Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Why Reddit Users Turn To Ai Chatbots For Mental Health Support: A Qualitative Study, Isabelle Byrd, Lillian Frankel, Luke Gallagher, Tyler Nguyen, Lauren O’Brien, Kayla Williams

STEM Student Research Symposium Posters

Background: 

• 60M+ people live with a mental disorder (Mental Health America, 2025)
• 1 in 4 with mental illness report unmet treatment needs (Mental Health America, 2025)
• 13.1% of U.S. youth already use AI for mental health advice (McBain et al., 2025)
• Existing research: quantitative, lacks authentic user voice (Collins et al., 2025; Luo et al., 2025)
• Gap: why do people turn to AI over traditional therapy?

An Ethics Of Listening: The Rupture Of Delusion And The Offer Of A New Freedom, Bret Fimiani

Middle Voices

This paper will focus on the topic of listening as an ‘analytic act’ by the analyst (but also by the analysand) and its relation to ethics and the position of the analyst in the field of psychosis. Is the analyst listening for something in particular? The prospect of listening for something supposes that the analyst holds a specific idea of what distinguishes the ‘structure of the address’ in psychosis (versus neurosis). Typically, we say that the analyst is listening for the unconscious, or for the ‘subject’ (of the unconscious). As we are trying to find our bearings in the field …

Creating An Unconscious: Toward A New Ethic Of Residential Treatment, Daniel Garcia

Middle Voices

What is currently nominated “residential treatment” for serious mental illness (SMI) has a long and varied history. From its earliest version as houses for the unproductive, to confinement of and with the unruly and criminally dangerous, to asylumdom, residential treatment has always sought to protect society from those it perceives as actively trying to revoke it. Consequently, the remedies prescribed in defense of civilization have also ranged from the gruesome to the utopian and the seat of responsibility for maintenance of the social order has vacillated between the family and the church, the local community and the state, the psychiatric …

What Are Elementary Phenomena? An Introduction To A Lacanian Conceptualization, Derek Hook Ph.D.

Middle Voices

What do Lacanians mean when they refer to the notion of elementary phenomena? This idea, crucial to Lacan’s (1993) theorizations of psychosis in Seminar III, refers back to the psychiatric conceptualizations of the late 19th and early 20th century. However, even while citing the influence of others when utilizing the concept, Lacan—characteristically enough— described the concept in his own distinctively psychoanalytic way. The term is particularly important to Lacan in terms of how he thinks about the development of delusions and related psychotic symptoms in relation to the initial onset of psychosis. In this short paper, I aim simply to …

Working With Schizophrenia: Adaptive Work & The Threat Of Despair, Pavan S. Brar

Middle Voices

Commentary

How Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Cbt) And Antipsychotics Compare To Antipsychotics Alone Impact Inpatient Length Of Stay: A Scoping Review, Morgan E. Johnson, Hailey M. Wade, Y'Esha V. Williams-Click, Rocquell Duncan, Laura Reed Dnp, Aprn, Fnp-Bc, Cne, Fnap

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background

Psychosis in adults is a serious psychiatric condition that often necessitates inpatient hospitalization for stabilization and the initiation of medication. Untreated psychosis can lead to poor outcomes, including longer hospital stays, loss of occupational functioning, and a decreased quality of life. While antipsychotic medications are typically the first line of treatment, they can have severe side effects, which may lead to patients discontinuing their use. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for psychosis is an evidence-based intervention that targets maladaptive behaviors associated with the condition. CBT may improve treatment responses when used alongside antipsychotic medication. However, there is limited research on …

The Wager Of Speech, And The Maneuver Of The Dream In The Clinic Of Psychosis, Christopher Meyer

Middle Voices

Psychoanalysis, especially in the clinic of psychosis and extreme states, requires a wager on the part of the analyst. This wager welcomes the speech of the analysand regarding a censored unconscious. In the clinic of psychosis, the analyst’s reference to the dream in the establishment of the frame of the treatment is a maneuver that creates a working space that reveals the subjective history of the analysand. This history concerns key moments of trauma in which the speaking being found themselves without resort or resource to speech or language to represent their experience. The discourse of the delusion arises in …

Psycho-Pathology And Links Between Neurosis And Psychosis, B. Mason Judy, John Dall'aglio

Middle Voices

Commentary

The Secretary Of Alienation: Metaphor And Metapsychology, Anna Kreienberg

Middle Voices

Commentary

An Interview With Stijn Vanheule, Phd Following His Talk: “The Clinic Of Psychoanalysis In Times Of Capitalism”, Stijn Vanheule

