Digital Commons Network^™

Art Museum Docent Coordinators’ Perceptions: A Difficult Kind Of Balancing Act, Jennifer E. Schero

Theses and Dissertations

With visitors numbering in the millions, museums provide numerous entry points for attendees to engage with the objects in their care, including offering tours of their collections. Looking specifically at art museums, many institutions utilize volunteers to facilitate these guided looking experiences. Considerable research within the field of museum education focuses on the qualities of effective touring and methods and theories to support these endeavors. However, there is a lack of research focusing on the docent coordinators who oversee these volunteer guides. This study utilizes interpretive phenomenological analysis to explore perceptions of encyclopedic art museum docent coordinators concerning their preparation …

Third Culture Kids - Playing To Heal, Amna Sana

Theses and Dissertations

With increased globalization and a large expat population, Qatar is home to increasing numbers of Third Culture Kids (TCKs). TCKs are children who live in a country where their parents are non-native, children who grow up between cultures. Young TCKs, especially children between the ages of three and seven, do not possess the skills to adequately vocalize their feelings, but fortunately, play therapy allows them to articulate problems and feelings on their own terms. This thesis addresses the emotional hurdles facing TCKs, using concepts derived from play therapy and offering a series of interactive objects designed to reflect emotional expression …

Why We Follow Celebrities: An Examination Of Parasocial Interaction And Fan Engagement In A Celebrities’ Social Media Pages, Mohammed A. Alasmari

Theses and Dissertations

Social media sites have become essential for organizations and celebrities, allowing them to build relationships and interact with fans. Previous research found openness and perceived interactivity to improve social media engagement. The current study used the concepts of parasocial interactions and relationships to enhance the current knowledge of how celebrities influence their followers through Twitter. The study looked at perceived openness, perceived interactivity, and media engagement in relation to parasocial interaction and relationships using the Qualtrics survey response from 905 participants on Fayez Al-Malki’s Twitter page. The results indicated that both celebrities' and followers' posts employed openness and perceived interactivity, …

The Impact Of Healthcare Professional Students' Racial, Hiv-Related, And Abortion-Related Biases On Recommendations For Prenatal Care, Alison J. Patev

Theses and Dissertations

Black women and HIV-positive women have increased maternal mortality rates and other negative pregnancy outcomes, in part due to disparate prenatal care. Although women who seek abortions do not have the same negative outcomes, abortion stigma exists and is normalized in healthcare. Limited work has examined prenatal care provision for women in these groups, and even less work has explored the prenatal care provision by healthcare trainees (i.e., medical, nurse practitioner, and physician assistant students). Examining the role of bias on the prioritization of prenatal care items by healthcare trainees is imperative. Healthcare education sets the stage for future practice, …

From Social Alienation To Physical Health Concerns: Depression And Alcohol Proneness As Disconnection Pathways, Benjamin F. Shepherd, Paula M. Brochu

Archives of Assessment Psychology

It is well established that social isolation is a robust predictor of poor health outcomes, both mental and physical, yet little is known about whether and how personality characteristics related to social isolation (e.g., social alienation) affect health. Grounded in relational-cultural theory, the present study examined depression and alcohol proneness as parallel mechanisms underlying the association between social alienation and physical health concerns. As hypothesized, social alienation was positively associated with depression and alcohol proneness, and depression and alcohol proneness were both positively associated with health concerns. Notably, social alienation was indirectly associated with health concerns through depression for both …

Threat Assessment Team Activity And Outcomes In K-12 Public Schools: Integrating Methods To Better Understand School Safety, Jessica C. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The use of threat assessment teams in schools is recommended as a violence prevention measure in K-12 public schools. The present study focused on the threat assessment process in the K-12 environment in Virginia and is the first to examine the association between threat assessment and school safety in tandem over time and the first to incorporate the views of K-12 threat assessment practitioners. Findings from this study demonstrate that while the number of threat assessments has increased overtime, threat assessment practitioners identified numerous concerns regarding threat assessment training, expressed doubts about fidelity to the recommended process, and revealed an …

The Gut Microbiome And Alzheimer’S Disease, Alejandra Lopez, Charles J. Golden

Archives of Assessment Psychology

Alzheimer’s Disease’s pathophysiology and pathogenesis are still poorly understood despite being one of the most researched neurocognitive diseases. This review examines a new area of research that explores the link between the gut microbiome and Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. Potential treatments and therapeutic interventions stemming from microbiome research are discussed as well. Overall, while the research so far is promising, the literature in this area is still in its infancy, and there is much to be done to establish a causal role between microbiome dysbiosis and AD pathology. Moreover, assuming that microbiome research continues to support new models of AD, implications …

