Clinical Psychology Commons^™

Self-Help Treatment For At-Risk And Pathological Gamblers: Results From An Efficacy Study, Catherine Boudreault, Isabelle Giroux, Annie Goulet, Christian Jacques, Hélène Simoneau, Robert Ladouceur

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Available evidence suggests that self-help treatments may reduce problem gambling severity and gambling behaviour. However, decrease of gambling among control groups and rare assessment of key variables associated with improvement across studies leave the benefits of self-help treatments for problem gambling unclear. The current study assesses the efficacy of a self-help treatment program including three motivational telephone interviews spread over an 11-week period and a cognitive-behavioral self-help workbook. At-risk and pathological gamblers were randomly assigned to the treatment group (n = 31) or the waiting list (n = 31). Relative to the waiting list, the treatment group presented …

The Behavioral Analysis Of Gambling, Benjamin Witts, Anne Macaskill, Mack Costello

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

A behavioral analysis of gambling is unique among the psychologies. A behavioral analysis seeks answers to questions pertaining to the prediction and influence of gambling in terms of the individual gambler, and thus emphasis is placed on well-controlled small-n studies in which findings are generalized to other individuals. Further, the behavioral analysis of gambling is concerned with environmental and historical relations in accounting for current gambling behavior, and less of a reliance is placed on internal and hypothetical causal factors. This symposium explores two data-driven analyses of gambling behavior from a behavioral account of gambling while a third conceptual and …

Technology-Based Brief Interventions For At-Risk Young Adult Gamblers, Matthew P. Martens

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The purpose of this presentation to discuss my work developing and evaluating the efficacy of brief interventions designed to reduce at-risk gambling and related negative consequences among young adults. Research has established that young adults, especially college students, are more likely to meet classification for “disordered” gambling than the general adult population (Blinn et al., 2007). Brief interventions that incorporate personalized feedback have been shown to be efficacious at motivating behavior change among young adults (Cronce & Larimer, 2011). The purpose of this presentation will be to discuss my efforts at extending this work to the area of at-risk gambling. …

Narcissism, Sensation Seeking, Depression, Anxiety, And Cognitive Distortions: Comparative Analysis Between Poker And Video Lottery Terminal Players, David Levesque B.A., Serge Sevigny Ph.D., Christian Jacques M.Ps., Isabelle Giroux Ph.D.

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

According to the psycho-structural interaction model, the interaction between structural characteristics of a gambling game and player’s characteristics could foster the development of gambling problems. Those interactions may vary according to the types of game played. This study aims to compare poker and video lottery terminals players (VLTs) on six psychological characteristics (narcissism, sensation seeking, depression, anxiety, cognitive distortions and problem gambling severity) and to examine cognitive distortions as a mediator between personality/mood disturbance and problem gambling severity. The sample consisted of 191 poker players and 81 VLT players. Standard assessments were completed online and by phone within a cross-sectional …

Investigating Inner Experience While Reading An Erotic Short Story, Leiszle Rae Lapping-Carr

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An investigation of the phenomenological aspects of sexual response is needed for a more comprehensive understanding of human sexuality. To obtain high fidelity descriptions of inner experience during a sexually oriented task, the current study used Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) while seven participants read an erotic short story. Participants were trained in DES by sampling during everyday activities. After training, they were sampled while reading two classic short stories on a web-based program. Participants then sampled their experience while reading an erotic short story using the same web-based program. Some of the participants were willing to discuss their inner experience …

The Effects Of Psychopathic Traits On Social Support Networks, Stephanie Marie Molina

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Psychopathy is a personality disorder with distinctive behavioral, emotional and interpersonal features. The dual process model of psychopathy conceptualizes the construct via two distinct factors: fearless dominance (FD) and impulsive antisociality (IA). While individuals higher in psychopathic traits are less likely to cooperate with others, research examining the impact of psychopathy on individuals’ social networks is lacking. In the current study, 377 first year undergraduate students completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, the Ten Item Personality Inventory, and ratings regarding their social networks via Qualtrics. Students were asked to list up to ten friends and rate their relationship via a newly …

