Browsing by Subject "Anxiety"
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Item A hierarchy of anxiety producing situations as viewed by the stutterer and non-stutterer(Texas Tech University, 1971-08) Riley, Larry DonNot availableItem A longitudinal idiographic investigation of the relationship of self-schema to depressive and anxious symptoms(Texas Tech University, 1999-12) LaBrie, David WalterNomothetic approaches have identified the variables and the relationships of variables for diatheses-stressor models of anxiety and depression. The strength of findings is somewhat unclear, and meaning has potentially been clouded by methodological problems (Coyne & Whiffen, 1995; L. A. Clark, Watson & Mineka, 1994). At the individual level, detailed understanding of the interactions of processes resulting in depressive or anxious symptoms remains relatively unexamined. The present study employed a series of single-subject designs to clarify the relationship between schema activation, negative cognitions, and behaviors and symptoms, while accounting for the effects of coping. Results suggest facets of the tripartite model (L. A. Clark and Watson, 1991) may be repHcated at the level of the individual. Idiographic symptom items were often associated with tripartite model factors; however, these items also loaded on unique factors in addition to the factors of the tripartite model. P-technique factor analysis of coping strategies suggested similarity across individuals' patterns of coping. In all participants, limhed concurrent and/or lagged relationships between symptoms and coping strategies and schema activation were detected. Additionally, associations of symptom severity at various lags with symptom severity at lag zero were detected in three participants.Item A longitudinal study of the interaction between gender, computer anxiety, math anxiety, and test anxiety in a college-level computerized testing situation(Texas Tech University, 1991-05) Kim, Young HoiThe three major goals of this research were to investigate gender differences in computer, math, and test anxiety in a computerized testing situation, how the levels of anxieties change following repeated exposures to computerized testing, and to determine which factors best predict the levels of the three anxieties. Subjects were the students enrolled in Business Statistics during Fall semester, 1990 at Texas Tech University. The scores of three anxiety measurements on the pre and post or intermediate survey were dependent variables, while demographic variables and anxieties were used as independent variables. T-tests, repeated measures ANOVA, and multiple regression analyses were used for statistic analyses at p = 0.05 level. The results of t-tests showed that no gender differences for computer anxiety, computer confidence, and computer like were found in the pre-survey, while females reported significantly higher levels of math anxiety than males. Time effect (main effect) was significant for the Computer Attitude Scale in the repeated measures ANOVA. Repeated exposures to computerized testing decreased significantly the levels of computer confidence and compute like in the post-survey for both male and female students, while the levels of computer anxiety increased significantly. Time effect also was significant for math anxiety. The students' levels of math anxiety in the post-survey were significantly higher than those of the pre-survey. Gender and interaction effects between gender and time were not significant for either computer anxiety or math anxiety study. The results of the repeated measures ANOVA for test anxiety indicated that gender and gender x time interaction effects were not significant. However, significant main effects for time were identified in the analyses. The difficulty levels of exams and repeated exposures to computerized testing in the statistics course may have escalated the levels of test anxiety. In the regression analyses of computer anxiety, computer related variables and test anxiety were the best predictors. Test anxiety was the most important predictor of math anxiety. Number of math courses taken and computer anxiety were significant predictors for females. Math anxiety and computer anxiety contributed significantly to the regression of test anxiety for both males and females. Additionally, number of math courses taken and age were significant predictors for males.Item A study of need for achievement and test anxiety in elementary school children(Texas Tech University, 1970-12) Smith, Cynthia LynneNot availableItem Affective responses in cocaine-experienced rats reveal cue-induced drug craving and cocaine reward magnitude(2011-08) Maier, Esther Yvonne; Duvauchelle, Christine L.; Schallert, Timothy; Gonzales, Rueben A.; Gore, Andrea C.; Monfils, Marie H.The development and persistence of cocaine dependence are greatly influenced by emotional affect and cocaine associative learning. Cocaine is known to enhance nucleus accumbens (NAcc) dopamine, serve as a positive reinforcer and produce negative effects, such as anxiety that may influence cocaine intake behavior. In the first study, I investigated the effects of the anxiolytic, diazepam on NAcc dopamine levels and cocaine self-administration behavior. These are two factors associated with cocaine rewarding effects. Diazepam has no effect on NAcc dopamine, but affects cocaine self-administration. This supports the notion that decreasing the anxiogenic effects of cocaine increases the rewarding value in a dopamine independent manner. Therefore, increasing the aversive effects of cocaine might be a novel approach to fight cocaine dependence. In the second study, I studied cocaine-induced associative learning and changes in affect during cocaine conditioning and extinction. 