Browsing by Subject "Psychology"

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A healing space : a museum-based workshop for the promotion of psychological wellbeing in college students
(2020-09-03) Cahill Casiano, Iris Anne Xiomara; Ainslie, Ricardo; Rochlen, Aaron; Suizzo, Marie-Anne; Bain, Christina
An increasing number of college and university students are experiencing considerable challenges to their psychological wellbeing, including depressive symptomatology and high levels of perceived stress. The current pilot study addresses the growing need for the promotion of wellbeing in college students through the use an innovative workshop that integrates narrative approaches with therapeutic art-viewing to take treatment out of overburdened campus counseling centers and into an alternative space: campus art galleries and museums. While some extant research has touched on the healing potential of museum-based interventions, there has been little exploration on its use with college students. The current mixed-methods study examined the effects of a four-session workshop designed to help students alter negative life-stories by using engagement with art objects as points of discovery for positive personal narratives. Fifteen participants (n=15) were drawn from a convenience sample of students from the University of Texas at Austin; inclusion criteria included a minimum score of “5” on the PHQ-9, a validated measure of depressive symptom severity. Pre- and posttest measures were collected on primary variables of interest over the course of the workshop, including measures for depressive symptomatology, perceived stress, and level of insight/self-reflection. Paired sample t-tests revealed statistically significant improvements in key variables of interest, while qualitative data gathered during and post treatment revealed several clinically relevant themes to suggest that this innovative, arts-based intervention encouraged positive shifts in personal narratives and bolstered mental wellbeing among participants.
A psychological analysis of the sense of agency in the Sāṅkhyakārikā and Yogasūtra
(2019-05) Trivedi, Hemal Pradip; Traphagan, John W.
Sāṅkhya, with its rigorous introduction to metaphysics, revolutionizes Indian philosophy by delineating the constituents of reality: puruṣa (consciousness) and prakṛti (matter). Yoga, the sister school of Sāṅkhya, borrows from the latter’s metaphysics and introduces a psychologically based paradigm that allows for practitioners to apply the metaphysical teachings of Sāṅkhya. Using the metaphysical and psychological constructs of the mind in both schools, this paper serves to ask the question: Which school of thought, through their authoritative texts, generates more of a sense of agency for the practitioner? In other words, which text encourages the practitioner to feel that he is an agent of his actions? Using the Sāṅkhyakārikā to represent Sāṅkhya, this paper explores the impersonal feelings evoked by the predominance of metaphysics in this text. Using the Yogasūtra to represent Yoga, this paper reveals the highly personal and egoic reading provided by psychology and practice based verses. Using four concepts to measure an SoA (frequency, variety of choices, centralizing and results of personal effort) it is clear that theoretically, the Yogasūtra provides the practitioner with a more promising feeling of ownership over his pursuits
Achievement vs. Adjustment: The Paradoxical Effect of the Model Minority Myth on Asian American Students
(2021-05) Jaavvadi, Praveena
This study aims to understand the differences between White and Asian students according to a specific set of psychological processes and role the internalization of the model minority myth plays. In my thesis I first examined what it means to be Asian American by looking at where the term first came from, the differences between race and ethnicity, and the diversity within the group. Then I examined the model minority’s myth origins and looked into the effect the model minority myth has been found to have on Asian American development. Then I examined the achievement adjustment paradox and the mental health outcomes of Asian Americans to understand the current problem facing Asian Americans. After this, I explained my study, the psychological processes that I was studying, the results, and analyzed them. I found that belonging plays a particularly powerful role for Asian American students, Asian American students score lower on hope for the future in comparison to White students, and the internalization of the model minority myth can act as a buffer against negative feelings. I explained that belonging and the internalization of the model minority myth may be playing a particularly influential role because there is not a clear understanding or language to describe the Asian American experience.
