Psychology Theses and Dissertations
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Item TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN? ASSESSING THE DISTINCTNESS OF STIGMA CONCEALMENT AND DISCLOSURE PROCESSES(2013) Jackson, Skyler; Jackson, Skyler D; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Past scholarship is divided regarding whether stigma concealment and disclosure represent a unidimensional construct. This study used an online survey to investigate the distinctness of these stigma management processes among 298 sexual minority undergraduate and graduate students. The association demonstrated between stigma concealment and disclosure in this investigation suggests that they are related but ultimately distinct aspects of identity management. This finding was reinforced by numerous cases in which these stigma management variables uniquely predicted factors of psychological health (depression and life satisfaction) or aspects of identity adjustment (self-stigma, acceptance concerns, membership esteem, and identity strength). Additionally, as compared to stigma disclosure, stigma concealment was found to be a better predictor of both factors of psychological health and one aspect of identity adjustment (acceptance concerns). The implications of these results are discussed in light of literature on individuals with indiscernible stigmatized identities and may inform clinical practice and future research.Item The relationship of internalized stigma with symptoms, social behavior, and emotional responding in schizophrenia(2013) Park, Stephanie Grace; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Internalized stigma refers to the process by which affected individuals endorse stereotypes about mental illness, expect social rejection, apply these stereotypes to themselves, and believe that they are devalued members of society (Corrigan et al., 2005; Corrigan et al., 2006; Ritsher & Phelan, 2004). Studies in clinical populations have found that internalized stigma is associated with a host of negative psychosocial variables, including decreased self-esteem and self-efficacy, hopelessness, demoralization, poor quality of life, and reduced motivation to work towards recovery goals (e.g., Livingston & Boyd, 2010; Ritsher, Otilingam, & Grajales, 2003). However, the relationship between internalized stigma and symptoms in schizophrenia is still unclear. Further, though evidence suggests that individuals with schizophrenia who are high in internalized stigma tend to actively avoid others, have reduced social contact, and maintain insular support networks (e.g., Yanos, Roe, Markus, & Lysaker, 2008), actual behavior and emotional responding during social interactions have not been explored. Thus, the current study examined 50 outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder on a battery of self-report measures, clinician-administered interviews, and a social affiliation interaction task to examine the associations between internalized stigma and symptoms, functioning, and emotional responding. Results showed that lower levels of Stigma Resistance were significantly correlated with greater deficits in clinician-rated experiential but not expressive negative symptoms. The present study replicated previous findings of a significant relationship between internalized stigma and other psychiatric symptoms, including depression. Using a multi-method approach to assess functioning, this study found that individuals with higher levels of internalized stigma and lower Stigma Resistance demonstrated impairments in communicative functional capacity and immediate social network relationships. Further, individuals lower in Stigma Resistance were rated as less affiliative and less overall socially skilled during a social affiliation interaction task. However, internalized stigma was not associated with positive or negative affect after the interaction controlling for affect before the task, and there were no differences in willingness to interact or reactions to partner. Importantly, these findings may ultimately contribute to the further development of psychosocial interventions that target internalized stigma.Item CLIENT ATTACHMENT AS A PREDICTOR OF THERAPIST INTERVENTIONS, THE WORKING ALLIANCE, AND THE REAL RELATIONSHIP IN THE INITIAL, MIDDLE, AND FINAL PHASES OF PSYCHOTHERAPY(2013) Jackson, John Lawrence; Hill, Clara E; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated client attachment style as a predictor of (a) therapist interventions in an early, middle, and late session of psychotherapy; (b) client and therapist post-session ratings of the working alliance over the course of therapy; and (c) client and therapist post-session ratings of the real relationship over the course of therapy. A total of 41 clients and 14 therapists completed measures prior to and throughout open-term courses of psychotherapy ranging from 8 to 106 sessions. Client attachment style was measured using the anxiety and avoidance subscale scores from the Experiences in Close Relationships scale (ECR; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998). Therapist interventions were coded by trained observers using the Psychotherapy Q-Set (PQS; Jones, 2000). A factor analysis of therapist interventions revealed four factors: Therapist Facilitative Approach (TFA), Therapist Psychodynamic versus Behavioral Interventions (TPB), Therapist Supportive Approach (TSA), and Therapist Process Comments (TPC). Client attachment avoidance was positively associated with Therapist Supportive Approach (TSA), such that therapists were more likely to use directly supportive interventions with clients who endorsed higher levels of attachment avoidance at the outset of therapy. Otherwise, client attachment ratings were not significantly associated to overall levels of therapist interventions or change in therapist interventions over