Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

A Framework For Conceptualizing How Narratives From Health-Care Consumers Might Improve Or Impede The Use Of Information About Provider Quality, Melissa L. Finucane, Steven C. Martino, Andrew M. Parker, Mark Schlesinger, Rachel Grob, Jennifer L. Cerully, Lise Rybowski, Dale Shaller

Patient Experience Journal

Consumers choosing a health-care provider have access to diverse information including narratives by patients about their prior experiences. However, little research has examined how narratives might improve or impede the use of information about the quality of providers’ performance. This paper describes a conceptual framework for examining mechanisms by which narrative information might influence consumer judgments and decisions about providers. We conducted a conceptual review of risk communication and behavioral decision research. We synthesized the literature to form the foundation of a conceptual framework for assessing how narrative information about provider quality impacts consumer decisions about providers. We identified four …

The Relation Of Seasonal Patterns To Mood Changes And Gender Differences In College-Aged Students, Mariah Meza

Student Research Posters

This study examined college students’ moods during different seasons patterns throughout the year. Previous research has indicated that many individuals feel more lethargic, lonely and moody during the winter months (Rohan & Sigmon, 2000). These mood and behavior patterns clearly depend on specific seasons of the year. However, many studies have produced inconsistent findings and current data on how weather impacts college aged students moods in California (Lucht & Kasper, 1999). There are many inconsistent studies in the United States that indicate whether there is a higher fluctuation in women’s moods during seasonal change than there is with men(Chotai, Smedh, …

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

Network Specialization During Adolescence: Hippocampal Effective Connectivity In Boys And Girls, Jeffrey D. Riley, E. Elinor Chen, Jessica Winsell, Elyssia Poggi Davis, Laura M. Glynn, Tallie Z. Baram, Curt A. Sandman, Steven L. Small, Ana Solodkin

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Adolescence is a complex period of concurrent mental and physical development that facilitates adult functioning at multiple levels. Despite the growing number of neuroimaging studies of cognitive development in adolescence focusing on regional activation patterns, there remains a paucity of information about the functional interactions across these participating regions that are critical for cognitive functioning, including memory. The current study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to determine how interactions among brain regions critical for memory change over the course of adolescence. We obtained functional MRI in 77 individuals aged 8–16 years old, divided into younger (ages 8–10) and older (ages …

Association Between Alzheimer's Disease And Rural Northeast Tennessee Region Between 2013 And 2015, Sylvester Olubolu Orimaye, Jodi Southerland

Appalachian Student Research Forum

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a type of Dementia and a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by the gradual degrading of both memory and cognitive functions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevalence of AD is increasing globally. Currently, AD is the sixth leading cause of mortality in the United States. As the ageing population increases in the United States, it is possible that AD will move up the ladder in the top cause of mortality. Although the prevalence of AD in most urban parts of developed nations such as the United States is widely known, little is …

Rhythmic Movements And Feeling States, Melanie Johnson

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This study was conducted to test the validity of a theoretical framework in developmental psychology of body movement analysis, the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP). Motor patterns associated with needs and foundations for affect expression, the tension flow rhythms (TFRs), were examined. Recent research examined the validity of the TFRs in nonclinical adults and found preliminary support for some of the KMP’s assumptions associating smooth (indulging) rhythms with indulgent affects and sharp (fighting) movements with assertive or aggressive affects. This study aimed to test the TFRs associated with the first two years of development—the sucking, biting, twisting, and strain/release rhythms. The …

Practice Standards For Initial Adhd Assessment: A Review, Lauren Spencer

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

There are many challenges that come with diagnosing attentiondeficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including shared symptoms with many similar disorders, high comorbidity of other mental disorders, and subjective bias from informant reports. Three clinical guidelines for diagnosing ADHD currently exist, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). However, these guidelines are outdated as they are based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) and do not include more recent research. This project was intended to update …

