Psychology Commons^™

Visual Hallucinations Differential Diagnosis Annotated Decision Tree, Shelly D. Davis

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Differential diagnosis of the etiology of visual hallucinations is challenging. Although visual hallucinations can be symptomatic of psychiatric disorder, they more commonly indicate neurological or medical disorders, sensory impairment, or substance intoxication or withdrawal. Accurate diagnosis and treatment is crucial given that misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment intervention can have profound consequences. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the most prevalent causes of visual hallucinations, review the DSM-5 hallucination decision tree, and provide an annotated visual hallucination differential diagnosis decision tree.

Therapeutic Assessment In Sport Psychology, Fernando Frias

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

This paper outlines the history of assessment in sport psychology and provides a summary of controversies and criticisms of psychological testing in athletics that have persisted throughout the development of the field. Such concerns include the use of personality inventories and tests for talent identification, the misuse of tests and related ethical concerns, cultural sensitivity of tests, and debates about the validity and reliability of assessment measures. In spite of these concerns, interest and demand for psychological assessment in sport remains. Therapeutic Assessment, an emerging but not yet well-known model of collaborative psychological assessment, addresses many of these criticisms and …

Integrating Clinical Training & Self-Care: Overview, Analysis & Recommendations For Relieving Stress Among Clinicians In Training, Erich Haezebrouck

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Numerous studies over the past two decades have highlighted the prevalence of stress, mental health disorders and interpersonal problems among psychologists. These statistics parallel those for students currently enrolled in clinical psychology graduate programs where such problems have become even more severe. This results in a significant ethical issue in that clinician competency is negatively impacted by emotional problems. This paper seeks to provide an analysis of current self-care literature. The importance of addressing graduate student self-care is first explored and followed by a literature review on interventions that have been successful in maintaining trainee wellness and competence. Recommendations to …

Creating A Digital Community In Colleges Through An Interactive Theater Intervention: Guidelines For Cyberbullying Prevention During Freshmen Orientation Week, Benjamin Hindell

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Cyberbullying has created a demand for trainings and workshops that propose “digital citizenship” in schools. These trainings focus on respect for one’s self, peers, and community on and offline (Collier, 2012). Most research in the area has been on junior-high and high-school-age students. However, studies have shown that college age youth also experience cyberbullying. Freshmen may begin college with the psychological trauma of bullying and/or cyberbullying experienced in junior high and high school. They may be perpetrators, victims or both. I propose an interactive cyberbullying prevention program designed for incoming college freshmen that addresses the dynamics of traditional and cyberbullying, …

Best Practices In Team-Based Treatment Termination, Leslie Minna

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Termination of psychological treatment is a necessary part of the therapeutic process, but it can pose complex clinical, ethical, legal, logistical, and social challenges. This complexity becomes even more evident in the current era of treatment delivered by a team of healthcare professionals. Appropriate termination will usually involve a team decision and synthesis of the various team members’ recommendations for appropriate follow-up, medications, or transfer of care into an integrated formal document to be communicated to the patient. The healthcare team may also face other considerations such as record keeping and communication responsibilities when the patient (or the patient’s insurer) …

Acceptance And Commitment Therapist Views On The Sacred, Amal Abuzalaf Mull

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Spirituality and/or religion (S/R) continue to be an important topic in mental health treatment, especially regarding their relationship to a psychotherapist’s theoretical orientation and practice with clients. Given the increased relevance of spirituality to third-wave cognitive behavioral therapies, the current study explores the S/R of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) psychotherapists and how their S/R is associated to their attitudes and behaviors within mental health and their use of ACT. Online surveys were administered, producing a sample of 97 ACT psychotherapists in the United States. Results indicated low levels of religiosity and high levels of spirituality among ACT psychotherapists in …

Human Trafficking & Commercial Sex Exploitation: Treatment Recommendations For An Invisible Population, Abigail K. Wolfe

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

This article addresses the issue of human trafficking, also termed modern slavery, specifically focusing on the treatment of survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE). Treatment recommendations are made based on a trauma-focused, relational model aimed at reinstating psychological well-being in the survivor. This article reviews the literature on three related bodies of research due to the absence of direct psychological literature. Literature on captivity, control and torture, literature on the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and literature on sexual abuse treatment for those who have been victimized through the sex trade. Additionally, practical aspects of human trafficking are discussed …

