Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

Aspergers Syndrome, Miquel K. Anastasi

Graduate Research Papers

Aspergers Syndrome has recently become a "popular" topic in the mental health fields. More and more school aged children are being formally diagnosed with the disorder. Yet, many professionals do not truly understand the nature of Aspergers syndrome beyond being a form of autism. In this paper Aspergers Syndrome is defined and compared with Autism and the causes and possible treatments are discussed, particularly from biological and sociocultural points of view.

Perceiving Pervasive Discrimination Over Time: Implications For Coping, Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study suggests the effects of perceived pervasiveness may be dynamic over time. The hypothesis was that participants who perceived discrimination to be highly pervasive would initially be more likely to engage in inactive coping strategies than those who perceived low pervasiveness. However, those who continued to perceive high pervasiveness over time would ultimately show greater evidence of using active strategies than those perceiving low pervasiveness. Using a 28-day diary, women and ethnic minorities described their daily experiences of discrimination and indicated their appraisals of its pervasiveness as well as their coping strategies. Results showed that participants who initially perceived …

The Dynamic Nature Of Coping With Gender Discrimination: Appraisals, Strategies And Well-Being Over Time, Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Female introductory psychology students at a Canadian university (N = 31) participated in a lab simulation of discrimination, completed coping and well-being measures and then an online survey of well-being one year later. Expectations were that active (inactive) coping would initially be related to decreased (increased) well-being. A reverse pattern was expected for relationships between coping and well-being one year later. Results showed that among those perceiving high pervasive discrimination, active and inactive coping was related to decreased well-being immediately after the discrimination was portrayed, but among those perceiving low pervasiveness inactive coping was related to increased well-being. One year …

School-Based Screening To Identify At-Risk Students Not Already Known To School Professionals: The Columbia Suicide Screen, Michelle A. Scott, Holly C. Wilcox, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Mark Davies, Roger C. Hicks, J. Blake Turner, David Shaffer

Publications and Research

Objectives.Wesought todeterminethedegreeofoverlapbetweenstudents identified through school-based suicide screening and those thought to be at risk by school administrative and clinical professionals. Methods. Students from7 high schools in theNewYorkmetropolitan area completed the Columbia Suicide Screen; 489 of the 1729 students screened had positive results. The clinical status of 641 students (73% of those who had screened positive and 23%of thosewho had screened negative) was assessedwithmodules from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children. School professionals nominated by their principal and unaware of students’ screening and diagnostic status were asked to indicate whether they were concerned about the emotional well-being of each participating student. …

Reactive Attachment Disorder, Kalen J. Espy

Graduate Research Papers

Reactive Attachment Disorder, or RAD, has several possible causes usually stemming from traumatic childhood events. The attachment disorders were initially explored in 1948 by John Bowlby which led to the attachment theory being established in the 1960's. Attachment is the bond a child makes with other human beings, allowing for a healthy emotional and psychological growth. Attachment is developed primarily from birth to two years of age and up to the age of five.

There are four attachment styles and four phases that a child must go through to develop a healthy attachment to a caregiver. A child who is …

Coherence, Complexity, And Information Flow: Self-Organizing Processes In Psychotherapy, David Pincus

Psychology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"This chapter is written in the spirit of optimism, suggesting that self-organization is just such a general theory that may assist in providing a deeper, scientifically grounded understanding of the complex biopsychosocial processes involved in psychotherapy. To provide some foundation to this rather grand suggestion, the following review rests on five more specific theoretical propositions stemming from self-organization theory... The analysis of these propositions begins with an integrative review of traditional theories of interpersonal process through the lens of nonlinear dynamical systems (NDS) and self-organization theory in particular. Next, the contemporary empirical and theoretical developments using NDS to understand psychotherapy …

Nonlinear Dynamics Of Infant Sitting Postural Control, Joan E. Deffeyes

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sitting is one of the first developmental milestones that an infant achieves. Thus measurements of sitting posture present an opportunity to assess sensorimotor development at a young age, in order to identify infants who might benefit from therapeutic intervention, and to monitor the efficacy of the intervention. Sitting postural sway data was collected using a force plate from infants with typical development, and from infants with delayed development, where the delay in development was due to cerebral palsy in most of the infants in the study. The center of pressure time series from the infant sitting was subjected to a …

Best Practices For Increasing Pro-Social Behavior In Adolescents With Mental Health And Behavioral Disorders, Danielle Armbrust-Malone

