Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

Impaired Object Tracking In Children With Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome, Margarita H. Cabaral, Elliott A. Beaton, Joel Stoddard, Tony J. Simon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background:

Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS) occurs in approximately 1:4,000 live births with a complex and variable presentation that includes medical, socioemotional and psychological symptoms with intellectual impairment. Cognitive impairments in spatiotemporal and visuospatial attention have also been reported. However, maintenance of selective attention to dynamic and interacting objects has not been systematically investigated in children with 22q11.2DS.

Methods:

We used a multiple object tracking task to assay capacity and resolution performance of children with 22q11.2DS aged 7 to 14 years versus age-matched typically developing (TD) peers.

Results:

Children with 22q11.2DS but not TD children demonstrated impaired performance when task …

Many Forms Of Madness: A Family’S Struggle With Mental Illness And The Mental Health System, Brice Balmer

Consensus

Title: Many forms of madness : a family's struggle with mental illness and the mental health system Author: Rosemary Radford Ruether; David Ruether Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780800696511

Gender, Gender Roles, And Anxiety: Perceived Confirmability Of Self Report, Behavioral Avoidance, And Physiological Reactivity, Milena Stoyanova, Debra Anne Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Despite the well-documented gender effect in anxiety, less is known about contributing factors to women’s greater risk for anxiety and fears. The present study examined the relationship between gender, gender role orientation (i.e., expressivity/instrumentality) and fear of harmless insects (tarantula), using a multimodal approach of self-report measures, a Behavioral Approach Test (BAT), and physiological reactivity. Participants (144 college students; 67 women, 77 men) completed a questionnaire packet and then were instructed to approach a tarantula. We were unable to replicate Pierce and Kirkpatrick’s (1992) findings that men underreport anxiety. Consistent with the literature, women in the study experienced greater anxiety …

Contextual And Behavioral Control Of Antipsychotic Sensitization Induced By Haloperidol And Olanzapine, Chen Zhang, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Repeated administration of haloperidol (HAL) and olanzapine (OLZ) causes a progressively enhanced disruption of the conditioned avoidance response (CAR) and a progressively enhanced inhibition of phencyclidine (PCP)-induced hyperlocomotion in rats (termed antipsychotic sensitization). Both actions are thought to reflect intrinsic antipsychotic activity. The present study examined the extent to which antipsychotic- induced sensitization in one model (e.g. CAR) can be transferred or maintained in another (e.g. PCP hyperlocomotion) as a means of investigating the contextual and behavioral controls of antipsychotic sensitization. Well-trained male Sprague-Dawley rats were first repeatedly tested in the CAR or the PCP (3.2 mg/kg, subcutaneously) hyperlocomotion model …

The Role Of Sleep In The Enhancement And Impedance Of Episodic Emotional Memories, Rafael De Jesus

Dissertations and Theses

"The current study examined whether sleep enhances the retention of emotionally arousing memories, and whether an emotional memory can be blocked with a single night of sleep deprivation. Using a modified version of a slide show varying in emotionality with respect to the narrative (participants' acting as either a mother or father experiencing the tragic death of their imagined child), 100 (healthy young adult student volunteer) subjects following the experience were randomly assigned to either a normal night of sleep or were variously sleep deprived (in laboratory). After having experienced the emotional event followed immediately by a night of sleep …

Self-Concept Related To Identities And Safer-Sex Cognitions In Young Adults Who Have Lost A Parent To Aids, Marcie Berman

Dissertations and Theses

In-person interviews conducted with 40 English-speaking AIDS-bereaved 18-22 year olds and a control group revealed a significant difference in identities. Data were collected from an AIDS-bereaved group through Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and an introductory psychology class at Hunter College, City University of New York. Hierarchical Classes (HICLAS; Ceulemans & Van Mechelen, 2005) data analysis uncovered a significant difference in how the groups elaborate their current and ideal selves and their self-cognitions surrounding protected and unprotected sex with both new and ongoing partners. Chi-square analysis showed significant differences in elaboration levels regarding how the AIDS-bereaved viewed unprotected …