Partidarios De La Vida: Resiliencia En Los Afectados Directos De La Dictadura En Arica, Chile / Supporters Of Life: Resilience In The Direct Victims Of The Dictatorship In Arica, Chile, Danielle Levinson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The present study is a qualitative analysis of resilience mechanisms in inhabitants of the city of Arica, Chile who participated actively in the resistance against the Pinochet dictatorship. Through one-on-one interviews with members of this population and the coordinator/social assistant of the Arican branch of the Chilean government’s reparation program (PRAIS), this project was able to corroborate the existence of the following four categories of resilience mechanisms, which are identified in a technical standard published by the Chilean Under-Secretariat of Health: individual, family, social network, and values and ideology. However, it was revealed that this model should be adapted to …

What Happens After Treatment: Improving Quality Of Life In Adolescents And Young Adults, Nichole Smith 18

Honor Scholar Theses

More children and adolescents are surviving a cancer diagnosis now than ever before, but with these encouraging survival rates come the need for improved survivorship care. As a result of treatment, AYA are suffering from physical setbacks such as issues with weight management and fertility (Nightingale, 2011), and psychosocial setbacks such as PTSS, anxiety, and depression (Butler, Rizzi, Hardwerger, 1999). These factors may contributed to the fact that adolescents and young adults (AYA) often report lower QOL than their healthy counterparts (Russell, Hudson, Long, Phipps, 2006), which highlights the need for interventions that address the unmet needs and QOL of …

A Comparison Of Curriculum Based Measures Of Oral Reading Fluency, Trish Merrill Psyd

All Student Scholarship

Curriculum Based Measurements (CBM) are a widely-used tool for Response to Intervention (RTI) progress monitoring. In addition, they can be used in the determination of learning disabilities and special education qualification. The most widely used type of CBM is a measure of oral reading fluency (ORF). This type involves having a student read out loud for 1 minute while the examiner records any errors. Also known as reading curriculum-based measures (RCBM), various published forms of RCBM have been documented to be reliable and valid measures of all aspects of reading skills. Nonetheless, not all RCBM forms are the same, and …

The Effects Of A Task Analysis And Self-Evaluation On The Acquisition Of Yoga Postures, Elizabeth Ortega

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a growing amount of research evaluating behavioral approaches for skill acquisition in sports. Few of these studies have focused on yoga and skill acquisition. There is a need for a low effort yet effective way to teach yoga postures to individuals who do not take private yoga classes and may practice at home. This study evaluated the effects of using a picture-based task analysis and self-evaluation on the skill acquisition of yoga postures. A multiple baseline across yoga postures was used. During the task analyses intervention, the participants received a task analysis, performed the posture, and scored the …

Effects Of Point Visibility On On-Task Behavior And Preference In The Caught Being Good Game, Yudelkis Fuste

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Caught Being Good Game (CBGG) is a classroom management intervention used in schools. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of point visibility on appropriate behavior, to examine the degree to which points earned by the opposing team affected the other team’s behavior, to examine both teacher and student preference for the intervention, the effect of student and teacher choice on appropriate behavior, and to systematically replicate previous research showing the effectiveness of the CBGG relative to business as usual. Consistent with previous research, CBGG increased on-task behavior compared to business as usual. Modest and temporary …

Anticipatory Motivation For Drinking Alcohol: An In-Vivo Study, Bryan Benitez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies from various research groups have already shown the usefulness of alcohol expectancies as predictors of long-term future alcohol consumption. The present study extends this line of research by directly testing whether alcohol expectancies measured in the moment using free association are useful as predictors of alcohol consumption in the next few hours. An ecological momentary assessment (EMA) procedure was used to examine how alcohol expectancies might fluctuate during days in which many people expect to drink (e.g. Fridays, Saturdays) and how these fluctuations in alcohol expectancies might predict future drinking and/or co-vary with important contextual variables during that …