Attrition and body mass index change in pediatric weight management: the predictive value of demographic and mental health variables
(2016-08) Lotz, Elijah John Strong; Keith, Timothy, 1952-; Gray, Jane; Pont, Stephen; Stark, Kevin; Rodriguez, Erin
Child and adolescent obesity has increased dramatically in the last few decades, and remains a pressing health concern in the United States. Responding to the problem of obesity in youth has been a challenge, as body mass index (BMI) change is difficult to attain, and attrition from pediatric weight management programs is often very high. The purpose of the current study was to identify demographic and mental health variables that can predict attrition and BMI change in a pediatric weight management program using multiple linear regression and binary logistic regression. Participants were children and adolescents with obesity 6-18 years of age and their parents living in the central Texas area and participating the a hospital-based multidisciplinary pediatric weight management program. Results provided several significant findings. Rates of attrition from the intervention were similar to findings from prior research. No study variables significantly predicted dropout prior to the third visit. However, parent’s preferred language, taking psychiatric medication at the first visit, and symptoms of inattention were all significant predictors of dropout prior to the fourth visit. In paired-samples t- tests, unstandardized BMI scores increased significantly from first to last visit, while BMI z-scores decreased significantly. Average time between visits significantly predicted unstandardized BMI change and BMI z-score change in this sample. Last visit number was also a significant predictor of unstandardized BMI change. Implications, limitations, and areas of future research are discussed.
Belief-directed exploration in human decision-makers : behavioral and physiological evidence
(2012-05) Otto, Anthony Ross, 1983-; Markman, Arthur B.; Love, Bradley C.; Huk, Alexander; Poldrack, Russell; Gureckis, Todd
Decision-making in uncertain environments poses a conflict between the goals of exploiting past knowledge in order to maximize rewards and exploring less-known options in order to gather information. The descriptive modeling framework utilized in previous studies of exploratory choice behavior characterizes exploration as the result of a noisy decision process, rather than a process reflecting beliefs and/or uncertainty about the environment. It stands to reason that people do not merely negotiate the exploration-exploitation dilemma by stochastically making choices, but rather, fully utilize their knowledge of the environment structure and integrate their trial-by-trial observations of choice in order to direct exploratory choice. The work presented in this dissertation evaluates this hypothesis. As the previous used tasks structures and descriptive models obfuscate this more sophisticated form of belief-directed exploration, I describe a novel exploration-exploitation task that affords disentanglement of reflective belief-directed exploration strategy from a reflexive and naïve exploration strategy. The former strategy is distinguished from latter by its ability to update its belief states in the absence of direct observations of choice payoff changes. Accordingly, we specify cognitive models instantiating these two choice strategies and in the first experiment, we find evidence that behavior is by and large better characterized by a reflective strategy, and further, that choice latencies appear to index value computations carried out in implementing such a strategy. In a second experiment, I reveal how physiological arousal (measured by Skin Conductance Responses) appears to index a form of value computation similar to what is prescribed this reflective model, and further, how individual differences in physiological response to these value signals bear on choice behavior. In a third experiment, I demonstrate how this sophisticated form of choice behavior carries cognitive costs, and following the contemporary model-based/model-free reinforcement learning framework, I show how placing concurrent decision-makers under cognitive load diminishes the contribution of the more sophisticated reflective exploration strategy, fostering reliance on stochastic, reflexive form of exploratory choice behavior.
Break down the walls : how the “folder effect” influences the transfer of learning
(2011-05) He, Jingjie; Svinicki, Marilla D., 1946-; Markman, Arthur
Categorizing knowledge into different disciplines and units may block knowledge within separate “folders”, which could limit its later retrieval and transfer to new contexts. To test this hypothesis, two experiments had been conducted. In one experiment, participants memorized a list of words with or without cuing which category these words belonged to. One week later, they were asked to recall all the positive adjectives, which required them to retrieve words that came from different categories. In the other experiment, participants read exactly the same story but embedded in two different subject domains or no context. A survey report was presented to test whether people from different contexts would have different transfer effect. The current study replicated previous results that successful transfer was hard to observe in the laboratory settings without explicit prompts. The memory test and transfer task in this study were too difficult and resulted into to the poor performance of the participants. The initial hypothesis had been neither supported nor rejected. To test the hypothesis, future studies could reduce the time interval between study and test, and modified the transfer task to lower the difficulty of the experiment.