Reducing False Positive Feigning Classifications On The Sirs Among Criminal Defendants With A History Of Trauma, Lea Corconan

Dissertations and Theses

Clinical research has demonstrated that individuals with a traumatic history elevate scales on the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS; Rogers, Bagby, & Dickens, 1992) leading to their misclassification as malingerers. Rogers, Payne, Correa, Gillard, and Ross (2009) created the trauma index (TI) by summing 3 SIRS scales to reduce the number of false positives in a severely traumatized sample. The TI was included as an additional criterion in determining feigning. The TI has not been studied using a forensic sample. Fifty-one adult male criminal defendants were identified as malingering by the SIRS with a final sample of 5 definite …

Sensation Seeking, Early Pregnancy And Criminal Justice System Involvement Among Latino Youth, Jillian Jankie

Dissertations and Theses

The present study examined the relationship between the level of sensation seeking, early pregnancy, and criminal justice system involvement among Latino youth. It is a secondary analysis of data that comes from the Boricua Youth Study, an ongoing longitudinal study of Puerto Rican children and preadolescents living in the South Bronx and Puerto Rico. In the current analysis, data were analyzed on 69 participants who had completed measures of sensation seeking, pregnancy and arrests to predict whether sensation seeking would predict arrests and pregnancy at the second time period. Sensation seeking was evaluated at baseline. Early pregnancy and criminal justice …

Perceived Discrimination And Depression As It Relates To Nativity Status Of Students From Immigrant Backgrounds, Melissa Huey

Dissertations and Theses

"Research has found that foreign born immigrants' have better mental and physical health, as well as higher levels of academic achievement, than native born individuals from immigrant families (Vega, et. al., 2004). There is some evidence that perceived discrimination could be a possible explanation for these nativity differences (Juang & Cookston, 2009). The current study tested the hypothesis that native born individuals from immigrant backgrounds will have higher levels of depression than their foreign born counterparts and that native born respondents will report higher levels of perceived discrimination than foreign born. The study also tested whether perceived discrimination mediates the …

Interaction Of Long- And Short-Term Memory On Selective Attention During Timbre Discrimination, Eva Garcia

Dissertations and Theses

The present study investigated the effects of short- and long-term memory on processes of selective attention during timbre discrimination. Pitch served as the distractor dimension, held constant on standard trials and deviating from the standard frequency on distractor trials. Short-term memory was operationalized as levels of covariate context: Within a block of trials, pitch deviants (p=.28) were either absent (baseline condition), varied orthogonally (filtering condition) or systematically (positive and perfect conditions) with timbre values. Long-term memory was operationalized as levels of psychophysical context: Within a block of trials, the range of pitch change was psychophysically equated with timbre change in …

The Effects Of Circadian Rhythm-Related Mood On Recognition And Recall Memory For Emotional Images, Priya Puliyampet

Dissertations and Theses

"Studies have proposed that sleep following the presentation of emotional information aids in the consolidation of memory for the emotional elements of the stimuli. Some of these studies have used a paradigm that may have been affected by the confounding influence of circadian factors. Mood may follow a circadian rhythm and research suggests that mood at the time of recall can influence the content of the memory recalled. This study was meant to determine whether the enhanced memory for emotional stimuli in the morning following a night of sleep is a function of the circadian rhythm of mood. Better recall …

The Influence Of Positive Affect And Anxiety On Attention And Creativity, Rafal Skiba

Dissertations and Theses

The study examined naturally occurring effects of positive affect and anxiety (exam stress at different points in the semester) on attentional performance and creative abilities of undergraduate students. The mood of participants was measured by PANAS and STAI questionnaires. Their attention was tested on the Eriksen Flanker Task, and creativity on the Remote Associates Test (RAT) and Compound Word Problems (CWP). One of the main goals of this study was to verify the prediction based on the Broaden and Build theory of positive resources by Fredrickson (2001). Although the mood manipulation used in this study, that is, placing both testing …