Evaluating The Effectiveness, Feasibility, And Treatment Acceptability Of A Culturally Adapted Version Of Discriminated Functional Communication With Afro-Caribbean Families, Monique R. Litchmore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The majority of behavioral analytic interventions reflect European-American values. One useful intervention is discriminated functional communication training (DFCT), which may be implemented to increase the generalizability of functional communication training (FCT). However, the discriminative stimuli used during DFCT may not adequately reflect what is commonly used in various cultures. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness, feasibility (in the form of training parents to implement), and treatment acceptability of a culturally adapted version of DFCT with Afro-Caribbean families. Three children with ASD along with their mothers participated in the study. Results showed that culturally adapting …

Teaching Debit Card Skills Using General Case Programming, Kristin More

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Independent living skills are extremely important for individuals with developmental disabilities as these skills aide in autonomy, lessen the burden on caregivers, and assist with integration into the community. An important skill that should be targeted is purchasing skills. Teaching purchasing skills can bring individuals into contact with new environments and access to items that would not have been available for them to access independently before learning the skill. Traditional purchasing skills often target teaching money and math skills. However, as technology advances, these skills are not only hard to teach to various individuals but may be outdated. There have …

Multisensory Integration And Autistic Traits Using Non-Sociolinguistic Information, Sébastien A. Lauzon, Samantha E. Schulz, Zack I. Cohen, Ryan A. Stevenson

Western Research Forum

Background: Sensory processing issues are one of the most common complaints in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One area of sensory difficulties in ASD that has been the focus of intense research in recent years is multisensory integration (MSI), or the ability to bind auditory and visual information into a single, unified percept. While integration of social or linguistic information is consistently shown to be an area of difficulty in ASD, results are less clear with simple, non-sociolinguistic stimuli. This study aims to address this ambiguity by determining whether MSI of non-sociolinguistic sensory information is related to traits and symptomatology …

The Role Of Stress In The Pathogenesis And Maintenance Of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Thomas G. Adams, Benjamin Kelmendi, C. Alex Brake, Patricia Gruner, Christal L. Badour, Christopher Pittenger

Psychology Faculty Publications

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder often identify psychosocial stress as a factor that exacerbates their symptoms, and many trace the onset of symptoms to a stressful period of life or a discrete traumatic incident. However, the pathophysiological relationship between stress and obsessive-compulsive disorder remains poorly characterized: it is unclear whether trauma or stress is an independent cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, a triggering factor that interacts with a preexisting diathesis, or simply a nonspecific factor that can exacerbate obsessive-compulsive disorder along with other aspects of psychiatric symptomatology. Nonetheless, preclinical research has demonstrated that stress has conspicuous effects on corticostriatal and limbic …

The Walk-In Counselling Model Of Service Delivery: Who Benefits Most?, Manuel Riemer, Carol A. Stalker, Livia D. Dittmer, Cheryl-Anne Cait, Susan Horton, Narges Kermany, Jocelyn Booton

Psychology Faculty Publications

The walk-in counselling (WIC) model of service delivery has been found to reduce psychological distress more quickly than a traditional model of service delivery involving a wait list. A question remains, however, as to the relative benefit of the WIC model for different client groups. The present study uses graphical inspection and multilevel modeling to conduct moderator analyses comparing two agencies, one with a WIC clinic and the other with a traditional wait list approach, and their relative impact on psychological distress. Key findings regarding the differential benefits for different types of presenting problems as well as clients at different …

Psychosocial Correlates Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms And Well-Being Among Hispanic World Trade Center Rescue And Recovery Workers, Dianne Ciro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Thousands of first responders are estimated to have endured extremely distressing experiences during their recovery efforts at the 9/11 World Trade Center (WTC) site. While the effects of 9/11 continue to be studied, few studies have examined how rescue and recovery workers have been coping since 9/11 and how their coping is associated with their psychological well-being. Moreover, we do not know how distinct coping patterns may be associated with post-traumatic growth, experiences of positive emotion, or quality of life among WTC responders.