the course of therapy. Neither client attachment anxiety nor avoidance significantly predicted initial levels, mean levels, or patterns of change in client or therapist ratings of the working alliance or the real relationship over the course of psychotherapy. The findings are discussed in the context of findings and methodological differences from other investigations of client attachment, therapist interventions, and client and therapist ratings of the working alliance and the real relationship. Implications for future research and clinical practice are also discussed.Item THE EFFECT OF ANXIETY ON REPETITION PRIMING FOR VISUAL STIMULI(2011) Norwood, Earta; Smith, Barry; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Anxiety strongly influences a person's experience by affecting, among others, cognition and learning. Theoretical models of anxiety indicate that the level of anxiety experienced by an individual affects how they analyze threat-related incoming information. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between anxiety and the difference in the time it takes to make simple decisions about repeatedly presented photographs. The study included 71 participants who completed a task based on the repetition priming effect. The photographs used for this task depicted human faces displaying a happy or fearful expression. The participants were presented twice with each photograph and were asked to indicate the gender of the face presented in the photograph. The outcome measure was the time that it took for each participant to react to the presented photographs. The findings indicate that anxiety, worry, and intolerance of uncertainty affect the perception of visual stimuli, such that people with higher anxiety, worry, or intolerance of uncertainty react differently to such stimuli. People with a history of a DSM-IV anxiety disorder diagnosis reacted faster to visual stimuli relative to healthy controls. The differences in information processing between people with high and low anxiety seem to provide support for cognitive theories that explain anxiety as the result of lack of habituation due to excessive avoidance and those that explain anxiety as the result of disproportionate allocation of cognitive resources.Item An Experimental Study Of Mentoring Practices In An America Reads Program: Measures of Intervention Fidelity And Implementation(2013) Nelson, Janaiha Faith; Gottfredson, Gary D; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The America Reads (AR) program at the University of Maryland serves approximately 350 local elementary school students per semester, and trains undergraduate tutors to teach reading using techniques drawn from Reading Recovery methods. Previous research implies that the implementation of interventions should be evaluated prior to gauging their effectiveness. The present study assessed aspects of program implementation for America Reads at the University of Maryland. In addition, it examined the efficacy of a self-monitoring and corrective feedback procedure for improving level of implementation. AR tutors were randomly assigned to the experimental self-monitoring and feedback procedure or to usual and customary monitoring to assess the effects on mentor implementation. Controlling for school assignment, the effect of this self-monitoring and feedback procedure on mentors' self-reported level of implementation was not significant in the small sample of mentors. Descriptive results including information about the effectiveness and utility of existing procedures for monitoring program implementation, and tutor training have a number of implications for strengthening the Maryland realization of AR; they have implications for the use of monitoring and feedback in the design of similar educational service programs.Item Cognitive and Physiological Mediators of the Link Between Maternal Attachment and Self-Reported Responses to Child Distress(2013) Brett, Bonnie Erin; Cassidy, Jude A; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Given recent evidence that caregivers' responses to their children's distress are predictive of a host of child outcomes, the goal of the present study was to examine attachment related differences in maternal responses to child distress. In addition, I examined whether the link between maternal attachment and maternal responses to child distress was mediated by maternal negative attribution biases about infant distress and maternal electrodermal reactivity in the context of infant distress. Path analyses revealed that (a) maternal attachment-related anxiety was positively related to maternal distress reactions to child distress, (b) that maternal negative attribution biases were negatively related to supportive maternal responses, and (c) that maternal electrodermal reactivity was positively linked with unsupportive maternal responses. These findings advance the literature on the maternal characteristics associated with supportive and unsupportive maternal responses to child distress.Item Taking Racism to Heart: The Effects of Race-Related Stress on Cardiovascular Reactivity for Black/White Biracial People(2013) Franco, Marisa Gina; O'Brien, Karen M; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This within-groups experimental study examined whether two race-related stressors--social invalidation and discrimination from family--affect cardiovascular reactivity for Black/White Biracial adults (N = 60). This study also tested whether racial centrality moderates the link between race-related stress and cardiovascular reactivity. A mixed model was used to analyze differences in cardiovascular reactivity across control and racial stressor conditions. Findings revealed that discussing experiences of discrimination from family lowered systolic blood pressure. In contrast, in the recovery period following discussion of discrimination from