Middle Voices

An interview with Stijn Vanheule

The Integration Of Mental Health Services Within The Black Church: A Literature Review Of Systematic Inequalities, Stigma, And Culturally Responsive Approaches, Grace N. Wingate

Honors College Theses

Black American Christians in predominantly Black churches often face limited access to adequate mental health resources due to historical mistrust, systemic inequalities, and cultural stigma. These barriers are rooted in longstanding distrust of psychological services, the underrepresentation of Black mental health care professionals, and the high cost and inaccessibility of care. Additionally, stigma within Black Christian communities may discourage individuals from seeking help from mental health professionals, particularly when such care is perceived as conflicting with religious beliefs. Despite these challenges, Black churches remain central and trusted institutions within their communities, positioning them as crucial sites for mental health support. …

Thinking With The Feet In The Clinic Of Psychosis, Jed Wilson

Middle Voices

In his later work, Lacan makes occasional reference to the idea of “thinking with the feet.” An equivocal formulation, it first seems to suggest that thought and language can be regarded as physical processes—not occurring in some homunculan disembodied brain or mind, but in the real of the body. Equally, it can call to mind the idea of thinking “on” one’s feet, in the manner of adaptive improvisation. Going further, could we not also say that it points to the possibility of setting something in motion (as in walking, dancing, going somewhere—all the things we do with the feet) as …

Noncontingent Parental Attention Leads To Independent Play And Is Preferred By Toddlers Over Screen Time, Kristen Newell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Caregivers often rely on screen media to occupy young children during periods when caregiver attention is unavailable, despite evidence linking early screen exposure to adverse developmental outcomes. An alternative approach is to provide high-quality, noncontingent attention (NCA) during play prior to independent activity. Although NCA reduces attention-maintained challenging behavior, the optimal duration of NCA and children’s preference for caregiver interaction relative to screen time remain unclear. This study evaluated the effects of varying durations of caregiver-delivered NCA on young children’s independent play, attention-seeking behavior, and preference for NCA compared to screen time. Three caregiver–child dyads participated in a multielement design …

The Use Of Cognitive Biases In Russian Cyber Operations, Emma Manning

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how Russia has employed reflexive control through cyber operations to influence decision-making in foreign states, focusing on disinformation campaigns during the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Reflexive control, a concept rooted in Russian military doctrine, seeks to shape an adversary's perceptions and decision-making by providing carefully crafted information that leads targets to make choices favorable to the initiator. This research argues that while the fundamental objectives of reflexive control have remained consistent, technological advances have significantly expanded Russia's ability to conduct operations in developing cyber domains.

Using qualitative analysis of open-source intelligence, …

Covid Minds: A Thematic Review Of The Pandemic On Neural Mechanisms And Political Polarization, Madison Jeffries

Honors Projects

This paper analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced political polarization in the United States by examining the interactions between social system disruption, psychological stress, and underlying neurological behaviors. While previous research has extensively discussed pandemic's influence on public health and societal breakdowns, studies fail to examine how these disruptions shaped political divisions. This study synthesizes interdisciplinary literature on pandemic-induced stressors and analyzes factors, including institutional mistrust and social isolation, and how these experiences shape political behavior and perspectives. Applying research from psychology and neuroscience, the paper argues that prolonged exposure to pandemic-related stressors changed neurological and behavioral patterns in response …

Student Perspectives On Title Ix Policy Across North Texas College Campuses, Felicia Chism

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative phenomenological study examined how North Texas higher education students’ lived experiences with Title IX (TIX) shaped their perceptions of the policy’s fairness, accessibility, and implementation. The study addressed the problem that experiential perspectives of TIX remain underexplored, despite their importance for understanding institutional accountability and student trust. Guided by the social ecological model and organizational justice theory, the research investigated how individual, relational, institutional, and societal factors influenced students’ interpretations of TIX processes. Eight students from North Texas public universities who had direct involvement in a closed TIX case participated in semi‑structured interviews. Data were analyzed using Moustakas’s …

Beyond Symptoms: A Narrative Counseling Interpretation Of First-Year Student Anxiety In Indonesian Higher Education, Azizah Abdullah, Rizky Andana Pohan, Ramtia Darma Putri, Triyono Triyono, Marimbun Marimbun, Rahmi Dwi Febriani

