Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

Many Truths: A Case Record Review Of How Teaching A Dance Class For Students With Special Needs Shaped My Professional Identity, Shauna D. Shrewsbury

Creative Arts Therapies Theses

This thesis is a self-reflective exploration of an ongoing investigation into my professional identity development using a case record review. The purpose of this review was to gain a better understanding of how my knowledge of dance/movement therapy influenced my facilitation of a dance class for students with special needs. This process took place through the teaching of a community dance class for students with special needs called Friday Night Dance Party (FNDP). This review utilized historical data in the form of a reflection sheet, art making, and stream of consciousness journaling completed after each class. Upon the completion of …

Dance/Movement Therapy Techniques For Helping Actors Exit Character And Emotion: A Program Development Project, Alison Vodnoy Wolf

Creative Arts Therapies Theses

The embodiment of emotion and character creates emotional dysregulation for many actors, yet few actor training programs teach emotional regulation techniques to help actors intentionally exit character and emotion. The purpose of this program development is to collaborate with others in creating a program that addresses symptoms of emotional dysregulation in populations of actors. The program will do this by providing actors with psychoeducation about the signs of emotional dysregulation and teaching dance/movement therapy skills that actors can use to regulate emotion after the embodiment of character and emotion. The intended result is to decrease the prevalence of disorders that …

Prompts To Increase Physical Activity At Points-Of-Choice Between Stairs And Escalators: What About Escalator Climbers?, John Belletierre, Ben Nguyen, Sandy Liles, Vincent Berardi, Marc A. Adams, Paddy Dempsey, Yael Benporat, Jacqueline Kerr, Andrea Z. Lacroix, Melbourne Hovell

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Since 1980, many studies have evaluated whether stair-use prompts increased physical activity by quantifying changes in stair use. To more completely evaluate changes in physical activity, this study addressed the often-overlooked assessment of climbing up escalators by evaluating the degree to which stair-use sign prompts increased active ascent—defined as stair use or escalator climbing. Over 5 months, at an airport stairs/escalator point of choice, we video-recorded passersby (N = 13,544) who ascended either stairs or escalators, on 10 days with signs and 10 days without signs. Ascenders using the stairs, standing on the escalator, and climbing the escalator were …

Prevalence Rates Of Arthritis Among Us Older Adults With Varying Degrees Of Depression: Findings From The 2011 To 2014 National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey, Jessica L. Brooks, Alexander J. Titus, Courtney A. Polenick, Nicole M. Orzechowski, Manney Carrington Reid, Todd A. Mackenzie, Stephen J. Bartels, John A. Batsis

Dartmouth Scholarship

Arthritis and depressive symptoms often interact and negatively influence one another to worsen mental and physical health outcomes. Better characterization of arthritis rates among older adults with different levels of depressive symptoms is an important step toward informing mental health professionals of the need to detect and respond to arthritis and related mental health complications. The primary objective is to determine arthritis rates among US older adults with varying degrees of depression. Using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011 to 2014 data (N = 4792), we first identified participants aged ≥50 years. Measures screened for depressive symptoms and …

Maternal Programming: Application Of A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective, Laura M. Glynn, Mariann A. Howland, Molly Fox

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The fetal phase of life has long been recognized as a sensitive period of development. Here we posit that pregnancy represents a simultaneous sensitive period for the adult female with broad and persisting consequences for her health and development, including risk for psychopathology. In this review, we examine the transition to motherhood through the lens of developmental psychopathology. Specifically, we summarize the typical and atypical changes in brain and behavior that characterize the perinatal period. We highlight how the exceptional neuroplasticity exhibited by women during this life phase may account for increased vulnerability for psychopathology. Further, we discuss several modes …

Indirect & Displaced Aggression: The Role Of Comparison Based Traits And Cognitive Vulnerabilities, Niki M. Knight

Dissertations

The present study explored the relationships of contingent self-esteem, dispositional envy, and two cognitive vulnerabilities (i.e., anger rumination and fear of negative evaluation) to indirect aggression (IA) and displaced aggression (DA) in a college student sample (N = 346). Despite the theoretical relevance of these personality and cognitive factors to aggression, there is little empirical evidence linking them to the perpetration of IA and DA. Bivariate correlations and hierarchical multiple regression were used to test the utility of these constructs in accounting for unique variance in IA and DA and to assess the potential role of participant gender. Participants …