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in rats are thought to reflect positive affect and occur upon appetitive stimuli and with cocaine delivery. First, I explored whether USVs might be elicited in anticipation of impending drug delivery. Shortly into conditioning, rats elicited USVs when placed in the cocaine-associated environment. USVs progressively increased, indicating a growing learned association between cocaine intake and cocaine-associated cues. This suggests that USVs may be a useful model for investigating cocaine craving and serve as a pharmacological target for interventions aimed to reduce cocaine craving and relapse. I then examined the effects of short-term deprivation of cocaine and cocaine cues on cocaine-conditioned USVs, which were both exaggerated after abstinence. The results may have clinical implications, in that intermittently avoiding cues or context may enhance drug cue salience and increase the probability of relapse. Motivational aspects of cocaine were assessed comparing commonly measured lever response rate and locomotion with cocaine-induced USVs during cocaine administration and extinction. In agreement with prevailing findings, lever responding for cocaine and cocaine-induced locomotor activity increased across conditioning sessions. However, the number of USVs evoked in response to cocaine infusion decreased with cocaine experience. These findings suggest growing tolerance to the rewarding properties of cocaine. These studies underscore the value of USV assessment during drug dependence studies.Item An examination of the relations between mood-induced interpretations of ambiguity, cognitive errors, and girls’ symptoms of anxiety versus depression(2013-05) Hoskinson, Cassondra; Epkins, Catherine C.; Borrego, Joaquin P.; Clopton, James R.; Mumma, GregoryThe rates of comorbidity between anxiety and depression are quite high. For many people, symptoms often originate in youth. These two findings warrant research that examines anxiety and depression together among samples of youth. Cognitive theory has advanced our understanding of the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of these disorders; however, gaps in the research remain. To extend previous research, this study examined cognitive processes stemming from Crick and Dodge’s (1994) social information processing model and Beck’s models (Beck, 1976; Beck et al., 1985) of anxiety and depression. In line with theory, this study utilized a negative mood induction to prime negative schema, which has not been systematically utilized in previous research. Additionally, cognitive theory posits that salient stimuli should be processed differently than non-salient stimuli. Thus, the current study examined interpretation biases for salient and non-salient ambiguous scenarios in relation to anxiety and depression in a community sample of girls ages 11-14 years (n = 124). The study also examined interpretation biases for ambiguity and cognitive errors in relation to internalizing symptoms. The results revealed that after controlling for comorbid symptoms, threatening interpretations of ambiguity were not related to symptoms of anxiety or depression. The results also showed that when girls generated negative responses, negative interpretations of ambiguity were related to symptoms of anxiety and depression. Additionally, positive interpretations of ambiguity were related to depression but not anxiety. Importantly, the relation between interpretations biases and internalizing symptoms varied on whether girls responded to open-ended questions or whether girls generated specific responses. Lastly, evidence emerged that interpretation biases for ambiguity may be a construct distinct from cognitive errors, but this relation may only be true for models of depression and not anxiety. A notable limitation of the study included the use of a community sample, as opposed to at-risk or clinical samples, with low levels of symptoms. Also, anxiety and depression were highly correlated. Thus, in the analyses, a large proportion of the variance in the outcome variables was partialled out by overlapping affective symptoms.Item An Examination of the Relationship Between Death Anxiety, Optimism, Depression, and Anxiety(2011-08) Brown, Ashlee G.; Harter, Stephanie; Richards, Steven; Austin, Kathy; Cukrowicz, Kelly C.Although the topics of death anxiety and optimism have been studied extensively in the literature, there is a limited amount of research addressing both of these concepts together. Furthermore, there has not yet been an attempt to formulate a model to explain the relationship between these two variables. Death anxiety and optimism have also been shown to relate differentially to other measures