Psychology Commons^™

A Review Of Pre-Clinical Studies On Meth-Induced Gut Microbiome Alterations, Payton Brabant

Honors Theses

Substance use disorder (SUD) is a chronic, pervasive disease that affects approximately 40.3 million people aged 12 and over within the United States (SAMHSA, 2021). Recent investigations have emphasized preventive measures targeting the development of SUDs and the occurrence of relapse. However, to date, FDA-approved medications are only available for those with alcohol (AUD) and opioid use disorders (OUD) (Forouzan et al., 2021). Given that about 964,000 people have methamphetamine use disorder (MUD) within the United States, investigation of novel treatment approaches for psychostimulant abuse is warranted (Forouzan, Hoffman, and Kosten, 2020). Several negative effects can occur after using methamphetamine …

Children's And Caregivers' Review Of A Guided Imagery Therapy Mobile App Designed To Treat Children With Functional Abdominal Pain Disorders: Leveraging A Mixed Methods Approach With User-Centered Design, John M Hollier, Tiantá A Strickland, C Michael Fordis, Miranda Al Van Tilburg, Robert J Shulman, Debbe Thompson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) are highly prevalent and associated with substantial morbidity. Guided imagery therapy (GIT) is efficacious; however, barriers often impede patient access. Therefore, we developed a GIT mobile app as a novel delivery platform.

OBJECTIVE: Guided by user-centered design, this study captured the critiques of our GIT app from children with FAPDs and their caregivers.

METHODS: Children aged 7 to 12 years with Rome IV-defined FAPDs and their caregivers were enrolled. The participants completed a software evaluation, which assessed how well they executed specific app tasks: opening the app, logging in, initiating a session, setting the …

Volume 14, Ireland Seagle, Dalton C. Whitby, Cassandra Poole, Rachel Cannon, Heidi Parker-Combes, Devon G. Shifflett, Antonio Harvey

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Dr. Amorette Barber
• From the Editor: Dr. Larissa "Kat" Tracy
• From the Designers: Rachel English, Rachel Hanson
• Hungry Like the Wolf: The Wolf as Metaphor in Paramount Network’s Yellowstone: Ireland Seagle
• “Floating Cities”: Illustrating the Commercial and Conservation Conflict of Alaskan Cruise Ship Tourism: Dalton C. Whitby
• What Can You Do When Your Genes are the Enemy? Current Applications of Gene Manipulation and the Associated Ethical Considerations: Cassandra Poole
• La doble cara: un tema romántico en las obras de Larra y Hawthorne: Rachel Cannon
• Resolving a Conflict: How to …

Specific Impairment Of High School And College Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Kayla Boaz

ONU Student Research Colloquium

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. For decades, ADHD was regarded as a disorder that primarily impacted children in academic settings; we now know that ADHD often lasts into adulthood and causes not only academic impairment, but social, emotional, and executive functioning impairment as well.

The transition from high school to college is characterized by increased expectations for emotional regulation abilities, social skill functioning, academic achievement, and personal responsibility. Furthermore, emerging adults are frequently exposed to new experiences with substance use and sexual activity. For emerging adults with ADHD, …

Plant Sentience: Bias And Promise, Sidney Carls-Diamante

Animal Sentience

Whichever side of the debate one chooses, plant sentience is a fertile research area that challenges received views and assumptions, generates novel insights, and suggests new ways that felt states might arise. My commentary discusses methodological and philosophical implications.

The Development And Psychometric Properties Testing Of Intolerance Of Uncertainty Scale For Indonesian Adults, Divani Aery Lovian, Dewi Maulina, Hilma Ramadina, Nathania Kusuma

Psychological Research on Urban Society

Uncertain situations have further exacerbated great vulnerability to stressors and a high risk of mental health problems in urban populations. The adverse effects of uncertainty on well-being have been increasingly concerning and heightened the need to understand intolerance of uncertainty (IU) as a factor that influences responses to uncertainty. However, few scales have been developed to measure IU, especially in Indonesia. To address this concern, the current study aimed to develop a reliable and valid Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale for Indonesian Adults (IUS-A). The scale was developed and validated using data from 588 participants aged 20–65 years (M = …

Perceptions Of Tourism And Quality Of Life: A Case Study In Savannah, Georgia, Marissa J. Renee

Honors College Theses

The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that Travel and Tourism accounted for 10.3% of the world economy in 2019 and ¼ of all net new jobs over the past five years. Savannah, Georgia has experienced huge growth in the last decade due to tourism, with visitor spending on lodging alone increasing from $466 million in 2009 to $1 billion in 2019. The current study examined differences in perceived impact of tourism on quality of life using established predictors of tourism sentiments. An online community survey was conducted in Chatham County, Georgia (N = 94) using the Tourism Quality of …

