Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Environment Of Child Maltreatment: Contextual Factors And The Development Of Psychopathology, Debra B. Hecht, David J. Hansen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Some professionals have hypothesized that the observed problems in children who have been maltreated may actually be a result of the combination of risk factors surrounding the child, including but not limited to direct results of the abuse itself. This article examines the complexity of hypothesized pathways to poor adjustment after physical and sexual abuse. The literature on the impact of major risk factors associated with maltreatment is reviewed in an attempt to clarify the potential contributions of these contextual variables on the development of psychopathology in physically and sexually abused children. The implications this analysis may yield for prevention, …

Participant Responses To Retrospective Surveys Of Child Maltreatment: Does Mode Of Assessment Matter? , David Dilillo, Sarah Degue, Amanda Kras, Andrea R. Di Loreto-Colgan, Cindy Nash

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study examines the impact that different methods of assessing child maltreatment history may have on adult participants. A total of 334 female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to complete a retrospective measure of child sexual and physical abuse in one of three conditions: paper-and-pencil questionnaire, face-to-face interview, or computer-administered survey. Disclosure rates of abuse, psychological distress and mood change, preferences for assessment format, and perceptions of confi dentiality were examined across the three assessment formats. Although disclosure did not vary by condition, participants with a history of abuse reported more distress and mood change than did nonvictims, particularly in …

Effect Of Nicotine On Negative Affect Among More Impulsive Smokers, Neal Doran, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Bonnie Springs, Joe Vanderveen, Jessica Werth Cook, Malia Richmond

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In the present study, the authors tested the hypothesis that nicotine would provide greater relief from negative affect for more impulsive smokers than for less impulsive smokers. Euthymic adult smokers (N = 70) participated in 2 laboratory sessions, during which they underwent a negative mood induction (music x autobiographical memory), then smoked either a nicotinized or de-nicotinized cigarette. Mixed-effects regression yielded a significant Impulsivity x Condition (nicotinized vs. de-nicotinized) x Time interaction. Simple effects analyses showed that heightened impulsivity predicted greater negative affect relief after smoking a nicotinized cigarette but not after smoking a de-nicotinized cigarette. These data suggest …

Adolescent Perceptions Of Appropriate Parental Reactions In Moral And Conventional Social Domains, Laura M. Padilla-Walker, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Research suggests that adolescents’ ratings of the appropriateness of parental reactions are influenced by several constructs, including adolescents’ perceptions of the type of parental reaction, the emotions felt by the adolescent and parental intentions. However, little is known regarding how these constructs are differentially predictive of appropriateness in different socialization contexts. One hundred and twenty-two adolescents (mean age = 16.87 years) answered questions regarding past situations in antisocial and prosocial contexts, and in moral and conventional domains. Different parental reactions were reported across moral and conventional domains. In addition, the appropriateness of parental responses varied across domain. Namely, in antisocial …

Elevated Positive Mood: A Mixed Blessing For Abstinence, Neal Doran, Bonnie Spring, Belinda Borrelli, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Brian Hitsman, Raymond Niaura, Donald Hedecker

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study, a secondary analysis of published data (B. Hitsman et al., 1999), assessed (a) the influence of initial positive mood (PM) on smoking cessation and (b) whether smokers low in PM benefited from fluoxetine versus placebo for cessation. Euthymic adult smokers (N = 103) received 10 weeks of cessation treatment. Analyses showed a Time x PM interaction, indicating that higher baseline PM predicted decreased abstinence during treatment but increased abstinence afterward, mediated by time to dropout. Dichotomous initial PM interacted with drug, suggesting a benefit of fluoxetine for low-PM smokers. Results indicate that lower pretreatment PM may …

Mean Length Of Utterance In Children With Specific Language Impairment And In Younger Control Children Shows Concurrent Validity And Stable And Parallel Growth Trajectories, Mabel L. Rice, Sean M. Redmond, Lesa Hoffman

