Clinical Psychology Commons^™

Predicting Cognitive Decline In Older Adults Through Multi-Voxel Pattern Analysis, Nathan Hantke

Dissertations (1934 -)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is associated with cognitive and structural decline beyond what is seen in normal, healthy aging. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research indicates that prior to the onset of measureable cognitive impairment, individuals at-risk for AD demonstrate different patterns of neural activation than individuals at lower risk. Thus, differences in task-activated fMRI may be beneficial in predicting cognitive decline at a "pre-symptomatic" stage. The present study utilizes multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) of baseline fMRI task-related activation to predict cognitive decline, with the hypothesis that famous and non-famous name task activation will discriminate …

Interrelationships Between Sensation Seeking And Psychopathy, Casey S. Iwai

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Psychopathic and sensation seeking traits are often correlated; however, sensation seeking alone is not inherently pathological. This study seeks to investigate possible moderating variables between individuals who are high on sensation seeking but low on measures of psychopathic or antisocial traits. Specifically, a positive family environment is hypothesized to be a moderating variable in the development of psychopathic traits among high sensation seekers. A college student sample assessed for psychopathy, sensation seeking, and family functioning is used to test this hypothesis. Significant relationships between all three constructs were found. Similar to previous data, sensation seeking was found to correlate with …

Outcome Variables Of Childhood Sexual Abuse As Potential Risk Factors For Sexual Revictimization In Adulthood, Christine Renee Bowles

Theses and Dissertations

Childhood sexual abuse is a large problem, with research estimates indicating that between 16-25% of women have experienced sexual abuse at some point during their childhood (Dube et al., 2005; Gorey & Leslie, 1997). Even more alarming is the data that suggests that women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse are between 2 to 11 times more likely to experience sexual assault as an adult than individuals with no past history of abuse (Messman-Moore & Long, 2003). To help understand the complex and varied outcomes associated with childhood sexual abuse, Finkelhor and Browne (1985) developed a model conceptualizing the four …

The Role Of Multicultural Competence, Privilege, Attributions, And Team Support In Predicting Positive Youth Mentor Outcomes, Rachael Leigh Suffrin

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

In the current study we use Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological theory to guide an inquiry into how the social environment surrounding mentors’ matters in regards to mentor outcomes of satisfaction, retention, and extra-role pro-social behavior (i.e., mentors willingness to go above and beyond for their mentee or the mentoring program). Mentors are sampled from mentoring organizations across the United States. Drawing from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory (1979), we examine mentors embedded in distinct micro- and macrosystems. At the microsystem level we explore how the relationship between the mentor and the (a) mentee, (b) mentees’ family, and (c) the mentoring team may predict …

Gender Role Ideology And Major Choice Of Students In College Religious Groups, Charlynn Anne Odahl

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

In the present study examined students who attend college religious groups to better understand how religious conservatism, religious commitment, and gender may shape gender role ideology and college major choice. A focus on these outcomes of gender role ideology and college major choice is important given the continued persistence of sexism and gender inequality. We examined how personal characteristics and characteristics of the group (i.e., defined by peer and leader attitudes) may shape personal gender role ideology and major choice. We tested how personal, peer, and leader religious conservatism may predict more traditional gender role ideology and the choice of …

Kids Alive! Support For Children Of Parents With Cancer: An Exemplar Program For Children Of Parents With Cancer, Shane Spears

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Cancer in a parent or caregiver is an event that affects the whole family. The roles and responsibilities of the diagnosed parent, as well as those of each family member, are affected at the time of diagnosis and throughout the progression of the illness. According to the American Cancer Society, there will be an estimated 1,665,540 new cancer cases diagnosed and 585,720 cancer deaths in 2014. This staggering statistic means there are a number of cancer diagnoses that will directly affect thousands of parents and their children. Past research suggests this upheaval in the system is particularly stressful on children …

Expert Approaches To Mental Toughness Development In The High Risk Sport Of Diving, Aaron D'Addario