The Contradictory Effect Of The Strong Black Woman Trope In The Media, Jasmin Andrews

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Theoretical Proposal

The Baconian Ethics Of Psychosurgery, Elizabeth Mathews

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Theoretical Proposal

Understanding Military Attachment Regarding Deployment And Attachment Theory, Julia Priftis

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Theoretical Proposal

Experiences Of Post-Master's Arts Based Supervision With Art Therapists Of Color, Madoka Urhausen

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study explored experiences of art therapists of color who underwent post-master’s arts-based supervision (ABS) to obtain an art therapy credential. ABS emphasizes creation of clinical insight and knowledge through not only reviewing and evaluating client’s art and art processes but also having supervisees to engage in their own artmaking in response to their clinical work. The sample was chosen for their intersectional identities that added a layer of complexity to their identity formation. This qualitative phenomenological study employed Culturally Responsive Focus Group (CRFG) with Arts-based Research (ABR) methodology to explore two questions: (1) What are the experiences of …

Louisiana Academic Library Workers And Workplace Bullying, Catherine Baird, Andrea Hebert, Justin Savage

University Libraries Scholarship and Creative Works

Workplace bullying is a problem in many work environments and can take different forms, including spreading gossip, criticism of work, unreasonable workloads, and being excluded. It can cause physical, psychological, and emotional stress, manifesting as depression, anxiety, self-esteem issues, exhaustion, feelings of rage/despair, and in some cases, post-traumatic stress disorder or suicide. Little is known, however, about the prevalence of bullying amongst library workers in academic libraries. This comprehensive state-wide study provides a replicable model to explore workplace bullying in a systematic manner amongst all academic library workers, not just librarians.

Division I Softball Athletes' Perceptions On Stress, Coping, Performance, And Mental Health, Rhianna Weall

LSU Master's Theses

Collegiate athletes face numerous stressors in both athletic and academic areas of performance. Their perceptions of situations dictate coping responses and their ability to enact behavior or implement strategies to manage stress levels. This study investigated perceived stress and coping strategies using semi-structured in-person interviews with five current NCAA Division I softball players. Three main themes emerged from the interviews: (a) Pressure is Privilege, (b) Team Dynamic and Identity Development, (c) Softball-Centrism. In the first theme, pressure is viewed as a positive aspect and as an opportunity to perform in areas of high and low levels of confidence. Within the …

Mechanisms Linking Threat- And Deprivation-Related Childhood Adversity And Depression: The Biopsychosocial Model, Cut N. Kemala, Marijtje L.A. Jongsma, Donny Hendrawan, Eni Becker

Psychological Research on Urban Society

Childhood adversity involves a wide range of negative experiences that pose a serious threat to a child’s wellbeing. It has been consistently shown to predict (chronic) depression in subsequent stages of development, but mechanisms underlying the relationship are still less clear. Moving from a cumulative approach of lumping heterogeneous categories of childhood adversity to a dimensional approach of classifying negative experiences into two major dimensions (threat and deprivation) has facilitated the identification of specific processes by which childhood adversity can predict depression. This review aims to provide an integrative overview of how childhood adversity increases the risk for depression using …

Mental Health In Transnational Contexts: Reconsidering Conceptualizations, Coping Strategies, And Racism Through The Narratives Of Refugees Resettled In The United States, Ryeora Choe, Ryeora Choe

Sociology ETDs

This dissertation examines refugees’ mental health conceptualizations in their resettled contexts, their views on Western mental health services, and their perspectives on how changing experiences related to discrimination affect their mental health. Despite refugees’ social and cultural contexts changing multiple times, little is known about their views on and interactions with the dominant biomedical model of mental health in their country of resettlement and how their hybrid identities and experiences embedded in multiple locations affect their understanding of mental health and healing practices. A transnational framework emphasizing continuity between various locations and “in-between the designations of identity” across borders, and …

The Hero’S Journey As A Novel, Narrative, And Improvisational Group Intervention On Quality Of Life For People With Parkinson’S Disease, Robert D. Cochrane, James W. Navalta, Anne E. Weisman

Heroism Science

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the fastest-growing neurological diseases in the world. Pharmaceutical and surgical interventions continue to advance to better address motor symptoms. However, disability from non-motor symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, and stress persist. Expressive therapies, including art, music, and dance are being explored and implemented more frequently to address this growing need. We developed this study to examine the feasibility of a novel program using online narrative therapy, with constructs from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and improvisation for people with PD (PWPD). Participants from across the U.S. and U.K. met online via Zoom once a week …

