensive Mothering Ideology (IMI) may impact maternal mental health in modern mothers. Susan Hays coined the IMI term in 1996, inspiring a significant body of research around the topic which has shown that mothers generally process intensive mothering discourse contextually with consideration for unique era-specific societal challenges (Constantinou, Varela, & Buckby, 2021; Hays, 1996). To this author’s knowledge, there have been no general examinations of the impact of IMI on maternal mental health since before the outbreak of COVID-19 (though there have been a few pointed examinations of IMI in relation to the pandemic). …

Prospective Evaluation Of 24-Hour Movement Behaviors Among Adolescents Recovering From A Sport-Related Concussion, Riley Brayton, August Price, Carrie Jones, Christine Ellis, Scott O. Burkhart, Gregory Knell

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

This study aimed to describe the 24-hour composition of movement behaviors, including sleep, sedentary behavior, and physical activity (PA), among pediatric sports-related concussion (SRC) patients over their recovery period, assess the association between movement compositions and recovery time, and understand feasibility of 24-hour accelerometry in the study population. A cohort of 50 pediatric SRC patients were asked to wear a wrist-worn accelerometer continuously for the duration of their recovery. Among all enrolled participants, the sample was primarily 14 or 15 years of age (65%), female (55%), and recovered in under 28 days (88%). Accelerometer compliance was moderate; 35 participants (70%) …

Cognitive Illusion, Lucid Dreaming, And The Psychology Of Metaphor In Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen Contemplative Practices, Michael R. Sheehy

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

A classic set of eight similes of illusion (sgyu ma’i dpe brgyad) are employed recurrently throughout Indian and Tibetan Buddhist literature to illustrate the operations of cognition, its correlative perceptions, and experiences that emerge. To illustrate a Buddhist psychology of metaphor, the fourteenth century Tibetan scholar and synthesizer of the Dzogchen (rdzogs chen) or Great Perfection system, Longchen Rabjam Drimé Ödzer (1308-1363), composed his poetic text, Being at Ease with Illusion. This work on illusion is the third volume in Longchenpa’s Trilogy of Being at Ease (Ngal gso skor gsum) in which he presents a series of Dzogchen instructions on …

The Relationship Of Developmental Stages In Adults In Psychotherapy To Different Types Of Mental Health Symptoms, Shannon E. Gasparro

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, we examine the pattern of mental health symptoms across adult development using data from a community-based clinic in Queens, NY. Age was represented by three qualitative stages, “early adulthood,” “middle adulthood,” and “late adulthood.” Early adulthood has been characterized as a period of heightened emotional instability, with less clear long-term commitments to romantic relationships, career paths, work, and living arrangements. Middle adulthood has been characterized as a more emotionally stable period in terms of relations with friends and family and social roles. Finally, late adults, although also viewed as more emotionally regulated, may again experience greater interpersonal …

How Is The Human Pangenome Project Like A Whole Person Psychology? (Editor’S Introduction), Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Comments On “Is Biological Death Final? Recomputing The Drake-S Equation For Postmortem Survival Of Consciousness”, Christine Simmonds-Moore

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The application of the Drake-S equation to the aggregated data suggestive of survival found 30.3% of unexplained variance in the data when other factors were applied to the dataset (including living agent psi, LAP). A number of points are raised in this commentary. These include 1. the aggregated estimate for LAP should factor in implicit psi studies (among others); 2. it is difficult to ascertain the source of psi if psi is not a signal that is caused, but rather an emergent property of a connected system; 3. there may be shared variance between sources that are attributed differently in …