This study compared coping differences among Hispanic, Non-Hispanic White, and Non-Hispanic Black first responders. In addition, it …

Development Of Body Emotion Perception In Infancy: From Discrimination To Recognition, Alison Heck, Alyson Chroust, Hannah B. White, Rachel Lynn Jubran, Ramesh S. Bhatt

Psychology Faculty Publications

Research suggests that infants progress from discrimination to recognition of emotions in faces during the first half year of life. It is unknown whether the perception of emotions from bodies develops in a similar manner. In the current study, when presented with happy and angry body videos and voices, 5-month-olds looked longer at the matching video when they were presented upright but not when they were inverted. In contrast, 3.5-month-olds failed to match even with upright videos. Thus, 5-month-olds but not 3.5-month-olds exhibited evidence of recognition of emotions from bodies by demonstrating intermodal matching. In a subsequent experiment, younger infants …

Help-Seeking On Facebook Versus More Traditional Sources Of Help: Cross-Sectional Survey Of Military Veterans, Alan R. Teo, Heather E. Marsh, Samuel B.L. Liebow, Jason I. Chen, Christopher W. Forsberg, Christina Nicolaidis, Somnath Saha, Steven K. Dobscha

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The media has devoted significant attention to anecdotes of individuals who post messages on Facebook prior to suicide. However, it is unclear to what extent social media is perceived as a source of help or how it compares to other sources of potential support for mental health problems.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the degree to which military veterans with depression use social media for help-seeking in comparison to other more traditional sources of help.

Methods: Cross-sectional self-report survey of 270 adult military veterans with probable major depression. Help-seeking intentions were measured with a modified General Help-Seeking Questionnaire. …

Direct And Indirect Influences Of Defendant Mental Illness On Jury Decision Making, Marie Sabbagh

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

It is a common misconception that individuals with schizophrenia are significantly more dangerous and violent than individuals free of mental illness. This stigmatization may lead to harsher sentences when people with schizophrenia are involved in criminal activities and sentenced by a jury. This study presented four conditions to which participants were randomly assigned, alone or in a group of three, and were asked to sentence a defendant, either with or without schizophrenia. It was hypothesized that group deliberations would result in more lenient sentences for defendants with schizophrenia as compared to individual deliberations. Furthermore, it was predicted that both group …

Emotion Regulation And Positive Affect In The Context Of Salivary Alpha-Amylase Response To Pain In Children With Cancer, Brooke N. Jenkins, Douglas A. Granger, Ryan J. Roemer, Ariana Martinez, Tara K. Torres, Michelle A. Fortier

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Children with cancer routinely undergo painful medical procedures invoking strong physiological stress responses. Resilience to this pain may be conferred through resources such as emotion regulation strategies and positive affect.

Procedure

This study measured dispositional positive affect in children with cancer (N = 73) and randomly assigned participants to one of three emotion regulation strategy conditions (distraction, reappraisal, or reassurance). Children applied their assigned strategy during an experimental pain procedure (the cold pressor task [CPT]) and provided saliva samples before, immediately after, and 15 min after the CPT. Saliva samples were later assayed for salivary alpha amylase (sAA)—a surrogate …

The Rewarding Nature Of Provocation-Focused Rumination In Women With Borderline Personality Disorder: A Preliminary Fmri Investigation, Jessica R. Peters, David S. Chester, Erin C. Walsh, C. Nathan Dewall, Ruth A. Baer

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Understanding why individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) ruminate on prior provocations, despite its negative outcomes, is crucial to improving interventions. Provocation-focused rumination may be rewarding in the short term by amplifying anger and producing feelings of justification, validation, and increased energy, while reducing self-directed negative affect. If provocation-focused rumination is utilized regularly as a rewarding emotion regulation strategy, it could result in increased activation in reward-related neural regions. The present pilot study examined neural correlates of provocation-focused rumination, relative to other forms of thought, in BPD.

Method: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was utilized to examine this theory …

Investigating Prosodic Accommodation In Clinical Interviews With Depressed Patients, Brian Vaughan, Carolina De Pasquale, Lorna Wilson, Charlie Cullen, Brian Lawlor

Conference Papers

Six in-depth clinical interviews, involving six elderly female patients (aged 60+) and one female psychiatrist, were recorded and analysed for a number of prosodic accommodation variables.

