Clinical Psychology Commons^™

Depression, Anxiety, Perceived Social Support And Associated Factors Among Elderly Nursing Home Residents In The Klang Valley, Pritiss Nair

Student Works (2020-2029)

Introduction: Depression and anxiety among the elderly brings about various adversities which affects the physical and psychological state of an individual and is a leading cause of disability worldwide and a primary contributor to the global burden of disease. Meanwhile, perceived social support from family members, relatives or friends, may improve an individual’s conduct, coping, physical and psychological well-being. Objectives: This study aims to determine the prevalence of depression and anxiety, perceived social support as well as the socio-demographic correlates among elderly residents residing in nursing homes in the Klang Valley. Study Design: It is a cross-sectional study conducted among …

Is Burnout A Depressive Condition? A 14-Sample Meta-Analytic And Bifactor Analytic Study, Renzo Bianchi, Jay Verkuilen, Irvin S. Schonfeld, Jari J. Hakanen, Markus Jansson-Fröjmark, Guadalupe Manzano-García, Eric Laurent, Laurenz L. Meier

Publications and Research

There is no consensus on whether burnout constitutes a depressive condition or an original entity requiring specific medical and legal recognition. In this study, we examined burnout–depression overlap using 14 samples of individuals from various countries and occupational domains (N = 12,417). Meta-analytically pooled disattenuated correlations indicated (a) that exhaustion—burnout’s core—is more closely associated with depressive symptoms than with the other putative dimensions of burnout (detachment and efficacy) and (b) that the exhaustion–depression association is problematically strong from a discriminant validity standpoint (r = .80). The overlap of burnout’s core dimension with depression was further illuminated in 14 exploratory structural …

Occupational Depression, Cognitive Performance, And Task Appreciation: A Study Based On Raven’S Advanced Progressive Matrices, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) was recently developed to assess depressive symptoms that individuals specifically attribute to their work. Research on the criterion validity of the instrument is still in its infancy. In this study, we examined whether the ODI predicted performance on, and appreciation of, a cognitively challenging test. In light of the link established between clinical depression and neuropsychological impairment, and considering that individuals with depressive symptoms are more likely to feel helpless under challenging circumstances, we hypothesized that occupational depression would be associated with poorer cognitive performance and a darkened appreciation of the task undertaken. We relied …

An Online Resource To Promote Well-Being Among College Students With Social Anxiety Disorder, Valerie Maxine Sanderson, Steven M. Gerardi, Jerilyn Callen

Fall 2020 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Transitioning from high school to college can be a challenge for many students, especially those with social anxiety disorder (SAD). SAD can negatively impact a student’s ability to effectively participate in school. Occupational therapy intervention could be useful to students with SAD but many do not seek out treatment due to fear of stigmatization or discrimination. Not seeking services may place students with SAD at risk of developing unhealthy coping strategies (e.g., avoidant behaviors, alcohol use). The availability of an online resource to support participation in school, without the need to disclose their condition, could be helpful to students with …

Self-Regulation For Adolescent Survivors Of Sex Trafficking: An Occupational Therapist’S Perspective, Elyse Harmon, Becki Cohill, Susan Macdermott, Karen Park

Fall 2020 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Adolescent survivors of sex trafficking (SST) are susceptible to being in a continual dysregulated arousal state due to a lack of mastery in self-regulation. During the trafficking experience, many adolescent SST experience severe trauma and are deprived of opportunities that foster essential regulatory capacities needed for occupational engagement. The use of sensory-based approaches that focus on addressing arousal dysregulation and the impact it has on occupation is an evidence-based practice grounded in occupational therapy research.