Developing An Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Cascade: A Review Of Quality Measures, Arthur Robin Williams, Edward V. Nunes, Adam Bisaga, Harold A. Pincus, Kimberly A. Johnson, Aimee N. Campbell, Remien Remien, Stephen Crystal, Peter D. Friedmann, Frances R. Levin, Mark Olfson

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

Background: Despite increasing opioid overdose mortality, problems persist in the availability and quality of treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). Three FDA-approved medications (methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone) have high quality evidence supporting their use, but most individuals with OUD do not receive them and many experience relapse following care episodes. Developing and organizing quality measures under a unified framework such as a Cascade of Care could improve system level practice and treatment outcomes. In this context, a review was performed of existing quality measures relevant to the treatment of OUD and the literature assessing the utility of these measures in …

A Multimodal Assessment Of Disgust In Response To Traumatic Event Reminders Among Adolescents, Teah-Marie R. Bynion

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The majority of youth will report traumatic event exposure by the time they reach adulthood. Research suggests exposure to such events is linked to myriad negative outcomes. Not all traumatic events are alike, however; evidence suggests that, compared to non-interpersonal events, interpersonal events in which another person intentionally perpetrates harm are linked to elevations in the likelihood of negative outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One reason for this discrepancy is that interpersonal traumatic events may elicit greater levels of disgust. However, this is a very under-developed research base, no study has examined this question among youth. The current study …

Changing Delay Discounting: Identification And Evaluation Of Ecologically Valid Methods For Reducing Impulsive Choice, Jillian M. Rung

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Impulsivity takes many forms, one of which is termed impulsive choice. Impulsive choice entails preference for an outcome due to its immediacy relative to more optimal outcomes that take longer to come to fruition. For example, one may wish to have another serving of a decadent dessert after dinner—but doing so may undermine a longer-term goal of improved health and nutrition. If having the extra serving becomes a habit, the consequences of that choice compound and may lead to, for example, obesity. A high degree of impulsive choice such as this is indeed related to issues such as obesity, …

A Markov Approach For Increasing Precision In The Assessment Of Data-Intensive Behavioral Interventions, Vincent Berardi, Ricardo Carretero-González, John Belletierre, Marc A. Adams, Suzanne C. Hughes, Melbourne Hovell

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Health interventions using real-time sensing technology are characterized by intensive longitudinal data, which has the potential to enable nuanced evaluations of individuals’ responses to treatment. Existing analytic tools were not developed to capitalize on this opportunity as they typically focus on first-order findings such as changes in the level and/or slope of outcome variables over different intervention phases. This paper introduces an exploratory, Markov-based empirical transition method that offers a more comprehensive assessment of behavioral responses when intensive longitudinal data are available. The procedure projects a univariate time-series into discrete states and empirically determines the probability of transitioning from one …

Women’S Pregnancy Life History And Alzheimer’S Risk: Can Immunoregulation Explain The Link?, Molly Fox, Carlo Berzuini, Leslie A. Knapp, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background:

Pregnancy is associated with improvement in immunoregulation that persists into the geriatric phase. Impaired immunoregulation is implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis. Hence, we investigate the relationship between pregnancy and AD. Methods:

Cross-sectional cohort of British women (N = 95). Cox proportional hazards modeling assessed the putative effects of cumulative months pregnant on AD risk and the mutually adjusted effects of counts of first and third trimesters on AD risk. Results:

Cumulative number of months pregnant, was associated with lower AD risk (β = −1.90, exp(β) = 0.15, P = .02). Cumulative number of first trimesters …

Complexities And Challenges Of Nonduality, Elizabeth Stephens

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

States of consciousness referred to as nonduality, awakening, enlightenment, moksha, peak experience, unitive states, or void states, among other terms, have garnered increasing secular attention and have become a topic of psychological and neuroscientific research. A review of the literature revealed many challenges to studying this set of states, such as inconsistent conceptualizations, a variety of models and theories, and conflicting descriptions indicating that the actual experience may not live up to the superlative descriptions found in historical texts or the expectations put forth by nondual teachers. A great deal more empirical research on this topic is needed, and researchers …

Trauma Recovery: A Heroic Journey, Brenda Keck, Lisa Compton, Corie Schoeneberg, Tucker Compton

Heroism Science

Trauma survivors who choose to enter into trauma recovery may be viewed as individuals embarking on a hero’s journey. Historically, many of the coping strategies utilized by individuals who are experiencing post-traumatic stress have been viewed as inherently disordered and personally dysfunctional. An alternative perspective of these behaviors calls for an examination of strengths present within trauma survivors, suggesting a reframe of their symptomology as ingenuity in coping during adverse circumstances and an appreciation for the difficulty of living with traumatic memories. This article highlights the challenging process of trauma recovery as it parallels Campbell’s (1949) metaphor of the hero’s …

Combatting Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: An Evaluation Of The My Life, My Choice Program In Kentucky, Chelsea M. Dyer

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Chelsea M. Dyer on July 11, 2018.

