Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

The Scientific Study Of Positive Psychology, Religion/Spirituality, And Physical Health, Kevin S. Masters, Julia K. Boehm, Jennifer M. Boylan, Kaitlyn M. Vagnini, Christina L. Rush

Psychology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Humans have long been interested in relations among religion/spirituality (R/S), positive psychological constructs, and physical health. Furthermore, many religions attempt to influence behavior through health-related prescriptions about food choices, sexual activity, substance use, and resting. Similarly, positive psychological constructs have been discussed in light of their presumed benefits on both mental and physical health (Ryff & Singer, 1998). However, R/S and positive psychological constructs have only recently become objects of scientific investigation of their associations with physical health.

Toward A New Approach To Job-Related Distress: A Three-Sample Study Of The Occupational Depression Inventory, Renzo Bianchi, James Sowden, Jay Verkuilen, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) was recently developed to assess depressive symptoms that individuals specifically attribute to their work. One purpose of the ODI is to respond to limitations of current assessments of job-related distress, most notably, assessments relying on the burnout construct. In this study, we conducted a thorough examination of the psychometric and structural properties of the ODI using exploratory structural equation modelling bifactor analysis and Mokken scale analysis. The study involved three samples of employed individuals, recruited in France (N = 3454), Switzerland (N = 1971), and Australia (N = 1485). Results were consistent across the three …

Illness Stigma, Social Connectedness, And Health In People Living With Chronic Illness: A Structural Equation Model, Abigail Brooke Crawford

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The complexity of chronic or unexplained conditions may lead to potential stigma for those suffering long-term symptoms as they do not follow the expected pattern of recovery following diagnosis and treatment. Experiencing such illness-related stigma has potential for leading to a belongingness identity of detachment with implications for health across physical, social, and psychological dimensions. This study aimed to examine the relationship between stigma, social connection, mental health, physical health, and social functioning in a group of 231 participants with ongoing symptoms of chronic illness through structural equation modeling. The fit indices all suggest that the model reasonably fits the …

Mental Health Benefits Of Physical Activity In Older Adults, Adrian Kurt Zitzmann

Master of Science in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner

Physical activity is the fountain of youth, strengthening both the physical body as well as the mind, leading to better emotional stability and a general sense of well-being. The population over age 65 is nearing retirement age and are transitioning from a high paced work and family life to a slower and less active “empty nest” lifestyle. Among adults over age 65, will implementing an exercise program for 30 minutes per day increase mental well-being? The benefits of physical activity will be supported by gathering a group of older adults ages 65 and up from a local retirement community to …

Distress In The Workplace: Characterizing The Relationship Of Burnout Measures To The Occupational Depression Inventory, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Renzo Bianchi

Publications and Research

Burnout has been found to problematically overlap with depression. However, the generalizability of this finding remains disputed. This study examined burnout–depression overlap using the recently developed Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) and two burnout measures, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). The study involved two teacher samples employed in France (N = 1,450) and New Zealand (N = 492). We found the correlations of the ODI with (a) the MBI’s emotional exhaustion (EE) subscale and (b) the CBI to reach .80. An explanation of these high correlations based on content overlap in fatigue-related items was ruled …

Lifestyle Choices Related To Food Consumption And Their Relationship To Depression, Steven L. Jennings Jr.

Dissertations

Dieting, or the act of restricting oneself to small amounts or particular kinds of foods on the basis of health, spirituality, lifestyle, and moral decisions, is a practice that dates to 1066 A.D. However, with social media being as influential as it is, one might believe dieting is a new obsession or at least an obsession to which popular culture is returning. Despite this, it is only in recent years that researchers have begun to focus on the health benefits of such behaviors. The present study was designed to take this focus a step further by exploring the potential risks …

The Social Determinants Of Ideal Cardiovascular Health: A Global Systematic Review, Farah Qureshi, Kelb Bousquet-Santos, Sakurako S. Okuzono, Elaine Tsao, Scott Delaney, Anne-Josie Guimond, Julia K. Boehm, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

