College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item The Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Narrative Abilities in Primary Progressive Aphasia(2018) Colantuoni, Deborah Elise; Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulation technique that has recently been studied as an adjunct to speech-language therapy in persons with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). Preliminary studies have shown improved language abilities with tDCS-supplemented therapy, primarily in naming, as well as improved generalization and maintenance of skills. However, the effects of tDCS on narrative abilities have not yet been well studied in this population. The present study examined whether the addition of tDCS to anomia therapy improved narrative language measures in 16 participants with PPA versus sham stimulation plus therapy. Results demonstrated that tDCS did not significantly improve narrative language measures in participants with PPA.Item Narrative and Selfhood in the Antidepressant Era(2006-05-30) Stepnisky, Jeffrey Nicholas; Ritzer, George; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is a study of the relationship between antidepressant medications, self-understanding, and the narrative construction of self. The analysis relied upon two kinds of empirical data. First, advertisements for antidepressants in popular magazines, television, and online promotional websites were collected. Second, interviews were conducted with 23 people who were taking or had taken antidepressant medications. It is argued that antidepressants are components of the larger social processes of risk, biomedicalization, and individualization. In contrast to a narrative view, which conceives selfhood as a dialogical and embodied achievement, the antidepressants participate in a set of discourses that sustain atomistic conceptions of the self. The analysis emphasizes the personal agency that antidepressant users bring to bear upon their use of antidepressants. Chapter one is an introduction to theories of risk, individualization, and narrative as well as the ways in which narrative and selfhood are potentially transformed through the use of antidepressants. Chapter two offers an analysis of three theoretical conceptualizations of the relationship between biomedicine and selfhood: naturalism, poststructuralism and the narrative-hermeneutic perspective adopted in the dissertation. Chapter three analyzes the advertising materials emphasizing the manner in which relationships are constructed between selfhood, biology, and antidepressant medications. Chapters four, five, and six introduce interview materials in order to examine: a) how people learn to use antidepressants and in doing so come to split-off and manage unwanted elements of their selves, b) the ways in which the popular discourse of authenticity (being a "real" self) is transformed in the encounter with antidepressants, and c) the manner in which the antidepressants are taken up in social institutions such as the family. The dissertation concludes with a reflection upon the implications of a shift from a form of selfhood composed in narrative and relationship, to a form of post-social selfhood composed through the use of technologies such as antidepressants.Item A PILOT STUDY TO DEVELOP DISCOURSE CODES SPECIFIC TO PREFRONTAL DYSFUNCTION(2004-08-12) Eshel, Inbal; Ratner, Nan B.; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This pilot study developed a set of codes designed to capture the "nonaphasic" but characteristic discourse deficits that may be present following prefrontal cortex damage (PFCD). The codes were utilized based on narrative sample elicitation to investigate between-group differences in two study populations: patients with left, right, or bi-frontal PFCD and age and education-matched healthy comparison group participants. Narrative samples were coded on indices of content units, thematic units, story grammar features, and discourse errors, and analyzed using CLAN. Results of this study support the original deficit hypotheses. The coding schema demonstrated fair to good inter-rater reliability, stronger performances by the healthy comparison group across all four levels of analysis, and poorer performance overall on the retell phase than the tell phase. Qualitative analysis revealed relatively few discourse errors associated with the healthy comparison group, while various classic discourse errors were associated with the PFCD group.