Mooney Face Stimuli For Visual Perception Research, Caspar M. Schwiedrzik, Lucia Melloni, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In 1957, Craig Mooney published a set of human face stimuli to study perceptual closure: the formation of a coherent percept on the basis of minimal visual information. Images of this type, now known as "Mooney faces", are widely used in cognitive psychology and neuroscience because they offer a means of inducing variable perception with constant visuospatial characteristics (they are often not perceived as faces if viewed upside down). Mooney's original set of 40 stimuli has been employed in several studies. However, it is often necessary to use a much larger stimulus set. We created a new set of over …

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: A Tool For Veteran Reassimilation, Gino L. Collura

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation evaluates veteran participation in the martial art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) as a tool of reassimilation for veterans suffering from anxiety, stress and/or combat PTSD associated with military deployment. From the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn, challenges associated with U.S. Veteran assimilation and reintegration have been increasing. Coping with long term displacement, trauma, loss, and making sense of identity shifts between being an active duty service member and civilian can often present challenges when navigating back into civilian life.

By utilizing a neuroanthropological lens, ethnographic inquiry, surveys, semi-structured interviews, and …

Reduce Challenging Behaviors And Enhance Functioning In Youth With An Intellectual Disability: A Meta-Analysis Of Behavioral Interventions Using Single Case Design, Brett A. Stone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 1.8% of students in the public school system have an intellectual disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder. These disabilities cause impairment in multiple domains of functioning. If these students also have challenging behaviors, such as noncompliance, aggression, and stereotypies, these behaviors have been found to cause impairment over and beyond those of the core symptoms associated with the disability. Challenging behaviors in youth with developmental disabilities do not typically subside on their own and need intervention. Thankfully, there are evidence-based behavioral interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities to reduce challenging behaviors and increase more functional behaviors including Applied Behavioral Analysis, …

Development And Validation Of The Waiting Assessment Interview Tool (Wait) And Evaluation Of Individualized Waiting Durations In Signaled Reinforcement, Claudia Campos Fleitas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Indirect assessments are widely used to identify environmental factors that may be manipulated or integrated in the development of direct assessments and behavior interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities. To date, there are no indirect assessments that can be used to evaluate the extent to which children who engage in problem behavior wait to receive reinforcement. However, there are effective behavior interventions to increase waiting. A treatment package consisting of functional communication training (FCT) and schedule thinning (i.e., multiple schedules) has been identified as an effective intervention to increase waiting in children who engage in problem behavior maintained by social …

Periodic Catatonia Marked By Hypercortisolemia And Exacerbated By The Menses: A Case Report And Literature Review, Samantha Zwiebel, Alejandro G. Villasante Tezanos, Jose De Leon

Psychiatry Faculty Publications

Kahlbaum first described catatonia; later Kraepelin, Gjessing, and Leonhard each defined periodic catatonia differently. A 48-year-old female with catatonia, whose grandmother probably died from it, was prospectively followed for >4 years in a US psychiatric state hospital. Through 4 catatonic episodes (one lasting 17 months) there were menstrual exacerbations of catatonia and increases in 4 biological variables: (1) creatine kinase (CK) up to 4,920 U/L, (2) lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) up to 424 U/L, (3) late afternoon cortisol levels up to 28.0 mcg/dL, and (4) white blood cell (WBC) counts up to 24,200/mm³ with neutrophilia without infections. Records from 17 …

Effects Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury On Ethanol Consumption And The Combined Effects On Neuroinflammation, Cognition, And Behavior In Mice, Jessica L. Hoffman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between alcohol consumption and traumatic brain injury (TBI) often focuses on alcohol consumption increasing the likelihood of incurring a TBI, rather than alcohol use outcomes after TBI. This focus is in part due to the large numbers of TBI patients visiting emergency rooms notable levels of alcohol in their blood. Additionally, increases in alcohol use disorders following TBI can be predicted by previous history of alcohol use. However, studies have also shown patients without a history of an alcohol use disorder can experience increases in problem drinking after single or multiple TBIs. Due to the diffuse impact of …