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Cardiac Startle Response And Clinical Outcomes In Preschool Children With Fragile X Syndrome And Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jordan Ezell, Abigail L. Hogan Phd, Elizabeth A. Will Ph.D., Bcba, Kayla Smith, Jane E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

Objective: Poor physiological regulation in response to threat is linked to multiple negative developmental outcomes including anxiety, which is highly prevalent and impairing in young children with neurodevelopmental disabilities like fragile X syndrome (FXS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study contrasted cardiac startle response in pre-school-aged children with FXS, with and without ASD, to children with non-syndromic ASD (nsASD) and neurotypical controls (NT). The relationship of cardiac startle to non-verbal mental age (NVMA), ASD severity, and parent-reported anxiety was also examined.

Method: Four age-matched groups of pre-school children participated including those with FXS without ASD (FXS-Only, n = …

Postseptic Cognitive Impairment And Expression Of Apoe In Peripheral Blood: The Cognition After Sepsis (Cass) Observational Pilot Study, Samuel M. Brown, Sarah J. Beesley, Chris Stubben, Emily L. Wilson, Angela P. Presson, Colin Grissom, Colin Maguire, Matthew T. Rondina, Ramona O. Hopkins

Faculty Publications

Background: Cognitive impairment after sepsis is an important clinical problem. Determinants of postseptic cognitive impairment are not well understood. We thus undertook a systems biology approach to exploring a possible role for apolipoprotein E (APOE) in postseptic cognitive impairment.

Design: Prospective, observational cohort. Setting: Intermountain Medical Center, a tertiary referral center in Utah.

Patients/Participants: Patients with sepsis admitted to study intensive care units. Interventions: None.

Methods: We obtained peripheral blood for deep sequencing of RNA and followed up survivors at 6 months with a battery of cognitive instruments. We defined cognitive impairment based on the 6-month Hayling test of executive …

A Life Worth Living: Evaluating And Assisting Army Chaplains In Suicide Prevention, John Simon Cochran

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Despite its efficiency and flexibility as a modern fighting force, the U.S. Army has experienced an alarming spike in the number of its soldiers committing suicide over the past decade – approximately a 20% increase. The goal of this project is to contribute to the lessening of future suicides by evaluating the current preparedness of U.S. Army chaplains to assist with suicide prevention and intervention efforts among U.S. Army soldiers. The study will provide actionable conclusions of how chaplains can more effectively identify, intervene, and influence U.S. Army soldiers away from the risk of suicide towards a life worth living.

Locating The Embodied Sense Of Self And Examining Its Relationship With Psychological Well-Being, Adam Hanley, Natalie Lecy, Robert Hanley

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Westerners tend to localize their sense of self in the head, and, to a lesser degree, in the chest. However, single-point, localization studies of the self omit direct exploration of the size and shape of the embodied self. This study explored a) beliefs about the location and spatial distribution of the embodied sense of self, and b) whether individual differences in how the embodied self was represented were associated with psychological and subjective well-being. Results from a sample of 206 American adults confirm extant reports, indicating that the embodied sense of self is most often located in the head and …

The Mushroom, The Frog, And The Rainbow Of Desire: A Participatory-Psychedelic Spiritual Emergence, Gregg Lahood

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This article will explore a spiritual emergency through a myth or fairy tale that emerged at the same time I had a frightening brush with death. Two days before the accident I had ingested psilocybin mushrooms. Michael Washburn, among other transpersonal theorists, will be used to interpret, amplify and re-frame this potential ‘psychotic episode’ with ‘borderline features’ into something more, perhaps, on the threshold of a shamanic initiation in a liminal state. The mythic sequence in my story anticipates the death-rebirth (perinatal pattern) and evolution of consciousness in the LSD research of Stanislav Grof; an evolution given epic participatory elucidation …

Meditation-Induced After Death Communication: A Contemporary Modality For Grief Therapy, Neda Wassie

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Meditation-induced after death communication (MI-ADC) was introduced as a potential modality for grief therapy. Traditional and contemporary approaches were compared in order to evaluate effective paradigms and theories of bereavement. The Continuing Bonds theory of attachment emerged as an adaptive framework for grief therapy, especially with attention to meaning-making and the strength of continued bonds. Considerations were implemented from research in psychomanteum, mediumship, and induced after death communication. Specifically, visual stimuli and timing of after death communications were emphasized. The discussion was encouraging for the conceptualization of MI-ADC as an effective construct and as an inquiry for empirical research.