Detection Barriers Of Multiple Sclerosis On Disease Progression & Management: A Systematic Review, Lubna Jahjah, Charles J. Golden

Archives of Assessment Psychology

A systematic review of the literature was conducted to examine the independent barriers and clinical implications of delaying the detection and multifaceted treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Further, the significance of detecting neurocognitive impairments to inform diagnosis and monitor decline as the disease progresses was explored. An in-depth qualitative analysis was performed to appraise the collected research and establish generalizability of homogenous findings across studies. Findings suggest that the heterogenous makeup of MS serves as the predominant barrier in obtaining subclinical or an early definite diagnosis, with earlier initiation of disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) exhibiting long-term benefits in patients with relapse-remitting …

Concordance Of Symptom Validity And Performance Validity Indicators In Neuropsychological Testing: Comparison Of The Mmpi-2-Rf Infrequent Responses Scale And Tomm In Detecting Overstated Pathology In Court-Ordered Forensic, Quasi-Forensic, And Non-Forensic Acquired Brain Injury Outpatients, Samuel T. Gontkovsky, Charles J. Golden

Archives of Assessment Psychology

This study examined the co-occurrence of response invalidity as measured by the Infrequent Responses (F-r) scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) and the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) in 479 participants classified into forensic, quasi-forensic, and acquired brain injury groups. Although participant scores on the MMPI-2-RF F-r scale and TOMM were significantly correlated, concordance of response invalidity in the form of overstated pathology was only 13%. Comparable rates of potential feigning were found across groups on the MMPI-2-RF, but a larger percentage of participants in the forensic group obtained scores suggestive of possible feigning on both …

Old Vs New: The Classic And D-Kefs Trails As Embedded Performance Validity Indicators And Measures Of Psychomotor Speed/Executive Function, Laszlo Erdodi, Jessica Hurtubise, Maame Brantuo, Laura Cutler, Arianna Kennedy, Rayna Hirst

Archives of Assessment Psychology

This study sought to provide a direct comparison between old and new versions of the Trail Making Test (TMT). Eighty-five undergraduate student volunteers were administered the old and new TMT. A third of them were instructed to feign neuropsychiatric deficits. The classification accuracy of the TMTs was evaluated against experimentally induced and psychometrically defined invalid performance. Results showed that the old TMT demonstrated superior psychometric properties, both as a measure of cognitive ability and performance validity. In conclusion, newer and more sophisticated versions of a test are not necessarily better than older, established instruments. Replications in clinical samples are needed …

Understanding The Psychopath From A Psychodynamic Perspective: A Rorschach Study, Carl B. Gacono, Jason M. Smith

Archives of Assessment Psychology

The psychopathic personality is organized at a borderline level of personality. Additionally, while male psychopaths are considered to manifest pathological narcissism, female psychopaths are best understood in terms of malignant hysteria. Using Kernberg’s three components of borderline personality functioning (identity diffusion, reliance on primitive defenses, and transient lapses in reality testing), we examined the following Rorschach variables in 159 Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)-delineated psychopaths (PCL-R > 30; 44 males, 115 females): Dv, M-, and Kwawer PMRs (identity diffusion); (H), (Hd), and Cooper et al. (1988) RDS (reliance on primitive defenses); and X-%, Xu%, X+%, S-, WSum6, and RDS massive denial (transient lapses …

Commentary: A Psychodynamic Model Of Psychopathy, Using Gullhaugen Et Al. (2021) As A Reference, Carl B. Gacono, Jason M. Smith

Archives of Assessment Psychology

Recently in Psychoanalytic Psychology, Gullhaugen et al. (2021) proposed a Dynamic Model of Psychopathy (DMP) to better understand psychopathic traits. Several issues with the authors’ methodology, including the use of the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV) as an independent measure and a small sample size (N = 16) relative to their conceptual approach and the number of statistical analyses conducted, limit the conclusions that can be drawn from their data. Additionally, the authors discuss their findings as if the data from this study with all males could apply to women. In this article, we use the methodological issues presented …

The Association Between Social Media Use And Personality Dysfunction, Keefe Maccarone, Anthony Michael Tarescavage

