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Spiritually Focused Mindfulness Meditation: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of The Effect Of Spiritually Focused Mindfulness Meditation On Depression With A Clinical Population, Grace Lynn Bellingham

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This interpretative phenomenological analysis explored the use of spiritually focused mindfulness meditation for clinical depression. Although antidepressant medication and cognitive behavioral therapy are the leading evidence-based treatments for clinical depression, major depressive disorder is recurrent, and progressive and relapse rates are increasing. Numerous studies examining the use of complementary and alternative medicine therapies, which include the use of meditation to treat depression, have emerged in the literature. In this study, three individuals who met diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder used spiritually focused mindfulness meditation for three weeks and participated in in-depth interviews to explore their experiences. Findings revealed significant …

Metacognitive Changes In Individuals With Severe Mental Illness In Response To Psychoanalytic Therapy, David Neal

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Objectives. Metacognitive deficits are thought to be closely related to functional impairment in a variety of mental health disorders. Understanding metacognitive differences between groups may provide insight into etiology and treatment of mental illness. This study sought to investigate group differences in metacognition and metacognitive changes over time in response to long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy amidst a population with severe mental illness diagnoses, specifically borderline personality disorder (BPD), narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), and schizoid personality disorder (SPD).

Methods. Twenty-eight participants meeting inclusion criteria were selected from amongst participants in the Austen Riggs Center’s (ARC) 11-year Follow-Along Study (FAS). For each participant, …

The Relationship Between Self-Compassion, Religion, Gender, And Objectified Body Consciousness In Christian Nazarene Women, Arielle R. A. Marston

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Body shame and objectification of the female body are well known contributing factors in physical and mental health issues including high stress, eating disorder symptomatology, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Religion plays a role in body shame and female objectification through both scripture and theological writings although this relationship remains inconclusive. Self-Compassion has been found to be a mitigating factor with regard to body shame in college and caregiver contexts. The Church of the Nazarene promotes itself as supporting female leadership and roles within the church. Since religion and gender roles seem to play a role in body shame and …

Childhood Maltreatment And Adult Dispositional Mindfulness, Alan R. King, Amanda J. Auen, Tiffany D. Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Dispositional mindfulness has been conceptualized as both a trait and skill set for managing life stress. Levels of dispositional mindfulness appear to provide a meaningful barometer of emotional well-being and behavioral functioning. This chapter reviews selected literature regarding the potential effects of early life experience on the development of this important trait and coping skill. Empirical data regarding the developmental sources of this important psychological attribute has been surprisingly limited. Some prior research has implicated childhood maltreatment as disruptive to the development of this important coping skill. The present study examined the potential impact of six different forms of childhood …

Interrogating The Genetic Determinants Of Tourette’S Syndrome And Other Tic Disorders Through Genome-Wide Association Studies, Douglas W. Woods, Tourette Association Of America International Consortium For Genetics, Gilles De La Tourette Gwas Replication Initiative, Tourette International Collaborative Genetics Study, Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Tourette Syndrome Working Group

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Objective:

Tourette’s syndrome is polygenic and highly heritable. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) approaches are useful for interrogating the genetic architecture and determinants of Tourette’s syndrome and other tic disorders. The authors conducted a GWAS meta-analysis and probed aggregated Tourette’s syndrome polygenic risk to test whether Tourette’s and related tic disorders have an underlying shared genetic etiology and whether Tourette’s polygenic risk scores correlate with worst-ever tic severity and may represent a potential predictor of disease severity.