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Research focusing on mental toughness development and high risk sport is limited to one examination of elite gymnasts' perceptions. Coaches have acknowledged that mental toughness is important to performance success, while admitting they do not know effective development strategies. The aim of the current research is to address both these concerns by employing a grounded theory approach to ascertain elite diving coaches perceptions of mental toughness development and what mental toughness is. Seven diving coaches volunteered and were interviewed for an average of 49 minutes. They all coached an athlete that participated either in the world championships or Olympic games …

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 …

If You Can’T Take The Heat, Stay Out Of The Kitchen: A Reflection On “Student Beliefs, Multiculturalism, And Client Welfare.”, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

In Student beliefs, multiculturalism, and client welfare, Professor Kristin Hancock offers a thoughtful description of and reflection on the contemporary challenges associated with psychology graduate trainees managing their personal and religious beliefs and practices with the training and professional demands of the psychology profession and their educational training institutions. She reviewed several recent court cases (e.g., Ward v. Polite et al., Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley et al., Ward v. Wilbanks et al.) where psychology students sued their graduate programs (typically secular state universities) because their training requirements included multicultural competency training involving sexual issues such as homosexuality. These graduate training …

Combined Effects Of Mdma And Ethanol On Locomotor Activity And Place Conditioning In Male And Female Adolescent Sprague-Dawley Rats, Keli A. Herr

Masters Theses

MDMA, ("Ecstasy") is commonly abused in combination with ethanol (EtOH). Relatively few preclinical studies have investigated sex differences in animal models of polysubstance use. The current study employed a conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure to assess the behavioral effects of the co-administration ofMDMA /EtOH in 32 male and 32 female adolescent Sprague-Dawley rats. Following a 15 min habituation trial, eight 30-min conditioning trials were conducted in two- compartment chambers with different environmental cues. Before each drug conditioning trials, rats were administered intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of MDMA(6.6 mg/kg), EtOH (1.5 g/kg), MDMA (6.6 mg/kg) and EtOH (1.5 g/kg), or saline. Prior …

Ppi-R: Factor Structure In A Diverse Subclinical Sample, Veronica Claudia Llamas

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Literature examining the factor structure of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory – Revised (PPI-R) has yielded mixed results. This study attempted to examine the three proposed factor structures (one-, two-, or three-) for the PPI-R utilizing a mixed gender undergraduate sample. Results demonstrated poor fit for each of the three proposed factor structures within the present sample. Post-hoc exploratory factor analysis of the PPI-R items revealed that seven of the eight original subscales from the measure were found to be salient. Rebellious nonconformity was the only subscale that was not able to be extracted. Furthermore, only 81 out of the 131 …

Parental Mental Health: The Role Of Parental Attachment To Their Child With Asd, Adrianna Elyse Holness

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Research suggests that parents of children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) experience higher levels of stress than both those of typically developing children and children with other developmental disabilities. Parental stress may spill over into additional domains of parental competence, impairing parental mental health, and parents’ ability to bond with their child. Little research has addressed the impact of the parent-child bond on parental stress. The current study used data from the Mindful Awareness for Parenting Stress project (MAPS) at Loma Linda University to further our understanding of parents’ attachment to the child and parental stress examining whether parental …

Perceived Empathy And Continuity Of Cancer Screening Care Among Latino And Anglo Women, Jael Aniuska Amador

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine whether patient perceived healthcare professional empathy impacts continuity of cancer screening care among non-Latino white (Anglo) and Latin American (Latino) women after perceiving health care mistreatment. A total of 225 Latino and Anglo women responded to a newly developed patient perceived healthcare professional empathy scale and a measure of continuity of cancer screening care. After controlling for covariates, empathy was found to vary significantly by ethnicity, with Latino women reporting higher patient perceived empathy than Anglo women. For both ethnic groups, higher patient perceived healthcare professional empathy was associated with greater continuity …