Identifying Maltreated Youth At High Risk For Posttraumatic Symptom Clusters Using Nonparametric Modeling, Emma H. Ross

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Certain individual factors may heighten a youth’s risk for PTSD symptoms following maltreatment (Kearney et al., 2010). This study aimed to identify maltreated youth at highest risk for re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms of PTSD. This study evaluated interactions among several demographic, affective, and cognitive variables to determine which subgroups of maltreated youth are most likely to manifest diagnostic PTSD symptom presentations in the aforementioned clusters. Participants included 400 ethnically diverse youth aged 7-18 years from Department of Family Services (DFS)-related sites in Las Vegas. This study employed Binary Recursive Partitioning (BRP) methods to identify highest risk subgroups for each …

Concurrent Mental Health And Sport Performance Enhancement In An Athlete Initiating Behavioral Intervention With No Assessed Pathology: A Case Examination Supporting Optimization, Yulia Gavrilova

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Collegiate athletes are often exposed to unique environmental stressors that may negatively impact the way they think, behave, and feel in athletic, academic, and social domains, potentially compromising their performance and mental health when cognitive and behavioral skills are relatively underdeveloped. Behavioral interventions have been shown to enhance cognitive and behavioral skills in persons with assessed mental health deficits in the general population. However, little is known about the relative effects of psychologically-based programs in persons who do not evidence pathology. Along these lines, The Optimum Performance Program in Sports (TOPPS), based on Family Behavior Therapy, was recently developed with …

Association Between Depression And Aggression In Rural Women, Laetitia Meyrueix, Gabriel Durham, Jasmine Miller, K. Bryant Smalley Phd, Psyd, Jacob C. Warren Phd

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Rural women represent approximately 20% of women living in the United States, yet research on the specific mental health needs of rural women is limited. Given the well-recognized gender-linked disparity in depression, its correlated symptoms in women still need much investigation. While emerging notions of depression in men embrace potential symptoms related to irritability and aggression, less research has focused on the potential role of aggression in depressed women. This connection may be particularly relevant for rural women who face unique mental health stressors in comparison to their urban counterparts. The purpose of this study was to examine if aggression …

Integration Of Audio-~Visual Emotional Information In Schizophrneia, Bern Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a debilitating illness characterized by a number of perceptual and

cognitive deficits. Deficits in emotional judgment and perception are consistently identified, although less is known about the integration of emotional information from separate sensory modalities. This study investigates the integration of auditory and visual emotional information in schizophrenia and healthy controls through application of an emotion judgment task modeled after the McGurk effect. The emotional judgments of 54 participants (40 SZ and 14 control participants from the community) for auditory, visual, and bimodal phonemic stimuli conveying no lexical information were analyzed. Visual and auditory stimuli conveying joy …

Factor Analysis Of The Sport Interference Checklist With Collegiate Athletes, Travis Albert Loughran

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There are a variety of cognitive and behavioral factors that have been indicated to have a negative impact on sport performance. College student-athletes may be at particular risk to evidence problems that interfere with optimal sport performance due to high physical, social, and emotional demands. To fully understand what factors influence student-athlete sport performance, appropriate, psychometrically validated assessment measures are needed. The Sport Interference Checklist (SIC) is an assessment tool that was developed to assess sport performance in both training and competitive situations for student-athletes. The SIC includes two scales, the Problems in Sport Training Scale (PSTS) and the Problems …

Differences In Absenteeism Severity Among Community Youth, Kyleigh Kay Sheldon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined the relationship between school absenteeism severity and specific clinical and family variables in 118 middle and high school youth aged 11-19 years recruited from two truancy settings. The primary aim was to determine specific clinical and family variables that may be predictive of absenteeism severity in community youth. A secondary aim was to examine the level of absenteeism that warrants the most clinical concern. Hypotheses for the proposed study were based on the premise that characteristics of a community sample of youth with problematic absenteeism would generally resemble those identified in previous clinical samples. The first set …

