Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons^™

The Difficulty In The Diagnosis And Management Of Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome, Sidney Charm D. Reyes

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Antidepressant discontinuation syndrome (ADS) is a condition that occurs in about 20% of patients following the abrupt reduction/stoppage of any antidepressant medication that has been taken continuously for at least one month.

Case Presentation: We present a 36-year-old Hispanic woman who initially presented for evaluation of flu-like symptoms (subjective fever, rhinorrhea) and worsening body aches, trouble sleeping, and headaches for the past three days. She also reported recent exposure to a sick co-worker. Rapid flu, strep, and COVID tests came back negative. Pt was diagnosed with a viral URI and was discharged with counseling on supportive treatment. The patient …

Attenuated Typicality Effect In Category-Based Inferences: Implications For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Janani Rajagopalan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often encounter challenges in assimilating atypical exemplars into their categorical prototypes, a cognitive hurdle that can impact their interpretative and integrative capacities. Addressing this problem, the present research sought to develop a robust methodological approach to reduce the effect of this disparity. We examined the elements embedded within the category's internal structure, with the intention of experimentally attenuating the pronounced typicality effect, which is often exaggerated in ASD.

Across four experiments, the thesis investigated the cognitive and neural underpinnings that shape the access to the typicality gradient intrinsic to a category's structure. The …

Examining Readiness For Implementing Practice Changes In Federally Qualified Health Centers: A Rapid Qualitative Study, Emanuelle M Dias, Timothy J Walker, Derek W Craig, Robert Gibson, Jacob Szeszulski, Heather M Brandt, Hiluv Johnson, Andrea Lamont, Abraham Wandersman, Maria E Fernandez

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Implementing evidence-based interventions remains slow in federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). The purpose of this study is to qualitatively examine the R = MC2 (Readiness = motivation × innovation specific capacity × general capacity) heuristic subcomponents in the context of implementing general and colorectal cancer screening (CRCS)-related practice changes in FQHCs. We conducted 17 interviews with FQHC employees to examine (1) experiences with successful or unsuccessful practice change efforts, (2) using approaches to promote CRCS, and (3) opinions about R = MC2 subcomponents. We conducted a rapid qualitative analysis to examine the frequency, depth, and spontaneity of subcomponents. Priority, compatibility, …

Terror Management And The News: An Exploration Into The Effects Of Framing On Mortality Salience, Peter Montwill

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The present study explores the link between Terror Management Theory and the use of its principles within news media. Political news media in the digital age undergoes a variety of framing effects, more specifically episodic and thematic frames of stories. To induce mortality salience, college-aged participants were presented with stories framed from the perspective of an individual’s experience or a general theme of experiences regarding the controversial pro-life topic and a non-controversial hiking topic. These stories are presented in the style of Instagram posts to mirror how college-aged people consume news media. The stories also contain wording designed to induce …

Predicting Suicide Attempt History: Self-Report And Objective Measures Of Pain, Boriana Lassiter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

The aim of this study was to replicate a factor analysis of the Painful and Provocative Events Scale (PPES), to test whether commonly used self-report measures associated with the Interpersonal Theory of (IPTS) would predict suicide attempt status and suicidal history, and to test whether physical pain sensitivity would differentiate suicide attempers, ideators, and those with no suicidal history (controls). Factor analysis of the PPES yielded a 5-factor solution consisting of Rare and Illegal Activities, Abuse Experience, Dangerous Sports, Medical Trauma, and Body Modification. Only Abuse Experience predicted suicide attempt status and overall suicidal history. Abuse Experience, the Psychache Scale, …

Using Behavior Sequence Analysis To Study Teams During Long- Duration Isolation And Confinement, Andres Käosaar, Dr. Nathan Smith, Dr. David A. Keatley, Pranav Ambhorkar, Dr. Moritz Von Looz, Konstantinos Konstantinidis

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

With a renewed impetus and appetite for human space exploration, both government-funded agencies and private companies are focusing on longer and farther crewed missions into the solar system. Such space missions rely on highly interdependent teams living and working together in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments. Understanding the behavioral patterns of teams in ICE environments is, thus, paramount for the future success of such missions. Due to the complexity of studying ICE teams, several researchers have called for methodological innovations to advance knowledge in this area. In the current research, a proof-of-concept methodological approach is introduced that provides a …

Affect Variability And Physical Health: The Moderating Role Of Mean Affect, Brooke N. Jenkins, Lydia Q. Ong, Hee Youn (Helen) Lee, Anthony D. Ong, Julia K. Boehm