family, systolic blood pressure increased. Social invalidation did not have any effects on cardiovascular reactivity. There was not support for the moderating role of racial centrality in the relationship between racial stress and cardiovascular reactivity.Item Measurement of self-regulatory constructs across a continuum of performance conditions among kindergarten students(2013) Annotti, Lee Ann; Teglasi, Hedwig; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Measurement issues related to the assessment of Executive Functioning (EF) and social competence were examined with Kindergarten students (N = 62) and their teachers. Measures of constructs, such as EF and social competence, exist along a continuum of performance conditions, ranging from highly maximal, well-defined tasks with clear performance expectations to more typical, ill-defined tasks with ambiguous performance expectations. It is hypothesized that measures with maximal or typical performance conditions cannot be used interchangeably because the results gleaned from the measures generalize to different situations and different behaviors. This study employed observed variable path analyses to examine the model fit between measures of EF and social competence that present performance conditions that range from maximal to typical. The results indicate that performance conditions of measures significantly alter the relations between measures and the results gleaned from the opposing performance conditions predict different behaviors in different contexts. The results also suggest that more maximal measures of EF do not translate to the social world.Item Tracking the Cost Heuristic: A Rule of Thumb in Choice of Counterfinal Means(2013) Klein, Kristen; Kruglanski, Arie W; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Domain-specific empirical evidence shows that people sometimes infer a correlation between the cost of an item or behavior (e.g., price, effort) and its quality or efficacy (e.g., Labroo & Kim, 2009; Shiv, Carmon, & Ariely. 2005). In the present research, I proposed and tested a general mechanism that may underlie these instantiations. I termed this mechanism the cost heuristic, whereby people may infer that if a means is costly or detrimental to alternative goal(s) (i.e., counterfinal), then it must be highly instrumental to whatever focal goal it serves. Three preliminary studies provided inconsistent support for the cost heuristic. However, two of these studies suggested that a reverse halo effect (Thorndike, 1920) might have interfered with the cost heuristic. In three additional studies, I controlled for this reverse halo effect and tested more nuanced hypotheses about conditions under which the cost heuristic might be particularly likely to emerge. In Study 1, after statistically controlling for reverse halo effects, I found marginal support for a general cost heuristic, but not for the proposed moderators of alternative goal magnitude and the perceived ecological validity of the cost heuristic. In Study 2, the alternative goal magnitude manipulation was only effective in one goal domain; however, in this domain the results fully supported the hypothesis. Those who perceived the cost heuristic as ecologically valid were more likely to exhibit it under high (vs. low) alternative goal magnitude, whereas for those who did not perceive it as ecologically valid, alternative goal magnitude did not make a difference. In Study 3, the results did not support my hypothesis, but rather suggested that the vignettes' length/complexity may have obscured the detrimentality cue on which the cost heuristic is based. Taken together, the evidence from these studies is suggestive but inconclusive with regard to a cost heuristic and the conditions under which it might manifest. Limitations and future directions are discussed.Item East Asian International Trainees Experiences of Conducting Therapy in the US: A Qualitative Investigation(2013) Liu, Jingqing; Hill, Clara E; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the present study, the author investigated East-Asian international counseling trainees' experience of conducting therapy in the US, particularly challenges East-Asian trainees are facing, how East-Asian trainees cope with these challenges, how East-Asian trainees' cultural backgrounds affect their clinical work, and East-Asian trainees' experience with clinical training. Ten East-Asian international trainees (from China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan) were interviewed. For each participant, two 1-2 hours phone interview were conducted, approximately one week apart. In the first interview, participants were asked to discuss their experience with clinical training in the US, to reflect on challenges that they faced that related to doing therapy in the US, and to describe their coping strategies. In the second interview, participants were asked to discuss in details two cases in which their cultural backgrounds facilitated/hindered their clinical work. The Consensual Qualitative Research (Hill et. al, 2005) is used for data analysis. The results indicated that East-Asian trainees deal with challenges such as discrimination/distrust from their clients, language barrier, a lack of understanding of nuances of American culture, countertransference due to cultural conflict, discomfort working with emotions, and difficulty being direct with clients. East-Asian trainees cope with these challenges by seeking support, addressing cultural issues with clients, improving English skills, using cognitive restructuring, using avoidance, and practicing self-care. Results also indicated that East-Asian international trainees' cultural backgrounds/experience (e.g., their understanding of Asian cultural values and their bicultural experiences) can be an asset to their clinical work. Implications for training and research are discussed.