Digital Commons Network^™

Surviving Child Pornography: Fifty Years On, Jeanette M. Westbrook

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Parent Characteristics And Invalid Responses On The Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory, Samantha N. Franzese

Munn Scholars Awards

Child abuse is a concerning issue, as 3.5 million children in the United States were referred for suspected maltreatment to Child Protective Services (CPS) in 2016, and millions more impacted worldwide (Zeanah & Humphreys, 2018). Additionally, it is estimated that roughly 2.5 million Australian adults have experienced child maltreatment (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017). Hence, it is crucial to assess for child abuse potential using measures that are effective in clinical utility. The Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory (BCAP; Ondersma et al., 2005) is a self-report questionnaire that assesses for child abuse potential and utilizes a Lie Scale that detects …

Worrying In Cato Manor: A Case Study Analysis On The Influence Of Context, Samantha Garbus

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Social Causation theory states that social and economic circumstances cause people to be at a higher risk of mental illness (Lund 2011, p.1). South Africa has high inequality, with racial disparities prevalent in multiple indicators of socioeconomic status. Moreover, mental health in South Africa has often not been prioritized. This project aimed to assess how context impacts relevant aspects of mental health, such as worrying and the mind/body stress-response in Cato Manor. An additional theme of community beliefs on stress emerged from the interviews which is also presented.

For this project, I used a Mixed Methods-Case Study research design. I …

Examining The Role Of Bullshit Receptivity On Covid-19 Vaccination Behaviors, Erica L. Leonard

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Preference For Harmony : A Link Between Aesthetic Responses To Combinations Of Colors And Musical Tones, Sijia Song

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

According to Palmer and Griscom (2013), individual differences in the preference-for- harmony (PfH)—the tendency to prefer stimuli that represent “good gestalts”—is relatively consistent across domains of aesthetic judgment. In the present study, we built upon their findings by showing that PfH for color combinations is strongly associated with PfH for isolated musical chords. We also newly showed that ratings of the harmoniousness of chords are not uniquely predicted by their objective harmonicity (the extent to which their constituent partials resemble a harmonic series), but rather, by a combination of their “smoothness” (the lack of spectral interference between their constituent partials), …

Lived Experiences Of Parents And Professionals With Technology And Emotional Dysregulation In Children, Ages 3-5-Years-Old: A Phenomenological Study, Angela P. Rathkamp

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Digital devices have become more extensively used and have created a dramatic shift in how children, adolescents, and families use this technology. Excessive screen time has been associated with increased behavioral health problems, sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression, and decreased family functioning. The relationship between problematic technology use and emotional dysregulation in young children is just emerging, therefore leaving a gap in research literature. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of parents and professionals with technology and emotional dysregulation in children ages 3-5-years-old and to identify emotional characteristics specific to technology and emotional dysregulation. It further …

Differences Between First-Generation And Continuing-Generation College Students In Psychological Need Fulfillment, Academic Engagement, And Retention, Cole A. Holt

All NMU Master's Theses

First-generation college students (FGCS) often struggle to find academic success unlike continuing-generation college students (CGCS) who often obtain higher GPA by the end of the semester. Using self-determination theory (SDT) as a lens, differences between FGCS and CGCS both at the beginning and end of the semester were investigated. Measures included psychological need fulfillment (autonomy, competence, relatedness), academic self-regulation (relative autonomy index), stress, academic engagement (learning involvement), academic performance (GPA), and retention. Between groups t-tests were used to assess differences in FGCS and CGCS, whereas multiple regression analyses were conducted to test relationships among the measured variables. FGCS reported …

Sex Differences In Lateral Hypothalamic Extracellular Glucose Concentrations During Cumulative Dosing Of Methamphetamine In Rats, Joshua A. Jolton

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The present study experimentally investigated sex differences in lateral hypothalamic glucose concentrations following cumulative dosing of methamphetamine. Male (n=17) and female (n=11) rats were surgically implanted with enzyme-based glucose biosensors in the lateral hypothalamus. Rats then received a saline injection followed by four methamphetamine doses (0.025 mg/kg, 0.05 mg/kg, 0.1 mg/kg, and 0.2 mg/kg) spaced 55 minutes apart. We found that while there was a general decrease in glucose baseline throughout the study for both sexes, the magnitude of the decrease was significantly greater in females compared to males. On a rapid timescale, fixed sex effects existed at the lower …

Nature And Perspective On God: The Differential Impact Of Long Versus Short Adventure Programming For College Students, Alexandra Heinle

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

This clinical dissertation focused on the shift in one’s perception of God after time spent in nature in the context of a spiritual adventure program. There are studies that find spiritual adventure programs increase a participant’s spirituality (Bobilya, 2011). However, there is a gap in the literature surrounding how spiritual outdoor programs, specifically the one in this study, influences a person’s God-image. This dissertation aims to close the gap in research regarding spiritual adventure programs and shift in God-image by studying if a person’s image of God shifts after time spent in nature, and if it shifts differently depending on …