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Approximately 2 to 16 percent of the general population has a disruptive behavior disorder such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or conduct disorder (CD) (Corcoran & Walsh, 2006). In a school setting, youth with these disorders may engage in acts such as disrespecting teachers, swearing at others, threatening others, assaulting staff or students, stealing, or vandalizing property and may benefit from a day treatment program which provides mental health services in a school setting. (Whitfield, 1999). Micro intervention strategies such as cognitive behavioral therapy and contingency management and mezzo interventions such as family therapy have been used to treat disruptive …

Pretreatment Client Characteristics And Treatment Retention In An Intensive Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment Program, Shauna Elizabeth Fuller

Dissertations (1934 -)

The effectiveness and efficacy of substance abuse treatment is well established. At the same time, clients often prematurely drop out of substance abuse treatment, negatively impacting their chances of achieving favorable outcomes. Investigating variables associated with treatment retention has become increasingly important considering one of the most robust findings in substance abuse treatment outcome research is the positive relationship between the amount of time spent in treatment and post-treatment outcomes (e.g., decreased drug/alcohol use, decreased criminal activity, improved social functioning). This study examined the relationship between pre-treatment client characteristics and treatment drop-out among 273 adults who were admitted to intensive …

Developing Evidenced Based Practice For Social Emotional Screenings In Schools, Kim Anderson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The social problem being addressed through this project includes several challenges faced by our nation's schools, namely increasing numbers of disciplinary referrals, suspensions, and expulsions (Marchant, Anderson, Caldarella, Fisher, Young,Young, 2009). Further research states that "more and more children entering school are unprepared to learn, unable to cope with the social tasks involved in making friends and getting along with others, and unaware of their negative social effect on others," (Marchant et al., 2009, p.131). Only about 20% of children and adolescents with a psychiatric disorder in the United States receive any kind of mental health services (Fritz, 2007). Yet …

School Improvement Programs, Kimberly Barry

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Teachers face a growing number behavior challenges that effect the delivery of classroom instruction (Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice , n.d). This affects how the teacher teaches and how the other students learn. Disruptions in the classroom force teachers to direct their attention to that student resulting in less time teaching. School wide programs help school staff develop expectations for behavior and allows for a common language amongst all staff and students. There are many school wide programs that claim to make behaviors decrease. It can be very cumbersome and time consuming for schools to go through all of …

Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Electric Training Modules, Jennifer Stuehrenberg

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The South Central Crisis Center is a State Operated Services mental health facility in Mankato, Minnesota. The center is designed to offer people suffering an acute mental health episode, such as suicidal thoughts, or who need a medication adjustment or other psychiatric services, up to a few days in a safe, secure environment. The center accepts referrals from law enforcement, county or health care professionals in these participating counties: Blue Earth, Brown, Faribault, Freeborn, Le Sueur, Martin, Nicollet, Rice, Sibley and Watonwan. Recently, the program has been serving a larger amount of clients who have a diagnosis of Asperger’s Disorder …

A Study Of Possible Pre-Cognitive Advantages Of Bilingualism, Marisela Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Past research has suggested that second language acquisition has a beneficial effect on the development of inhibitory control processes in children and adults. This has been referred to as the "bilingual advantage" and is most commonly quantified using the Simon task. Whether the bilingual advantage extends to precognitive mechanisms has not yet been examined. The goals of this study were to examine the bilingual advantage in university students; and to examine whether the bilingual advantage extends to the precognitive filtering mechanism of sensorimotor gating. It was predicted that, as compared to monolinguals, bilingual university students would have greater inhibitory control, …

An Investigation Of The Knowledge And Beliefs Held By Teachers And Parents In A Parochial School System Regarding Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And The Variables That Predict Their Knowledge, Kendra-Lee Yvonne Pearman

Dissertations

Problem

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent childhood disorders affecting 3 to 5% of school populations in the United States and other countries. Due to the behavioral and/or academic challenges of children with ADHD, they are at risk for grade retention, dropping out of high school, and teenage delinquency, which can lead to negative consequences in society. Children with ADHD are found in every school setting, including parochial schools. Past studies have found teachers and parents have inadequate knowledge about ADHD, which can negatively affect these children. This study investigated what teachers and parents of children in …

Does Type Of Stimulus Influence Task-Irrelevant Evaluative Categorization Processes?, Guadalupe Corral

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The effect of stimulus type on task-irrelevant evaluative categorization was examined in two separate studies by using the P3 component from event-related brain potentials. The first study presented idiosyncratic stimuli consisting of individuals that were rated by participants as either positive or negative within sequences of pictorial and verbal stimuli. The second study presented sequences of novel and familiar stimuli consisting of previously normed unattractive and neutral individuals. It was hypothesized that pictures would elicit task-irrelevant evaluative categorization processes and so would novel stimuli (relative to words and familiar stimuli, respectively). Task-irrelevance was examined by assessing P3 peak amplitude to …