Buletin Konseling Inovatif

The transition to higher education is a critical period in which first-year students face new academic demands, financial pressures, social adjustment challenges, and uncertainty about the future. However, limited research has examined how freshmen make sense of and narrate their anxiety, particularly in the Indonesian context. This study aimed to explore the main domains of anxiety among first-semester students in Indonesian public universities and to interpret these experiences through a narrative counseling lens. The study employed a qualitative online survey design with an interpretivist orientation. Data were collected from 199 first-semester students through open-ended questions addressing anxiety-provoking situations, sources of …

Prosecutorial Discretion: The Effect Of Social Dominance Orientation (Sdo) And Right-Wing Authoritarianism (Rwa) On Understanding And Support Among Americans, Jamie Shelton

Bates College Journal of Political Studies

The U.S. prison system is plagued by an overrepresentation of the country’s residents, at twenty percent of the world’s prison population. The discretion of prosecutors to determine when and which charges to file has been linked to the immense prison growth of the U.S. since the late 1970s, especially given their lack of judicial and public oversight. In this study, participants were asked to answer survey questions made up of four scales: knowledge of the prosecutorial role (Prosecutor Knowledge), support for policy curtailing prosecutorial discretion (Policy Support), Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). Findings included significant results for …

Lived Experiences Of Husbands Of Deployed Military Spouses, Timothy Lee Heath

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The focus of this study was to explore the lived experiences of civilian husbands during the deployment of their active-duty spouses. Although there is plenty of information concerning the negative and demanding impacts of deployment on female spouses and children, more is needed to understand the lived experiences of husbands of deployed soldiers. Research has confirmed that husbands of deployed soldiers have distinctive gender-specific needs that have been inadequately addressed, leading to adverse psychosocial effects. The couple adaptation to traumatic stress model and gender role theory served as the frameworks for this study to identify the psychosocial issues faced by …

A Trauma Psychology Approach To Space Psychology And Long-Duration Space Travel In Consideration Of Isolation, Resource Scarcity, And Group Dynamics., Alden Nicoll

Honors Projects

As modern societies research and prepare for long-duration deep space travel, psychological research becomes increasingly prevalent into understanding the effects of trauma on the psyche. This present study looks at the current research outcomes of “Team Dynamics”, “Social Isolation”, and “Resource Scarcity” within the literature of Space Psychology. Current research on social isolation is taken from past missions in outer space and analog missions in Antarctica, at sea, and prison research. While research is vast on social isolation, it doesn’t consider how trauma could be intensified with both time and duration in space. Next, when considering team dynamics and how …

The Importance Of Personality In The Transition To College Life: A Literature Review, Elijah Traud

Honors Projects

This literature review examines the relationship between personality, specifically the Big Five personality traits, and the academic, social, and emotional transition to college. Previous research has focused on how both non-personality and personality variables are associated with the transition to college. There is also literature that details how colleges have implemented policies in the past to ensure that all students feel welcomed on their campus. The literature review highlights the key findings from these studies, including that conscientiousness is consistently one of the personality traits that is associated with the different aspects of the transition to college, especially the academic …

Pathways To Success, Annabelle Fyke

Honors Projects

This paper explores the importance of creating trauma-informed classrooms to support students’ emotional and academic success. As increasing numbers of students are affected by adverse childhood experiences, educators must adopt approaches that recognize and respond to trauma. The purpose of this paper is to examine key principles of trauma-informed education and how they can be effectively implemented in school settings. Drawing on current research and educational frameworks, this paper highlights strategies such as building strong teacher-student relationships, promoting emotional regulation, and maintaining consistent and supportive classroom environments. The findings suggest that trauma-informed practices can improve student behavior, increase engagement, and …

A Daily Assessment Of Food And Alcohol Disturbance And Alcohol Intoxication As Predictors Of Sexual Violence Victimization, Amanda Elizabeth Baildon

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Alcohol-involved sexual violence (SV) is a common and detrimental experience for young adult women. To supplement SV prevention strategies aimed at perpetrators, who are fully responsible for the occurrence of SV, risk reduction programs that target women’s drinking have been implemented with limited efficacy. To improve these programs, research must examine novel predictors like food and alcohol disturbance (FAD) that contribute to SV risk. FAD refers to compensatory behaviors (e.g., restricted eating, excessive exercise) to offset alcohol’s calories or enhance intoxication. Approximately 45% of young adult women engage in FAD, a practice that likely heightens SV risk by facilitating rapid …

Simulated Subjects, Real Responses: Surveying Decision Judgments Across Biological And Artificial Agents, Alara Karatuna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Silicon participants are large language model generated research participants who are embedded with demographic information, as well as personality measures. The use of silicon participants in the behavioral sciences field is underexplored. This current study generated silicon participants based on human data (N=514), where each silicon participant matches their human counterpart. Both samples were asked to respond to seven decision-making dilemmas that are written from scratch. The dilemmas differ in their severity and represent the ambiguity of social life. Responses of the silicon participants were generated using ChatGPT 4.0. This is the first study that embedded personality traits …