Examining The Relationship Between Bicultural Stress, Mental Well-Being, Perceived Social Support, And Education Among People Of African Descent, Zemed Beraki Berhe

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Studies investigating the bicultural experiences of people of African descent are significantly underrepresented in the literature. The primary purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between experiences of bicultural stress and mental well-being. In investigating this relationship, perceived social support and education were examined as protective factors, and its relationship to bicultural stress for this population. With the ultimate goal of this information contributing to the understanding of bicultural processes within this population and the relationship to mental health outcomes. A non-experimental (non-randomized) research design was utilized to examine the study research questions and hypotheses. The participants …

Decreasing Disparities In Physical Activity: An Intervention Based On Self-Determination Theory And Motivational Interviewing, Lauren S. Miller

Dissertations - ALL

Objective. The mental and physical benefits of physical activity are well-established. However, there is a racial disparity in exercise, such that minorities are less likely to engage in physical activity than are white individuals. Research suggests that a lack of motivation is an important barrier to physical activity for racial minorities. Therefore, motivational interventions may be especially useful in promoting physical activity within minority populations. A previous meta-analysis has found that physical activity interventions based on self-determination theory (SDT) and motivational interviewing (MI) are especially effective in increasing white individuals' physical activity (Miller & Gramzow, 2015). The objective of this …

Working With Embroideries And Counter-Maps: Engaging Memory And Imagination Within Decolonizing Frameworks, Puleng Segalo, Einat Manoff, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

As people around the world continue to have their voices, desires, and movements restricted, and their pasts and futures told on their behalf, we are interested in the critical project of decolonizing, which involves contesting dominant narratives and hegemonic representations. Ignacio Martín - Baró called these the “collective lies” told about people and politics. This essay reflects within and across two sites of injustice, located in Israel/Palestine and in South Africa, to excavate the circuits of structural violence, internalized colonization and possible reworking of those toward resistance that can be revealed within the stubborn particulars of place, history, and culture. …

Comparing Outcomes From An Online Substance Abuse Treatment Program And Residential Treatment Programs For Consumers Who Are Deaf: A Pilot Study, Josphine Wilson Ph.D., Deb Guthmann Ed.D., Jared Embree, Susan Fraker

JADARA

Numerous barriers exist when attempting to provide culturally appropriate substance use disorder (SUD) treatment to persons who are Deaf, including a lack of accessible community-based treatment providers. To address these barriers, the Deaf Off Drugs and Alcohol (DODA) Program has provided culturally and linguistically appropriate cessation and recovery support services via a telemedicine program to Deaf individuals who are clinically diagnosed with a SUD. This study was conducted to assess whether an online SUD treatment program, such as DODA, is an effective way to serve the Deaf population, which is underserved due to communication and other cultural barriers. DODA’s effectiveness …

Building Metamemorial Knowledge Over Time: Insights From Eye Tracking About The Bases Of Feeling-Of-Knowing And Confidence Judgements, Elizabeth F. Chua, Lisa A. Solinger

Publications and Research

Metamemory processes depend on different factors across the learning and memory time-scale. In the laboratory, subjects are often asked to make prospective feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments about target retrievability, or are asked to make retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs) about the retrieved target. We examined distinct and shared contributors to metamemory judgments, and how they were built over time. Eye movements were monitored during a face-scene associative memory task. At test, participants viewed a studied scene, then rated their FOK that they would remember the associated face. This was followed by a forced choice recognition test and RCJs. FOK judgments were less …

Gods Of The City? Reflecting On City Building Games As An Early Introduction To Urban Systems, Bradley Bereitschaft

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

For millions of gamers and students alike, city building games (CBGs) like SimCity and the more recent Cities: Skylines present a compelling initial introduction to the world of urban planning and development. As such, these games have great potential to shape players’ understanding and expectations of real urban patterns and processes. In this article I argue that, despite the fundamental role of agency in CBGs and other sandbox type games, players are constrained by the developers’ assumptions and biases regarding how cities ought to look and function. Of particular consideration is the tendency among CBGs to emphasize personal transportation over …

Socially Deviant Communities Online: How The Pro-Anorexia Movement Utilizes The Anonymity Provided By The Internet To Thrive, Samantha Thomas