Archives of Assessment Psychology

The association between social media site use and personality dysfunction has not yet been thoroughly explored. Existing studies focus on specific mental illnesses rather than dysfunctional personality traits. Moreover, the effects of social media use on individual functioning is debated within the literature. While some literature asserts that social media site use is harmful (e.g., Oberst et al., 2017), other studies have concluded that moderated social media site use may improve functioning (e.g., Barker, 2016). The purpose of the current study was to investigate the association between social media site use and various forms of personality dysfunction. Participants were administered …

Functional Limitations And Well-Being Throughout The Adult Lifespan: The Moderating Role Of Sleep, Claire M. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Functional limitations represent individuals’ difficulty with completing essential activities of daily living, such as sitting, stooping, and walking. Though functional limitations have been linked to lower well-being outcomes, less is known about potential protective factors for well-being in the experience of functional limitations. The present study used archival data from the MIDUS Refresher study to evaluate how sleep and salient aspects of identity may alter the association between the experience of functional limitations and well-being. In particular, this study had two central aims: to examine the associations between functional limitations, life satisfaction, and affect and detect how aspects of identity …

Train Your Frontline Personnel From Newbie To Master It Users: A Three-Phase Longitudinal Experiment Focusing On Technology Compatibility, J. Song, Suning Zhu

School of Business Faculty Research

Background: Although many decision makers have recognized the importance of training to the success of their frontline personnel and organizations, hidden technological compatibility issues can lead to training failure especially when different generations, or iterations, of hardware and software are involved. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of different levels (high vs. low) of compatibility between software and hardware on frontline trainees’ gained understanding of the related IT.

Method: Grounded in experiential learning, we designed a three-stage training experiment that involved the use of cloud-based geographical information systems and radio-frequency identification devices. The experiment included compatibility between …

Self-Distancing And Avoidance Mediate The Links Between Trait Mindfulness And Responses To Emotional Challenges, Kate Petrova, Michael D. Nevarez, Robert J. Waldinger, Kristopher J. Preacher, Marc S. Schulz

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Objectives Mindfulness has been linked to better emotion regulation and more adaptive responses to stress across a number of studies, but the mechanisms underlying these links remain to be fully understood. The present study examines links between trait mindfulness (Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire; FFMQ) and participants' responses to common emotional challenges, focusing specifically on the roles of reduced avoidance and more self-distanced engagement as key potential mechanisms driving the adaptive benefits of trait mindfulness. Methods Adults (n = 305, age range: 40-72) from the Second Generation Study of the Harvard Study of Adult Development completed two laboratory-based challenges-public speaking …

Coherence Between Feelings And Heart Rate: Links To Early Adversity And Responses To Stress, Kate Petrova, Michael D. Nevarez, Jenna Rice, Robert J. Waldinger, Kristopher J. Preacher, Marc S. Schulz

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sex Differences In Stress-Induced Sleep Deficits, Andrew T. Gargiulo, Varuna Jasodanand, Sandra Luz, Lauren O'Mara, Leszek Kubin, Richard J. Ross, Seema Bhatnagar, Laura A. Grafe

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Sleep disruptions are hallmarks in the pathophysiology of several stress-related disorders, including Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), both known to disproportionately affect female populations. Although previous studies have attempted to investigate disordered sleep in women, few studies have explored and compared how repeated stress affects sleep in both sexes in either human or animal models. We have previously shown that male rats exhibit behavioral and neuroendocrine habituation to 5 days of repeated restraint, whereas females do not; additional days of stress exposure are required to observe habituation in females. This study examined sex differences in sleep …

Lower Neural Value Signaling In The Prefrontal Cortex Is Related To Childhood Family Income And Depressive Symptomatology During Adolescence, Esther E. Palacios-Barrios, Jamie L. Hanson, Kelly R. Barry, Dustin Albert, Stuart F. White, Ann T. Skinner, Kenneth A. Dodge, Jennifer E. Lansford

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Lower family income during childhood is related to increased rates of adolescent depression, though the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Evidence suggests that individuals with depression demonstrate hypoactivation in brain regions involved in reward learning and decision-making processes (e.g., portions of the prefrontal cortex). Separately, lower family income has been associated with neural alterations in similar regions. Motivated by this research, we examined associations between family income, depression, and brain activity during a reward learning and decision-making fMRI task in a sample of adolescents (full n = 94; usable n = 78; mean age = 15.2 years). We focused on …

The Double Burden Of Racial Discrimination In Daily-Life Moments: Increases In Negative Emotions And Depletion Of Psychosocial Resources Among Emerging Adult African Americans, Nataria T. Joseph, Laurel M. Peterson, Heather Gordon, Thomas W. Kamarck