Asperger Syndrome And Blogging; Theory Of Mind And The Extreme Male Brain Theory In Self-Identified Women With Asperger Syndrome, Vanesa Morgan

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Increasing Racial And Ethnic Diversity In The Field Of Art Therapy, Yasmine J. Awais

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Who Participates In Extreme Obstacle Courses And Why, Stephanie S. Kronenberg

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Running Head; Self-Control Deindividuation Context, Jihye Ryu

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Sociocultural Predictors Of Perceived Sexism In Urban College Students, Jennifer M. Grant

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Rejection Sensitivity In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; A Pilot Investigation, Grace Kiriakos

Dissertations and Theses

"The aim of this secondary data analysis is to explore the hypothetical relationship between rejection sensitivity (RS) level and PTSD symptom severity. We predicted that RS would be positively related to PTSD symptom severity. Pilot data from 39 individuals were analyzed to explore bivariate correlations on indices of RS, PTSD symptom severity, depression symptoms, and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) feature endorsement. RS was positively related to PTSD symptom severity at the trend level. Participants were then divided into a group of trauma-exposed individuals and control individuals. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to evaluate mean differences between groups in terms of …

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Look Into The Cause, Gender Differences, And Treatment, Barbara Wallen

McNair Poster Presentations

Posttraumatic stress disorder, better known as PTSD came to light during the Vietnam Era. Throughout history, this stress disorder has been called various things in the 150 years since it was first recognized. However, each new word had several characteristics in common, such as re-experiencing, numbing and physiological arousal.

The process of Darwinian “natural selection” corroborated the evolution of people with highly developed stress responses. Those pre-historic people with the most useful “fight or flight” reflexes became our ancestors. An example of this is that during the 19^th Century, PTSD was called “Railway Spine” and was associated with what …

Nsu Center For Psychological Studies Basic Survival Skills Practicum – Ralph E. Cash, Nova Southeastern University

Video Collection of Nova University / NSU

No abstract provided.

An Overview Of Avoidant Personality Disorder, Kristin Dehrkoop

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Avoidant Personality Disorder presents very similarly to other disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV). What separates Avoidant Personality Disorder (APD) to other disorders that present similarly?

Using The Scrambled Sentences Test To Examine Relationships Between Cognitive Bias, Thought Suppression And Borderline Personality Features, Paul Jefferson Geiger

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Cognitive bias and thought suppression are two maladaptive patterns of thinking that have been associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Negative cognitive biases related to BPD include thoughts that they are bad, powerless, or vulnerable and that the world is dangerous. Thought suppression is a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy where unwanted thoughts are intentionally pushed out of one’s consciousness. However, previous research has connected thought suppression and cognitive biases to BPD only via self-report measures. The present study examined whether a laboratory task meant to measure cognitive bias and thought suppression (Scrambled Sentences Test) would predict BPD features over and …

Using A Goal-Setting And Feedback Procedure To Increase Running Distance, Stephanie Wack

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Goal-setting procedures have been employed in many different sports, and have been shown to be a beneficial component for enhancing sports performance. For this study, a changing-criterion within multiple-baseline design was used to evaluate a multi-component intervention for increasing running distance for five healthy adults. The intervention consisted of goal setting with performance feedback. Participants set a short-term goal each week and a long-term goal to achieve upon completion of the study. The study incorporated the use of the Nike^TM + SportKit for automated recording of the distance of each run. Results of the current study demonstrated for all …

Ptsd And Women Warriors: Causes, Controls, And A Congressional Cure, Olympia Duhart

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that the combat exclusion policy for women in the U.S. military contributes to higher rates of PTSD among female veterans and perpetuates gender-based discrimination. It asserts that this policy is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and advocates for its repeal to improve mental health outcomes and promote gender equality in the military.