of well-being, such as indices of psychopathology (e.g., Ayub, 2009; Fotiadou, Barlow, Powell, & Langton, 2008; Gilliland & Templer, 1985-1986; Kurdek & Siesky, 1990; Moreno, De La Fuente Solana, Rico, & Fernandez, 2008-2009; Neimeyer & Fortner, 1995; Peleg, Barak, Harel, Rochberg, & Hoofien, 2009; Pollak, 1979). When conceptualized through Kelly‘s Personal Construct Theory (1955), depression and anxiety are emotions signaling transition within constructs, the presence of which may affect the relationship between optimism and death anxiety. This study examined whether depression and anxiety were mediators in the relationship between death anxiety and optimism through the use of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). This study demonstrates that depression/anxiety mediate the relationship between optimism and death anxiety, and that the fully mediated model is the preferred model.Item An initial examination of interpersonal family therapy for children with depression and/or anxiety(Texas Tech University, 2004-05) Eskridge, Laura KurtasThe present study evaluated the effectiveness of Interpersonal Family Therapy with two pre-adolescent children (aged 8 to 9 years) using a replicated, single-subject time series design. One participant reported elevated symptoms of depression and average symptoms of anxiety at pre-treatment while the second participant met DSM-IV (APA, 1994) diagnostic criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Prior to treatment, and at two-month intervals throughout treatment, participants and their families completed measures designed to assess psychological symptomatology, cognitive functioning, interpersonal functioning, adaptive behavior, and family functioning. Participants and their families also completed idiographic measures semi-weekly prior to, during, and following treatment. Bi-monthly measures were completed throughout treatment and 2, 4, and 6 months post-treatment. Clinically reliable change was observed post-treatment on child-rated nomothetic measures of depression, anxiety, and competence for both participants. Parent-rated measures also exhibited clinically reliable change for some measures of child and parent symptoms. Two IFT components, the Cognitive Functioning Component and the Family Functioning Component appeared to exert positive effects on measures assessing their targeted construct. The Cognitive Functioning Component and the Interpersonal Functioning Component, moreover, appeared to exert positive effects on constructs not targeted by the components, respectively. A few measures, either in a lagged or concurrent relationship, predicted symptom scores for both participants. Specifically, for one participant, family issues predicted child generalized anxiety, as rated by both the participant and his grandmother. For the second participant, ratings of social skills and thinking errors were important predictors of child anxiety. Results have implications for treatment and treatment outcome researchItem An Investigation of Plethysmographic Measurement of Anxiety in Adaptation in Stuttering Behavior(Texas Tech University, 1971-05) Hyso, Mary McElyeaNot Available.Item An investigation of the physiological measurements of anxiety in stuttering behavior(Texas Tech University, 1970-08) Pierce, Sharalee Rose ArvedsonNot availableItem Anxiety and conduct problems in children and adolescents : the role of executive functioning in a dual-pathway model(2013-08) Mauseth, Tory Ann; Keith, Timothy, 1952-; Robillard, Rachel WestAlthough anxiety disorders and conduct problems often co-occur in children and adolescents, literature describing the effects of such co-occurrence is mixed. There is evidence that symptoms of anxiety disorders may mitigate symptoms of conduct problems (buffering hypothesis) or may exacerbate symptoms of conduct problems (multiple problem hypothesis). A dual-pathway model has been proposed that suggests several possible etiological or risk processes that may differentiate these pathways (i.e., the buffering hypothesis or the multiple problem hypothesis) (Drabick, Ollendick, & Bubier, 2010). Executive functioning is one factor that has been identified that may differentially confer risk to the proposed pathways; however, little research has been done investigating its role. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the dual-pathway model by determining whether executive functioning abilities contribute to differentiating those youth for whom anxiety exacerbates conduct problems from those for whom anxiety mitigates conduct problems. Specifically, the study sought to examine if executive functioning moderated the effect of anxiety symptom severity on conduct problems. Latent variable structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data of 221 youth aged 9 to 16 in a residential treatment center who completed a full neuropsychological evaluation. Results of the study failed to support the hypothesis that executive functioning moderates the effect of anxiety on conduct problems. Furthermore, a structural equation model without an interaction between executive functioning and anxiety was found to fit the data better than a model with an interaction between those variables. Overall, the study found