This systematic review synthesizes research published from January 2010-July 2022 on the social determinants of ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) carried out around the world and compares trends in high-income countries (HICs) to those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 41 studies met inclusion criteria (n = 28 HICs, n = 13 LMICs). Most were from the United States (n = 22) and cross-sectional (n = 33), and nearly all evaluated associations among adults. Among studies conducted in LMICs, nearly all were from middle-income countries and only one was carried out in low-income country. Education (n = …

Possible Gender Differences In The Level Of Perceived Social Support In Couples Who Are Experiencing Issues With Infertility., Maya Pinzon, Shawna Rotoli

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

Objective The purpose of this study is to examine whether there are gender differences in the level of perceived social support in couples experiencing issues with fertility. Methods A total of 938 participants aged 18-47 years, with self-reported issues of infertility, were evaluated using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) which comprises three subscales which correspond with distinct sources of social support: significant other (SO), family, and friends. Differences between sexes for total score and for all subscale scores were subsequently analyzed using SPSS Statistics (IBM Corp, Armonk, USA). Results Mean total scores and scores on all subscales …

Post Covid-19 Cognitive Impairment In A Patient With Bipolar Disorder, Nilanjana Dutta, Raghav Gupta, Dr. M Kishor Mbbs, Md

Digital Journal of Clinical Medicine

COVID-19 has caused widespread health conditions, psychological and social distress among people and there is evidence that shows profound neuropsychiatric complications during acute and post-recovery phases of the infection. Cognitive impairment occurring after COVID-19 infection can be explained by various mechanisms, including persistent systemic inflammation, direct viral invasion, alteration in the blood-brain barrier, and cerebrovascular endothelial injury.There are few studies that have explored the impact of COVID-19 on pre-existing psychiatric conditions. This case report highlights the temporal association of cognitive impairment with COVID-19 and the need for cognitive assessment and management in post-COVID-19 patients with pre-existing psychiatric conditions.

Burned-Out With Burnout? Insights From Historical Analysis, Renzo Bianchi, Katarzyna Wac, James Francis Sowden, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Fierce debates surround the conceptualization and measurement of job-related distress in occupational health science. The use of burnout as an index of job-related distress, though commonplace, has increasingly been called into question. In this paper, we first highlight foundational problems that undermine the burnout construct and its legacy measure, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Next, we report on advances in research on job-related distress that depart from the use of the burnout construct. Tracing the genesis of the burnout construct, we observe that (a) burnout’s definition was preestablished rather than derived from a rigorous research process and (b) the MBI …

Emergency Care For Youth Who Experience Suicidality And Identify As Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer/Questioning (Lgbtq+): An Interpretive Phenomenology, Theresa Schultz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Suicide is a leading cause of death in children; youth who identify as LGBTQ+ are at an exponentially higher risk of suicide. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of young adults who identify as LGBTQ+ and sought emergency care for suicidality when they were adolescents.

Methods: Heideggerian hermeneutics phenomenology is the research method used in this study. Youth, ages 18-25 years, who identify as LGBTQ+ and sought emergency treatment for suicidality when they were adolescents (13-17 years) were recruited to participate;fifteen youth enrolled. Individuals ranged in age from 20 to 25 years. Participants described …

Is The Phq-9 A Unidimensional Measure Of Depression? A 58,272-Participant Study, Renzo Bianchi, Jay Verkuilen, Sharon Toker, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Markus Gerber, Elmar Brähler, Kurt Kroenke

Publications and Research

The PHQ-9 has become a measure of reference in depression research and clinical practice. However, the issue of the PHQ-9’s unidimensionality has not been fully elucidated, and the usability of the PHQ-9’s total score requires clarification. In this study, we examined the dimensionality, scalability, and monotonicity properties of the PHQ-9 as well as the scale’s total-score reliability. We did so based on exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) bifactor analysis and Mokken scale analysis (MSA). We relied on a total of 58,272 participants (63% female; Mage = 43, SDage = 13) from 29 samples involving seven different countries (e.g., Germany, the …

Toward Holistic Mental Wellness: A Literature Review Of Mindfulness-Based And Focusing-Oriented Art Therapies, Lesley Vernon