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Purpose: Although mean length of utterance (MLU) is a useful benchmark in studies of children with specific language impairment (SLI), some empirical and interpretive issues are unresolved. The authors report on 2 studies examining, respectively, the concurrent validity and temporal stability of MLU equivalency between children with SLI and typically developing children. Method: Study 1 used 124 archival conversational samples consisting of 39 children with SLI (age 5;0 [years;months]), 40 MLU-equivalent typically developing children (age 3;0), and 45 age-equivalent controls. Concurrent validity of MLU matches was examined by considering the correspondence between MLU and developmental sentence scoring (DSS), …

Characteristics Of Staff-Patient Interactions On A Behavioral Treatment Unit For Patients With Serious Mental Illness, And The Effects Of A Behavior Management Training Program On Staff Performance, Lindsay S. Schenkel

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Despite the existence of effective psychological interventions for people diagnosed with schizophrenia, these continue to be underutilized. This problem is most critical in the case of so called “treatment-refractory” patients, where, paradoxically, effective interventions with among the strongest evidence base in psychiatry exist – namely – inpatient social-learning-based rehabilitation programs. Barriers to implementation and effective maintenance of such programs include a low frequency of staff-patient interactions and a relatively high frequency of non-therapeutic staff behaviors, lack of staff training and background in behavioral treatment, negative attitudes towards behavioral interventions, and tension between professional disciplines. This study examined the nature and …

Early Predictors Of Self-Regulation In Middle Childhood, Rebecca A. Colman, Sam A. Hardy, Myesha Albert, Marcela Raffaelli, Lisa J. Crockett

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study examined the contribution of caregiving practices at ages 4–5 (Time 1) to children’s capacity for self regulation at ages 8–9 (Time 2). The multiethnic sample comprised 549 children of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) participants. High levels of maternal warmth and low levels of physically punitive discipline at Time 1 were associated with a greater capacity for self-regulation at Time 2. These associations remained significant once initial levels of self-regulation were taken into account, indicating that the development of self-regulation is open to caregiver infl uence during childhood. Neither child gender nor ethnicity moderated the effects …

Sensitivity Of The Anxiety Disorder Interview Schedule Iv In Detecting Potentially Traumatic Childhood Maltreatment, David Dilillo, Sarah A. Hayes, Debra A. Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study examined the sensitivity of the Anxiety Disorder Interview Schedule IV (ADIS-IV) in detecting potentially traumatic childhood abuse experiences in a sample of 50 consecutive adult anxiety disorder patients. Of 13 patients who reported traumatic childhood maltreatment experiences using a behaviorally specific abuse history questionnaire, seven failed to report these experiences during the ADIS-IV interview (a sensitivity of 46%). Findings suggest that the two omnibus gating questions on the ADIS-IV may be insufficient in capturing exposure to certain traumatic events, as stipulated by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual diagnostic criteria for a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This potential …

Community Projects In A Senior Capstone Course, Linda J. Anooshian, Mary E. Pritchard

Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Working in groups, students in a senior-level capstone class completed service learning projects addressing specific needs of community agencies. Students were generally positive about the extent to which course objectives were met and assignments were valuable for their learning. Students were also generally positive about the value of service learning, indicating that the class helped them become more interested in solving community problems and that they gained a better understanding and appreciation of civic engagement.

Two Sides Of The Same Coin? The Relations Between Prosocial And Physically Aggressive Behaviors, Meredith Mcginley, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The direct and indirect relations between six types of prosocial behavior and physical aggression were examined. Data were gathered from 252 college students (M age = 21.67 years; 184 women) who completed measures of sympathy, prosocial behavior, and physical aggression. Structural equation modeling revealed that sympathy fully mediated the relations between compliant prosocial behaviors and physical aggression, and partially mediated the relations between altruism and physical aggression and public prosocial behaviors and physical aggression. The fi ndings suggest that the relations between prosocial behaviors and aggression are complex and that prosocial behavior should not be treated as a unitary construct.