that executive functioning abilities could not distinguish youth for whom anxiety exacerbates conduct problems from youth for whom anxiety mitigates conduct problems. Recommendations for future research in light of the limitations of the current study, as well as remaining gaps in the literature, are discussed.Item Anxiety in the noticing and production of L2 forms: a study of beginning learners of Arabic(2014-08) Nassif, Lama; Horwitz, Elaine, 1950-; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Schallert, Diane; Pulido , Diana; Salaberry, Maximo RafaelThis study investigated the relationship between anxiety and the noticing and integration of language forms in the learning of a less commonly taught language: Arabic. The study was motivated by the need to understand why some learners notice and integrate language forms in their second language speech better than others. Simultaneously, the study sought to understand the mechanisms through which anxiety interferes with second language speech processes. The study included a sample of 80 beginning-level learners of Arabic. The participants were assigned to two treatment conditions, Input and Output. The participants’ language anxiety was measured by the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986), and their state anxiety during the noticing and production tasks was measured by the Cognitive Interference Questionnaire (Sarason, 1978). In the treatment session, the Output group participants provided an oral description of a picture story, listened to, read, and underlined an Arabic speaker’s description, and re-described the pictures. The Input group participants answered pre-text exposure questions, listened to, read, and underlined the description, and answered post-text exposure questions. An immediate oral production posttest was administered at the end of the treatment session, and a delayed posttest was administered two weeks later. Interviews were conducted following the delayed posttest. The results showed that the noticing and integration of language forms were influenced by the type of anxiety and the nature of the forms. While language anxiety positively predicted learner noticing and integration of the language forms, state anxiety negatively predicted them. Syntactic and discourse level forms deemed more salient and of higher communicative value were more amenable to anxiety effects. No differential anxiety influences on learner noticing were detected across the Input and Output conditions. Pedagogical implications are offered in light of these findings.Item Anxiety reduction in the vocationally undecided student(Texas Tech University, 1986-08) Jones, Kevin TimothyThis research examined whether the anxiety associated with vocational indecision could be reduced by career exploration. Students were chosen based on their self-report for inclusion in the following categories: decided or undecided on an academic major, and decided or undecided on an occupation or career. For each of the four decision categories, ten males and ten females were included in each of the two conditions (experimental and control). Thus, 160 students were included in the study. The design was a posttest only-control group design with random assignment of students to the conditions. Students were counterbalanced on the attribute variables to control for other sources of error. The experimental group received the Self-Directed Search (SDS), "You and Your Career" pamphlet, the state scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Career Decision Scale to be completed in that order. The control group received the Leisure Preference Search which served as a placebo treatment in place of the SDS and the pamphlet. A 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 analysis of variance procedure was used with anxiety score as the dependent measure to test a priori hypotheses. The results of the experiment indicated that the vocational exploration did not significantly lower anxiety scores in the experimental group. Results did indicate, however, that males had a significantly higher mean anxiety score compared to females, students who were undecided on a career had a significantly higher mean anxiety score compared to those students who had decided on a career, and students who were undecided on an academic major had a significantly higher mean anxiety score compared to those students who had reached a decision concerning their major. Possible reasons for these outcomes are presented and implications for future research are discussed.Item Assessing the psychosocial risk factors for coronary artery disease: an investigation of predictive validity for the psychosocial inventory for cardiovascular illness(2009-08) Baker, Maria Kathryn; McCarthy, Christopher J.This dissertation investigated the psychometric properties and clinical applications of the Psychosocial Inventory for Cardiovascular Illness (PICI). The PICI is an inventory developed to measure the psychosocial risk factors for heart disease including anxiety, depression, stress, social isolation, and anger. The inventory was developed to measure the ways that each psychosocial risk factor contributes to the coronary artery disease process through the lifestyle behaviors and pathophysiological