This capstone sought to support community reintegration for adolescent SST through the development of sensory-based programming that fosters self-regulation, a skill necessary for lifelong occupational …

Pediatric Asthma And Psychological Resilience: Examining Whether Family Functioning And Social Support Relate To Asthma Symptoms And Lung Function, Dalia Jaafar, Natasha H. Hikita, Pornchai Tirakitsoontorn, Azucena Talamantes, Anchalee Yuengsrigul, Eric Sternlicht, Brooke N. Jenkins

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Upwards of 6 million children in the United States are afflicted with pediatric asthma. While previous research has linked asthma to multiple contributing biological and environmental factors, recent research suggests that psychological and social factors may have an impact on physiological outcomes of asthma like lung function and lung inflammation. Therefore, we suggest the need to study the impact of positive psychological factors such as a well-functioning family environment and beneficial social support on symptoms and lung function of children diagnosed with asthma. In the present pilot study, we recruited a total of 15 children with a confirmed asthma diagnosis …

Historical Trauma Response Scores As A Function Of Unresolved Grief And Substance Use Disorder In American Indian Populations, Andrew R. Saunders

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Abstract

Researchers are interested in the outcomes of interventions, specifically, measuring historical trauma (HT) among American Indian/Alaska Native communities and the long-term distress and substance abuse as a result of historical trauma response (HTR). Previous literature has implicated limitations in the clinical conceptualization of the relationship between intergenerational transfer of HTR and substance abuse. The aim of the current study is to examine treatment efficacy of 50 homosexual, American Indian males randomized to a culturally-adapted juxtaposition of (1) Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), (2) Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and (3) Historical Trauma and Unresolved Grief Intervention (HTUG), or (4) waitlisted on …

The Occupational Depression Inventory: A New Tool For Clinicians And Epidemiologists, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Background: Depressive symptoms induced by insurmountable job stress and sick leave for mental health reasons have become a focal concern among occupational health specialists. The present study introduces the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI), a measure designed to quantify the severity of work-attributed depressive symptoms and establish provisional diagnoses of job-ascribed depression. The ODI comprises nine symptom items and a subsidiary question assessing turnover intention. Methods: A total of 2254 employed individuals were recruited in the U.S., New Zealand, and France. We examined the psychometric and structural properties of the ODI as well as the nomological network of work-attributed depressive symptoms. …

Attachment, Exploration, And Internalized Homonegativity, Gregory J. Gagnon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Internalized homonegativity (IH; a.k.a. internalized homophobia), has been implicated in health disparities between lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons (LGBs) and their heterosexual peers. Yet, little available research has explored factors that may increase or decrease IH.

Objective: This dissertation investigates relations between child and adult attachment and IH. It further examines the mediating and moderating roles of exploration and mentalization, respectively, in the attachment–IH relation.

Method: One hundred fifty cisgender LGB adults participated in two waves of an online survey. The first assessed recalled child–maternal and child–paternal attachment and current attachment to the romantic partner. The second, conducted two …

Object Relations, Identity Formation, And Transitional Space In Religious Conversion, Arielle Rubenstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Conversion between broad religious groups is a life transformation undertaken by 15% of Americans, yet it has seldom been studied closely from a psychodynamic perspective. The psychological study of conversion began with a Protestant paradigm of sudden and total transformation of the self, and over time came to characterize different manifestations of conversion to more diverse religious groups. Research on conversion has primarily sought to understand whether conversion is essentially a psychopathological phenomenon, and has led to a multiplicity of both positive and negative, at times contradictory, findings. Research has shown that conversion is associated with insecure attachment, neurotic personality …

Traumatic Shame Memories And Development Of Paranoid Ideations, Anwesha Maitra

Psychology and Counseling Theses

Paranoia and persecutory delusions constitute the symptoms of established disorders such as schizophrenia in clinical population. Paranoia is believed to exist as a continuum within the general population. A ‘threat anticipation model’ was established by Freeman and his colleagues suggested that paranoid delusions arise from the interaction of vulnerability, emotional processes, and reasoning basis. Paranoia in the subclinical population can be caused due to high levels of emotional variants such as depression, anxiety, fear and a concept of self-awareness in a psychological individual (Carvalho et al., 2019; Lincoln et al.2009).