Camouflage detection & signal discrimination : theory, methods & experiments
(2022-05-05) Das, Abhranil; Geisler, Wilson S.; Reichl, L. E.; Florin, Ernst-Ludwig; Marder, Michael
Camouflage is an amazing feat of evolution, but also impressive is the ability of biological visual systems to detect them. They are the result of an evolutionary arms race that exposes many detection strategies and their limits. In this thesis, we investigate the principles of human detection of maximally-camouflaged objects, i.e. whose texture exactly mimics the background texture. Chapter 1 introduces and contextualizes the problem. In chapter 2, we develop a theory and model that extracts the relevant information in the image, and uses biologically plausible computations on them for detection. In chapter 3, we present a series of experiments which measured human camouflage detection ability along different dimensions of the task, such as across different textures and shapes. Chapter 5 is a reference on some methods and analysis used in the study. Chapter 6 describes mathematical methods and software on statistical signal discrimination that we developed to solve questions in visual detection, but with wider applications in other fields.
A computerized intervention for depression : a randomized clinical trial
(2014-12) Sandoval, Luis Roberto; Ainslie, Ricardo C.
One in ten adults in the U.S. report depression, and thirty-eight percent of those receiving treatment are receiving minimally adequate treatment. Studies show that evidence-based Internet interventions are highly effective in treating depression at a low cost. The aim of this study was to reduce symptoms of depression in subjects through the use of a new, electronic Problem Solving Treatment (ePST). Adult participants with moderate to severe depression symptoms were randomly assigned to either treatment or a wait-list condition. The Beck Depression Inventory-II was used as the primary outcome measure. A Repeated Measure Design with one factor in the between (treatment vs control) and one factor in the within (pre, mid-point, and post-treatment) was used in the analysis. Study results showed that participants in the ePST group improved their depression symptoms (from Moderate to Mild levels of depression) after receiving 3 session of ePST, as well as after receiving six session of ePST (from moderate to minimal levels of depression). On the other hand, participants assigned to the control group remained with Moderate levels of depression.
Cultivation Theory And Violence In Media: Correlations And Observations
(2019-05-01) Obert-Hong, Christine; Lewis, Robert
Cultivation Theory represents the idea that people’s perceptions of the real world are unconsciously influenced by their consumption of media. As technology has improved and increased, so too has the amount of information various platforms are able to spread. However, there is an imbalance between the amount of violence depicted in media and the amount that occurs in real life, leading to unrealistic perceptions of a mean world. Most cultivation research is not experimental. For my thesis, I decided to conduct an experiment of my own using YouTube clips emphasizing violent or fearful content, using a variety of established practices and questions, as well as some of my own. Although result were not conclusive, a few patterns consistent with Cultivation Theory were observed in this online context.
Cultural stress and adaptation : the experience of Venezuelan crisis immigrants in the United States
(2023-07-28) Perazzo, Patrizia; Ainslie, Ricardo C.; Schwartz, Seth; Gulbas, Lauren; Sanchez, Delida; Eddy, Mark
As of August 2022, the United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency confirmed that there are 6.8 million displaced Venezuelans worldwide. This makes Venezuelans the largest group of refugees and crisis migrants worldwide, tying with Ukraine and surpassing Syria for the first time (Alvarez, 2022). Even though the number of Venezuelans in the U.S. continues to grow, their migration and acculturation experiences are not well understood. Once they arrive in the U.S., Venezuelan migrants continue to face challenges and stress, such as adapting to a new culture, language, system, and overall environment, which exacerbates the stress and trauma that this group of migrants brings with them. The present study examined the experiences of Venezuelan crisis immigrant parents. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-method design, the present study was guided by two objectives. The first objective was to quantitatively examine the relationships among cultural stress, cultural adaptation, psychological symptoms (anxiety and depression), and how this relationship is impacted by co-ethnic density and Latino/a density. The second objective was to qualitatively examine how access to cultural elements (such as food, cultural traditions, and customs, support from other Venezuelans, etc.) in their environment may contextualize the relationship between cultural stress and psychological symptoms. Quantitative results indicated that Latino/a density had a marginal moderating effect on the relationship between psychological adaptation and depressive symptoms. Specifically, for participants in neighborhoods with a greater percentage of Latino/a residents, psychological adaptation was less strongly and negatively related to depressive symptoms. Regarding the qualitative results, four themes emerged. One of the most important findings highlighted that the most influential aspect of adaptation is being able to cover basic needs.