mechanisms with which they are associated. The primary purpose of the study was to examine predictive validity for the PICI. With support for predictive validity, the inventory may aid in early identification of individuals at increased risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) so that behavioral, psychosocial, and medical interventions can be implemented. Both healthy and cardiac samples were used in the inventory development and validation process. The PICI was administered in conjunction with similar inventories and physiological markers of CAD were collected including percent of coronary artery blockage and history of heart attacks. Item analysis and factor analysis were used to yield a 20-item PICI comprised of three subscales to include Negative Affect, Social Isolation, and Anger. It was hypothesized that the PICI subscales would predict group membership; whether or not a participant carried a diagnosis of CAD, and would be have a strong relationship to the physiological markers of CAD that were measured. Analysis revealed that the PICI was unable to predict diagnostic status and did not have a strong relationship with the physiological markers of CAD. Results suggest that the PICI has acceptable reliability and construct validity as demonstrated in the current sample, yet further investigation must be conducted to gain support for the instrument’s predictive abilities.Item Authorial Anxiety in a Mass Media World: Four Modernists Respond(2013-10-15) Stamant, James MarcelThis project explores the anxieties authors of the early twentieth century experienced in relation to mass media, particularly newspapers and the movies, focusing on the selected works of four modernist authors: Sherwood Anderson, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. The works I examine span a twenty-year period, from the late 1910s to 1940, when both the newspaper and movie industries were firmly established as ?mass? media. I submit that these authors sustained very complicated relationships with the media they were in contact with. While all four of these authors worked for a time in one of these media, they maintained a negative attitude toward these same media when writing about them in their fiction. All four of these authors depicted perceived flaws in the very media they participated in. Anderson and Joyce, critiquing the newspaper world, suggest that newspapers fail to fulfill expectations regarding ?real? and accurate representations of the world. Anderson?s portrayal offers different reasons for the medium?s inabilities than Joyce?s, but both authors? fiction comes to comparable conclusions of the newspaper business? inadequacy to compete with the representations that could be found in literary fiction. Fitzgerald and Hemingway, writing about the movie business, highlight what they see as that medium?s shortcomings, and though both Fitzgerald and Hemingway personally held great optimism in the potential of movies they ultimately suggest otherwise in the fiction I examine. For these authors, the anxieties they felt were quite real. Some of the worries that these four authors held existed long before their time and continue to persist in the media saturated world of the early twenty-first century. Whatever reservations these authors had, though, they did not preclude them from envisioning the possibilities of different media, participating in those media, and utilizing their experiences (both real and imagined) in their own literary fiction. The connections between media and authorship in the early twentieth century were extremely complex, and the blurred lines between different modes of communication?as well as the definitions of ?art??created concerns that these four authors expressed in the best way they knew how: in their literary works.Item Central amygdala CART modulates ethanol withdrawal-induced anxiety(2013-08) Salinas, Armando; Morrisett, Richard A.Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), as its name implies, was initially identified as an upregulated transcript in response to psychostimulant administration. Consequently, it has been posited to play a role in psychostimulant abuse and dependence. Spurred on by the finding that a polymorphism in the CART gene was associated with alcoholism, we initiated studies designed to elucidate the role of CART peptide in alcohol dependence. We first investigated the functional significance of CART peptide in alcohol dependence in vivo using a CART KO mouse. We found that CART KO mice had a significant decrease in ethanol consumption that could not be attributed to differences in total intake, taste perception, metabolism, or sensitivity to ethanol. In vitro we found that CART peptide facilitated NMDA receptor-mediated currents in central amygdala neurons. Given the emerging role of CART peptide in anxiety and stress, we decided to examine basal and stress-induced anxiety behaviors in CART KO mice. Under basal and acute stress conditions, CART KO mice did not differ in anxiety-like behaviors from WT mice; however, in response to a stressor, CART KO mice exhibited a potentiated corticosterone response. Using chronic intermittent ethanol exposure (CIE), we tested CART KO and WT mice for common signs of ethanol dependence