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Research has only begun to explore how affect variability relates to physical health and has typically not assessed long-term associations nor considered the moderating role of mean affect. Therefore, we used data from the Midlife in the United States Study waves 2 (N = 1512) and 3 (N = 1499) to test how affect variability predicted concurrent and long-term physical health while also testing the moderating role of mean affect. Results indicated that greater negative affect variability was associated concurrently with a greater number of chronic conditions (p = .03) and longitudinally with worse self-rated physical health (p …

Arnold-Chiari Malformation-I Borderline Personality Disorder, Aric Huber, Matthew Driben, Eduardo Espiridion

Transformative Medicine

Introduction:
Arnold-Chiari Malformation I (AM-I) is a congenital anomaly that manifests with cerebellar dysfunction. There is a displacement of cerebellar tonsils into the foramen magnum. Several mood disorders, personality disorders, and intellectual disabilities are associated with AM-I. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by symptoms of mood lability, impulsivity, extreme efforts of abandonment, splitting and dysfunctional relationships.

Case Description:
The patient is an early aged adult with a past medical history of AM-I, hypothyroidism, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, and diabetes mellitus type II. The patient was admitted to the hospital after ingesting foreign bodies. He/she presented with mood lability, sad mood, anhedonia, …

Understanding The Effects Of Empathy And Masculine Gender Role Stress On The Relationship Between Gender And The Understanding Of Consent In Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Framework, Kate Degenhardt

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

This research examined the relationship between masculine gender role stress and empathy in youths ages 11-19 and their ability to understand the concept of consent. I examined a moderated mediation model where the effect of gender on the understanding of consent via masculine gender role stress was permitted to differ as a function of levels of empathy. The moderated mediation was evaluated in a stepwise fashion. A simple mediation examining the degree to which MGRS mediated the relation of gender on consent revealed all effects were significant, including the indirect effect (B = 0.561, SE = .292 95, CI 0.100, …

How Did The Landscape Of Student Belonging Shift During Covid-19?, Shruti Misra, Neha Kardam, Jennifer Vanantwerp, Denise Wilson

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

The goal of this study is to understand if and how emergency remote teaching (ERT) used during the COVID-19 pandemic changed the ways in which instructional support and interactions were linked to belonging among engineering students. Belonging is a fundamental human motivation associated with a wide range of positive psychological, educational, social, and job outcomes. Frequent and predominantly conflict-free interactions within a stable, relational framework of caring are required to facilitate belonging. To better understand potential shifts in belonging that occurred from prepandemic to mid-pandemic, this study used survey data from a cross-sectional dataset at a single, large institution comprised …

Missed And Prior Diagnoses In Children Later Diagnosed With Autism, Maire Diemer

Dissertations

Awareness of autism is rising, yet social determinants of health continue to impact rates, ages of diagnosis, and diagnostic load. Different psychiatric labels carry stigmas; unequal rates of diagnoses may indicate biases in the healthcare system. This study investigates six prior diagnoses (ADHD, disorders of conduct, adjustment, anxiety, mood, and intellectual disability) assigned to children who are later diagnosed with autism. The study investigates how race, sex, and geographic factors were associated with age of diagnosis and diagnostic load. This study utilized a sample of 13,850 children aged 2-10 who were diagnosed with autism on Missouri Medicaid between 2015 and …

Treatment Burden, Not Health Risk Attitude Associated With Adherence In Patients With Mental Illness In South India, Dushad Ram, Neethu Benny, Shruthy Kv

International Journal of Health and Allied Sciences

Background: Attitude towards health risks and treatment burden may mediate treatment adherence in therapeutic care. There is a paucity of study examining the levels and relationships of these variables in patients with mental illness. Objective: This study was conducted to know the relationships of health risk attitude & treatment burden and medication adherence in patients with mental illness. Settings and design: Cross-sectional, Hospital-based study. Methods and material: One hundred seventy consecutive participants in remission of mental illness were recruited. The patient's details were assessed with Sociodemographic proforma while attitude towards health risk was assessed with Health-Risk Attitude Scale (HRAS). To …

Infant Effortful Control Predicts Bmi Trajectories From Infancy To Adolescence, Lillybelle K. Deer, Jenalee R. Doom, Kylie K. Harrall, Deborah H. Glueck, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman, Elysia Poggi Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Effortful control, or the regulation of thoughts and behaviour, is a potential target for preventing childhood obesity.

Objectives

To assess effortful control in infancy through late childhood as a predictor of repeated measures of body mass index (BMI) from infancy through adolescence, and to examine whether sex moderates the associations.

Methods

Maternal report of offspring effortful control and measurements of child BMI were obtained at 7 and 8 time points respectively from 191 gestational parent/child dyads from infancy through adolescence. General linear mixed models were used.