Examining The Inner Experience Of Individuals With Bipolar Disorder, Johanah Yoosun Kang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious, chronic mood disorder. The diagnostic criteria for BD provide a description of expected experiences of individuals with BD (e.g., sadness, expansive mood, inflated self-esteem, anhedonia). Despite these criteria, the details of inner experience of individuals with BD are generally unknown. Understanding the inner experience of individuals with BD may provide greater understanding of the lived experience of BD and may provide insights into treating BD. The present study examined the inner experience of six individuals with BD using Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES), a method aimed at apprehending high- fidelity accounts of momentary inner experience. …

Objectification Theory And Eating Pathology In Latina College Students: Testing A Culture-Specific Model, Kimberly Claudat

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To date, sociocultural risk factors for eating disorder development in Latina women are poorly understood. Objectification theory provides a useful framework for understanding how sociocultural and intrapsychic variables influence eating pathology in women. However, few studies apply an objectification theory framework to the study of disordered eating in Latina women and even fewer studies examine the influence of culture-specific variables, such as acculturative stress and marianismo beliefs. Consequently, to address limitations in extant research, the present study applied the tenets of objectification theory to the study of eating pathology in Latina women using a culture-specific model. Specifically, this study investigated …

Ethnic And American Identity As Correlates Of Eating Pathology In College Women, Liya Markovna Rakhkovskaya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

According to popular racial and cultural formation theories, ethnic identity is defined as the process of identifying with the culture and practices one's ethnic group while American identity is the process of identifying with the mainstream/majority culture and practices of the United States. A small body of research suggests that ethnic identity and American identity are positively associated with mental health in ethnic minority and European American individuals, respectively. Furthermore, a growing body of research suggests that ethnic identity is associated with diminished eating pathology in minority women. However, the protective effects of ethnic identity against eating pathology are unexplored …

Objective Circumstances Of The Death And Complicated Grief: Examining Indirect Associations Through Meaning Made Of Loss, Vincent Rozalski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

It has been proposed that losses by violent means and loss of primary attachment figures may increase the likelihood of developing a chronic and severe grief response (often referred to as complicated grief). Specifically, these losses may be more likely to violate cherished beliefs about the safety, security, and predictability of the world, and as a result, make it more difficult to find some benign (or even positive) meaning in the event. This study aims to test this hypothesis using path analysis. Participants include 741 bereaved young adults who lost someone within the past two years. Participants were recruited from …

The Attitudes And Beliefs Of Special And General Educational Professionals Concerning Alcohol And Drug Problems, Troy Wayne Kieser

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Drug and alcohol abuse is one of the greatest challenges of public education. Substance abuse affects student academic performance. Teacher attitudes concerning substance use are linked to drug and alcohol use by students. The purpose of this study was to assertion teacher attitudes and beliefs about drug and alcohol use. The data were collected using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was a modified version of the Addiction Belief Inventory (ABI) based on the five constructs (e.g., coping, efficacy, disease, lack of efficacy, moral weakness) of substance abuse (Broadus, Hartje, Roget, & Cahoon, 2010; Luke, Ribisi, Walton, & Davidson, 2002). The participants …

Who Is This About? An Exploratory Study Of Erotic Self-Focus, Evan Fertel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While the literature highlights the significance of relationship factors in the subjective sexual arousal/desire of women, other research indicates that individual factors may be just as, if not more, important to women's sexual desire and arousal. Research on the influence of intrapersonal factors in sexuality, sexual fantasy, erotica consumption and paraphilic tendencies in a subset of MtoF transsexuals suggests that self-directed attention may play a key role in women's sexual arousal/desire. Some theorists have gone so far as to suggest that women are, to some extent, their own erotic objects. The present study explored the extent to which sexual arousal/desire …

Psychosocial Correlates Of Perceived Stress And Depressive Symptoms Among Help-Seeking Hispanic Smokers, Monica Webb Hooper Phd

