Other Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

Female Sex Offenders: Double Standards, Sofia Enes

Kean Quest

This paper will discuss female pedophiles, rapists, and sex offenders, also known as female sex criminals, the double standards, of how they are viewed in the criminal justice system, how the medical fields view them, the psychological effects of their actions on their victims, and how the public views them. Unlike male pedophiles, rapists, and sex offenders of that gender; female pedophiles are not as readily identified as male pedophiles. Since female sex criminals do not always conform and fit the stereotypes that are more commonly found in male sex criminals, it is much more difficult for authorities to detain …

Accessing The Ecosphere: An Indoor Nature-Based Community Expressive Arts Therapy (Exat) Exploration Project, Heather Powers

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This capstone thesis posits that when humans connect and maintain a relationship with nature, their mental health improves. Humans have developed from and within Earth’s ecosystem, making our relationship with nature a necessary acknowledgement that the self is more than a corporeal body but is, in fact, embedded within the natural world around us. The current overwhelming dependence on electronic advancements and the development of urban areas have led people to become more distant in their relationship to nature, putting the overall well-being of the planet in jeopardy. This thesis points out that the more separation we feel from nature, …

Touch In Drama Therapy: A Literature Review, Sara Hood

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This article is a cursory look at how touch is perceived in the field of drama therapy. Touch is integral to our experience as humans and can be present in drama therapy sessions. Ethical guidelines for touch in the literature are identified and relevant drama therapy texts and articles describing touch are discussed. While drama therapy has a clear voice when it comes to ethically engaging in touch with a client, very little research was found exploring the intention and outcome of touch in a drama therapy session. Other therapeutic modalities, specifically Developmental Transformations and dance/movement therapy, are identified as …

Healing Our Connection With Nature: An Expressive Arts Community Engagement Project, Meghan Mccrillis

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

A community engagement project was created and implemented, comprised of two events for which the author facilitated nature-based expressive arts experiences to explore the integration of nature and expressive arts therapy. The events were offered to two different groups of community members, one for nature-curious adults held outdoors on the trails of a local conservation trust, and another for young children at a local library. The healing impact of nature connection and nature connection experiences are explored through a literature review, event methods, and the author’s personal experiences of the project via artmaking. The results include an emphasis on nature …

The Lived Experience Of Second Victim Crnas, Michael Neft

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A second victim is a health care provider who has been involved in a critical event. A

critical event is a clinical situation in which an unforeseen clinical outcome occurs, or

the clinical deterioration of the patient takes place for many different reasons. The

patient and his/her family are the first victims. The health care provider(s) involved in

the event are second victims. After such an event, the healthcare provider may

experience a constellation of negative emotions, such as guilt, sadness, depression,

somatic symptoms, hypervigilance, and fear. Most second victims require support to

cope with the adverse clinical situation. Second …

Is Tai Chi A Beneficial Treatment For Anxiety In The Elderly Community?, Carolyn Kenney

Honors Projects in Applied Psychology

This study attempted to explore the relationship between tai chi practice and anxiety in the elderly population. The mental health disorder that I looked at was anxiety, as the elderly often experience anxiety related to contributing factors such as mental and physical decline. Anxiety among the elderly is a great concern as there is an increase in the world’s population of individuals aged 65 years or older. This will directly impact health care prices as more resources will have to be distributed to this age population. One solution to this problem is tai chi. Tai chi is a cost-effective way …

Stability And Flexibility In Psychotherapy Process Predict Outcome, Giulio De Felice, Alessandro Giuliani, David Pincus, Andrea Scozzari, Vincent Berardi, Leonhard Kratzer, Wolfgang Aichhorn, Helmut J. Schöller, Kathrin Viol, Günter Schiepek

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Ten good outcome and ten poor outcome psychotherapy cases were compared to investigate whether or not the temporal stability and flexibility of their process variables can predict their outcomes. Each participant was monitored daily using the Therapy Process Questionnaire (TPQ), which has 43 items and seven sub-scales, and responses over time were analyzed in terms of correlation robustness and correlation variability across the TPQ sub-scales. “Correlation robustness” and “correlation variability” are two basic characteristics of any correlation matrix: the first is calculated as the sum of the absolute values of Pearson correlation coefficients, the second as the standard deviation of …