Social Determinants Of Health And Caregiver Mental Health Screening In The Neontal Intensive Care Unit, Chloe Hicks Fisher

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Perinatal mental health conditions affect approximately one in five mothers and one in ten fathers in the United States, and caregivers of newborns admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are at an elevated risk for developing mental health conditions due to the significant stress associated with infant hospitalization. However, not all caregivers complete mental health screenings, raising concern that current protocols may be failing to reach a meaningful subset of this population. Social determinants of health (SDOH) are non-medical factors that influence health outcomes and are known risk factors for mental health conditions in perinatal populations. The present …

Bound By Belief: Exploring The Influence Of Internalized Rape Myths On Survivor Agency And Identity, Arika I. White

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative study explored how internalized RMA impacts survivors’ cognitive processing, coping strategies, and psychological agency, as observed by licensed psychotherapists who treat sexual assault survivors. Despite extensive literature on the societal impacts of RMA, less attention has been given to understanding how these cultural myths are internalized by survivors and manifest intrapsychically, influencing self-perception, self-blame, and identity reconstruction following trauma. Using a phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews with therapists provided meta-level insights into how survivors’ narratives reflect internalized cultural stigma and misogynistic beliefs. Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns of maladaptive coping, internalized misogyny, and diminished agency, revealing how …

Neutrophil Responses Are Substantially Prolonged And Robust Following Early Postnatal Chorda Tympani Or Lingual Nerve Transection, Jacquelyn M. Omelian, Andrew J. Riquier, Suzanne I. Sollars

Psychology Faculty Publications

While the mature gustatory and trigeminal systems are capable of regeneration following surgical nerve transection, transections occurring early in life result in permanent effects on innervated tissues. Converging evidence suggests that facilitators of the innate immune response, such as neutrophils, may contribute to these developmental differences in injury recovery. In the current study, Sprague-Dawley rats underwent transection of the trigeminal lingual nerve (LX) or gustatory chorda tympani nerve (CTX) at either 10, 25, or 65 days of age. Tongues were extracted 12, 24, or 48 h post-surgery, and MPO+ leukocyte (neutrophil) densities in the taste buds and surrounding muscle and …

Motivation Vs. Negative Feelings Among Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Social Anxiety​, Jakob Carver, Eden Ordyna

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This study examines how motivation relates to negative emotional experiences across three groups: individuals with autism, individuals with social anxiety, and a control group. As shown in Figure 1, higher motivation is associated with lower levels of negative feelings across all groups, indicating a consistent inverse relationship.

Baseline differences are evident, with individuals with social anxiety reporting the highest negative feelings, followed by those with autism, and the control group reporting the lowest. While all groups show similar downward trends as motivation increases, the reduction appears most pronounced in the control group. In contrast, individuals with autism and social anxiety …

Dynamic Individualized Latent Trait (Dilt) Model: Bridging Nomothetic And Idiographic Psychometrics, Muchen Xi

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to develop an analytical framework that bridges the long-standing divide between nomothetic and idiographic approaches to defining the structure of personality and other individual differences. The nomothetic tradition seeks to explain and predict behavior through stable, universal dimensions of personality, while the idiographic approach emphasizes the fine-grained, dynamic processes unique to individuals. Although theoretical advances have begun to reconcile these perspectives, analytical methods capable of integrating them remain underdeveloped. To address this gap, I introduce the Dynamic Individualized Latent Trait (DILT) model, a framework that decomposes ordinal item responses from intensive longitudinal data into three components: 1) …

Beyond Victimhood, Expanding Narratives: A Generative Inquiry With Trafficking Survivors, Giacomo Chiara, Celiane Camargo-Borges, Diego Romaioli, Alberta Contarello

The Qualitative Report

This study is a generative inquiry with survivors of trafficking from a social constructionist perspective. Inspired by the principles of Appreciative Inquiry, its focus is collaboration between researchers and trafficking survivors with a view to shaping and understanding their trafficking experiences together, expanding understanding of the topic and co-constructing a relational space in which counter-narratives on victimhood can be generated. It consisted of 10 interviews with women survivors of trafficking at the Italian Anti-Trafficking System. These women were from a range of nations and their experiences of exploitation varied. Taking a constructionist approach to research, we formulated an episodic-generative interview …