Honors Theses

The creation of the internet has produced an environment in which many communities have been able to develop into strong and thriving societies. A large number of communities that are now predominantly online were unable to exist successfully before the establishment of the internet for a variety of reasons. The internet has made it easier for people from different backgrounds and locations to network, form communities, and share information with one another. Unfortunately the internet has also given harmful underground communities the opportunity to develop and thrive as well. Socially deviant communities, groups that support ideas and behaviors deemed unacceptable …

Construct Validation Of The Psychosocial Costs Of Racism To Whites Scale For Ashkenazic Jews In The United States, Emile Tobias Berk

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study is a construct validation of the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (Spanierman & Heppner, 2004) with Orthodox and non-Orthodox Ashkenazic (of European descent) American Jews. While Jewish-American biculturalism has been explored at length, there is a dearth of psychological research on Jewish-White biculturalism (Langman, 1999). Furthermore, the literature has yet to explore the impact of Jewish religious diversity on Ashkenazic-American self-perception as racially White beneficiaries of unearned privilege.

The Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW) measures three dimensions of White racial attitudes: White Empathic Reactions Towards Racism, White Guilt, and White Fear of Others. …

Gesture As Revelation, Laurel Panella

Graduate School of Art Theses

Abstract

The two divergent paths of fine arts and psychological research come together to demonstrate how physical gesture and facial expression communicates significant meaning regarding human emotion and intention. The conceptual framework of these paintings arises from the artist’s engagement with peer-reviewed psychological studies on Affective Science. The paintings balance qualities of both emotional and intellectual thinking, with the goal of calling them forth in equal strength during the viewing experience. The symbolic and representational language of gesture is examined through the painting titled Precarious Extension. Dynamics of compassion and affect theory are analyzed through the painting Transmission of …

One-Session Mindfulness Meditation: The Effects Of Stress Anticipation, Christina Dorothy Colgary

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The current study concerns three main questions that are related to mindfulness meditation: the benefits of a brief preventative one-session mindfulness meditation, the effects of mindfulness meditation compared to a concentrative meditation, and correlations between rumination and stress when facing anticipated and unanticipated stressors. Type of meditation and whether or not participants could anticipate an upcoming stressor were varied in four conditions. Participants completed one 20-minute session of either mindfulness meditation or guided imagery meditation and were informed of a speech preparation task either before or after completing the meditation. Both one-session of mindfulness meditation and guided imagery meditation were …

Breaking Apart The Reinforcement Learning Deficit In Schizophrenia, Adam Culbreth

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Reinforcement learning deficits have long been associated with schizophrenia. However, tasks traditionally used to assess these deficits often rely on multiple processing streams leaving the etiology of these task deficits unclear. In the current study, we borrowed a recent framework from computational neuroscience, which separates reinforcement-learning into two distinct systems, model-based and model-free. Under this framework, the model-free system learns about the value of actions in the immediate context, while the model-based system learns about the value of actions in both immediate and subsequent states that may be encountered as a result of their actions. Using a decision task that …

Emotion Regulation Goals Influence Strategy Use And Outcomes, Lameese Eldesouky

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Functionalist theories of emotion posit that people regulate their emotions in ways that help them accomplish their goals, suggesting that goals may be important for strategy selection. Two studies were conducted to examine reappraisal and suppression use when pursuing emotional and instrumental goals, and to assess the utility of those strategies in achieving distinct goals. Both studies found a stronger link between emotional goals and reappraisal than between emotional goals and suppression, but found no preference between strategies when pursuing an instrumental goal. Study 1 found that reappraisal had higher utility than suppression in achieving emotional goals, but not instrumental …

Striatal Activity Is Associated With Deficits Of Cognitive Control And Aberrant Salience For Patients With Schizophrenia, Alan E. Ceaser

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

A recent study has shown that the locus of the largest known dopamine abnormality between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls is in the associative striatum (Kegeles et al., 2010). This dopamine abnormality in the associative striatum is thought to bring about aberrant salience assignment for patients, which may underlie symptoms of psychosis like delusions and hallucinations (Howes & Kapur, 2009). Interestingly, the associative striatum has segregated, looped, connectivity with cortical regions including the prefrontal and parietal cortices (Draganski et al., 2008; Redgrave, Vautrelle, & Reynolds, 2011) and computational models have suggested that it may function as an information gate …

How Do Voters Remember Flip-Flopping? Memorial And Social Consequences Of Change Recollection, Adam Lewis Putnam