Methods:

GWAS meta-analysis, gene-based association, and genetic enrichment analyses were conducted in 4,819 Tourette’s syndrome case subjects and 9,488 control subjects. Replication of top …

Revisiting The Miller-Kanazawa Debate: Should Asia Be Afforded More Attention From Evolutionary Psychologists?, Sean Teck Hao Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A decade ago, Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa and Dr. Geoffrey Miller, two renowned evolutionary psychologists, participated in a debate on whether evolutionary psychologists should focus on Asia in their quest to establish a stronghold in the general field of psychology. Despite painstaking efforts to foster greater receptiveness among Western psychologists toward an evolutionary perspective of psychological phenomena, most still seem to be critically reserved toward it; favoring instead proximate sociocultural explanations of psychological phenomena as stipulated by the standard social science model. Facing such an inertia, Miller suggested that it may perhaps be wise to re-direct the field's efforts on the …

Interparental Control During Pregnancy Predicts Parental Control Directed Toward Infants, Jaime Stephenson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Numerous studies have found that the quality of the intimate relationship between parents significantly impacts the quality of the parent-child relationship which, in turn, has important implications for child psychosocial adjustment. Research calls to Enfger’s spillover hypothesis suggesting that discord or dysfunction in one family relationship (e.g., the interparental relationship) puts other family relationships (e.g., parent-child relationships) at increased risk for dysfunction. Examining the association between interparental respect and control dynamics during pregnancy and the parent-child relationship when the child is 1 year of age is important because (a) children’s social and moral adjustment is in a critical stage of …

Cancer, Sexual Quality Of Life, And The Dyad: A Qualitative Study, Gabriela E. Gutierrez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

As the rate of survivorship continues to increase within oncological care (White, 2007), more attention is being focused on the quality of life and long-term outcomes of cancer survivors (American Cancer Society, 2014). Sexual quality of life (SQOL), which includes both sex and intimacy, have been identified as primary sources of stress among patients and their partners across cancer types (Manne & Badr, 2008; 2010; Manne, Badr, & Kashy, 2012); however, reproductively related cancers, such as breast and gynecologic cancers have especially posed unique challenges to both patients and their partners (Jonsdottir, et al., 2016). It is widely known that …

Going To School In The Forest: Changing Evaluations Of Animal-Plant Interactions In The Kichwa Amazon, Jeffrey T. Shenton

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

For rural, indigenous communities the ways structural modernization, exposure to Western-scientific epistemologies, and formal schooling affect environmental reasoning remain unclear. For one Kichwa community in the Napo region of Ecuador, daily routines have re-oriented toward formal schooling but environmental learning opportunities remain intact. Here, while a Species Interaction Task elicited consensus across ages on inferred ecological interactions, younger people reasoned differently than older people: for them, animal interactions with flora were considered damaging, not neutral. Aspirational practices like schooling can thus reorient environmental reasoning, even in contexts in which young people share cultural understandings of local ecological relationships with adults.

The Political Psychology Of Death: Until It Do Us Part, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes interwoven complexities and psychologies of life and death in the lives of political actors.

The Nights Of Our Lives: Why We Sleep & Dream, Jaime L. Tartar Phd

Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches and Lectures

Explore the most recent theories and evidence of why we sleep, and what happens in the brain during sleep and the consequences of sleep loss and sleep disorders.

The Weathering Hypothesis: Sociocultural And Biological Factors Of Postpartum Depression Among Black Women, Anna Van Beusekom

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Black women experience higher rates of PPD than their White counterparts. To date, no one has linked experiences of racism and discrimination, the impacts racism and discrimination have on allostatic load, and the subsequent process of weathering to the elevated levels of PPD in Black women. However, the Weathering Hypothesis can be utilized to explain the higher rates of PPD seen in Black women via the interactions between sociocultural factors and biological factors.