Our analysis focused on pitch, speaking time, and vowel-space ratio. Findings indicate that there is a dynamic manifestation of prosodic accommodation over the course of the interactions. There is clear adaptation on the part of the psychiatrist, even going so far as to have a reduced vowel-space ratio, mirroring a reduced vowel-space ratio in the depressed patients. Previous research has found a reduced vowel-space ratio to be associated with psychological distress; however, we suggest …

Do Gender Differences In Perceived Prototypical Computer Scientists And Engineers Contribute To Gender Gaps In Computer Science And Engineering?, Joyce Ehrlinger, E. Ashby Plant, Marissa K. Hartwig, Jordan J. Vossen, Corey J. Columb, Lauren E. Brewer

Faculty Publications

Women are vastly underrepresented in the fields of computer science and engineering (CS&E). We examined whether women might view the intellectual characteristics of prototypical individuals in CS&E in more stereotype-consistent ways than men might and, consequently, show less interest in CS&E. We asked 269 U.S. college students (187, 69.5% women) to describe the prototypical computer scientist (Study 1) or engineer (Study 2) through open-ended descriptions as well as through a set of trait ratings. Participants also rated themselves on the same set of traits and rated their similarity to the prototype. Finally, participants in both studies were asked to describe …

Method Overtness, Forensic Autopsy, And The Evidentiary Suicide Note: A Multilevel National Violent Death Reporting System Analysis, Ian R. H. Rockett, Eric D. Caine, Steven Stack, Hilary S. Connery, Kurt B. Nolte, Christa L. Lilly, Ted R. Miller, Lewis S. Nelson, Sandra L. Putnam, Paul S. Nestadt, Haomiao Jia

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Objective

Higher prevalence of suicide notes could signify more conservatism in accounting and greater proneness to undercounting of suicide by method. We tested two hypotheses: (1) an evidentiary suicide note is more likely to accompany suicides by drug-intoxication and by other poisoning, as less violent and less forensically overt methods, than suicides by firearm and hanging/suffocation; and (2) performance of a forensic autopsy attenuates any observed association between overtness of method and the reported presence of a note.

Methods

This multilevel (individual/county), multivariable analysis employed a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). Representing the 17 states participating in the United States …

Tasseography From Jung's Perspective, Avetisian, Elizabeth

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Approaching from Jung’s perspective this paper aims to understand how the unconscious communicates through symbolism that may be the basis for synchronicity arising from mantic procedures. A particular ritual of divination called tasseography will be studied whereby the seer interprets patterns in coffee grounds intuitively and by following a standard system of symbolism to foretell the seeker’s future life events or provide answers to seeker’s pressing life questions. The paper will examine various processes involved in the experience of tasseography and its ritual that enable the reader to predict the seeker’s future or bring light to the present or past …

Risk Perceptions Of Cellphone Use While Driving: Results From A Delphi Survey, Motao Zhu, Toni M. Rudisill, Kimberly J. Rauscher, Danielle M. Davidov, Jing Feng

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Cellphone use while driving has been recognized as a growing and important public health issue by the World Health Organization and U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Surveys typically collect data on overall texting while driving, but do not differentiate between various forms of cellphone use. This study sought to improve the survey indicators when monitoring cellphone use among young drivers. Experts and young drivers were recruited to propose behavioral indicators (cellphone use while driving behaviors) and consequential indicators (safety consequences of cellphone use while driving) in 2016. Subsequently, experts and young drivers selected the top indicators using the …

Sourcing Enchantment: From Elemental Appropriation To Imaginal Symbolics, Schwartz, Michael

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Critical theorists and social commentators agree that modernity and postmodernity suffer from historical pathologies of world disenchantment. What might be done? Drawing on John Sallis’ phenomenology of the elemental and Tibetan Buddhist teachings on elemental practices, this paper investigates the imagination in its doubling as imaginal in generating a symbolics of the self, world, and other that is always already enchanted; an aesthetics of existence where the world itself shows forth like a work of art replete with exorbitant logics.