Content Analysis Of Vitiligo Portrayal On Social Media, Mary Miller

Honors Theses

Given that vitiligo affects a small percentage of the world population, and its affects are not widely known, there is an increasing need to learn of its effects on those with vitiligo, both physical and psychological. Social media has become an influential platform to spread awareness and build confidence in those with vitiligo. This study aims to find how vitiligo is portrayed through social media using content analysis procedures. This is a cross-sectional content analysis that utilized a codebook to analyze Instagram posts. The results were analyzed by interrater reliability and frequency for each coder. The findings of this content …

Implications For Global And Local Visual Processing In Individuals With Learning Disabilities, Riya Mody

Psychology Student Papers and Posters

Visual processing in humans is done by integrating and updating multiple streams of global and local sensory input. When this is not done smoothly, it becomes difficult to see the “big picture”, which has been found to have implications on emotion recognition, social skills, and conversation skills in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other learning disabilities. Previous research in this field has aimed to direct ASD patients toward normative processing of the global features by developing and evaluating a filter which is intended to decrease local interference, or the prioritization of local details. This work attempts to utilize …

Mitragyna Speciosa As A Potential Substitute Therapy In Opioid Dependence: A Case Report, Karniza Khalid, Jason S.K. Wong, Ruzita Jamaluddin

Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research

Preclinical data have consistently suggested the pharmaceutical potential of kratom (Mitragyna speciosa), including as a substitute therapy in opioid dependence. In this case report, we present a case of a man with a long history of kratom use to help him cope with his opiate withdrawals while abstaining from illicit drug use. This is the first published detailed case report highlighting the potential use of kratom to aid opioid dependence encountered in the clinical setting. Our article is also supported by literature review with regards to kratom’s safety profile and pharmacological potential.

Dental Students’ Perception, Attitude And Willingness To Interact With Mental Illness Patients: A Multicentre Cross-Sectional Study, Mazarina Nurdini Malek, Zainab Mat Yudin, Nor Faharina Abdul Hamid, Nor Asilah Harun, Suzanna Awang Bono, Mohamad Arif Awang Nawi

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Mental illness is a psychological impairment involving emotions, cognitions, and behaviors, and its prevalence is increasing worldwide. Dental students may encounter patients with underlying psychological problems during their training. Objective: To evaluate dental students’ perception, attitude, and willingness to interact with patients with mental illness. Methods: A multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted involving undergraduates at three dental institutions in Malaysia using an online self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive data analysis was conducted and statistical analysis using chi-square test was done for associations (p < 0.05). Results: The response rate was 63% (225); the majority of respondents were female (77.8%) and of Malay ethnicity (88.4%). …

An Exploration Of Psychological Trauma And Positive Adaptation In Adults With Congenital Heart Disease During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Liza Morton Dr, Calum Calderwood, Nicola Cogan, Claire Murphy, Evan Nix, Jacek Kolacz Dr

Patient Experience Journal

The growing population of adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) often have lifelong experience of dealing with potentially traumatic health crises and medical uncertainty whilst facing increased vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The COVID-19 pandemic presents additional challenges for this population including increased risk of health complications, shielding and strict social distancing, changes to medical care provision and social stigma. Despite such challenges, adults with CHD have the potential to also experience positive changes, yet little is known as to what helps cultivate positive adaptation and post-traumatic growth (PTG) within this context. The current study comprised a cross-sectional, anonymous, …

Let's Hit The Gym: An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Student Exercise, Achievement, And Social Anxiety, Angela Lebel

Honors Projects in Applied Psychology

An emerging body of literature has documented the positive influence of exercise on student achievement. Human and non-human animal studies have proven that exercise can improve memory, academic stressors, social anxiety, and sleep along with more broad topics such as mental and physical health. With exercise improving memory and academic stressors, this leads to a potential conclusion that exercise could benefit student’s grade point average which will be tested in this study. Exercise is also exhibited to help reduce social anxiety which leads to a potential conclusion that exercise could improve one’s involvement in extracurricular activities because one would have …

Differential Associations Of Conduct Disorder, Callous‑Unemotional Traits And Irritability With Outcome Expectations And Values Regarding The Consequences Of Aggression, J. Elowsky, S. Bajaj, J. Bashford‑Largo, R. Zhang, A. Mathur, A. Schwartz, M. Dobbertin, K. S. Blair, E. Leibenluft, D. Pardini, R. J.R. Blair

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Background: Previous work has examined the association of aggression levels and callous-unemotional traits with outcome expectations and values regarding the consequences of aggression. Less work has examined the outcome expectations and values regarding the consequences of aggression of adolescents with Conduct Disorder (CD). Also, no studies have examined links between irritability (a second socio-affective trait associated with CD) and these social cognitive processes despite the core function of anger in retaliatory aggression and establishing dominance.