Farm Animal Cognition—Linking Behavior, Welfare And Ethics, Christian Nawroth, Jan Langbein, Marjorie Coulon, Vivian Gabor, Susan Oesterwind, Judith Benz-Schwarzburg, Eberhard Von Borell

Social Cognition Collection

Farm animal welfare is a major concern for society and food production. To more accurately evaluate animal farming in general and to avoid exposing farm animals to poor welfare situations, it is necessary to understand not only their behavioral but also their cognitive needs and capacities. Thus, general knowledge of how farm animals perceive and interact with their environment is of major importance for a range of stakeholders, from citizens to politicians to cognitive ethologists to philosophers. This review aims to outline the current state of farm animal cognition research and focuses on ungulate livestock species, such as cattle, horses, …

Multifractality Of Posture Modulates Multisensory Perception Of Stand-On-Ability, Jonathan K. Doyon, Alen Hajnal, Tyler Surber, Joseph D. Clark, Damian G. Kelty-Stephen

Faculty Publications

By definition, perception is a multisensory process that unfolds in time as a complex sequence of exploratory activities of the organism. In such a system perception and action are integrated, and multiple energy arrays are available simultaneously. Perception of affordances interweaves sensory and motor activities into meaningful behavior given task constraints. The present contribution offers insight into the manner in which perception and action usher the organism through competent functional apprehension of its surroundings. We propose that the tensegrity structure of the body, manifested via multifractality of exploratory bodily movements informs perception of affordances. The affordance of stand-on-ability of ground …

Identification And Transformation Difficulty In Problem Solving: Electrophysiological Evidence From Chunk Decomposition, Zhonglu Zhang, Yu Luo, Chaolun Wang, Christopher M. Warren, Qi Xia, Qiang Xing, Bihua Cao, Yi Lei, Hong Li

Psychology Faculty Publications

A wealth of studies have investigated how to overcome experience-based constraints in creative problem solving. One such experience-based constraint is the tendency for people to view tightly organized visual stimuli as single, unified percepts, even when decomposition of those stimuli into component parts (termed chunk decomposition) would facilitate problem solving. The current study investigates the neural underpinnings of chunk decomposition in creative problem solving by analyzing event-related potentials. In two experiments, participants decomposed Chinese characters into the character’s component elements and then used the base elements to form a new valid character. The action could require decomposing a “tight” chunk, …

Partners In School: An Innovative Parent-Teacher Consultation Model For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Gazi F. Azad, Steven C. Marcus, Susan M. Sheridan, David S. Mandell

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Little research examines the best ways to improve communication between parents and teachers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and its effect on child outcomes. The present study tests an innovative parent-teacher consultation model, entitled Partners in School. The goal of Partners in School is to improve parent-teacher communication about evidence-based practices (EBPs), and subsequently, outcomes for children with ASD. Participants were 26 teachers and 49 parents of children with ASD from a large urban public school district. Parents and teachers completed measures of their communication and child outcomes prior to and after receiving consultation through Partners in School. …

Social Contact In Shelter Dogs: Literature Review And Recommendations, Christina Walthers, Lauren Faulkner, Allison Martin

Psychological Science Undergraduate Scholarly Works

Given the large number of dogs housed in animal shelters each year, it is important to consider how the shelter environment impacts a dog’s welfare. Providing shelter-housed dogs social contact with conspecifics can increase the welfare of the dogs and benefit the shelter by increasing adoption rates. Mostly Mutts Pet Rescue and Adoption Center in Kennesaw, Georgia was investigating ways to increase social contact for the dogs in their facility. To assist with this goal, we conducted a literature review that examined the impact of social housing, playgroups, and visual social contact on dog behavior. Social housing and playgroups can …

Perceptual Lateralization Of Vocal Stimuli In Goats, Luigi Baciadonna, Christian Nawroth, Elodie F. Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Communication Skills Collection

Functional asymmetries, for example, the preferential involvement of 1 brain hemisphere to process stimuli, may increase brain efficiency and the capacity to carry out tasks simultaneously. We investigated which hemisphere was primarily involved in processing acoustic stimuli in goats using a head-orienting paradigm. Three playbacks using goat vocalizations recorded in different contexts: food anticipation (positive), isolation (negative), food frustration (negative), as well as 1 playback involving dog barks (negative) were presented on the left and right sides of the test subjects simultaneously. The head-orienting response (left or right) and latency to resume feeding were recorded. The direction of the head-orienting …