Educating Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisors: A Grounded Theory Study Of Supervisory Wisdom, Judith R. Ragsdale

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is an 80 year old education modality that provides professional education for students of pastoral care. Supervision is central to the CPE process. Pastoral supervisors in the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) have done little writing about their work educating Students in Supervisory Education (SSEs). The purpose of this dissertation is to identify and interview those practitioners in ACPE who have been identified by their peers as excellent in practice, and to cull their wisdom by listening to and categorizing their experience of supervising SSEs. The research question to the supervisors was: What is your …

A Search For Meaning: The Family’S Response To Serious Mental Illness, Katherine Marie Burrelsman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

It is a commonly held belief that it is inherent in human nature to strive for coherence and meaning in the midst of adversity. Whether this is short or long term, for immediate or prolonged functioning, we all strive to put experiences within events into a framework that enables us to develop a sense of order leading to acceptance and resolution. Therefore, each individual within a family system may develop a hypothesis in order to make a modicum of sense of what can appear to be an impossible situation. The participants involved in this study were individuals with relatives suffering …

Facilitation Of Learning Spatial Relations Among Goal Locations Does Not Require Visual Exposure To The Configuration Of Goal Locations, Bradley R. Sturz, Debbie M. Kelly, Michael F. Brown

Psychology: Faculty Presentations (2009-2022)

Human participants searched in a virtual-environment open-field search task for four hidden goal locations arranged in a diamond configuration located in a 5 x 5 matrix. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Pattern Only, Landmark + Pattern, or Cues + Pattern. All participants experienced a Training phase followed by a Testing phase. During Training, visual cues were coincident with goal locations for the Cues + Pattern group, and a single visual cue at a non-goal location maintained a consistent spatial relationship with the goal locations for the Landmark + Pattern group. All groups were then tested in …

The Tactile Motion Aftereffect, Peggy Joanne Planetta

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The tactile motion aftereffect (tMAE) is a perceptual phenomenon in which illusory motion is reported following adaptation to a unidirectionally moving tactile stimulus. Unlike its visual counterpart, relatively little is known about the tMAE. For that reason, the purpose of this dissertation was to gain a better understanding of the tMAE using both psychophysical and neuroimaging techniques. In a series of five experiments the skin was adapted using a plastic cylinder with a square-wave patterned surface. Chapter 2 consists of two experiments, both of which adapted the glabrous surface of the right hand. Experiment 1 showed that the prevalence, duration, …

Wikipedia, Me, And Ohp, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Small Individual Loans And Mental Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial Among South African Adults, Lia C. H. Fernald, Rita Hamad, Dean Karlan, Emily J. Ozer, Jonathan Zinman

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: In the developing world, access to small, individual loans has been variously hailed as a poverty-alleviation tool – in the context of "microcredit" – but has also been criticized as "usury" and harmful to vulnerable borrowers. Prior studies have assessed effects of access to credit on traditional economic outcomes for poor borrowers, but effects on mental health have been largely ignored.

Methods: Applicants who had previously been rejected (n = 257) for a loan (200% annual percentage rate – APR) from a lender in South Africa were randomly assigned to a "second-look" that encouraged loan officers to approve their …

Psychological Distress And Change In A Pediatric Obesity Population, Amy Rebecca Beck

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Pediatric overweight and obesity is a growing national epidemic with 15 percent of children ages 6-19 considered obese and at least 22 percent considered overweight. While there is considerable research pointing to contributing factors of obesity, there is a paucity of research which elucidates what contributes to successful intervention. Considering that by the year 2050, nearly 50 million Americans may be obese, understanding the factors delineating success of weight loss and prevention is a necessity. The purpose of this study was to utilize archival data from the LLU Growing Fit Program to evaluate the levels of psychological distress experienced by …

Eye Movement, Rem Sleep And Adhd: An Examination Of Eye Movement Patterns During Rem Sleep In Adhd Populations, Elin Marie Grissom

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigates differences in patterns of eye movement and sleep architecture during REM stage sleep in children with a diagnosis of ADHD, compared to those without the diagnosis. Existing studies have found differences in eye movement patterns during waking hours in these two groups (Munoz, Armstrong, Hampton, & Moore, 2003; O'Laughlin, Brubaker, Gay, Deans, & Aaron, 2006) as well as differences in patterns of REM sleep. The current study will focus on the fine structure of eye movement in REM in children with and without ADHD. Using pediatric polysomnographic recordings, the frequency, density, strength, and inferred direction of …