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Objectives: Research has demonstrated robust associations between perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and cigarette smoking. The extent to which these findings from the general population generalize to Hispanic smokers is unknown. The present study examined (a) correlates of perceived stress and depressive symptoms among help-seeking Hispanic smokers and (b) whether maladaptive coping and social support were related to stress and depressive symptoms. Design: Hispanic smokers (N=123) enrolled in an RCT completed demographic and smoking history, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, perceived social support, and maladaptive coping measures. Results: Bivariate associations indicated that perceived stress was positively correlated with depressive symptoms …

Do Masculinity And Perceived Condom Barriers Predict Heterosexual Hiv Risk Behaviors Among Black Substance Abusing Men?, A, Kathleen Burlew, Jerika Wilson, Latrice Montgomery, Bridgette Peteet, Candace Johnson, Mary Hatch-Maillette

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Although HIV prevention during substance abuse treatment is ideal, existing HIV risk-reduction interventions are less effective among Black and other ethnic minority substance abusers. The Sexual Health Model (SHM) and the Person, Extended Family and Neighborhood-3 model (PEN-3) both highlight the importance of increasing our understanding of the relationship of sociocultural factors to sexual-decision making as a step towards developing more HIV prevention interventions for ethnic minorities. However, few studies examine sociocultural factors in the sexual decision-making process of Black substance abusing men. This secondary analysis of data collected in an evaluation of Real Men Are Safe (REMAS), a HIV …

Oppositional And Anxiety Behavior Profiles In A Clinical Sample Of Youth With Selective Mutism, Rachele Diliberto

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Children with selective mutism often present as a very heterogeneous population, with both anxious (APA, 2000; 2013; Kristensen 2000; Manassis et al., 2007; Steinhausen & Juzi, 1996; Yeganeh et al., 2003) and oppositional symptoms (APA, 2013; Andersson & Thomsen, 1998; Kolvin & Fundudis, 1981; Krohn, Weckstein, & Wright, 1992). This study sought to identify anxiety and oppositional behavior profiles in a clinical sample of children with selective mutism. Also, this study sought to determine both discriminant and concurrent validity for these profiles and examine their association with family expressiveness, conflict and control. Participants (n=57) included youth receiving treatment at the …

Exploring The Inner Experience Of Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Stacy Reger

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Military veterans have returned from combat changed by exposure to trauma for as long as history has been recorded. The field of psychology contains a vast literature describing and attempting to understand Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its detrimental effects on the lives of individuals with the disorder. Despite the volume of study dedicated to PTSD in the literature, in-depth accounts of the lived experience of individuals with PTSD are rare. The current study utilized Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES), a method based on apprehending high-fidelity accounts of momentary inner experience, to explore the inner experience of eight Operation Iraqi Freedom …

Unfinished Business In Bereavement: A Mixed Methods Study, Kara Lee Klingspon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Unfinished business(incomplete, unexpressed or unresolved relationship issues with the deceased) is frequently discussed as a risk factor for chronic and severe grief reactions. However, few empirical studies have examined this construct. The present study aimed to address this gap in the literature by examining the presence and severity of unfinished business as well as common themes of unfinished business reported in open-ended qualitative narratives among a sample of 256 bereaved individuals. In bivariate analyses, self-reported presence of unfinished business and the severity of distress due to unfinished business were both found to be associated with higher levels of distress and …

Impaired Theory Of Mind In Psychotic And Affective Disorders, Erik Nelson Ringdahl

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Psychotic symptoms in bipolar I disorder during mood episodes has been associated with several negative outcomes raising the question as to whether psychosis is a risk factor for a more severe form of this chronic and debilitating condition. However, relatively little research has been directed at understanding the relationships among social cognitive functioning in bipolar I disorder with and without a history of psychosis. Impaired social cognition has been identified as a putative endophenotypic markers in schizophrenia and the evidence is mounting as to whether similar impairments also exist in bipolar I disorder. Given the plethora of research supporting the …