Perceptual Lateralization Of Vocal Stimuli In Goats, Luigi Baciadonna, Christian Nawroth, Elodie F. Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Social Cognition Collection

Functional asymmetries, for example, the preferential involvement of 1 brain hemisphere to process stimuli, may increase brain efficiency and the capacity to carry out tasks simultaneously. We investigated which hemisphere was primarily involved in processing acoustic stimuli in goats using a head-orienting paradigm. Three playbacks using goat vocalizations recorded in different contexts: food anticipation (positive), isolation (negative), food frustration (negative), as well as 1 playback involving dog barks (negative) were presented on the left and right sides of the test subjects simultaneously. The head-orienting response (left or right) and latency to resume feeding were recorded. The direction of the head-orienting …

The History And Future Of Digital Health In The Field Of Behavioral Medicine., Danielle Arigo, Danielle E Jake-Schoffman, Kathleen Wolin, Ellen Beckjord, Eric B Hekler, Sherry L Pagoto

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Since its earliest days, the field of behavioral medicine has leveraged technology to increase the reach and effectiveness of its interventions. Here, we highlight key areas of opportunity and recommend next steps to further advance intervention development, evaluation, and commercialization with a focus on three technologies: mobile applications (apps), social media, and wearable devices. Ultimately, we argue that future of digital health behavioral science research lies in finding ways to advance more robust academic-industry partnerships. These include academics consciously working towards preparing and training the work force of the twenty first century for digital health, actively working towards advancing methods …

The Influence Of Work On Personality Trait Development: The Demands-Affordances Transactional (Data) Model, An Integrative Review, And Research Agenda, Stephen A. Woods, Bart Wille, Chia-Huei Wu, Filip Lievens, Filip De Fruyt

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although personality is typically conceptualized in industrial, organizational, and vocational psychology as enduring and stable, an increasing volume of research now shows that personality changes throughout the lifespan, with work being a potentially important influence of trait development. This paper reviews and integrates the emergent literature in this area, and in doing so proposes a new Demands-Affordances TrAnsactional (DATA) model of personality development at work, against which research is evaluated. This DATA model clarifies how personality-related behavior at work is called upon by work demands at four different levels (vocation, job, group and organization) and proposes Person-Environment (PE) fit as …

9/11 Exposure And Parental Monitoring, Heather Zemeck

Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates the effects of 9/11/01 exposure on parental monitoring, and how depression and anxiety are associated with these effects. This research utilizes data collected from Evacuees, First Responders, and non-exposed Controls. Results revealed moderate 9/11 exposure is associated with increased parental monitoring; while, depression is associated with decreased parental monitoring.

Contextually Modulated Avoidance Behavior In Rats Post-Pavlovian Extinction, Lauren Branigan

Theses and Dissertations

The following study sought to examine the psychological substrates of renewal (e.g.., context dependent extinction processes) for conditioned avoidance behaviors in rats. Using signaled active avoidance conditioning, rats acquired two-way shuttle responding, to two different auditory stimuli. These behaviors were then extinguished through exposure to the auditory stimuli where shuttling behavior was now without consequence. Subjects were then tested for renewal of avoidance in three distinct renewal sequences (e.g., ABA vs ABB, AAB vs AAA, and ABC vs ABB) in three separate groups of rats. It was found that subjects showed more responding to a stimulus presented outside of its …

The Impact Of Working Memory Load And Anxiety On Attention Bias Modification Training, David Lloyd Yap

Theses and Dissertations

The effect of attention bias modification training (ABMT) on anxiety-related attention bias (AB) in a large (N=204) non-clinical sample was sensitive to working memory load (WML). ABMT produced expected changes in AB in the low-WML, low-anxiety group only. High WML and high anxiety alone and in interaction disrupted ABMT.