A Pilot Study: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Sensation Seeking, And Pubertal Changes, Catherine A. Martin, Greg Guenthner, Christopher Bingcang, W. Jackson Smith, Thomas E. Curry, Hatim A. Omar, Mary Kay Rayens, Tom H. Kelly

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

This study was designed to examine the relationship of pubertal changes and sensation seeking (SS) in adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Patients with current or past histories of uncomplicated stimulant medication use for ADHD between the ages of 11 and 15 (13 ± 1.5) were recruited from a Child Psychiatry and a General Pediatric Clinic. SS was measured using the SS Scale for Children. Pubertal development was measured using Tanner staging, free testosterone, and DHEAS. Subjects and their parent were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC). SS total score was correlated with Tanner stage, free …

Early Predictors Of Sexual Behavior: Implications For Young Adolescents And Their Parents, Lisa D. Lieberman

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

The study provides empirical evidence of the independent contribution of nonsexual romantic relationships in the seventh grade to the onset of sexual intercourse by the ninth grade for both males and females. In addition, it shows that among females, seventh graders in serious relationships with older teenagers—uniquely defined as those two or more years older—have an increased likelihood of sex in the ninth grade. Finally, the study demonstrates that seventh graders of both genders who have had serious romantic relationships were already significantly different in the sixth grade from those who have not: They had peers who were more accepting …

Mugshot Exposure Effects: Retroactive Interference, Mugshot Commitment, Source Confusion, And Unconscious Transference, Kenneth A. Deffenbacher, Brian H. Bornstein, Steven D. Penrod

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

More than 25 years of research has accumulated concerning the possible biasing effects of mugshot exposure to eyewitnesses. Two separate metaanalyses were conducted on 32 independent tests of the hypothesis that prior mugshot exposure decreases witness accuracy at a subsequent lineup. Mugshot exposure both significantly decreased proportion correct and increased the false alarm rate, the effect being greater on false alarms. A mugshot commitment effect, arising from the identification of someone in a mugshot, was a substantial moderator of both these effects. Simple retroactive interference, where the target person is not included among mugshots and no one in a mugshot …

Emotion And The Law: A Framework For Inquiry, Richard L. Wiener, Brian H. Bornstein, Amy Voss

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This paper draws on research in social and cognitive psychology to show how theories of judgment and decision making that incorporate decision makers’ affective responses apply to legal contexts. It takes 2 widely used models of decision making, the rational actor and lens models, and illustrates their utility for understanding legal judgments by using them to interpret research findings on juror decision making, people’s obedience to the law (e.g., paying taxes), and eyewitness memory. The paper concludes with a discussion of the advantages of modifying existing approaches to information processing to include the influence of affect on how legal actors …

Rats’ Novel Object Interaction As A Measure Of Environmental Familiarity, Jamie L. Wilkinson, Laura Herrman, Matthew I. Palmatier, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Environmental familiarization is a learning phenomenon embedded within most tasks used to study learning and motivation. Given its prevalence there is surprisingly little systematic behavioral research on factors affecting familiarization. The six experiments reported in the present report used rats’ tendency to interact more with a novel object in a familiar than in a novel environment as a measure of environmental familiarization. We found that 3 min of exposure to the environment was sufficient to increase object interaction above unfamiliar controls even when testing occurred up to 48 h after initial exposure to the environment; 1 or 1.5 min of …

A Randomized Trial Of A Multicomponent Home Intervention To Reduce Functional Difficulties In Older Adults, Laura N. Gitlin, Laraine Winter, Marie P. Dennis, Mary Corcoran, Walter W. Hauck

Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health Research Papers

OBJECTIVES: To test the efficacy of a multicomponent intervention to reduce functional difficulties, fear of falling, and home hazards and enhance self-efficacy and adaptive coping in older adults with chronic conditions.

DESIGN: A prospective, two-group, randomized trial. Participants were randomized to a treatment group or no-treatment group.

SETTING: Urban community-living older people.

PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred nineteen community-living adults aged 70 and older who reported difficulty with one or more activities of daily living.