Recent studies have focused on the associations between these emotional …

Living With Multiple Sclerosis: A Phenomenological Study Of Worries, Concern And Psychological Problems In Iranian Patients With Ms, Zahra Abdekhodaie, Shahriar Shahidi, Mohammad Ali Mazaheri, Laily Panaghi, Vahid Nejati

The Qualitative Report

Multiple sclerosis (MS), as a progressive and degenerative illness, has an impact on different aspects of individual lives and may lead to difficulties, concerns, and worries in patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate concerns, worries and problems in patients with MS. We used a descriptive phenomenological qualitative approach. Participants were volunteers purposively selected based on their availability. We carried out deep interviews with 15 MS patients and analyzed the detailed information obtained from these interviews by using Colaizzi’s method. We extracted six essential themes and thirty-four sub-themes associated with MS from the content of the interviews. …

Clusters Of Individuals Experiences Form A Continuum Of Persistent Non-Symbolic Experiences In Adults, Jeffery A. Martin

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Persistent forms of nondual awareness, enlightenment, mystical experience, and so forth (Persistent Non-Symbolic Experience) have been reported since antiquity. Though sporadic research has been performed on these experiences, the scientific literature has yet to report a large-scale cognitive psychology study of this population. Method: Assessment of the subjective experience of 319 adult participants reporting persistent non-symbolic experience was undertaken using 6-12 hour semi-structured interviews and evaluated using grounded theory and thematic analysis. Results: Five core, consistent categories of change were uncovered: sense-of-self, cognition, affect, perception, and memory. Participants’ reports formed phenomenological groups in which the types of change …

Clinical Work With Adult Male Incest Survivors: Therapeutic Themes And Perspectives, Kathryn B. Rosenberg

Doctoral Dissertations

For psychotherapists, encountering clients who have experienced sexual trauma or abuse is inevitable, whether or not the abuse is disclosed to the therapist; however, mental health professionals receive extremely limited (if any) training on how to identify or effectively support adult clients who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Many people who experienced CSA, especially those who identify as male, remain isolated and invisible in their suffering as adults even within therapeutic spaces, facing what feel like insurmountable barriers – both internal and external – to getting help. When sexual abuse is intrafamilial, these barriers are both amplified and …

Feasibility And Validity Of Asking Patients To Define Individual Levels Of Meaningful Change On Patient-Reported Outcomes, Salene M.W. Jones, Yuxian Du, Ari Bell-Brown, Kaylin Bolt, Joseph M. Unger

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Purpose: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are frequently used in clinical care to monitor treatment response. However, most guidelines on PRO use treat all patients the same. This study tested the feasibility and validity of a method for determining individually meaningful change in PRO measures.

Methods: Participants (n = 398) completed 12 pain and distress questions to define individually meaningful change. This mixed-methods study used both quantitative and qualitative analyses, including descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and content analysis.

Results: Two-thirds (67%) of the sample reported at least one medical condition, including depression and back pain. Most participants (70%–90%) were able to answer …

Creatively Exploring Self: Applying Organic Inquiry, A Transpersonal And Intuitive Methodology, Larisa J. Bardsley Phd

The Qualitative Report

This article explores the merit of using Organic Inquiry, a qualitative research approach that is most effectively applied to areas of psychological and spiritual growth. Organic Inquiry is a research approach where the psyche of the researcher becomes the instrument of the research, working in partnership with the experiences of participants and guided by liminal and spiritual influences. Organic Inquiry is presented as a unique methodology that can incorporate other non-traditional research methods, including intuitive, autoethnographic and creative techniques. The validity and application of Organic Inquiry, as well as its strengths and limitations are discussed in the light of the …

Rejection Sensitivity And Social Support As Predictors Of Peer Victimization Among Youth With Psychiatric Illness, Katherine C. Hyde

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examined whether rejection sensitivity and perceptions of social support predicted concurrent peer victimization in a sample of adolescents with psychiatric illness. Participants included 43 adolescents, aged 12-18 with diverse psychiatric diagnoses, who were recruited from a summer residential treatment program. Participants completed measures of peer victimization, perceptions of social support, and rejection sensitivity. Participants also completed the global victimization item in the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire, which allowed for comparison of rates of peer victimization across studies (Solberg & Olweus, 2003). Results replicate and extend previous research that indicates adolescents with psychiatric illness experience high rates …

Exploration Of Physician Attitudes About Self-Care And Personal Mental Health: Possible Barriers To Physician Well Being, Candich Farrar