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Objective: Racial discrimination is a common experience for African Americans, but no research has examined how discrimination reported in daily-life moments influences concurrent negative emotions and psychosocial resources. Method: Emerging adult African Americans (N = 54) reported hourly on momentary racial discrimination, negative emotions, and psychosocial resources across two days. Results: Controlling for past discrimination and trait emotion, momentary racial discrimination was associated with greater negative emotions and lower psychosocial resources (ps < .05). The relationship between momentary racial discrimination and negative emotions was stronger among individuals residing in areas with fewer African Americans (simple slope p < .0001). The relationship between momentary racial discrimination and psychosocial resources was stronger among individuals reporting greater past discrimination (simple slope p < .0001). Vicarious discrimination (exposure to discrimination experienced by another person) was associated with higher negative emotions, p < .01, but not with psychosocial resources. Conclusion: These results are the first to demonstrate that personal and vicarious racial discrimination are associated with negative emotions and lower coping resources …

Descriptive Norms And Prototypes Predict Covid-19 Prevention Cognitions And Behaviors In The United States: Applying The Prototype Willingness Model To Pandemic Mitigation, Laurel M. Peterson, Marie Helweg-Larsen, Sarah Dimuccio

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Background

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, prevention behavior adoption occurred in a rapidly changing context. In contrast to expectancy-value theories, the Prototype Willingness Model (PWM) is well-suited for investigating novel and socially informed behaviors. Purpose

We explored whether PWM social cognitions predicted coronavirus prevention behaviors. Method

A representative sample of United States adults (N = 738; M_age = 46.8; 51.8% women; 78% white; April 2020) who had not had COVID-19 reported PWM predictor variables (perceived vulnerability, prevention descriptive norms, prototypes engaging in prevention behavior, and prevention behavioral intentions). Two weeks later, participants reported their prevention behaviors (handwashing, mask-wearing, social …

Surgical Management Of Complex Post-Tuberculous Kyphosis Among African Patients: Clinical And Radiographic Outcomes For A Consecutive Series Treated At A Single Institution In West Africa, Ali M. Maziad, Owoicho Adogwa, Henry Ofori Duah, Kawdwo P. Yankey, Derrick Nyantakyi Owusu, Arthur Sackeyfio, Mabel Adobea Owiredu, Tyler Wilps, Gerhard Ofori-Amankwah, Franklin Coleman, Harry Akoto, Irene Wulff, Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, Focos Spine Research Group

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Study design Retrospective review of consecutive series. Objective To assess the clinical and radiographic outcomes after surgical management of post-tuberculous kyphosis. Summary of background data Post-tuberculous (TB) kyphosis can lead to progressive pulmonary and neurological deterioration. Surgery is indicated to decompress neural elements and correct the spine deformity. Although posterior vertebral column resection (PVCR) has been established as the treatment of choice for severe TB kyphosis, there is paucity of studies on the clinical outcomes among patients treated in West Africa. Methods Clinical and radiographic data of 57 patients (pts) who underwent surgical correction of post-TB kyphosis at a single …

When Pandemics Collide: The Impact Of Covid-19 On Childhood Obesity, Nancy T. Browne, Julia A. Snethen, Cindy Smith Greenberg, Marilyn Frenn, Jill F. Kilanowsky, Bonnie Gance-Cleveland, Pamela J. Burke, Linda Lewandowski

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

• Children with obesity face increased biopsychosocial risks during COVID-19.

• Stress exacerbates inflammation and immune response in obesity and COVID-19.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly interrupted children's daily routines.

• The health effects of the obesogenic environment are exacerbated by COVID-19.

• Access to timely, comprehensive healthcare is critical during COVID-19.

“No Queremos Quedar Mal”: A Qualitative Analysis Of A Boundary Setting Training Among Latina Community Health Workers., Luis R. Alvarez-Hernandez, J. Maria Bermudez, Pamela Orpinas, Rebecca Matthew, Alejandra Calva, Carolina Darbis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Community health workers (CHWs)—or promotoras de salud in Spanish—have successfully addressed the health needs of Latinx and immigrant populations. However, for promotoras, setting boundaries is particularly difficult given challenges like residing in the same communities as their participants. The purpose of this study was to describe the development and impact of a boundary setting training to support the emotional well-being of immigrant promotoras. The training (four 1-hr sessions) was informed by social cognitive theory and a Chicana feminist framework. The promotoras who participated in the training helped create Lazos Hispanos, a community-based participatory research (CBPR) study and CHW …