There's A Duwende On My Shelf: The Parapsychological Studies Of Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, Sj, Carl Lorenz Cervantes

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

In the Filipino transpersonal worldview, the mind is not contained within the brain, and is often projected onto the world as “spirits”. Studying these cultural metaphors may allow for a deeper understanding of the Filipino psyche. Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao, SJ, one of the founders of the Psychological Association of the Philippines, studied the projections of the Filipino psyche as they manifested in paranormal phenomena. Bulatao provides the metaphor of eggs frying in a pan as a framework to understand this: the egg whites fuse despite the yolks being far apart. It is in the dissolution of boundaries that transpersonal …

What Is Transpersonal Psychology? A Concise Definition Based On 20 Years Of Research, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Research on definitions of the field of psychology and themes in the literature of the field over a period of 20 years inform this description: Transpersonal psychology is a transformative psychology of the whole person embedded within a diverse, interconnected, and evolving world that pays particular attention to states of consciousness and developmental models reflecting expansion beyond conventional notions of self. Each element of this definition is examined, as well as the four phases of definitional development within the field from its founding in 1968 up to the present.

Brain Activity During Paired And Individual Mindfulness Meditation: A Controlled Eeg Study, Hessel Engelbregt, Hugo F. Alderse Baas, Sietske De Grauw, Jan Berend Deijen

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Objective: In this study, we evaluated brain electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in healthy participants during the performance of paired and individual mindfulness meditation (MM). We hypothesized that EEG activity is differentially affected by meditation in pairs compared to individual meditation.

Methods: A total of 20 healthy female university students (mean age 19.54 years, SD =1.53) with no prior experience in MM participated in this study. All participants had to perform a 5-minute MM task together and individually while the other participant was in rest or performing a concentration task (control condition). To exclude social interaction as main factor, participants were separated …

Tripping In The Moment: The Spiritual Journey Of Baba Ram Dass, Charles S. Hamilton

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Ram Dass, the iconic, countercultural, spiritual seeker, brought the wisdom of the East to those of us in the West through his many books and frequent, charismatic dharma talks. This view of his spiritual journey describes the transformation of Richard Alpert, clinical psychologist and product of the Western milieu’s often-shackling conventional expectations, into Ram Dass, the free, embodied soul who, through explication and example, and with witnessing attention, tries to guide us all to the always present abode of loving awareness. Ram Dass’s idea of self in existence was transformed: first, from a psychological object of clinical study, to a …

Emotion And Judgment In Young Women Of A Society In Transition, Maura A. E. Pilotti, Khadija El Alaoui

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

The present study asked whether emotional responses to narratives of moral transgressions are shaped by the reader’s assumed relationship with the injured party (i.e., oneself, familiar other, and unfamiliar other). Its goal was to test a cultural, religious, and individualistic account of such responses in young females of a traditional society in transition towards a sustainable integration into the global economy. To this end, female college students from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were asked to identify their emotional reaction to each of several moral transgressions, report its intensity and then judge the severity of the transgression. In agreement with …

Life Before Birth: A Thematic Analysis Of Memories Of Coming Into Life Part 2: Recollections Of Fetal Life And Birth, Jenny Wade

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This article examines a second set of data produced in a thematic analysis of 68 “earliest memory” narratives submitted to an independent website to explore the question: what do people who claim to remember how they came into the world say about their experience prior to and including birth? Part 1 examined the first and largest subset of the data, narratives of an otherworldly existence consistent with Western reincarnation intermission stage 2 experiences, near-death experience accounts and mythic traditions. This article thematically analyzes descriptions of life in the womb, birth, and apparently veridical out-of-body and other paranormal impressions of events …