Training Deictic Relational Responding In People With Schizophrenia, John O'Neill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend recent findings in the functional contextual literature by 1) establishing complex deictic relational responding skills in 3 persons diagnosed with Schizophrenia and mild-moderate Mental Retardation and 2) assessing generalization through pre and post-instructional measures of Social Anhedonia and Theory of Mind functioning. Results suggest that increasingly complex levels of deictic relational responses were acquired and mastered by all 3 participants and that generalization extended to the Deceptive Container Task (ToM levels 4 & 5) and Hinting Task. Support is provided for the notion that perspective taking skills might be shaped …

Comparing Prompt Delay And Total Communication For Training Vocal Intraverbals In Children With Autism, Rosana Pesantez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Verbal behavior encompasses a wide range of aspects in our everyday lives and in the activities of a society. Many verbal behavior interventions often include programs to teach answering questions, these responses are referred to as intraverbals. Previous research has demonstrated a higher rate of acquisition of verbal targets such as mands and tacts for children with a limited verbal repertoire when a presentation of both sign and vocal prompts occur simultaneously (Total Communication), in comparison to sign-alone or vocal-alone trainings. However, an important variable not often examined in the literature is the comparison of Total Communication (TC) and …

A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Childfree Choice In A Sample Of Australian Women, Joanne Doyle, Julie Ann Pooley, Lauren Breen

Research outputs 2012

Choosing not to have children is considered a deviation from cultural norms, particularly the dominant pronatalist discourse; this is especially so for women. However, little research has documented the experience of Australian women who have consciously chosen to remain childless. Ten voluntarily childfree women participated in unstructured interviews about their choice and its ramifications. The data analysis revealed three broad themes – the experiences and processes of making the choice; the ongoing effects of their choice, ranging from support and acceptance to pressure and discrimination; and no regret as the women described engaging in meaningful, generative activities that contributed to …

Crime Prevention: The Role Of Individual Resilience Within The Family, Catherine Ferguson, Craig Harms, Julie Ann Pooley, Lynne Cohen, Stuart Tomlinson

Research outputs 2012

Resilience is context dependent but for resilience to be present, two elements must co-occur: adversity (i.e., high-risk situation/threat) and successful adaptation/competence. An understanding of resilience is important for professionals dealing with at-risk families. This exploratory research investigated how individuals caring for a family member with a mental illness adapted to the role of carer or supporter. Fifteen participants mostly aged 50 years or more were interviewed. Content analysis was used to develop themes from the interview transcripts. Seven themes were elicited from the data. Three of these fit with existing knowledge about challenges faced by offenders’ families. The article concludes …

Posttraumatic Stress And Posttraumatic Growth And Their Relationship To Coping And Self-Efficacy In Northwest Australian Cyclone Communities, Julie Ann Pooley, Lynne Cohen, Moira O'Conner, Myra Taylor

Research outputs 2012

The main focus of disaster research conducted to date has been on providing insights into the negative consequences of experiencing a serious threat or adversity. The present study extends this research endeavor by investigating the positive posttrauma resiliency experiences of 512 survey respondents living in four cyclone-prone communities in Northwest Australia. The findings reveal that disaster stress is often accompanied by disaster growth and, thus, provides an alternative resilience-based way of viewing postdisaster interventions.

A Theory Of The Mind As A Complex System, Craig Speelman, Kim Kirsner, Stephan Halloy

Research outputs 2012

Five principles of skill acquisition are presented based on a review of research on human learning and expertise. Essentially these principles state that practice leads to faster and more efficient uses of knowledge. This enables faster performance and results in less demand on mental resources. In turn these outcomes enable higher level behaviours to be attempted. Ultimately skills are developed through refinement of many component processes. A theory of the mind is proposed that borrows from theories of complex adaptive systems. In this theory, the mind is conceived of as consisting of agents that compete for resources associated with processing …