A culture of dissonance : Wassily Kandinsky, atonality, and abstraction
(2014-05) Boland, Lynn; Henderson, Linda Dalrymple, 1948-
A Culture of Dissonance: Wassily Kandinsky, Atonality, and Abstraction by Lynn Edward Boland, Ph.D. Supervisor: Linda D. Henderson Wassily Kandinsky's interest in music as a source for abstraction in painting has often been noted in the scholarship on his art. However, no studies have sufficiently explained how the artist employed musical strategies, especially as he was developing his abstract style in the first decade of the twentieth century. Kandinsky's looked primarily to Arnold Schoenberg's new musical idioms and theories, and he was deeply inspired by highly dissonant music, but his ideas were set within a much broader context that further suggested and encouraged the expressive and transformative power of dissonance. By the late nineteenth century, extended passages of dissonance were common in musical compositions. At the same time, the concept of dissonance as a positive force was suggested in a wide range of late nineteenth-century literature, including the writings of Friedrich [should be this spelling throughout] Nietzsche, occult authors, popular texts on physics and experimental psychology, as well as within music and art theory. Close readings of Kandinsky's theoretical texts and selected works of art provide insights into how he might have understood and employed these concepts in his formation of an abstract style. Kandinsky's paintings Impression III (Concert) of 1911 and Composition VII of 1913 are the primary artistic foci of this study, along with his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art and the anthology Der Blaue Reiter, which he co-edited. This dissertation will seek to restore the concept of musical dissonance and its application in the visual arts to its historical context for Kandinsky. This will facilitate more informed formal analyses of Schoenberg's music and Kandinsky's paintings, which, in turn, suggest strategies of atonal musical composition applied to abstract painting. Additionally, this dissertation will establish an artistic context of visual dissonance that goes beyond Kandinsky, including artistic movements in France and Russia, allowing additional comparisons and a consideration of the larger impact of these ideas.
Defining "normal" in their own image: psychological professionals, middle-class normativity, and the postwar popularization of psychology
(2009-12) Hill, Victoria Campbell; Davis, Janet M.
This dissertation examines the relationship between the growth and popularization of psychology in American life in the postwar period and Americans’ belief that theirs is a “classless,” or overwhelmingly middle-class, society. I argue that psychology has, until recently, inadvertently naturalized middle-class norms of self-perception, communication, aspirations, and subjectivity. From the 1950s on, the United States has been what observers call a “therapeutic culture.” Psychological ideas have infused the major arenas of American life, including the educational, judicial, commercial, political, personal, and interpersonal realms. This project examines the origins and development of psychological professionals’ views of class, highlighting the professional, economic, disciplinary, and cultural factors that combined to form those views. I analyze a small but persistent thread of dialogue in the professional literature of the period that questioned mainstream psychological assumptions about class, and I explore how that impulse developed into major mental health policy initiatives in the 1960s, then was undermined by political and social conflicts. I also develop a case history of one mental health project that attempted to transcend psychology’s class biases, only to be contained by structural and disciplinary factors. After examining psychological professionals’ views of various publics, this project investigates a series of publics’ views of psychological practitioners. I draw on popular portrayals of postwar psychological practitioners across various media, including one particular working-class medium, postwar men’s adventure magazines, and employ classic cultural studies readings to analyze the significant differences in the portrayals.
Do I have enough time? The effects of perceived test difficulty and perceived time pressure on cognitive performance
(2016-12) Stein, Evan Marc; Markman, Arthur B.