Unexpected Side Effects: A Cautionary Note On Challenges Of Persistent Self-Transcendence, Elizabeth D. Stephens, Harris L. Friedman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Self-transcendence is an ambiguous construct without consensual meaning, yet many claim that it relates to, or even causes, beneficial outcomes. Few discuss its potential deleterious side effects, choosing to focus primarily on positive effects. However, anything with sufficient potency to heal may have unintended side effects, especially when it leads beyond a transitory state to becoming an enduring trait, such as when self-transcendence (ST) becomes persistent self-transcendence (PST). With PST, evidence is overviewed here, along with two illustrative case reports, that people can suffer emotional difficulties, motivation changes, loss of self-reflexivity, anhedonia, dissociation, depersonalization, memory problems, and other psychological concerns. …

Life Before Birth: A Thematic Analysis Of Memories Of Coming Into Life Part 1: Recollections Of Another Realm, Jenny Wade

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Autobiographic memories prior to birth remain controversial in psychology because such memories are traditionally believed to begin much later when some sense of self is formed. Prenatal sentience, including fetal learning, occurs in species from arthropods to humans, and evidence for autobiographic memories from pre- and neo-natal humans has typically come from clinical case histories of altered-state regression techniques eliciting records from adults or clinical case histories of children in normal states. This thematic analysis examined 68 “earliest memory” narratives submitted to an independent website to explore the question: what do people who claim to remember how they came into …

Attachment Style Moderates Polygenic Risk For Ptsd In U.S. Military Veterans: Results From The National Health And Resilience In Veterans Study, Amanda Jf Tamman

Theses and Dissertations

Polygenic risk scores (PRS) derived from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may inform risk models of PTSD. To date, however, no known study has examined moderators such as attachment style that may impact the relation between PRS and PTSD. Main and interactive effects of PRS and attachment style on PTSD symptoms were evaluated in a nationally representative sample of trauma-exposed, European-American U.S. military veterans (N=2,030). PRS were derived from a GWAS of PTSD re-experiencing symptoms (N=146,660) in the Million Veteran Program. Higher re-experiencing PRS and secure attachment style were independently associated with more severe PTSD symptoms. …

Graduate Students’ Perceptions Of Psychotherapists’ Engagement In Common Factors, Manuel Jose Orellana

Theses and Dissertations

The study investigated the extent to which common factors (CF) interventions are found within the training recording of cognitive behavior therapies. Some scholars have proposed that effective psychotherapy can be accounted for by Common Factors that exist across all psychotherapies that work. This study aims to see if CF interventions are found within cognitive behavior therapies. To discover the extent to which CF interventions are found within cognitive behavior therapies, we asked graduate students in a psychotherapy course who were assigned to watch training sessions of CBT sessions and instructed to rate the therapists’ behaviors using the Multi-Theoretical List Psychotherapeutic …

Placement Instability, Perceived Social Support, And Internalizing Symptoms In Youth In The Child Welfare System, Michelle Cusumano

Theses and Dissertations

High rates of youth in the child welfare system (CWS) experience placement instability, or frequent moves between household, institution, or placement (Fisher et al., 2013). Placement instability has been shown to predict subsequent internalizing symptoms regardless of the maltreatment type, severity, or frequency experienced by the child in foster care (McGuire et al., 2018). Frequent moves between biological parents, foster or kinship caregivers, or group homes may detrimentally affect youth’s social support networks, which are known to serve as a protective factor for maltreated children and adolescents (Folger & Wright, 2013). The current study aims to examine longitudinally whether perceived …

Exploring The Relationship Between Restricted And Repetitive Behaviors, Anxiety, And Aggression In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Ashley Gabriele

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated associations between restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) and anxiety, RRBs and aggression, and anxiety in aggression in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet no study has investigated the nature of the relationship between all three constructs. As such, the goal of the present study was to test the hypothesis that anxiety mediates the relationship between RRBs and aggression. Participants consisted of 115 parent(s)/guardian(s) of children with ASD who completed parent/caregiver-report questionnaires on the frequency and severity of their child’s RRBs, anxiety symptoms, and aggressive behaviors. The present study is the first to use construct-specific measures …