INTERVENTION: Occupational and physical therapy sessions involving home modifications and training in their use; instruction in strategies of problem-solving, energy conservation, safe performance, and fall recovery techniques; …

Early-Onset Bipolar Disorder: The Relationship Between Symptoms And Family Functioning, Meryl Yoches

Psychology Honors Papers

The incidence, course, and diagnostic criteria of early-onset bipolar disorder are heavily debated within the psychological community. Although new research has solved some of the uncertainties about the disorder, questions remain about its course, presentation and specific features in childhood. The goal of this study was to evaluate the relationship between family functioning and symptom presentation. The cases of 406 children diagnosed with bipolar disorder were examined. The statistics suggest that not only are there differences in symptom presentation among bipolar type, sex and age, there are also differences in family functioning.

Data And Safety Monitoring In Social Behavioral Intervention Trials: The Reach Ii Experience, Sara J. Czaja, Richard Schulz, Steven H. Belle, Louis D. Burgio, Nell Armstrong, Laura N. Gitlin, David W. Coon, Jennifer Martindale-Adams, Julie Klinger, Sidney M. Stahl

Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health Research Papers

Background Psychosocial and behavioral interventions trials targeting a broad range of complex social and behavioral problems such as smoking, obesity and family caregiving have proliferated in the past 30 years. At the same time the use of Data and Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMBs) to monitor the progress and quality of intervention trials and the safety of study participants has increased substantially. Most of the existing literature and guidelines for safety monitoring and reporting of adverse events focuses on medical interventions. Consequently, there is little guidance for investigators conducting social and behavior trials.

Purpose This paper summarizes how issues associated with …

Perinatal Loss: Its Challenge To Nurses And Educators, Catherine Overson

Inquiry Journal 2006

No abstract provided.

Forensic Interviewing In Child Sexual Abuse Cases: Current Techniques And Future Directions, Lindsay E. Cronch, Jodi L. Viljoen, David J. Hansen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In child sexual abuse cases, skillful forensic interviews are important to ensure the protection of innocent individuals and the conviction of perpetrators. Studies have examined several factors that influence disclosure during interviews, including both interviewer and child characteristics. Numerous interviewing techniques have received attention in the literature, including allegation blind interviews, open-ended questioning, cognitive interviewing, the Touch Survey, truth–lie discussions, and anatomical dolls. Recent studies have examined new directions in forensic interviewing, such as structured interview protocols and the extended forensic evaluation model. In addition, the child advocacy center model has been established as a strategy to prevent repeated interviewing. …

Toward A Formal Theory Of Flexible Spatial Behavior: Geometric Category Biases Generalize Across Pointing And Verbal Response Types, John P. Spencer, Vanessa R. Simmering, Anne R. Schutte

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Three experiments tested whether geometric biases—-biases away from perceived reference axes—-reported in spatial recall tasks with pointing responses generalized to a recognition task that required a verbal response. Seven-year-olds and adults remembered the location of a dot within a rectangle and then either reproduced its location or verbally selected a matching choice dot from a set of colored options. Results demonstrated that geometric biases generalized to verbal responses; however, the spatial span of the choice set influenced performance as well. These data suggest that the same spatial memory process gives rise to both response types in this task. Simulations of …

The Relation Between Parental Status And Alcohol Use Patterns And Attitudes About Underage Drinking, Mary Pritchard, Theodore W. Mcdonald

Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In a sample of 143 adults from a population of households in Idaho, significant differences in patterns of alcohol use and attitudes about underage drinking were found as a function of parental status. Non-parents reported drinking alcohol more frequently than parents. Parents were significantly more likely than non-parents to report that it is never acceptable for minors to drink alcohol, that minors should not be allowed to drink alcohol at parties with no parents present, and that “sting” operations by police are warranted. Surprisingly, non-parents were significantly more likely than parents to that report stores and bars are not careful …