Flying Under The Radar: A Survey Of Collegiate Pilots’ Mental Health To Identify Aeromedical Nondisclosure And Healthcare-Seeking Behaviors, Emily Faulconer, Lauren Pitts

Publications

The disclosure of a new or existing mental health condition in a pilot complicates their medical certification status. It has been proposed that the threat of losing medical certification often discourages pilots from seeking treatment for mental health issues or disclosing such information to aeromedical professionals, contributing to a barrier to seeking healthcare that affects pilots of all certification levels. The current study focused on the nondisclosure and healthcare-seeking behaviors of the collegiate pilot population(N = 2,452)at a large, accredited, private institution that offers flight training in accordance with Pilot Schools (2022). Data collected from our anonymous online survey over …

The Role Of Occupational Therapy In A Student Athlete’S Transition From High School To College, Justus Basinger, Keisa Boykin, Mary Shotwell

Spring 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

The purpose of the project is to identify the issues facing student-athletes as they transition from high school to college and to determine occupational therapists’ role in the transition for student-athletes. To allow for specialized help in the transition process from high school to college, this research project will provide greater detail about the areas in which student-athletes experience stressors.

Brain Deficit Patterns Of Metabolic Illnesses Overlap With Those For Major Depressive Disorder: A New Metric Of Brain Metabolic Disease, Kathryn S Hatch, Si Gao, Yizhou Ma, Alessandro Russo, Neda Jahanshad, Paul M Thompson, Bhim M Adhikari, Heather Bruce, Andrew Van Der Vaart, Aristeidis Sotiras, Mark D Kvarta, Thomas E Nichols, Lianne Schmaal, L Elliot Hong, Peter Kochunov

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Metabolic illnesses (MET) are detrimental to brain integrity and are common comorbidities in patients with mental illnesses, including major depressive disorder (MDD). We quantified effects of MET on standard regional brain morphometric measures from 3D brain MRI as well as diffusion MRI in a large sample of UK BioBank participants. The pattern of regional effect sizes of MET in non-psychiatric UKBB subjects was significantly correlated with the spatial profile of regional effects reported by the largest meta-analyses in MDD but not in bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease. We used a regional vulnerability index (RVI) for MET (RVI-MET) to measure …

Sentience: Back To The Science From The Words, David A. Booth

Animal Sentience

Contributors to this discussion acknowledge ambiguities in the terms used, including ‘feelings’, ‘behavior’, ‘cognition’ and ‘sentience’ itself. Yet they continue to use such words without reference to scientific criteria established by experimental psychology.

Processes Of Change In Online Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Hoarding, Jennifer Krafft, Julie M. Petersen, Clarissa W. Ong, Michael P. Twohig, Michael E. Levin

Psychology Faculty Publications

Initial research suggests that acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is efficacious in treating hoarding problems, but processes of change in ACT for hoarding are unclear. Thus, we investigated potential mediators and moderators in a randomized waitlist-controlled trial (n = 73) of web-based ACT for U.S. adults with clinically significant hoarding problems. Hoarding severity was significantly correlated with hoarding-related psychological inflexibility (r = 0.52, p < .01), mindful awareness (r = −0.40, p < .01), and beliefs that people with hoarding disorder are different from others (r = 0.31, p < .01). Effects of ACT were not significantly moderated by age, gender, or baseline hoarding-related psychological inflexibility. Longitudinal mediation analyses did not support mediation by hypothesized processes. However, the effect of condition on hoarding severity at follow-up was significantly mediated by hoarding-related psychological inflexibility at follow-up (ab = −0.41 [95% CI: 0.85, −0.01]), and change in hoarding-related psychological inflexibility (r = 0.73, p < .01) and mindful awareness (r = −0.69, p < .01) was correlated with change in hoarding symptoms over time. Overall, our results suggest that psychological inflexibility, self-stigma, and mindful awareness are indeed related to hoarding symptoms, but we cannot conclude that they underly the effects of ACT for hoarding. Limitations include a predominantly White and female sample.

Can’T Escape Hell: Negative Religious Beliefs Persist Among Religious Dones, Carmen Casper, Chloe Swanson, Isabella Brady, Hannah Fuller

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

Previous research on deidentification from religion explores the residual effects of religion (i.e., religious residue; Van Tongeren et al., 2021). We sought to understand religious residue effects, and predicted that although currently religious individuals would report the highest degree of religious cognition, religious dones would report greater religious cognition than never religious individuals. We examined negative religious beliefs, taboos, pattern detection, and superstitious thinking. A total of 925 participants from the United States and the United Kingdom were recruited through Prolific; 300 currently religious, 298 religious "dones" and 327 never religious (236 male, 578 female, 4 transgender, 1 other, 4 …

Calm Sr: Classroom Activities For Learning And Managing Self-Regulation, Corina Arroyo, Angela Labrie Blackwell, Mallorie Garcia

Spring 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

CALM SR is a program developed for 3-4-year-olds to increase successful participation in desired occupations due to improved self-regulation skills. This program is designed for implementation in a preschool setting over the course of 9 weeks. This program incorporates activities that target sill acquisition across multiple domains. Activities are supplemented by literature, visual displays, modeling, and facilitation of the self-regulation process.