The Effectiveness Of Treatment In An Inpatient And Outpatient Psychiatric Facility, Timothy Quan Tran

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The present study is aimed at examining treatment outcome in a large psychiatric facility that provides both inpatient and outpatient services to a broad range of patients. Not only will patient outcomes be assessed at a facility-wide level, but patient outcomes on the various units/programs in the facility will also be assessed and compared. It is expected that, facility wide, patients will show significant improvement on the outcome measure from admission to discharge, but that patient outcomes will differ across the various units/programs in the facility. In sum, the results of the paired-sample t-test and effect size obtained in this …

Study Of Executive Functioning Training In Adolescents Diagnosed With Autism, Jessica Postil

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study investigated the effectiveness of a manualized executive functioning training program used with adolescents diagnosed with autism. Three male adolescents were trained on executive function activities using a combination of Applied Behavioral Analysis and executive functioning activities. Training programs were administered individually, lasting for 2 hours per day for 20 days. Participants were tested 1 month before training, 1 week before treatment, immediately after training and at a one-month follow-up. Significant improvements were seen in performance on executive functioning tasks that required motor speed, verbal fluency, monitoring, predicting, planning and organization skills. Significant changes in the participant’s adaptive behavior …

Healing Young People Thru Empowerment (H.Y.P.E.): A Hip-Hop Therapy Program For Black Adolescent Males, Adia B. Mcclellan

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Treating Black adolescent males with disruptive behavior disorders can be challenging for psychologists and other mental health professionals The negative perception of this group within society, as well as the absence of clinical training exploring issues pertinent to Black adolescent males, among other things, may hinder a professional’s ability to effectively work with this population. This doctoral project discussed the research in several areas currently pertinent to Black adolescent males, as well as factors that have historically been oppressive to Black Americans. It then describes several DSM-IV-TR diagnoses and legal classifications associated with Disruptive Behavior Disorders. In addition, research analyzing …

Supracutaneous Vibrotactile Perception Threshold At Various Non-Glabrous Body Loci, Miriam Bikah, M. Susan Hallbeck, John H. Flowers

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Researchers at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln are currently designing a wearable/portable neutron detector. As an alerting mechanism, the device will transmit vibration to the wearer’s skin in the presence of hazardous levels of neutron radiation. The present study was designed to help in the ergonomically correct body placement of the neutron detection device while providing numerical values for vibratory thresholds at the surface of various non-glabrous body loci. The aim of the study was to investigate the underlying effects of locus stimulated, amount of subcutaneous fat around a specific body site and gender on low frequency vibration thresholds. Thirty-six participants, …

Child Sexual Trauma: Testing The Robustness Of Browne & Finkelhor's Theory, Jose Mauricio Ramirez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Trauma has received great attention in the last three decades and a major societal issue today is child sexual abuse. Twelve percent of victims of maltreatment every year are victims of child sexual abuse (CSA). Several studies have suggested that the prevalence of CSA in women is in the range of 6% to 62% depending on how the data was collected (e.g., interviews, surveys) and the nature of the population sampled (e.g., general population, clinical population). Because of CSA, victims are impacted by the experience and encounter a change in the way they perceive the world on both the way …

The Psychophysiology Of Information Processing Differences In Eating Disorders, Kathryn Grace Truitt

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Maladaptive or dysfunctional cognitive factors are believed to be significant contributors to pathology in eating disorders. The emotional Stroop task was used to examine [the] these dysfunctional cognitive factors. A sample of 31 women (14 nonclinical controls, 13 BN, 4 AN) participated in this investigation, after exclusion for ocular and movement artifacts and equipment problems the remaining sample contained 4 women diagnosed with BN, 4 women diagnosed with AN, and 9 matched non-clinical control subjects. Participants completed an Emotional Stroop task comprised of 8 blocks of words. On each trial, a word was presented in one of four colors (black, …

Across The Pond: Ea-Ohp— Sohp Summit Meeting, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Jonathan Houdmont

Publications and Research

On March 6, 2008 at the APA/NIOSH/SOHP Conference on Work, Stress, and Health in Washington, DC, the executive committees and other involved members of the Society for Occupational Health Psychology and the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology held a summit meeting. The gathering was the latest in an ongoing series that began at the EA-OHP Dublin 2006 conference. The main discussion points and outcomes of interest to members are presented here.