Physiological Coregulation Intervention Over Video Call In New Relational Dyads, Zachary G. Buckles

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Physiological linkage, the degree to which physiological behavior of one partner in a relationship is related to the physiological behavior of the other partner, is a well-documented process. Electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate variability (HRV) are two physiological measures for which physiological linkage has been observed (Timmons, et al., 2015). A more specific term, coregulation, has been proposed to specify a process of mutual physiological regulation within a relational dyad towards a homeostatic set point (Butler & Randall, 2013). While an important construct, there is a present lack of intervention studies seeking to increase the capacity for coregulation in …

Investigating The Self-Reported Availability And Effectiveness Of Parental Support For Parents Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Immediately Post-Diagnosis, Maria Striebich

Senior Theses

Autism spectrum disorder, commonly known as ASD, is one of the most well-known and recognized neurodevelopmental disorders. Parenting a child with ASD is typically more stressful than caring for other children (Boyd, 2002). Because of this stress, these parents are likely to experience caregiver burnout, which is a condition that develops when someone is overwhelmed with taking care of another person without the proper support channels (Tkatch et al., 2017). It is beneficial to utilize support services in order to alleviate caregiver stress, and there are several different types of support services. However, minimal research has been done on the …

The Importance Of Timing In Repeated Traumatic Brain Injury, Willie L. Hardeman Iii

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Repeated closed-head traumatic brain injury (rTBI) can result in serious consequences, such as the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and many others. This study characterizes the consequences of injury timing in a Drosophila melanogaster model of rTBI. Specifically, each fly was subjected to 4 strikes with a modified “high impact trauma” (HIT) device. The strikes were separated by either 5 minutes, 2 hours, 4 hours, or 36 hours. These inter-strike intervals theoretically provided an opportunity to study outcomes of repeated brain injury during times of unresolved rTBI mechanisms. Half of the flies were …

Heart Rate Variability (Hrv), Cortisol, And Trait Anxiety In Mid-Life Adults, Meghan Bennett

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Heart rate variability (HRV) and cortisol are well-established biomarkers of the human stress response system. As such, their respective relationships with trait anxiety have been studied. As high HRV indicates healthy emotion regulation while low HRV signifies poor emotion regulation, a negative relationship between HRV and anxiety is found in the literature. Conversely, cortisol both prepares the body for stress and helps it to recover and current studies yield mixed results on its relationship with anxiety. While the link between vagal activity, which mediates HRV, and the HPA-axis, which outputs cortisol, is generally assumed, few studies have examined these biomarkers …

Mixed Methods Exploration Of Low Points And Wellness In Black Women, Jessica Krukowski

Master's Theses (2009 -)

IntroductionTime and again the voices, experiences, and interests of Black women are systematically marginalized, overlooked or dismissed (King, 2019). In addition, and possibly because of this, Black women are consistently underrepresented and historically overlooked in research (Allen, 2008; Corker, 2010). It is imperative to allow the voices of Black women to begin to fill this scientific gap. Mixed-methods narrative research provides a strength-based framework to do so. This study explores how Black women talk about the lowest point in their life and how that relates to various outcomes of wellness. Method The low point response narrative from The Life Story …

Coachmotivation: Leveraging Motivational Interviewing Methodology To Increase Emotion Regulation Ability In The Workplace, Michael R. Nelson

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Emotions are complex, powerful states that both positively and negatively impact personal and professional human experiences. One’s ability to regulate their emotions has been related to desirable organizational outcomes such as (a) decreased counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), stress, and negative emotions and (b) increased well-being, coping abilities, and job satisfaction. However, appropriate workplace interventions that increase perceived emotion regulation (PER) abilities continue to be limited. Stemming from Motivational Interviewing (MI), CoachMotivation (CM) is a modified form of organizational coaching that translates core practices of clinical MI interventions (i.e., OARS: open questions, affirmations, reflections, summary statements) into coaching conversations in the …

The Mental Noise Hypothesis: A Relation Between Neuroticism And P3 Latency Variance In A Stroop-Style Reaction Time Task, Jeremy Lawrence

All NMU Master's Theses

Neuroticism is a relatively stable personality dimension characterized by tendencies to experience negative thoughts and affect. Its empirically related outcome measures range from anxiety and mood disorders to increases in mortality. Traditional theories of neuroticism, link the construct to greater threat sensitivity, however, these conceptions fail to account for certain salient features of neuroticism, such as negative affect in threat benign environments. The mental noise hypothesis posits that neuroticism results from a more variable mental control system, with support coming from behavioral, psychometric, and neuroimaging paradigms. To assess whether this more chaotic mental control system would variably disrupt the stimulus …

