Clinical Psychology Commons^™

A Parent At War And The "Invisible Wounds" They Carry Home: Ptsd In Military Veterans And A Review Of Psychosocial Family System Challenges, Melina Sofia Calle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom have created a new generation of military veterans and military families, many of which must manage and cope with psychosocial challenges such as posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse induced by the psychological trauma(s) faced during war. Risk factors, buffering factors, and war zone stressors influencing the development of PTSD following military-related trauma will be reviewed. As many of these affected veterans return to living with spouses and children, these psychosocial issues show to bring forth tension, stress, and friction to the family system. This thesis explores the literature of family system …

Multimodal Emotion Perception In Borderline Personality Disorder, Virginia Fineran

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a chronic disorder characterized by pervasive difficulties in the emotion regulation system. While it is clear that individuals with BPD frequently exhibit intense emotional reactions, lack abilities to effectively manage such emotions, and often engage in serious maladaptive behaviors as a consequence of intense emotions, many aspects of the process by which this sequence occurs are not well understood. One crucial aspect of emotion regulation is the processing and perception of cues from the environment. To date, processing of emotional cues in individuals with BPD has been understudied. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is …

Affective Language And Attitudes Toward Public Policy, Rachel A. Wolitzky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation project focused on affective and unconscious processes involved in the evaluation of public policy. It follows recent scholarship in political psychology showing how the response to political messages depends greatly on what values and emotions are evoked. Of particular focus has been the notable discrepancy between the conscious way people construe their political judgments and the unconscious operations that more truly account for their views and actions. Motivated by a neuroscientific and psychoanalytic model of the mind and brain that recognizes both the pre-eminence of unconscious (implicit) processing and the primacy of affect in mind (brain) activity, this …

Physiological Correlates Of Emotion Regulation In Depersonalization Disorder, Kai-Mosadi Monde

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Depersonalization disorder (DPD), is an often debilitating DSM V psychiatric disorder characterized by feelings of detachment from the self or others as well as emotional blunting or numbness. Subjective and physiological evidence of decreased emotional arousal may suggest impaired emotion regulation abilities. Deficits in emotional processing of DPD may be the result of dysregulated cortisol and oxytocin levels, however oxytocin levels have never been assessed in DPD. In this series of studies, we aimed to investigate the physiological correlates of emotion regulation in depersonalization disorder. In experiment 1, DPD patients and a normal control group subjectively enhanced and suppressed emotion …

The Neurodevelopment Of Basic Sensory Processing And Integration In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Alice Brown Brandwein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis presents three studies that together explore the neurophysiological basis for the sensory processing and integration abnormalities that have been observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) since the disorder was first described over half a century ago. In designing these studies we seek to fill a hole that currently exists in the research community‟s knowledge of the neurodevelopment of basic multisensory integration -- both in children with autism and as well as in those with typical development. The first study applied event related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures of multisensory integration to a large group of healthy participants ranging …

A Psychoanalytic Exploration Into The Memory And Aesthetics Of Everyday Life: Photographs, Recollections, And Encounters With Loss, Dimitrios Mellos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The project at hand explores some of the psychological functions of photography as both an everyday and an artistic cultural practice from a psychoanalytic perspective. It is proposed that, contrary to commonsensical opinion, photographs are not accurate depositories of memory, but rather function as a functional equivalent of screen memories, thus channeling the subject's memory in ways that are objectively distorted and distorting, but psychologically meaningful and important; moreover, they are a special kind of screen memory in that they are often created pre-emptively and are physically instantiated.

Additionally, it is suggested that, by dint of their materiality, photographs achieve …

Pathways To High-Lethality Suicide Attempts, Megan Schaffer Chesin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to develop a model of the trajectory to high-lethality suicidal behavior for individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). An increased number of previous suicide attempts, substance use immediately prior to the attempt, and objective planning were proposed to lead directly to an attempt of higher lethality. Meanwhile, aggression and impulsivity were hypothesized to lead indirectly, through their association with past suicidal behavior, to a higher lethality attempt. Path analysis revealed a revised model that applied only to individuals with BPD. In this final model, impulsivity was found to be …

The Impact Of Mood Disorders On Cognitive Function In Post-Menopausal Women Undergoing Treatment For Early-Stage Breast Cancer, Margery E. Frosch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

PURPOSE: Many post-menopausal women who are treated for early-stage breast cancer report experiencing cognitive difficulties following adjuvant chemotherapy. However, the generalizability of the results of a number of studies that have attempted to document the association between adjuvant chemotherapy and cognitive dysfunction has been limited due to inconsistencies in the investigative methods used, thus introducing the possibility that other factors are contributing to reports of cognitive problems. The current study examines the possibility that a history of mood disorders in post-menopausal breast cancer patients predisposes them to cognitive difficulties following adjuvant treatment. METHODS: Sixty-five postmenopausal women with non-metastatic breast cancer …

Provocative Enactments As Regulators Of Underarousal And Its Associated Affects, Steven Bashkoff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This theoretical/clinical-case study explores the function of provocative enactments as a means to regulate underaroused states and the affects associated with underarousal. A great deal of psychoanalytic literature emphasizes the function of provocative enactments as destructive or as a way to devalue others or disconnect from them; this function certainly exists in one class of such enactments where the actor’s goal is to destroy interpersonal ties or enhance self-esteem by kindling negative affect in the other person. However, this dissertation proposes that there exists another, distinct class of provocative enactments where their function serves to activate or reengage another person …

The Romantic Unconscious: Conflict And Compromise In The Research Of Romantic Love, Joseph S. Reynoso

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social scientists continue empirically researching the psychology of romantic love. However, there is little attention spent evaluating the direction and nature of this work. In this theoretical study, the author argues that the research literature presents a limited view of romantic relationships. A contributing factor is the relative inattention to the interplay of conscious and unconscious mental processes in empirical models. The author examines the prevalent model of studying relationships for its assumptions about the accessibility of psychological states and the accuracy of participant reports. To support his case, the author reviews research that explores the limits of a psychology …

Parental Stress, Personal Authority, And Family Environment Of Puerto Rican Women, Eduvigis Cruz-Arrieta

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The experience of parental stress (stress related to maternal characteristics such as sense of competence, isolation, and perceived restrictions imposed by the role of mother,its relation to the degree of personal authority within the families of origin —being connected and a part of the family of origin while acting from a differentiated position within it and the discrepancies in perception of the families of procreation vs. the families of origin of 126 Mainland and Island-born Puerto Rican women was examined. The participants' perceptions of three specific family characteristics: cohesion (the degree of commitment, help, and support family members provide for …

A Comparison Of The Symbolic Function In Delicate Self-Mutilators With Joyce Mcdougall's Conceptualization Of The Symbolic Function In Psychosomatic Illness And Sexual Perversion, Thomas Richard Negron

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The syndrome of delicate self-mutilation is reviewed with emphasis on the psychoanalytic interpretations that have been offered to explain this behavior. These interpretations generally find a symbolic meaning in this symptom, while also noting the pre-verbal level of development that is a marked aspect of these patient's functioning. The alternate hypothesis is offered that delicate self-mutilators suffer from a deficit in their capacity to create symbolic symptoms.

The work of Joyce McDougall with patients manifesting sexual perversions and psychosomatic symptomology is reviewed. She hypothesizes that these patients suffer a deficit in their capacity for symbolic functioning, and she coins the …

The Favorability Of Person Perception As A Function Of Perceiver And Target Person Personality Style, Alfred D. Kornfeld

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

[no abstract provided]