Previous research on time pressure has shown that time pressure has paradoxical effects on task performance. Findings from previous studies show that time pressure can either help or hurt performance. Thus, it was hypothesized that an inverted U-shape relationship between time pressure and cognitive performance might explain the inconsistent results. In the current study, we used a 2 (Practice set difficulty: easy vs. hard) x 2 (Perceived time pressure: low vs. high) between-subjects design to investigate the effects of perceived test difficulty and perceived time pressure on cognitive performance. Participants either received an easy or hard practice set of Remote Associate Task problems. After, participants were told that 10 mins was either a sufficient (i.e., low perceived time pressure) or insuffient (i.e., high perceived time pressure) amount of time to complete a 30-item test. Upon completion of the test, participants then answered a battery of questionnaires regarding their personality, behavior, and beliefs. Results showed that there was no effect of perceived test difficulty or perceived time pressure on creative task performance or time spent on items. Exploratory analyses using the self-report surveys showed that ADHD behaviors, impulsivity, procrastination, need for cognition, and regulatory focus interacts with perceived test difficulty and perceived time pressure. Findings from this study provides insight into the influence of individual differences on perceived test difficulty and perceived time pressure. Understanding how people with different personalities, behaviors, and beliefs perceive time will help elucidate the different contexts under which time pressure can impair or improve performance.
The effects of student psychology on remedial math success : a case study on non-academic interventions
(2015-05) Ferrell, Benjamin Butler; Cantu, Norma V., 1954-; Reddick, Richard, 1972-; Sharpe, Edwin R; Svinicki, Marilla D; Roueche, John E
This single case study explored the relationship between non-academic interventions that supported student psychosocial factors and remedial math success. The theoretical framework proposed that remedial math success was linked to psychosocial factors as described by Bandura’s social cognitive theory rather than merely cognitive factors possessed by the student. The literature review revealed that remedial math success in community colleges was chronically problematic, that psychosocial factors were fundamental to human development and learning and well supported by neuroscience, and that above average academic success has long been positively correlated with programs of non-academic interventions. According to the findings of this study, non-academic interventions such as case management, cohorts, accelerated remedial math coursework, childcare, and emergency financial assistance, provided psychosocial support essential to learning and development, which in turn resulted in extraordinary success in remedial math completion. The conclusion drawn from the findings is that effective psychosocial support is essential to achieving exceptional remedial math success rates.
An experimental test of collegiate drinking norms
(2011-05) Patel, Amee Bipin; Fromme, Kim; Beevers, Christopher G.; Beretvas, Susan N.; Josephs, Robert A.; Markman, Arthur B.
Social norms play a pivotal role in both explaining the development and maintenance of collegiate alcohol use and creating prevention and intervention programs targeted at reducing heavy drinking. By theoretically functioning as a model of normative and popular behavior, descriptive and injunctive norms are consistently associated with college drinking. In the current study, we endeavored to test the mechanisms through which social norms influence drinking by experimentally manipulating normative beliefs. Participants (N = 181) were assigned to one of nine conditions in a 3 (descriptive norms (DN): positive, negative, none) x 3 (injunctive norms (IN): positive, negative, none) experimental design. Norms exposure occurred within a series of three same-gender Internet-based chat room sessions. The norms manipulation was partially successful in creating groups with distinct normative beliefs, with the no norms groups failing to maintain a neutral norm for both descriptive and injunctive norms. Consequently, no descriptive norms groups were combined with positive descriptive norms groups and no injunctive norms groups were combined with negative injunctive norms groups, resulting in a 2 (DN: positive, negative) x 2 (IN: positive, negative) design for analyses. Overall findings for type (DN, IN) and valence (positive, negative) of norms indicated that participants globally reduced descriptive norms and drinking from pre-chat room to post-chat room, regardless of the type or valence of the manipulation, indicating that there were no experimental effects by condition. Whereas drinking appeared to stabilize at post-chat room, descriptive norms continued to decrease by three-month follow-up. Injunctive norms and personal attitudes about alcohol use also decreased by three-month follow-up. Although we were unsuccessful in changing normative beliefs in expected directions, these findings have important implications for college prevention and intervention programs for reducing drinking. The lack of experimental effects suggested that changing norms may be more complex than previously hypothesized and that changes in norms may not result in changes in drinking, which is the purported mechanism of change in norms-based interventions. These results further suggested that continued research is necessary to provide empirical support for a causal link between norms and drinking and that alternative explanations for the association between norms and drinking need to be considered.