Dissertations

The present study was designed to examine physicians’ mental health, attitudes, and behaviors toward self-care and the utilization of mental health services. As the medical field can be very demanding and exhausting, it is believed that many physicians suffer from mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression. However, it was theorized that many physicians do not engage in adequate self-care regimes or seek support and suppress their symptoms, which may further exacerbate their illnesses. A thorough literature review was performed to explore the following: possible barriers to physicians seeking mental health services to address high rates of mental illnesses, physicians …

Moving Through Depression: Development Of A Dance/Movement Therapy Method In Psychiatric Inpatient Care, Melissa Olmedo

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Short-term psychiatric hospitalization is a challenging health care model due to its short duration of care, treating the highest risk psychiatric population. Priority care within a short-term psychiatric hospitalization involves monitoring a patient’s safety for stabilization by decreasing acute mental health symptoms. Holistic psychotherapy treatment options are needed to meet the severity of patients’ symptoms for effective stabilization within a short-term model of care. This paper investigates the first implementation of a dance/movement therapy (DMT) method within two short-term units in a notable Boston hospital. The DMT group called Mindful Movement was facilitated weekly as single sessions to adults ranging …

An Experimental Test Of The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation On Approach Behavior, Rebecca L. Campbell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emotion regulation and sleep have been identified as mechanisms that may be involved in the development and maintenance of many mental health disorders. However, there has been little research into the relation between sleep and emotion regulation. To address this gap in knowledge, a novel study was conducted. We hypothesized that sleep deprived individuals would demonstrate less approach behavior toward a negatively valenced stimulus, as well as increased self-reported avoidance, compared to a control group. To test this, a randomized controlled experiment using a behavioral measure of approach and a self-report measure of avoidance was conducted. Fifty-two healthy individuals ages …

The Missing Moral Dimension: Perceptions Of Transgressions And The Moderating Role Of Moral Foundations On Psychological Distress, Hannah Reas

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Anxiety and depression can be represented on a dimensional spectrum of negative affect, broadly termed psychological distress. Research has identified several factors that maintain negative emotion, but have neglected the possibility that individuals’ interpretations of moral issues in the larger macro-system affects their level of distress. Thus, the current study investigated the role of perceptions of moral transgressions, or cognitive interpretations of stimuli (“transgressions”) that violate beliefs about right and wrong, as a predictor of psychological distress. Furthermore, this study tested how perceptions of moral transgressions vary as a function of individuals’ own moral intuitions, or moral foundations. Participants ( …

Cancer Patients’ Tobacco Use And Tobacco Treatment Referral Response: Implementation Outcomes At A National Cancer Institute- Designated Cancer Center, Tia Borger

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Smoking after cancer diagnosis is linked to cancer-specific and all-cause mortality among other adverse outcomes. Yet, 10-20% of U.S. cancer survivors are current smokers. Implementation of evidence-based tobacco treatment in cancer care facilities is widely recommended, yet rarely accomplished. This study focuses on the early outcomes of a tobacco treatment program integrated within an NCI-designated cancer center. Participants consist of 26,365 patients seen at the cancer center during the first 18 months of implementation. The study is a retrospective chart review of patients’ tobacco use, and among current users, patients’ treatment referral response. Over 99% of patients were screened for …

Mechanisms Of Value-Biased Prioritization In Fast Sensorimotor Decision Making, Kivilcim Afacan-Seref

Dissertations and Theses

In dynamic environments, split-second sensorimotor decisions must be prioritized according to potential payoffs to maximize overall rewards. The impact of relative value on deliberative perceptual judgments has been examined extensively, but relatively little is known about value-biasing mechanisms in the common situation where physical evidence is strong but the time to act is severely limited. This research examines the behavioral and electrophysiological indices of how value biases split-second perceptual decisions and the possible mechanisms underlying the process. In prominent decision models, a noisy but statistically stationary representation of sensory evidence is integrated over time to an action-triggering bound, and value-biases …

The Role Of Awareness In Traumatic Brain Injuries: Interviews With Experts, Dominique Chao