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Modern day living, for all its benefits, is synonymous with record levels of stress. The mental health clinician’s role is to assist clients in accessing the skills and tools necessary to reduce and alleviate the symptoms of stress-induced anxiety. Mindfulness is emerging as a potent and effective tool to restore one’s state of well-being. Likewise, engaging in art therapy has been shown to reduce stress and foster resilience. Grounded in humanistic and existential theories, this literature review aimed to assess the impact and effectiveness of two intermodal holistic therapies, specifically mindfulness-based art therapy (MBAT) and focusing-oriented art therapy (FOAT). A …

Reflective Journaling Intervention To Impact Self-Awareness, Professional Health, And Overall Well-Being In Nurses, Brittany M. Langan, Katherine Keppen

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects: College of Nursing

Background. Burnout among nurses has been on the rise and was exacerbated with the pandemic. Reflective journaling after work may be a strategy to decrease feelings of burnout. Reflective journaling, as an intervention, has been shown to improve self-awareness, compassion fatigue, and burnout among nurses. The purpose of this study was to pilot a 4-week reflective journaling intervention in hospital-based nurses and describe participant professional quality of life, self-awareness, and overall well-being.

Theoretical Framework. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) was chosen as the theoretical framework because it identifies the belief that performing a particular behavior will lead to a …

Acute Stress Disorder: Incidence Findings And Diagnostic Implications For U.S. Active Duty Service Members, Michael A. Schlenk

Symposium of Student Scholars

Acute stress disorder (ASD) is a psychiatric diagnosis that can occur between three days and one month following traumatic events such as injuries, violence, and/or experienced or threatened harm (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). ASD has long been utilized as a predictor of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, literature examining ASD elucidates that predication of subsequent PTSD is not as reliable as once thought (Bonnano et al., 2012; Bryant, 2018). Further, there is a dearth of empirical literature examining ASD among active duty service members (SMs). As such, the present study sought to provide epidemiological data by …

Obesogenic Environments And Cardiovascular Disease: A Path Analysis Using Us Nationally Representative Data, Fangqi Guo, Georgiana Bostean, Vincent Berardi, Alfredo J. Velasquez, Jennifer W. Robinette

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction

People living in obesogenic environments, with limited access to healthful food outlets and exercise facilities, generally have poor health. Previous research suggests that behavioral risk factors and indicators of physiological functioning may mediate this link; however, no studies to date have had the requisite data to investigate multi-level behavioral and physiological risk factors simultaneously. The present study conducted serial and parallel mediation analyses to examine behavioral and physiological pathways explaining the association between environmental obesogenicity and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods

This cross-sectional observational study used data from the 2012–2016 Health and Retirement Study, a representative survey of US older …

Occupational Depression In A Spanish-Speaking Sample: Associations With Cognitive Performance And Work-Life Characteristics, Bianchi Renzo, Guadalupe Manzano García, Maria Pilar Montanes, Emily A. Schonfeld, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

This 386-participant study investigated the structural and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI). Exploratory structural equation modeling bifactor analysis revealed that the ODI meets the requirements for essential unidimensionality. Measurement invariance held across our sample and the English- and French-speaking samples used in the ODI’s initial validation study. Mokken scale analysis indicated that (a) the scalability of the instrument was strong, (b) no violations of monotonicity or local independence were present, and (c) invariant item ordering was sufficiently accurate. The ODI’s reliability was optimal. The ODI exhibited both convergent validity and discriminant validity vis-à-vis …

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

Publications and Research

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

Understanding Queer Women’S Satisfaction With Healthcare Providers: The Role Of Positive Lgb Identity And Communication, Maddie Luebe

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Much research has explored the negative effects of having a queer identity in healthcare, such as stigmatization and discrimination, but little research examined the potential benefits of a positive LGBTQ identity in healthcare. This study investigated the relationship between having a positive LGBTQ identity and provider satisfaction through comfort communicating with a provider. This study also considered the potential effect of participants’ fear of provider heterosexism in this relationship. Survey data were collected from 506 queer-identified women in the United States. Using moderated mediation, results found that more positive feelings associated with one’s queer identity was associated with increased comfort …