From battlegrounds to the backcountry : the intersection of masculinity and outward bound programming on psychosocial functioning for male military veterans
(2014-08) Scheinfeld, David Emmanuel; Rochlen, Aaron B.
This study investigates the promise of using therapeutic adventure as an alternative therapeutic approach to address a public health issue: Veterans reticence towards seeking mental health assistance, despite their rising rates of mental health issues. To examine how the intersection between conformity to traditional masculine norms and Outward Bound for Veterans (OB4V) programming impacted psychosocial development, a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design was implemented on 159 male Veterans. The primary goals were twofold: 1) to determine whether improvement in six therapeutic outcome variables occurred due to the OB4V intervention; 2) to discover whether male Veterans’ level of conformity to traditional masculine norms influenced change in the therapeutic outcome variables. Outcome variables included: 1) mental health status; 2) personal growth initiative; 3) attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help; 4) psychological mindedness; 5) restriction of emotions; 6) subjective wellbeing. Results indicated a significant effect of treatment, suggesting that the OB4V treatment promoted Veterans improvement in all the therapeutic outcome variables, except psychological mindedness. Findings also showed that the significant effect of treatment was associated with Veterans’ improvement in therapeutic outcome variables over all time points irrespective of their level of conformity to traditional masculine norms.
Generation Y : a new generation of learning
(2013-05) Wallace, Elizabeth Marie; Svinicki, Marilla D., 1946-
In this paper the so-called Generation Y and its impact on education and counseling is examined. The shared experiences of this group of individuals are identified, which contribute to the defining characteristics of this generation. The implications of these characteristics for the learning styles of Gen Yers are discussed. Recent research has shown that Gen Y differs from previous generations in several ways. Most importantly, Gen Y students have developed a different brain structure, which processes and uses information in a way that is radically different from previous generations (Abram, 2007; Black, 2010; Doidge, 2008; Prensky, 2001a,b,c; & Oblinger, 2003). In this paper the inevitable consequences suffered when schools do not specifically address Gen Y’s unique learning styles are explored and outlined. Further, ways in which school counselors and student advocates can address the needs of these students to give them all of the skills they need to succeed in school are examined.
Hemispheric specialization of the processing of linguistic pitch contrasts
(2001-08) Wong, Patrick Chun Man; Diehl, Randy L.
Hierarchies of Brain and Being: Abraham Maslow and the Origins of The Hierarchy of Needs in German Brain Science
(2016-05) Coonan, Daniel J
I tell the history of how a theory–that humans have a hierarchy of needs–emerged in 1943 from larger conflicts over the study of the brain and the human being. A stoic, yet passionate neurologist Kurt Goldstein who fled Nazi Germany inspired a young psychologist, Abraham Maslow, with a forceful critique of materialist science; in doing so, hierarchies of brain became hierarchies of mind and self. The theory is widely used in business schools today and by more than few everyday American’s looking for greater success, deeper experiences of spirituality, and, in some cases, release from the sufferings of contemporary American life. This story is about how we make sense of our lives by the “real” established by science and how very much belief in something, whether formula or faith, helps us make sense of the reality of the “real” and thereby create the communities in which we live and strive.
Identity, mobility, and marginality : counseling third culture kids in college
(2012-05) Downey, Dana Leigh; Awad, Germine H.; Moore, Leslie A.
The number of Americans living abroad currently is estimated at over four million, with over 37,000 matriculating into U.S. universities each year. If the social media giant Facebook were a country, it would be third largest in the world, with over 300 million users outside of America. The trajectory of our society is increasingly global. Amidst this shift, there is a unique multicultural subpopulation emerging-- Third Culture Kids (TCK), who experience a collision of cultures and form hybrid identities in the course of their development. TCKs are more specifically when a person spends a significant part of their developmental years outside their parents’ culture. The TCK takes on pieces of each culture, while never fully ‘belonging’ to any. They are most at home around others of a similar transient background. This report synthesizes research about globally mobile populations from across disciples, highlighting grief and ambiguous losses, acculturation stresses, and identity development. Potential implications for the college campus— at institutional and individual levels— will be discussed. This overview of current research and resources equips college counselors with a frame of reference for engaging this third culture in a holistic and contextualized manner.