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Approximately 2.8 million US citizens sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) annually, with more than 275,000 requiring inpatient rehabilitation (Taylor, Bell & Breiding, 2013). As rehabilitation techniques are refined and adapted to increase the speed of recovery and functional independence following TBIs, there is an ongoing need for better prognostic assessment tools. Research has shown that a lack of self-awareness following TBI is associated with poorer outcomes (e.g. employability, community reintegration) following discharge from inpatient hospitalizations (Cheng & Man, 2006; Robertson & Schmitter, 2016) and can result in decreased motivation (Simmonds & Fleming, 2003), compromised safety, poor community re-integration, and …

A Five-Sample Confirmatory Factor Analytic Study Of Burnout-Depression Overlap, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Jay Verkuilen

Publications and Research

Objective: It has been asserted that burnout—a condition ascribed to unresolvable job stress—should not be mistaken for a depressive syndrome. In this confirmatory factor analytic study, the validity of this assertion was examined.

Methods: Five samples of employed individuals, recruited in Switzerland and France, were mobilized for this study (N = 3,113). Burnout symptoms were assessed with the Shirom–Melamed Burnout Measure, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)—General Survey, and the MBI for Educators. Depressive symptoms were measured with the PHQ‐9.

Results: In all five samples, the latent factors pertaining to burnout’s components correlated on average more highly with the latent Depression …

Sexting Among Adolescents: Examining The Association Between Sexting And Self-Esteem, Hanaah Fannin

Physician Assistant Studies | Student Capstone Presentations

The primary objective of this study is to provide a systematic review of the published literature, examining the association between sexting and self-esteem in adolescents, and to identify gaps in existing knowledge to provide recommendations for future research.

The Healing Power Of The Arts - Drama Therapy And The Use Of Theatre In The Treatment Of Trauma, Brooklyn Snyder

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Theatre is an incredibly valuable therapeutic tool. In this thesis, I explore the ways in which trauma can reshape individuals lives, both cognitively and physically, impeding their sense of self, ability to trust, engagement, and many other seemingly ordinary aspects of day to day life that those of us unaffected by trauma take for granted. Additionally, I cover how employing theatrical tools, like improvisation and role play, can act as a beneficial treatment option for those who have suffered a traumatic past. Drama therapy allows individuals to reconnect with their bodies and their minds, gain new perspectives on their experiences, …

Turn That Frown Upside-Down! The Effectiveness Of Opposite Action In Changing Emotion, Kaitlyn Diane Chamberlain

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While research demonstrates that opposite action (OA) impacts emotion (Rizvi & Linehan, 2005), we lack an understanding of the mechanisms by which it produces opposite emotions. The current study dismantled emotion regulation skill components by comparing tasks with different combinations of cognitive, emotive and behavioral components. I predicted that the OA condition would be the most effective in altering negative emotion. University students (n = 194) completed a sadness induction and were randomly assigned to either a (1) control, (2) low arousal positive imagery (3) high arousal positive imagery, or (4) OA plus high arousal positive imagery condition. The control …

Social Anxiety Reduction In The Context Of Social Modeling Utilizing A Placebo Alcohol Beverage, Kyle K. Jackson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol misuse and elevated social anxiety are found to be highly comorbid, and being exposed to social models consuming alcohol can increase one’s consumption. Yet no research has thus far examined whether the internal experience of alcohol consumption (e.g., social anxiety reduction) can also be transmitted via social modeling. This bar-lab study examined the impact of social modeling behavioral cues of social anxiety on emerging adult drinkers. It was hypothesized that those exposed to a social model experiencing an apparent social anxiety reduction from drinking would themselves report lessened state social anxiety following a placebo drink, and that this effect …

The Effects Of Criminal Embeddedness On School Violence In Brazil, Braulio Figueiredo Alves Da Silva, Silvio Segundo Salej Higgins, Elenice Desouza Oliveira

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study examines the influence of criminal embeddedness on the intensity of criminal behavior among primary and secondary school students in a large Brazilian city. A database conceived by the Center for the Study of Crime and Public Security at the Federal University in Minas Gerais is used to analyze the involvement of youths displaying delinquent behavior at home or at school and how school performance and peer relationships are effected. Based on differential association and learning theories, the main hypotheses are (1) the greater the criminal embeddedness, the lower the degree of school satisfaction as well as future expectation …