Intergenerational Risk And Resilience Pathways From Discrimination And Acculturative Stress To Infant Mental Health, Sabrina R. Liu, Curt A. Sandman, Elyssia Poggi Davis, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Preconception and prenatal stress impact fetal and infant development, and women of color are disproportionately exposed to sociocultural stressors like discrimination and acculturative stress. However, few studies examine links between mothers’ exposure to these stressors and offspring mental health, or possible mitigating factors. Using linear regression, we tested associations between prenatally assessed maternal acculturative stress and discrimination on infant negative emotionality among 113 Latinx/Hispanic, Asian American, Black, and Multiethnic mothers and their children. Additionally, we tested interactions between stressors and potential pre- and postnatal resilience-promoting factors: community cohesion, social support, communalism, and parenting self-efficacy. Discrimination and acculturative stress were related …

Optimism And Lipid Profiles In Midlife: A 15-Year Study Of Black And White Adults, Farah Qureshi, Jackie Soo, Ying Chen, Brita Roy, Donald Lloyd-Jones, Laura D. Kubzansky, Julia K. Boehm

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction

Optimism is associated with better cardiovascular health, yet little is known about the underlying mechanisms and whether protective relationships are consistently observed across diverse groups. This study examines optimism's association with lipid profiles over time and separately among Black and White men and women.

Methods

Data were from 3,206 middle-aged adults in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study. Optimism was measured in 2000–2001 using the Revised Life Orientation Test. Triglyceride, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol measurements were obtained at 5-year intervals through 2015–2016. Linear mixed models evaluated relationships between optimism and …

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.

The Mystical Exodus In Jungian Perspective: Transforming Trauma And The Wellsprings Of Renewal, B. Les Lancaster

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Role Of Spiritual Intelligence And Differentiation In Predicting Marital Adjustment Of Married Iranian Students, Sedigheh Ahmadi, Richard H. Morley, Faezeh Ghalebi, Hossein Ilanloo, Christine D. Nguyen

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of spiritual intelligence and differentiation in predicting marital adjustment of Iranian students. The participants of this study were 312 married students from Yazd University. The instruments used in this study were the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) to measure marital adjustment, Differentiation of Self- Inventory, and the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI). The results of the study demonstrated that spiritual intelligence predicted the marital adjustment of married students (p

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 …

Eliciting Awe In The Spectator: The Case Of A Dhrupad-Based Dance Performance, Santarpia Alfonso, Andrée Martin, Armando Menicacci, Pierre De Olivieira, Daniel Lemieux, Laurence Éthier, Caroline Charbonneau, Bruno Pucella, Christophe Flambard, Les Frères Gundecha, Louis-Charles Lusignan, Alice Bourgasser, Élizabeth-Anne Dorléans, Ariane Dubé-Lavigne, Angélique Poulin

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This paper describes “Kalos, eîdos, skopeîn,” an immersive Dhrupad-based dance installation designed to elicit feelings of awe in the spectators, in a real-life artistic context. This study used a mixed-methods approach in order to explore spectators’ awe experience (N=45), using specific scales and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results suggested that “Kalos, eîdos, skopeîn,” with its combination of nature motifs and the slow dance-walk associated with the Dhrupad music in the choreography, was able to produce awe-related moments in some spectators and inspire a degree of positive emotions. Our qualitative results viewed awe explicitly as a positive emotion and showed that generally …

How Perception Meets Hermeneutics: An Empirical Investigation Of Tasseography, Elizabeth Avetisian

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Tasseography is a divination method to provide insight about the seeker’s past, present, or future life by interpreting patterns in the dregs of a liquid. Although it has been practiced with coffee throughout Europe and Middle East, particularly among women, no known studies exist on the seer’s perceptual process of the ambiguous patterns or how the roles of the seeker and seer, symbols, ritual, and cultural epistemology shape the divinatory hermeneutics. This study focused on the Armenian coffee divination ritual, asking what are the processes and conditions that enable experienced cup readers to obtain divinatory insight in tasseography? Two seekers …