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents 3 experiments that explore how people notice and remember a politician’s change in position. Subjects read position statements made by politicians at two different debates; sometimes the politicians were consistent across debates, sometimes they changed positions, and sometimes they only addressed an issue at Debate 2. Subjects recalled the positions from Debate 2 and reported whether they thought the politician had changed positions on that issue. The results showed that changing positions made it more difficult for people to remember a politician’s most recent position; however, recollecting that a change occurred eliminated that memory deficit. Experiment 1 …

The Attention Abilities And Grey Matter Development Of School Aged Children Born Very Preterm, Rachel Emma Lean

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Although children born very preterm (VPT, <33 weeks gestational age) are 2–3 times more likely to receive a diagnosis of ADHD in childhood than full term children, the nature and extent of their attention problems is not well understood. Furthermore, little is known about the mechanisms that place VPT children at increased risk of attention impairment. Previous research has shown strong links between white matter abnormalities and adverse motor and cognitive outcomes, but not for attention. This suggests that the mechanism for inattention may be different in this group. Thus, the aims of the current study were 1) to describe the nature and extent of attention problems in VPT children, 2) to document regional structural alterations in grey matter volume between VPT and full term children, and 3) to relate attention outcomes to regional grey matter volumes in VPT children at age 12 years. As part of a prospective longitudinal study, VPT children (n = 110) and full term control children (n = 113) underwent a neurodevelopmental assessment and structural MRI scan at age 12 years. Key attention outcomes included selective, sustained, and executive attention; assessed with the Test of Everyday Attention for Children and adjusted for social background risk. To examine associations between very preterm birth and grey matter development, structural T1-weighted images were analyzed for all study children using optimized voxel based morphometry (FWE-corrected p<0.05), adjusted for age at scan and social background characteristics. Modulated gray matter volume values were then extracted from key brain regions and related to measures of attention within the VPT group. At age 12 years, VPT children were characterized by poorer sustained (ps≤.03) and executive attention (ps≤.01) compared to full term children. Group differences in executive attention remained after adjustment for social background risk (ps≤.02). VPT children evidenced reduced grey matter volume in the bilateral parietal, temporal, left prefrontal, and posterior cingulate cortices; bilateral thalami, and bilateral hippocampus (FWE-corrected p<0.05). Increased grey matter volume was also found in the medial occipital and anterior cingulate cortices (FWE-corrected p<0.05). Within the VPT group, thalamic volume was correlated with selective attention (r = -.34) and executive shifting attention (r = .32); medial occipital volume correlated with sustained response inhibition (r = .24); and volumes in the thalami (r = -.36) and left temporal (r = -.35), posterior cingulate (r = -.36) and occipital cortices (r = -.30) correlated with executive divided attention. Reduced grey matter volume in the occipital (p = .05) and posterior cingulate (p = .006) regions at age 12 years independently predicted attention after taking into account the infant clinical, neuropathological and social factors also related to attention outcomes. Findings indicate that VPT children experience lapses in attention, difficulty shifting attentional focus, and problems with multitasking. The structural abnormalities identified in regional grey volume at age 12 years suggests that grey matter growth and development is vulnerable to the consequences of very preterm birth. Importantly, regional grey matter volume was deferentially and independently associated with attention abilities in VPT children, highlighting grey matter growth and development as an important neural mechanism for attention in VPT children. The findings of the current study raise concerns for the longer term neurological development of children born very preterm, while also emphasizing the need for tailored educational support services that addresses the attention problems of this group as they transition into higher level education during their early teenage years.

Relationship Between Serum Biomarkers And Three-Month Outcomes Following Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi), Alicia Leanne Janos

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

With more than 475,000 cases annually, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Promising new tools for the prediction of functional outcomes following pediatric TBI are biomarkers of brain injury that can be detected in blood serum. The most commonly studied biomarkers, S100β, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and myelin basic protein (MBP), have myriad limitations which preclude their use in clinical care. In the present study, serum concentrations of two novel biomarkers of brain injury (i.e., ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase-L1, UCH-L1; glial fibrillary acidic protein, GFAP) were collected 24 hours following severe TBI in 30 …

Social Networking Website Use And Eating Pathology: Relations, Moderators, And Motivation To Improve, Michelle S. St. Paul