Method: The current study, investigating these issues, involved 193 adolescents (typically developing [TD; N = 106], 87 cases with CD [N = 87]). Participants completed …

Free Will Without Consciousness?, Liad Mudrik, Inbal Gur Arie, Yoni Amir, Yarden Shir, Pamela Hieronymi, Uri Maoz, Timothy O'Connor, Aaron Schurger, Manuel Vargas, Tillman Vierkant, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Adina Roskies

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Findings demonstrating decision-related neural activity preceding volitional actions have dominated the discussion about how science can inform the free will debate. These discussions have largely ignored studies suggesting that decisions might be influenced or biased by various unconscious processes. If these effects are indeed real, do they render subjects’ decisions less free or even unfree? Here, we argue that, while unconscious influences on decision-making do not threaten the existence of free will in general, they provide important information about limitations on freedom in specific circumstances. We demonstrate that aspects of this long-lasting controversy are empirically testable and provide insight into …

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 …

Behavioral Code Team, Daniel Mcgrath

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: The organization lacked an evidence-based intervention for behavioral emergencies within the inpatient acute care setting, leading to increased mechanical restraints. A security-driven paradigm was the organization's primary tool for addressing behavioral crises and lacked a more patient-centered treatment and support paradigm.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was In the Veteran patient population admitted to acute inpatient services (P), how does having a behavioral code team respond to behavioral emergencies (I) compared to the current practice (C) affect the prevalence of mechanical restraint usage (O) within an eight week period (T).

Evidence: Seven …

Double Consciousness And Unhealthy Weight Control Behaviors In Young Black And White Adults, Priscillia Ihionkhan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the previously understudied notion that Black individuals are buffered against being dissatisfied with their bodies and in turn developing unhealthy eating and weight control behaviors. Double consciousness, a racially/ethnically sensitive measure of body dissatisfaction, was tested as a mediator of the relation between ethnic identity and unhealthy eating and weight control behaviors in Black and White adults. It was anticipated that unhealthy weight control behaviors would be more common in Black women compared to White women and that double consciousness would mediate the association between ethnic identity and unhealthy weight control behaviors among Black women, but …

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 …

Nbome Toxicity And Fatalities: A Review Of The Literature, Matthew Lipow, Syed Zane Kaleem, Eduardo Espiridion

Transformative Medicine

In the decade since the introduction of the novel synthetic hallucinogen NBOMe into the consumer market, this drug has become an increasingly prevalent, yet poorly understood cause of altered mental status (AMS) resulting in hospitalization.

In this literature review, we conducted a PubMed query for mentions of NBOMe ingestion since Suzuki et al.’s publication of their 2015 review. Among English language publications published between October 2014 and June 8, 2021, were sixteen case reports and six case series detailing a total of 42 cases of NBOMe toxicity.

Notably, 26 (62%) patients experienced tachycardia, 22 (52%) had hypertension, 34 (81%) experienced …

Integrating Psychedelic Experiences Through Touch, James Salomons

Journal of Transformative Touch

No abstract provided.

“This Isn’T Just Busy, This Is Scary”: Stress, Social Support, And Coping Experiences Of Frontline Nurses During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Erin S. Craw, Tess M. Buckley, Michelle Miller-Day

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Despite having previous experience and extensive trauma training, the COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges for nurses working in hospital settings. During the pandemic, nurses struggle to care for patients and protect themselves from infection, while navigating ongoing organizational changes. Guided by prior literature on social support and coping, this study explores nurses’ experiences of coping with stress while treating COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 active staff nurses working in hospitals and one licensed practical nurse (LPN) at a rehabilitation center who treated COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. An inductive thematic analysis was employed …

Prevalence Of Dementia And Mild Cognitive Impairment In Indigenous Bolivian Forager-Horticulturalists, Margaret Gatz, Wendy J. Mack, Helena C. Chui, E. Meng Law, Giuseppe Barisano, M. Linda Sutherland, James D. Sutherland, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Raul Quispe Gutierrez, Juan Copajira Adrian, Jesus Bani Cuata, Amy R. Borenstein, Ellen E. Waters, Andrei Irimia, Christopher J. Rowan, L. Samuel Wann, Adel H. Allam, Randall C. Thompson, Michael I. Miyamoto, David E. Michalik, Daniel K. Cummings, Edmond Seabright, Angela R. Garcia, Paul L. Hooper, Thomas S. Kraft, Caleb E. Finch, Gregory S. Thomas, Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C. Trumble, Michael D. Gurven, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

Introduction

We evaluated the prevalence of dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in indigenous Tsimane and Moseten, who lead a subsistence lifestyle.