Do Sleep And Executive Functioning Predict Intimate Partner Violence? Investigation Of A Moderational Model, Ayelet Hochman

Theses and Dissertations

This study assessed if sleep and the executive function (EF) of response inhibition interact to predict intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration in emerging adults. This study conducted a secondary data analysis on a sample of college students in romantic relationships who completed a series of EF tasks and self-report measures on emotional and relationship functioning. This study analyzed data from 86 college students (81% female) between the ages of 18-23. Moderational models were tested to evaluate whether deficits in response inhibition and sleep problems interact to predict IPV perpetration. Perpetration of any IPV, only minor forms of IPV, and only …

The Role Of Social Skills In Protecting Against The Impact Of Family And Community Violence On Youth Psychopathology, Emily Christine Hockenberry

Theses and Dissertations

Children and adolescents are exposed to family and community violence at high rates, and poly victimization is common. Further study is needed to assess the unique and additive effects of witnessing or directly experiencing violence in multiple contexts on psychopathology in urban youth of color. Additionally, analyzing the role of protective factors, such as social skills, in moderating the relation between violence exposure and psychopathology may aid in identifying unique and shared pathways by which different forms of interpersonal violence may impact mental health outcomes. This study sought to examine whether social skills (cooperation and assertion) moderated the relation between …

Patterns Of Change In Caregiver Anxiety And Depression During Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Tohar Scheininger

Theses and Dissertations

Caregivers play an integral role in their child’s trauma-focused cognitive-behavior therapy (TF-CBT; Cohen & Mannarino, 2006), an intervention that has established efficacy in treating children’s trauma-related symptoms (Cohen et al., 2017). Unfortunately, extant literature on TF-CBT lacks a comprehensive understanding and representation of demographic characteristics and baseline symptomatology for caregivers who participate in TF-CBT at community clinics. Furthermore, although researchers suggest that TF-CBT may improve caregivers’ own distress, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression from pre- to post-treatment (e.g., Cohen et al., 2004a; Cohen et al., 2004b; Deblinger et al., 2011; Tutus et al., 2017), there is no assessment of …

Effect Of Shame-Proneness, Guilt-Proneness And Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms On Difficulties In Emotional Regulation, Yekaterina Nikiforova

Theses and Dissertations

Exposure to traumatic events will affect most individuals in their lifetimes, with some going on to develop emotional dysregulation difficulties, posttraumatic stress symptoms, shame, and guilt. The present study used a trauma-exposed college sample of adults from a northeastern university (n = 612, age M = 20.79, SD= 3.33, n = 463 female, n = 149 male) to test for a moderating effect of shame-proneness and guilt-proneness on the relationship between posttraumatic stress symptoms and difficulties in emotional regulation, and lack of emotional awareness, a subcategory of difficulties in emotional regulation. The correlational relationship between these constructs was also investigated. …

Spatial Thinking And Strategy Use: A New Perspective With Eyetracking Data, Joseph Pontorno

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores spatial skill level and strategy use on the Paper Folding task using eyetracking data collection methods. Despite the popularity of self-report methods, the current research aims to provide a clearer understanding of how people approach visuospatial tasks. Test performances from 52 undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Chicago were recorded. A crucial component of this research is how eyetracking hardware and software were used to measure “toggles,” which are the eye movements that participants made across interest areas. Finally, we discuss how toggling relates to strategy use and the different decisions that high and low …

Gender, Attachment Patterns, And Mental Representations Of Parents And Self As Predictors Of Early Adolescents’ Trauma Symptoms, Bryan Blum

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Gender, attachment patterns and mental representations of close relationships have not previously been used to predict trauma symptomatology in early adolescents. In this study, 109 eighth grade students ages 12-13 (44% female) were recruited from a private Manhattan middle school for academically advantaged, ethnically diverse students. The study took place over the course of four years, with each new group of participants providing data in September of their eighth grade year. Participants reported on trauma symptoms and the affective valence of their mental representations of self and parents, and school staff reported on participants’ attachment patterns. While boys reported more …