Youth-Led Resilience Promotion During Disaster Recovery: A Proposed Framework, Innovative Program, And Lessons Learned, Shane Mccarty, Kyle Pacque, Alyssa J. Gatto, Kaylynn Hill, Ruby Charak

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Objective: Disasters, such as a school shooting or a global pandemic, harm psychological health and necessitate recovery. To complement adult-led disaster recovery and traumaspecific approaches, we propose a Youth-Led Resilience Promotion (YLRP) framework focusing on: 1) multi-tiered change, 2) resilience goals, 3) a promotion mindset, 4) youth strengths, 5) prosocial behaviors, and 6) capacity building through partnerships. The YLRP framework guided the development of a YLRP program in the aftermath of the Chardon High School shooting in Chardon, Ohio, which is detailed in a case study.

Method: As part of a Community-Academic Partnership, twenty college student trainers delivered a …

Medical Norm Of Psychiatric Misdiagnoses In Rare Disease Patients, Rachel Han

Publications and Research

Spring 2022 ENG 120 Student Final Research Paper on the medical norm of psychiatric misdiagnosis throughout the diagnostic journeys of rare disease patients. The idea of a norm was taken from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Tedx Talk "The Danger of a Single Story". Paper discusses prevalence, harmful effects, and origin of this medical norm. Includes discussion of statistical data quoted relating to prevalence of rare diseases as well as anecdotal evidence of the severe ramifications of this norm. Discussion of how medically unexplained symptoms such as mysterious chronic pain often lead to the phenomenon of the psychogenic inference. Origins of this …

The Effect Of Creative Art Therapy On Trauma Victims Suffering From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Sophia Swiatek

Senior Honors Theses

When confronted with a traumatic situation, individuals’ brains often face difficulty in storing and/or processing such experiences. Unfortunately, this presents challenges for accessing those memories later in life, especially if the individuals are solely using speech-based techniques to do so. This fact has spurred research on whether various other therapeutic techniques, such as Creative Art Therapy (CAT), can produce better results in improving the mental health of a trauma victim suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This study attempts to uncover whether age, gender, and/or type of therapy play a significant role in the improvement of CAT clients’ mental health …

Lived Experiences Of Mental Health Professionals Using Resilience To Resist Burnout, Kristen Shawn Cummins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of mental health professionals (MHPs) in California who have worked in private practice settings. The three research questions that framed this study were: what resilience-promoting mindsets do these mental health professionals rely upon, what resilience-promoting behaviors or practices do they demonstrate, and how do these mindsets and behaviors protect MHPs in private practice from experiencing burnout? The theory guiding this study was the metatheory of resilience and resiliency by Glenn E. Richardson (2002; 2016) as it provided a framework to assess how these professionals utilized resilience …

The Relationship Between Leader-Member Exchange And Citizen Willingness To Comply With Governmental Public Health Mandates Concerning Covid-19 In Dougherty County, Georgia: A Mixed Methods Analysis, Travis H. Goodson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As of February 8, 2022, more than 394,381,395 individuals across the globe have contracted COVID-19; and from this number, reportedly more than 5,735,179 have died due to the virus (World Health Organization, 2022). Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, local, state, and federal governments have fielded a host of public health mandates in an attempt to curtail the spread of the virus; however, little is known about the efficacy of such mandates and how willing compliance is obtained through perceived high-quality leader-member exchanges. Compliance is best defined as willing conformity to official requirements; here, compliance is examined through the lens of relational …

Fire Prevention Education For Boys And Girls Who Misuse Fire: A Quasi-Experimental Mixed Methods Analysis Of Effective Intervention Programming, Matthew B. Ferdock

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A child referred for an assessment following fire misuse (e.g., setting a fire intentionally) triggers an intervention strategist who constructs a program that almost universally includes fire safety education (FSE). While FSE media tailored by age and grade is available from the U.S. Federal Government, most youth fire misuse intervention educational programming differentiates children by age. However, program designers rarely consider gender, racial differences, and socioeconomic factors during education design and delivery. Limited research demonstrates efficacious FSE. However, since almost no FSE accounts for differences beyond age, no empirical evidence exists examining its efficacy by demographic or socioeconomic differences. Using …

S-Equol: A Novel Therapeutic For Hiv-1 Induced Gut Dysbiosis, Mason T. Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

HIV-1 infection affects approximately 38 million people around the world. The advent of cART has greatly improved the quality of life of infected individuals; however, roughly 50% of these individuals will still experience HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Additionally, the gut microbiome has been reported to be dysbiotic in HIV-1 infected individuals, regardless of adherence to cART. Current research has pointed to the gut-brain-microbiota axis as a potential target to treat both cognitive deficits and microbial changes. The present study investigated S-equol (SE) as a potential therapeutic for HAND by modulating the gut microbiome. The study included 21 HIV-1 Tg …