Lnteroceptive Pavlovian Conditioning With Nicotine As The Conditional Stimulus Varies As A Function Of The Number Of Conditioning Trials And Unpaired Sucrose Deliveries, Jamie L. Wilkinson, Jennifer E. Murray, Chia Li, Steven M. Wiltgen, Rachel D. Penrod, Sarah A. Berg, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In rats, the pharmacological (interoceptive) effects of nicotine can serve as a signal (conditional stimulus) in a Pavlovian (classical) conditioning task. In this task, nicotine administration (0.4 mg base/kg, subcutaneous) is typically paired with intermittent access to a liquid sucrose unconditional stimulus; sucrose is withheld on saline sessions. An increase in sucrose receptacle entries (goal tracking) on nicotine sessions indicates conditioning. Given our limited understanding of the functional relationships controlling conditioned responding to a nicotine conditional stimulus, the present research examined nicotine's sensitivity to several manipulations shown to affect the conditioned responding in more widely studied Pavlovian conditioning tasks that …

Psychological Profiles And Adolescent Adjustment: A Person-Centered Approach, Lisa J. Crockett, Kristin L. Moilanen, Marcela Raffaelli, Brandy A. Randall

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The association between young adolescents' psychological profiles and their subsequent adjustment was examined in a sample of 606 adolescents (ages 12-13) drawn from the mother-child data set of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Cluster analysis was used to identify distinct groups of youth based on self-regulation, proneness to risk, self-worth, and perceived academic competence. Five replicable clusters were identified corresponding to optimal, average, behavioral risk, low self-regulation, and emotional risk groups. These clusters were associated with distinct patterns of adjustment 4 years later. At ages 16-17, youth in the optimal group tended to report better academic performance, less problem …

Weekly Problems Scales: Instruments For Sexually Abused Youth And Their Nonoffending Parents In Treatment, Genelle K. Sawyer, Eugenia Hsu Tsao, David J. Hansen, Mary Fran Flood

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study’s purpose was to determine if efficient measures could be created to assess multiple problematic behaviors identified in youth who were sexually abused and in treatment. Because of the lack of easily administered brief instruments that assess multiple domains of interest in this population, complementary parent and child assessment measures were developed. The Weekly Problems Scale–Child Version (WPSC) and the Weekly Problems Scale–Parent Version (WPS-P) were created to monitor the weekly progress of the child and family in treatment and focus specifically on common areas of difficulties in this population. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to assist in identifying …

Naturally Occurring Changes In Time Spent Watching Television Are Inversely Related To Frequency Of Physical Activity During Early Adolescence, Robert W. Motl, Edward Mcauley, Amanda Birnbaum, Leslie A. Lytle

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

In this longitudinal study, we examined the relationship between changes in time spent watching television and playing video games with frequency of leisure-time physical activity across a 2-year period among adolescent boys and girls (N=4594" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: normal; font-size: 16.200000762939453px; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; position: relative;">). Latent growth modelling indicated that a decrease in time spent watching television was associated with an increase in frequency of leisure-time physical activity. That relationship was strong in magnitude …

Commentary: Community Partnered Research: Driving Sensemaking, Managing Knowledge, And Moving Mental Health Care To New Heights, Junius J. Gonzales, Carmen Moten

Publications from Provost Junius J. Gonzales

No abstract provided.

The Consistency Of False Suggestions Moderates Children’S Reports Of A Single Instance Of A Repeated Event: Predicting Increases And Decreases In Suggestibility, Kim Roberts, Martine B. Powell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Six- to 7-year-olds (N = 130) participated in classroom activities four times. The children were interviewed about the final occurrence (target event) either a week or a month later, during which half of the event items were inaccurately described. Half of these suggestions were consistent with the theme of the detail across the occurrences (e.g., always sat on a kind of floor mat) or were inconsistent (e.g., sat on a chair). When memory for the target event was tested a day later, children falsely recognized fewer inconsistent than consistent suggestions, especially compared to a control group of children who …

Historical Perspectives On Attitudes Concerning Death And Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Beliefs and practices concerning death have changed throughout human history. In pre-modern times, death at a young age was common due to living conditions and medical practices. As medical science has advanced and helped humans live longer, attitudes and responses to death also have changed. In modern Western societies, death is often ignored or feared. Changes in lifestyles and improved medical science have depersonalized death and made it an encroachment on life instead of part of life. This has left many people ill equipped to deal with death when it touches their lives.