Conceptualizing Hope As A Virtue, Isabella Musherure, Esther Turahirwa

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

The purpose of this study is to develop a quantitative measure for conceptualizing hope as a virtue while expanding on the psychological framework of hope theory. Hope has predominantly been studied in positive psychology under Snyder's Hope Theory framework (Snyder, 2002). However, its current definition does not encompass a virtuous definition of hope, something that is inherently good. Hope Theory predominately studies hope as a personal trait that promotes individual success and well-being (Schornick et al., 2022). Virtues are a target of much scientific focus and a theoretical framework has recently been proposed to further its empirical study (Fowers et …

Does Visual Dominance Influence Looking Patterns In Adults?, Erin Vokal, Lars Overos, Lauren Tocco

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

Language acquisition begins with learning names of common objects by discovering the link between the word and the object. Yet even this is difficult because many objects are often in view when an object's name is spoken. Research shows that children hold objects close to their faces, making them larger in view than other objects, which we call "visual dominance". Infants learn names of objects better when the object named is visually dominant (Yu & Smith, 2012). We want to test if visual dominance aids word learning even when objects are not being held. We will test this by displaying …

Humbly More Religious: The Role Of Humility In Religious Change, Chloe Swanson, Hannah Fuller, Carmen Casper, Isabella Brady

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

Recent polls indicate that rates of individuals in the United States who identify as currently religious are declining (Twenge et al., 2016). Events such as COVID-19, presidential elections, and personal adversity affect religious change, likely because such events threaten one's religious worldview. One understudied area of religious change is intellectual humility. Religious change may be more welcome and less destabilizing. We seek to better understand religious change by examining the critical role of humility. In this study, individuals who attended a ex-vangelical conference participated in a year-long longitudinal study where they answered surveys in both 2019 and 2020. These surveys …

Infants’ Ability To Associate Objects And Their Names, Nycole Kragt, Chloe Swanson

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

Language learning is a complex, dynamic process (Kaplan, 2008). Nevertheless, research indicates that infants as young as 6 months can learn the names for common objects (Bergelson & Swingley, 2012). Learning to associate objects and their names is a difficult task. However, research demonstrates that when infants see objects and hear their names simultaneously across multiple settings, they can begin to associate word-object pairings (Yu & Smith, 2008). This process is called "cross-situational learning." The present study uses eye-tracking to examine how infants accomplish cross-situational word learning. Infants are randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a naming condition where …

Infant Object Transference And Play Preference, Elianna Kuehn, Danielle Mitchell, Grace Sarafa

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

This study investigates the link between virtual object learning and physical object play. This concept is relevant for today's digital culture where infants are routinely exposed to online educational programs (Barr, 2010). Research is unclear, however, about if and how what infants learn about objects on screen (visual preferences) applies to play choices — primary contexts for early learning.

The ability to recognize that an object's image on a screen is the same as the physical object is referred to as object transference (OT). For example, OT would be the ability to see an image of a cow on a …

Social And Emotional Knowledge In Hippocampal Amnesia, Ashley M. Trainor, Olivia Onderdonk

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

The hippocampus has been found to play a role in general semantic knowledge, but it is unclear if it plays a role in social and emotional semantics. This study seeks to evaluate the role of the hippocampus in social and emotional semantics through the study of patients with hippocampal damage and severe amnesia. Although previous literature has shown that individuals who have damage to their hippocampus show deficits in neutral words, we predict that the hippocampal amnesic group should show the same social-emotional knowledge as the healthy control group. For this study, we investigate this by using more sensitive measures …

Trait Sadism In Bdsm Practitioners And Non-Practitioners, Marley Russell

Psychology ETDs

Sadism is an elusive construct within psychology. Multiple types are studied without clear psychometric or theoretical distinctions, and operationalizations of these respective sub-constructs lack validity. This study explores the empirical distinction between two sadism types: consensual sexual sadism (i.e. in the context of BDSM) and trait sadism. Trait sadism is widely synonymized with “everyday sadism”, but here conceptualized as a higher-order construct encompassing both everyday and a novel “prosocial sadism”. I develop and pilot the BDSM Identities and Behaviors (BIB) checklist in a sample of BDSM practitioners. I then compare those practitioners to non-practitioners on trait sadism and dark triad …