Computer-Assisted Challenge Point Intervention For Residual Speech Errors., Tara Mc Allister Byun, Elaine R. Hitchcock, Jose Ortiz

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose: This preliminary case series investigated the effects of biofeedback intervention for residual rhotic errors delivered within a modified challenge point framework. In the challenge point framework, practice difficulty is adaptively adjusted with the goal of enhancing generalization learning. This study more specifically evaluated the feasibility of a computer-mediated implementation of challenge point treatment for rhotic errors using a custom open-source software, the Challenge Point Program.

Method: Participants were five native English speakers, ages 7;3–15;5 (years; months), who had established but not generalized correct rhotic production in previous treatment; overall treatment duration was flexible. Treatment incorporated either electropalatographic …

Matters Of Biocybersecurity With Consideration To Propaganda Outlets And Biological Agents, Xavier-Lewis Palmer, Ernestine Powell, Lucas Potter, Thaddeus Eze (Ed.), Lee Speakman (Ed.), Cyril Onwubiko (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The modern era holds vast modalities in human data utilization. Within Biocybersecurity (BCS), categories of biological information, especially medical information transmitted online, can be viewed as pathways to destabilize organizations. Therefore, analysis of how the public, along with medical providers, process such data, and the methods by which false information, particularly propaganda, can be used to upset the flow of verified information to populations of medical professionals, is important for maintenance of public health. Herein, we discuss some interplay of BCS within the scope of propaganda and considerations for navigating the field.

Toward An Interactive, Patient-Specific, Vr-Based Obstetrics Simulator, Michel A. Audette, Marco Parente, Dulce Oliveira, Sreekanth Arikatla, Alfred Abuhamad, Rumit Singh Kakar, Mark Scerbo, Lucia Tabacu, John Conery, Christopher Macgowan, Renato Natal Jorge

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a nascent collaborative effort to achieve a Virtual Reality (VR)-based, real-time, haptics-driven patient-specific obstetrics simulator. The high-level architecture and preliminary results are presented here; the latter are based on offline birthing simulation developed by team in conjunction with open-source visualization tools. The cornerstones of this simulator will be high-fidelity generic offline birthing simulation, an anatomy-to-image nonrigid registration pipeline exploiting fetal MRI, the open-source interactive medical simulation toolkit IMSTK augmented by high-throughput deep learning-based soft tissue deformation, open-source musculoskeletal dynamics simulation platform SimTk for representing fetal motion. The initial emphasis will be on shoulder dystocia. The two main …

Complicity And Lesser Evils: A Tale Of Two Lawyers, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Government lawyers and other public officials sometimes face an excruciating moral dilemma: to stay on the job or to quit, when the government is one they find morally abhorrent. Staying may make them complicit in evil policies; it also runs the danger of inuring them to wrongdoing, just as their presence on the job helps inure others. At the same time, staying may be their only opportunity to mitigate those policies – to make evils into lesser evils – and to uphold the rule of law when it is under assault. This Article explores that dilemma in a stark form: …

Hannah Arendt Meets Qanon: Conspiracy, Ideology, And The Collapse Of Common Sense, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A June 2020 survey found one in four Americans agreeing that “powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak.” In fall 2020, seven percent said they believe the elaborate and grotesque mythology of QAnon; another eleven percent were unsure whether they believe it. November and December 2020 found tens of millions of Americans believing in election-theft plots that would require superhuman levels of coordination and secrecy among dozens, perhaps hundreds, of otherwise-unconnected and unidentified miscreants.

Conspiracy theories are nothing new, and they raise a question that preoccupied Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism: whatever happened to common sense? Arendt …

Characterizations Of Student, Instructor, And Textbook Discourse Related To Basis And Change Of Basis In Quantum Mechanics, Kaitlyn Stephens Serbin, Megan Wawro, Rebecah Storms

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Communities develop social languages in which utterances take on culturally specific situated meanings. As physics students interact in their classroom, they can learn the broader physics community’s social language by co-constructing meanings with their instructors. We provide an exposition of a systematic and productive use of idiosyncratic, socially acquired language in two classroom communities that we consider to be subcultures of the broader community of physicists. We perform a discourse analysis on twelve quantum mechanics students, two instructors, and the course text related to statements about basis and change of basis within a spin-½ probability problem. We classify the utterances’ …