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Social networking website (SNW) use has been found to be associated with decreased body image or esteem and increased eating disorder (ED) symptoms. In turn, SNW use may also be associated with decreased motivation to improve body image (BI) and reduced self-efficacy in one’s ability to do so. However, the impact of SNW use on motivation or self-efficacy to improve BI has not yet been studied. Also, particular moderators of the relationships between SNW and eating pathology have not yet been evaluated. This study aimed to: 1) replicate past literature by examining the relation between SNW use and eating pathology, …

In Search Of A Lost Effect: Generality Of Discrepancy Effects In Memory Paradigms, Ji Hae Lee

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The current project investigated the generality of discrepancy effect in retrospective memory (RM) reported by Whittlesea and colleagues (e.g., Whittlesea & Williams, 2001a) and the generality of discrepancy effect in prospective memory (PM) reported by McDaniel and colleagues (e.g., McDaniel, Guynn, Einstein, & Breneiser, 2004). Experiments 1a and 2 tested the claim that discrepancy, elicited by mismatching the expected and the actual processing fluency, can give rise to familiarity under an RM context and increase familiarity judgments of discrepant items, independent of previous encounters with those items. Experiment 1b tested the claim that, within a PM context, such discrepancy can …

Relationships Between Age And White Matter Integrity In Children With Phenylketonuria, Erika M. Wesonga

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a hereditary metabolic disorder associated with cognitive compromise. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has allowed detection of poorer microstructural white matter integrity in children with PKU, with decreased mean diffusivity (MD) in comparison with healthy children. However, very little research has been conducted to examine the trajectory of white matter development in this population. The present study investigated potential differences in the developmental trajectory of MD between children with early- and continuously-treated PKU and healthy children across a range of brain regions. Methods: Children with PKU (n = 31, mean age = 12.2 years) were …

Eye Contact And Social Anxiety Disorder, Julia Kane Langer

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The psychoevolutionary theory of social anxiety disorder (SAD) predicts that individuals with SAD will avoid eye contact to communicate submissiveness. However, direct testing of gaze avoidance in individuals with higher social anxiety through behavioral observation or measurement has produced mixed findings. The goals of this dissertation are to test one of the components of the psychoevolutionary theory, namely, that gaze avoidance is employed by people with SAD, as well as to test whether positive affect may play a role in regulating gaze avoidance. Specifically, based on prior research supporting the role of positive affect in regulating exploratory behavior, I hypothesized …

Manipulation Of Negative Social Evaluative Fears On Body Dissatisfaction And Eating Behaviors: Does Fear Of Social Evaluation Lead To Disordered Eating?, Cheri A. Levinson

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Social anxiety and eating disorders are highly comorbid. Researchers have suggested that there may be shared vulnerabilities that underlie the development of these disorders. Two of these proposed vulnerabilities are fear of negative evaluation and social appearance anxiety (i.e., fear of negative evaluation specifically focused on one’s appearance). Regarding disordered eating, previous self-report research has found that social appearance anxiety may be especially relevant for body dissatisfaction, whereas fear of negative evaluation may be relevant for drive for thinness. In the current study I manipulated fear of negative evaluation and social appearance anxiety using a speech task in 160 undergraduate …

The Influence Of Word Frequency And Aging On Lexical Access, Emily Rebecca Cohen-Shikora

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Visual word recognition has been a central area of psychological inquiry over the past century. The current dissertation examines how visual word recognition changes as a function of age by focusing on the influence of word frequency, or how commonly a word is encountered. Word frequency is arguably the strongest predictor of visual word recognition performance across a variety of language tasks, and the most influential factor in models of language processing. All models of visual word recognition include a strong role for word frequency but often assume different underlying mechanisms, which produce differing predictions for age changes. Although there …

Controlling The Influence Of Stereotypes On One’S Thoughts (Preprint Title: Controlling Implicit Bias: Insights From A Public Health Perspective), Patrick S. Forscher, Patricia G. Devine

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research on reducing or controlling implicit bias has been characterized by a tension between the two goals of reducing lingering intergroup disparities and gaining insight into human cognition. The tension between these two goals has created two distinct research traditions, each of which is characterized by different research questions, methods, and ultimate goals. We argue that the divisions between these research traditions are more apparent than real and that the two research traditions could be synergistic. We attempt to integrate the two traditions by arguing that implicit bias, and the disparities it is presumed to cause, is a public health …