Effects Of Socioeconomic Status On Consumer Behavior And Attitudes Towards A Brand’S Image, Abbey Haymond

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This research seeks to understand more about the effects of socioeconomic background on consumer behavior and its impact on the perception of brand images. Data from people of different SES were compared to understand how they view advertisements intended for different audiences and their corresponding effects. It was conducted by sending out a confidential, voluntary survey to a convenience sample targeting 100 consumers. Consumers were asked to rate statements, on a scale of one to five, for each of the research questions to assess specific aspects of their consumer attitudes and behaviors. The high SES group has a higher average …

Recently Integrated Alu Elements In Capuchin Monkeys: A Resource For Cebus/Sapajus Genomics, J. M. Storer, J. A. Walker, C. E. Rockwell, G. Mores, T. O. Beckstrom, J. D. Orkin, A. D. Melin, Kimberley A. Phillips, C. Roos, M. A. Batzer

Psychology Faculty Research

Capuchins are platyrrhines (monkeys found in the Americas) within the Cebidae fam-ily. For most of their taxonomic history, the two main morphological types of capuchins, gracile (untufted) and robust (tufted), were assigned to a single genus, Cebus. Further, all tufted capuchins were assigned to a single species, Cebus apella, despite broad geographic ranges spanning Central and northern South America. In 2012, tufted capuchins were assigned to their genus, Sapajus, with eight currently recognized species and five Cebus species, although these numbers are still under debate. Alu retrotransposons are a class of mobile element insertion (MEI) widely used …

The Relation Between Adhd Symptoms And Alcohol And Marijuana Use Outcomes Among College Students: The Mediating Role Of Experiential Avoidance, William Joshua Bradley

Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at significantly greater risk for alcohol and marijuana misuse and abuse compared to their peers. College students with ADHD may be particularly vulnerable to problematic alcohol and marijuana use, given the widespread use and abuse of these substances by college students generally and liability associated with ADHD specifically. Experiential avoidance, or avoidance of unwanted thoughts, feelings, and other internal experiences, is positively associated with ADHD symptoms and substance use problems. However, it is unclear what role experiential avoidance plays in the relation between ADHD and alcohol and marijuana use. This study examined whether experiential …

Associations Between Child Characteristics And Maternal Mental Health In Families Of Children With Autism, Fragile X Syndrome, And Autism Associated With Fragile X Syndrome, Tiffany Nicole Worley

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the association between various child characteristics and maternal mental health concerns in three high-risk groups of mothers ± those of children with non-syndromic autism spectrum disorder (NSASD), mothers of children with fragile X syndrome (FXS), and mothers of children with fragile X syndrome and autism (FXS+ASD). Research has shown that mothers of children with NSASD and FXS are thought to share a degree of genetic vulnerability to mental health concerns it is key to examine the various other factors that may contribute to difficulties within the family system and maternal stress, depression, and anxiety.

Participants for …

Testing Models Of Context-Dependent Outcome Encoding In Reinforcement Learning, William M. Hayes Iv

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies of reinforcement learning (RL) have established that choice outcomes are encoded in a context-dependent fashion. Several computational models have been proposed to explain context-dependent encoding, including reference point centering and range adaptation models. The former assumes that outcomes are centered around a running estimate of the average reward in each choice context, while the latter assumes that outcomes are compared to the minimum reward and then scaled by an estimate of the range of outcomes in each choice context. However, there are other computational mechanisms that can explain context dependence in RL. In the present study, a frequency …

Applying The Vulnerability Stress Adaptation Model To Romantic Relationships Of Couples Raising A Child With Asd, Hillary Katherine Schiltz

Dissertations (1934 -)

Cross-sectional evidence indicates that raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with strain on caregivers’ romantic couple relationship, yet many couple relationships thrive (Hock et al., 2012; Markoulakis et al., 2012). Research on general population samples highlights changes in couple romantic relationships across short and longer periods of time (e.g., Karney & Bradbury, 1997); little is known, however, about how the relationships of couples raising a child with ASD unfold and which couples are at greater risk for deterioration than others. According to the Vulnerability Stress Adaptation (VSA) Model, couple romantic relationships are directly shaped by how …

Conditional Risk For Ptsd Traumatically Injured Latinx Sample: Cultural X Biological Model, Claire Maria Bird

Dissertations (1934 -)

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder that develops in some people following a traumatic event. Latinx communities in the U.S. are at greater risk of developing this disorder and experiencing more severe and chronic symptomology. This population has also been found to experience greater levels of dissociative experiences – possibly explaining the increased conditional risk for PTSD in this ethnic group. It remains unclear what may be connecting the experience of peritraumatic dissociation to heightened PTSD risk. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature by examining peritraumatic dissociation and the interplay between sociocultural and …