UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item EXPLORING THE ROLES OF SOCIAL ANXIETY, TRAUMA, AND URBANICITY IN THE RELATION BETWEEN POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS IN PSYCHOSIS(2018) Garcia, Cristina Phoenix; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Background: Research shows that positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia are separate but related factors. However, it is unclear which specific symptoms may drive this relation or whether there are moderating factors. Moreover, it is unknown whether the relation between positive and negative symptoms is specific to schizophrenia or exists for individuals with psychosis regardless of diagnosis. Research is needed that looks specifically at individual symptoms within positive and negative symptom domains in a sample of mixed diagnoses. The current study examines whether paranoia, a positive symptom, and deficits in motivation and pleasure, a negative symptom, are correlated with one another in a transdiagnostic sample of individuals with psychosis. Literature suggests that paranoia and deficits in motivation and pleasure are both interpersonal in nature. This shared interpersonal characteristic suggests that these symptoms may be linked through social stressors. Method: Participants were 38 people with psychosis and six people without a psychiatric diagnosis. They completed the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS), including the Motivation and Pleasure (MAP) subscale; the Green et al. Paranoid Thought Scales (GPTS), including Social Reference (SR) and Persecution (P); the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS); the Self-Beliefs Related to Social Anxiety scale (SBSA), including Unconditional Beliefs (UB); the Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ); and the Neighborhood Health Questionnaire (NHQ), including Activities with Neighbors (AN). Results: Inconsistent with hypotheses, neither GPTS nor its subscales was significantly correlated with CAINS MAP. GPTS was significantly correlated with SIAS, SBSA, and THQ totals; in exploratory analyses, the GPTS SR was significantly correlated with SBSA UB. CAINS MAP was significantly correlated with NHQ AN. Conclusions: This study revealed novel associations between paranoia and social anxiety cognitions and between motivation and pleasure deficits and neighborhood socialization. We explore reasons for null results (e.g., limitations with the transdiagnostic approach; low symptomatology in the sample). Future directions include examination of other positive and negative symptoms; investigation into facets of social anxiety and their overlap with paranoia; and assessment of urbanicity/neighborhood health and its relation to paranoia.Item White Matter Connectivity and Social Cognitive Impairment in a Transdiagnostic Sample(2018) Dwyer, Kristen R; Blanchard, Jack; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Social cognitive deficits are impaired mental operations underlying social interactions and are present across psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia spectrum, bipolar, and depressive disorders. It is unclear what neurobiological factors underlie social cognitive impairment, though one possibility is that impaired white matter connections within social cognitive cerebral networks may give rise to social cognitive impairment in psychosis. This study extended current diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) research to a transdiagnostic sample of individuals with psychotic disorders and controls and employed a Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) multiple units of analysis approach. The current study aimed to (1) assess the relation between social cognition (theory of mind and emotion processing), social functioning, negative symptoms, and general cognitive ability, and (2) examine white matter integrity within the uncinate fasciculus (UF) and inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) through fractional anisotropy (FA) values, and to investigate their relation to social cognition and social functioning. Thirty-three participants, 25 with a history of clinically significant psychotic symptoms and 8 controls, completed the research project. Results indicated that social cognition was positively related to general cognitive ability, but not social functioning. However, better theory of mind was related to improved community functioning. Negative symptoms were differentially related to social cognition as there was only a negative association between theory of mind and expressive negative symptoms. More severe negative symptoms were associated with poorer social functioning and cognitive ability. White matter integrity within either identified tract did not contribute to social cognitive ability. Although FA within the left ILF was related to overall functioning and social functioning and FA within the left UF was related to community functioning, these relationships were in the opposite direction as originally predicted with better functioning contributing to lower FA. This is the first study to investigate white matter microstructure in a transdiagnostic sample using an RDoC approach. Our results indicate that there may be unique challenges involved in implementing RDoC. We encourage future researchers to recruit larger sample sizes, administer several behavioral measures of interest to create latent variables, and consider novel imaging methods to better address the difficulties associated with crossing fiber tracts.