Identifying Maltreated Youths At Heightened Risk For Posttraumatic Symptoms, Emma H. Ross

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Childhood maltreatment is associated with increased risk for lifetime and current PTSD (Davis & Siegel, 2000; Widom, 1999). This study examined a model of PTSD in which dissociation, depression, and posttraumatic cognitions related to heightened PTSD symptoms for maltreated youths. This study then evaluated the model's fit across variations in intelligence, gender, age, ethnicity, and maltreatment type. Participants (n=360) included youths from Department of Family Services-related sites in Las Vegas. The first hypothesis was that the model would display goodness-of-fit across various indices. The second hypothesis was that the model would better fit youths with below average intelligence (FSIQ = …

Weight-Based Microaggressions Experienced By Obese Women In Psychotherapy, Kerri Jo Schafer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A large body of research demonstrates the existence of weight bias in healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, and dietitians (Budd, Mariotti, Graff, & Falkenstein, 2011). Very few published studies examine mental health providers' attitudes toward obese clients, but a small body of existing data suggests that mental health providers attribute more negative personal attributes to fictional obese clients and rate them as having more severe symptoms than their average weight counterparts (Agell & Rothblum, 1991; Hassel, Amici, Thurston, & Gorsuch, 2001; Young & Powell, 1985). Given these findings, it is important to understand whether obese clients experience mental health professionals …

Auditory Processing Deficits In Bipolar Disorder With And Without A History Of Psychotic Features, Ryanna Verbiest

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Auditory perception deficits have been identified in schizophrenia and linked to dysfunction in primary auditory cortex. There is also evidence that primary auditory cortex abnormalities are associated with positive symptoms, particularly auditory hallucinations. Given the evidence that individuals with bipolar disorder frequently experience auditory hallucinations, it may be that individuals with bipolar disorder who also exhibit psychotic symptoms demonstrate similar impairment in auditory perception tasks. Additionally, these deficits may contribute to impaired social interactions, as they are likely to interfere with accurate perception of emotion from spoken words. The current study examined this matter by comparing performance of 50 individuals …

Development And Testing Of The Home Safety And Beautification Checklist With Mothers Referred For Child Neglect And Substance Abuse, Michelle Pitts

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death among children in the United States accounting for nearly 40 percent of deaths in this age group. Approximately 50 percent of nonfatal injuries, and 40 percent of fatalities, occur in and around the home. Elevated rates of child injury in the home environment are associated with parental substance abuse and neglectful behaviors. Childhood injuries are preventable, yet practical and cost-effective measures to identify child home safety risks are limited. This study involved a retrospective preliminary examination of the Home Safety and Beautification Checklist (HSBC) in a sample of drug-abusing mothers referred by …

An Efficient Standardized Method Of Maintaining Quality Assurance In Therapeutic Treatment Record Keeping, Kelsey Michael Bradshaw

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Quality assurance (QA) within the field of mental health is the practice of monitoring and reviewing services to ensure adherence to specified standards of care. Agents within State governments and various organizations influence record keeping procedures through ethical guidelines and law. For instance, client records must be maintained for all clients receiving mental health services, including informed consent, releases of information, treatment plans, and progress notes. Accurate and timely record keeping procedures assure quality mental health services. However, professionals sometimes err in the maintenance of client records, which can have a negative impact on services, clients, and practitioners. To assist …

Examining The Inner Experience Of Four Individuals With Bipolar Disorder Using Descriptive Experience Sampling, Johanah Kang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bipolar disorder is a lifelong mood disorder with diagnostic criteria that provide a description of expected experiences of individuals diagnosed with BD (e.g., elevated mood, sadness, difficulty concentrating). Despite these criteria, the inner experience of these individuals is largely unknown. Understanding the inner experience of individuals diagnosed with BD may prove essential in understanding and treating BD. The present study examined the inner experience of four individuals diagnosed with BD using the Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) method (Hurlburt 1990, 1993, 2011). Results revealed all our participants had clear and prevalent experiences of sensory awareness. They also had difficulties apprehending and …