To See Or Not To See - Clinical Implications Of Black Women’S Experiences Of Invisibility And Hypervisibility In Psychology Doctoral Training Programs: A Qualitative Study, Angelique Evanna Romulus

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

It has previously been documented that, in psychology doctoral programs, Black women are considered hypervisible due to their distinctiveness and “otherness” (Ryland, 2013) and that this “otherness” is compounded by their intersecting identities as non-prototypical women and Black people (Hancock, 2007). Simultaneously, Black women can also be rendered invisible, or viewed as not belonging to, either of their two subordinate groups due to their non-prototypical status in each group (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008). As a result of their visibility, Black women are often subjected to higher levels of scrutiny and discrimination (Wilkins-Yel, Hyman, & Zounlome, 2019). Given that experiences of …

Parental Emotion Regulation And The Socialization Of Emotion: The Role Of Effortful Control, Lindsay Jones Farmer

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

Research and theory have indicated the importance of parental emotion socialization behaviors on children’s developing emotional competence. Less attention has been given to factors that influence parent emotion socialization behaviors. The current study sought to build upon emerging research on the impact of parents’ self-regulatory capacities on their emotion socializing behaviors, in particular their responses to child negative emotionality. It explored the relationships between emotion regulation, effortful control, and responses to child negative affect in a sample of parents of 3- to 8-year-old children (N = 528). As expected, parent emotion dysregulation was significantly negatively related to parent effortful control. …

Long-Term Stability Of Baseline Impact Scores In High School Football Players Across Age Groups, Christopher Thomas Burley

Theses and Dissertations

In recent decades, the increased awareness of the prevalence of concussions has resulted in significant advancements in concussion assessment and treatment, including annual or bi-annual pre-season computerized baseline assessments. However, limited research has focused on the differences in stability of baseline neurocognitive performance among different age groups in adolescence. The main purpose of the present study was to explore the long-term stability of ImPACT baseline assessments across one-year intervals in multiple age groups within a sample of high school football players. Subjects who completed two baseline assessments between the ages of 14 and 17 who had completed two baselines one …

The Phenomenon Of The Infantilization Of Women, Caitlin R. Rechdan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The sexualization of women in advertisements remains a controversial form of media, specifically infantilization. Infantilization is defined as the portrayal of adult women acting and looking childish through attire and demeanor. This study examines consumers’ perceptions of infantilized women in advertisements. Students (n = 100) from a 4-year university participated in an online questionnaire examining measures of morality, objectionability, and ubiquity of five advertisements. Three out of the five advertisements display infantilized female models. The others show women in a non-infantilizing manner. A single chi-square conducted on the participants found significant differences in if students can correctly identify in ads. …

Psychological And Spiritual Factors Affecting Well-Being Among Military Personnel Engaged In Remote Combat, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Remotely piloted aircraft (RP A) require multiple crewmembers to successfully operate the aircraft RPAs shape modem warfare and pose challenges for the spiritual-emotional health of RPA personnel. This study explored whether (a) RPA crewmembers could be separated into groups based on their experiences, (b) the groups differed in psychological health outcomes, and (c) they differed in aspects of spiritual wellbeing. Method: Participants included 354 United States Air Force personnel involved in RPA duty. Participants provided demographic information and completed the Work Role Strain Scale as a predictor. Outcome measures included job satisfaction, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, Outcome Questionnaire-45.2, Posttraumatic Stress …

The Effect Of Fractal Dimensionality On Behavioral Judgments Of Built Environments, William Andrew Stalker

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the effects of fractal dimensionality on ratings of beauty, relaxation, and interest, when these patterns are incorporated in a built space. Previous findings suggest that fractal patterns can be used to mimic the beneficial psychological and physiological effects that arise from viewing nature. This research focuses on studying the impact of fractal patterns when presented within urban environments. The findings here are primarily consistent with previous research. Medium D patterns are preferred over the other pattern complexities. Low D patterns are consistently rated as more relaxing. High D patterns are rated as being more interesting over low …