Dolphins In Space: Quantifying The Relative Positions Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Megan S. Mcgrath

Theses and Dissertations

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are socially sophisticated mammals with high fission-fusion dynamics and complex communication. The relative positioning of individual dolphins as they swim within their social group may aid in the expression of social roles. This study sought to quantify relative positioning in a small social group of female bottlenose dolphins at the National Aquarium in Baltimore that included two mother-daughter pairs, maternal and paternal half-sisters, a half-aunt and niece, and one unrelated female. We devised a method for scoring relative positioning in three dimensions. We found that the two mothers and their juvenile and adult daughters …

The Effects Of Tactile And Visual Deterrents On Honey Badger Predation Of Beehives, Abigail S. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

As human and elephant populations grow in Kenya so does human-elephant conflict. One of the most substantial contributors to this conflict, the crop-raiding behavior of elephants (Loxodonta africana), is alleviated through the use of Elephants and Bee Project's beehive fences. A threat to these beehives are the honey badgers (Mellivora capensis) who try to obtain honey, causing damage to the hive and the hive to abscond. The objective of this study was to improve the effectiveness of these beehive fences through identifying and testing novel honey badger deterrent methods. On-farm experiments in Taita Taveta County, Kenya …

The Effects Of Environmental Education On Children's Knowledge Of Elephant Conservation In Rural And Urban Thailand, Tamara Aird

Theses and Dissertations

Think Elephants International’s EE program educated students on issues surrounding elephant conservation. One open-ended response question from surveys was analyzed to determine whether there was a knowledge difference between locations. After participation, urban students referenced more information about HEC, while rural students talked more about elephants’ role as keystone species.

Men And Masculinity: How The Brain And Heart Respond To Shame, Christopher Spromberg

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

This dissertation examined the influence that level of adherence to traditionally masculine gender values, norms, and beliefs has on how men cognitively and physiologically respond to a shame based projective measure. A 2-stage study was used. In the first stage 208 undergraduate men responded to the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI; Mahalik, Burns, & Syzdek, 2007). Utilizing the total masculinity score from the CMNI, quartiles were constructed. The two extreme quartiles comprised 2 groups; most traditionally conforming (TMASC) and most non-traditionally conforming (NTMASC) to masculinity norms. Men from these groups (TMASC n = 11; NTMASC n = 13) were …

Solution-Focused Therapy Changes Neurophysiological Activation In Collegiate Athletes: An Intervention Study, Kyler T. Shumway

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Neurophysiological research has begun to uncover how therapy produces change in the brain. To examine this phenomenon, many studies have controlled for specific symptoms to identify where therapy has the greatest effect (Linden, 2006). In athletic performance, anxiety represents a significant struggle for college athletes (Mabweazara, Leach, & Andrews, 2017). The present study intended to examine the impact of brief therapy on brain activation and competition anxiety in college athletes. A sample of collegiate athletes (n = 17) participated in a pre-post intervention study. Pre- and post-intervention measures included electroencephalogram (EEG), galvanic skin response (GSR), self-report anxiety measures (SAS-2, GAD-7), …

Emotional And Spiritual Well-Being As Predictors Of Burnout Among Doctoral Clinical Psychology Trainees, Garret L. Blankenship

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

It has been observed in prior studies that student spiritual engagement and attribution tends to decline throughout graduate clinical training in psychology (Eisele, 2016; Fisk et al., 2013). This is problematic considering the inverse relationship between spirituality and stress (Calicchia & Graham, 2006) and the protection it provides against burnout. Also protective against burnout, and correlated with spirituality, is Emotional Intelligence (EI; Kaur, Sambasivan, & Kumar, 2013). Both EI and spirituality are related to lower burnout, less depression, and greater life-satisfaction (Kroska et al., 2017). Despite burnout being a common experience for graduate students in medical school (Amir, Kumari, Olivetta, …