Results

Effortful control at 6 months predicted BMI trajectories from infancy through adolescence, …

An Erp Measure Of Non-Conscious Memory Reveals Dissociable Implicit Processes In Human Recognition Using An Open-Source Automated Analytic Pipeline, Richard J. Addante, Javier Lopez-Calderon, Nathan Allen, Carter Luck, Alana Muller, Lindsey Sirianni, Cory S. Inman, Daniel L. Drake

Psychology Student Publications

Non-conscious processing of human memory has traditionally been difficult to objectively measure and thus understand. A prior study on a group of hippocampal amnesia (N = 3) patients and healthy controls (N = 6) used a novel procedure for capturing neural correlates of implicit memory using event-related potentials (ERPs): old and new items were equated for varying levels of memory awareness, with ERP differences observed from 400 to 800 ms in bilateral parietal regions that were hippocampal-dependent. The current investigation sought to address the limitations of that study by increasing the sample of healthy subjects (N = …

Humanity In Trauma, Alyssa K. Thompson

University Honors Theses

The main objective of the literature review is to use the trauma-informed care paradigm to argue that the current implementation of trauma-informed care reinforces hierarchies of harm, leading to feelings of moral obligation and moral injury while perpetuating othering. This literature review criticizes trauma-informed care, emphasizing lived experiences against the characteristics trauma-informed care aspires to reflect. The review centers on the broad themes of understanding, universality, and acceptance of the present trauma-informed care paradigm. The critique comes from the silently excluded group of healthcare workers, with a personal perspective from a professional who worked in an urban hospital emergency department …

Effects Of Daylight On College Students’ Physical And Mental Well-Being, Sathya Thenappan

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

While existing literature predominantly deals with the impact of daylight on adults in general and more specifically at the workplace, less is known about its impact on the college student demographic and daylight exposure levels at college residences. Given its considerable impact on both the physical and mental well-being of individuals, daylight has been used in the treatment of an assortment of diseases from seasonal affective disorder to depression. With college students constituting the majority of today’s people who suffer from mental health issues in society, uncovering the link between daylight exposure and its impact on the physical and mental …

Evidence-Based Practices And Self-Efficacy: A Quantitative Study Of Mental Health Counselors Treating Clients With Substance Use Disorder, Carl Bastien

Dissertations

Substance use disorder affects a substantial number of individuals in the United States. The specific problem of this research is that it was not known to what extent their use of evidence-based practices is driven by their sense of self-efficacy. The purpose of this quantitative correlational research was to examine to what extent the use of evidence-based practices covary with a sense of self-efficacy for mental health counselors treating individuals diagnosed with a substance use disorder. The study population was 121 mental health counselors who specialized in substance use disorder treatment who completed a digital survey. The study findings did …

A Gift To My Self: A Psychoanalytic Approach To Understanding The Experiences Of Women Who Choose Not To Have Children, Irina D. Tchania

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although motherhood has long been a normative female experience, individual decisions regarding bearing and mothering children vary among women. Partly due to shifts in gender roles and contemporary societal expectations, the conflation of womanhood with motherhood – and the centrality of motherhood within female identity – is being increasingly challenged. Women who choose to remain childless make up a growing, unique, and understudied population group. Decisions regarding intentional childlessness have been considered through the lenses of sociology and feminist critique, while psychologically and psychoanalytically oriented scholarship is more limited. This study aimed to further our understanding of the voluntarily childless …

Examining Benefits Of Early Intervention In Cases Of Pediatric Chronic Hypoxia, Kendra Stefan

University Honors Theses

There is a strong foundation of evidence and consensus in the literature that hypoxia has adverse impacts on brain function. Recent research has broadened the field in two directions. One is the treatment for acute hypoxic injuries, and the second is regarding the accumulative impact of intermittent or chronic hypoxia. Historically, in cases of acute hypoxia, action is taken to remedy the source of hypoxia. Physical and cognitive rehabilitation has typically been provided as needed depending on the severity of the injury. While cases of intermittent or chronic hypoxia may not demonstrate an acute urgency for treatment and rehabilitation, current …

Connecting Linguistic Expressions And Pain Relief Through Transformer Model Construction And Analysis, Sarah M. Chacko

Computer Science Senior Theses

Chronic pain is a widespread problem that significantly impacts quality of life. Overprescription and abuse of pain medication continues to be a major public health issue and can further burden patients due to a fragmented health care system. Previous research has suggested a possible psychological basis to pain and the potential for safer, non-pharmacological alternatives for pain relief. This project leverages language models to study chronic pain development and relief through psychological treatments, which will be assessed through responses to post-treatment interviews. A transformer-based natural language processing model is employed to identify connections between language expressions and pain on a …