Methods

Participants from population-based samples ≥ 60 years of age (n = 623) were assessed using adapted versions of the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination, informant interview, longitudinal cognitive testing and brain computed tomography (CT) scans.

Results

Tsimane exhibited five cases of dementia (among n = 435; crude prevalence = 1.2%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.4, 2.7); Moseten exhibited one case (among n = 169; crude prevalence = 0.6%, 95% CI: 0.0, 3.2), all age ≥ 80 years. …

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 …

Increasing The Knowledge Of Opioid Use Disorder (Oud) And Medication Assisted Treatment (Mat) In Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (Aprns) In Georgia, Angela Queen Roberts, Jennifer Goldsberry Dnp, Msn, Fnp-Bc, Aprncne,, Gail Godwin Ph.D. Pmhnp-Bc,Cne, Sallie Coke Ph.D., Aprn, C-Pnp, C-Fnp, Pmhs

Graduate Research Showcase

The national opioid crisis has had devastating effects on the United States (US) healthcare system with the financial burden totaling more than $2 trillion from 2015 to 2018 (White House Government, 2020) and the physical burden of 128 overdose-related deaths daily (Centers for Disease Control, 2020). According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), some of these deaths are the result of deficits in education to healthcare providers about pain management treatment (CDC, 2020). Improved education for healthcare providers has resulted in a significant decline in the total number of opioid prescriptions from 2016-2019 which suggests that successful containment of …

Applications Of Unsupervised Machine Learning In Autism Spectrum Disorder Research: A Review, Chelsea Parlett-Pelleriti, Elizabeth Stevens, Dennis R. Dixon, Erik J. Linstead

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Large amounts of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) data is created through hospitals, therapy centers, and mobile applications; however, much of this rich data does not have pre-existing classes or labels. Large amounts of data—both genetic and behavioral—that are collected as part of scientific studies or a part of treatment can provide a deeper, more nuanced insight into both diagnosis and treatment of ASD. This paper reviews 43 papers using unsupervised machine learning in ASD, including k-means clustering, hierarchical clustering, model-based clustering, and self-organizing maps. The aim of this review is to provide a survey of the current uses of …

The Rubber Hand Illusion: Top-Down Attention Modulates Embodiment, Rémi Thériault, Mathieu Landry, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) creates distortions of body ownership through multimodal integration of somatosensory and visual inputs. This illusion largely rests on bottom-up (automatic multisensory and perceptual integration) mechanisms. However, the relative contribution from top-down factors, such as controlled processes involving attentional regulation, remains unclear. Following previous work that highlights the putative influence of higher-order cognition in the RHI, we aimed to further examine how modulations of working memory load and task instructions—two conditions engaging top-down cognitive processes—influence the experience of the RHI, as indexed by a number of psychometric dimensions. Relying on exploratory factor analysis for assessing this …

Consciousness Explained Or Described?, Aaron Schurger, Michael S. A. Graziano

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Consciousness is an unusual phenomenon to study scientifically. It is defined as a subjective, first-person phenomenon, and science is an objective, third-person endeavor. This misalignment between the means—science—and the end—explaining consciousness—gave rise to what has become a productive workaround: the search for ‘neural correlates of consciousness’ (NCCs). Science can sidestep trying to explain consciousness and instead focus on characterizing the kind(s) of neural activity that are reliably correlated with consciousness. However, while we have learned a lot about consciousness in the bargain, the NCC approach was not originally intended as the foundation for a true explanation of consciousness. Indeed, it …

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 …

Prenatal Exposure To Maternal Psychological Distress And Telomere Length In Childhood, Stephanie A. Stout-Oswald, Laura M. Glynn, Marco Bisoffi, Catherine H. Demers, Elysia Poggi Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Telomere length (TL) is a biological marker of cellular aging, and shorter TL in adulthood is associated with increased morbidity and mortality risk. It is likely that these differences in TL are established long before adulthood, and there is growing evidence that TL can reflect prenatal experiences. Although maternal prenatal distress predicts newborn TL, it is unknown whether the relation between prenatal exposure to maternal distress and child TL persists through childhood. The purpose of the current longitudinal, prospective study is to examine the relation between prenatal exposure to maternal distress (perceived stress, depressive symptoms, pregnancy-related anxiety) and TL in …