Fatalistic Cultural Beliefs In Achievement Aspiration In The U.S. And Chile, Susan Lee

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Betancourt’s integrative Model for the Study of Culture and Behavior (Betancourt, Flynn, Riggs, & Garberoglio, 2010; Betancourt, Hardin, & Manzi, 1992; Betancourt & Lopez, 1993) was used to test whether fatalistic cultural beliefs differentially influenced achievement aspiration among adolescents from different cultural groups in Chile (Mapuche and Mainstream Chileans) and the U.S. (Latino and Anglo). The results were as follows: 1) Higher levels of fatalism did negatively influence achievement aspiration, in Chile and the U.S., 2) Students in Chile and the U.S. had similar levels of cultural beliefs, 3) SES groups had significant differences in fatalism levels among mainstream and …

Parental Depression And Child Behavior Problems: A Closer Examination, Yangmu Xu

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have higher rates of depressive symptoms, and parental depressive symptoms are strongly associated with problem behaviors in children. However, the direction of effect between parental depression and child behavior problems is unclear. Additionally, the mechanisms through which parental depression contributes to child behavior problems and vice versa are not well understood. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between parental depression and child behavior problems among families of children with ASD; more specifically to investigate as mediating variables that may explain the mechanisms through which parental depression and …

Effects Of Alcohol Intoxication And Neurocognitive Processing On Intimate Partner Aggression, Rosalita C. Maldonado

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a serious public health concern that occurs with alarming frequency, results in both physical and psychological harm to victims, and costs billions of dollars per year due to healthcare costs and loss of productivity. These adverse consequences highlight the need to understand risk factors of IPA perpetration. Attempts to identify these risk factors have focused mostly on broad factors that may predispose someone to perpetrate aggression, including individual demographic and dispositional characteristics (e.g., low socioeconomic status, psychopathy). Although valuable, this knowledge cannot reveal the specific circumstances that may prompt an individual to perpetrate aggression against …

Incarceration And Reintegration: How It Impacts Mental Health, April M. Marier, Alex Alfredo Reyes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Background: Previous criminal justice policies have been non-effective leading to overpopulated prisons and unsuccessful reintegration. There is a lack of effective supportive and/or rehabilitative services resulting in high rates of recidivism and mental health implications. Objective: This study investigated the perceived impact that incarceration and reintegration with little to no supportive and/or rehabilitative services has on the mental health status of an individual. The emphasis was on participant perception and not on professional reports because of underreporting and lack of attention to mental health in the criminal justice system. Methods: Focus groups in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley …

Savor The Memory: A Reminiscence Exercise To Increase Positive Emotions And Reduce Depression Risk In Anxious Individuals, Bethany Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A growing literature suggests that experiencing positive emotions provides psychological benefits (e.g., Coifman et al. 2007), and interventions increasing positive emotions may reduce depression risk (Geschwind et al., 2011). The present study tested whether reminiscence, a method of positive emotion savoring (Quoidbach et al., 2010), can mitigate depression risk by increasing positive emotions in an unselected sample and a subsample of at-risk anxious individuals. Female participants (n=336) were randomized to a reminiscence or control condition and asked to complete daily mental imagery exercises focusing on a positive memory (reminiscence) or a neutral laboratory memory (control) for one week. As expected, …

Can Videogames Be Addicting? An Investigation Into The Specific Game Features And Personal Characteristics Associated With Problematic Videogame Playing, Gregory Pouliot

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The number of individuals who play videogames has increased dramatically in recent years. Unsurprisingly, the frequency with which patients seek psychotherapeutic services to help cope with problematic videogame playing (PVGP) behaviors has also risen. Thus, explorations into the specific characteristics of PVGP are essential now more than ever before. However, the current state of the literature primarily relies on comparisons between PVGP and pathological gambling, utilizing modified measures of the latter to assess the former. To date, no studies have attempted to adapt the diagnostic criteria for substance use disorder (SUD) in an effort to understand PVGP within the context …