including an escalation of volitional consumption and the presence of withdrawal-induced anxiety. We further investigated glutamatergic neuroadaptations within the central amygdala of CART KO and WT mice following CIE exposure and early withdrawal. CIE increased ethanol consumption and anxiety-like behaviors in mice of both genotypes but to a lower extent in CART KO mice. Electrophysiologically, CIE enhanced spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents in both genotypes and decreased the probability of presynaptic release in WT mice only. We believe that these electrophysiological neuroadaptations contribute to the development of ethanol dependence and may mediate withdrawal-induced anxiety behaviors. Overall, these studies indicate a role for CART peptide in alcohol dependence and specifically in modulating ethanol withdrawal-induced anxiety.Item Cognitive content specificity of test anxiety and depression in college women(2007-12) Fishel, Maria Nicholaevna, 1972-; Tharinger, Deborah J.Anxiety and depression are debilitating disorders that often co-occur. Their differentiation has important ramifications for theory and treatment. Beck's (1976) Cognitive Content Specificity (CCS) hypothesis proposes that depression and anxiety are characterized by unique cognitive profiles that should be reflected, among other variables, in their cognitions. Further, the Balanced States of Mind model (BSOM; Schwartz, 1997) asserts that the cognitive ratio of positive to the sum of positive and negative cognitions is implicated in distinguishing various levels of pathology from optimal functioning. The present study used a cross-sectional design to compare the differentiating abilities of the CCS hypothesis and the joint CCS/BSOM model by examining depression and test anxiety-relevant positive and negative cognitions separately versus the BSOM cognitive ratios. Additionally, the specific interval predictions of the BSOM model were tested for test anxiety and depressive content. Four groups of college women were selected from a larger sample of college women from a large public university: Depressed (n = 51), Test Anxious (n = 51), "Mixed" Depressed and Test Anxious (n = 51), and Control (n = 51). Findings indicated that the Depressed Group differed from Test Anxious Group on test anxious and depressive negative cognitions and BSOM ratios. Consistent with previous literature, positive anxious content yielded less specificity, as it failed to discriminate between test anxious and depressed groups. While the "Mixed" group was most dysfunctional, Controls showed a least dysfunctional cognitive profile on both cognitions and cognitive ratios. Thus, the quantitative parameters of the BSOM model with varying content were partially validated, with depressive content not fitting the predictions as well as test anxious content. Results support the integration of the CCS and BSOM models and the use of a specific anxiety disorder (i.e., test anxiety) as ways to improve depression-anxiety differentiation in nonclinical populations. Theoretical and treatment implications are highlighted, and limitations are discussed.Item Communication apprehension and college retention: a focus group study(Texas Tech University, 1996-08) Marshall, Rodney K.Student retention has long been of interest to college and university administrators and instructors as indicated by the number of studies given to the subject (see Pantages & Creedon, 1978; Tinto, 1975). These studies have shown that personality variables play a significant role in the decisions of students to stay in school. Anxiety is one personality variable that may be the common denominator for low self-esteem, poor communication skills, and low educationed achievement (Witherspoon, Long, & Nickel, 1991). Witherspoon et al. (1991) state that discomfort and anxiety are factors in students' inability to use or learn adequate communication skills which contribute to a lack of success in classroom situations. Communication apprehension (CA) seems to encompass the fears or anxieties exhibited by high school seniors to avoid higher education opportunities (Monroe & Borzi, 1988). Defined as "an individual's level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons" (McCroskey, 1977a, p. 78), one can understand that an individual with a high level of CA would have a difficult time with the college environment. The general impression is that students with high apprehension find the amount of interaction required in college threatening and are less likely to benefit from their experience than are students with low apprehension (Monroe & Borzi, 1988). Highly apprehensive individuals would need to learn more skills and communication techniques to help them continue and graduate from college. With this thought in mind, the aim of this project is to look at the coping skills of high CA college students. It is hoped that strategies and suggestions can be found that will help others that experience high CA to continue their plans to attend and finish college. A comparison of coping skills and personal outlooks of high CAs and low CAs will be made. All in all, it is hoped through this project to determine what can be done to not only keep high CA students in college, but to help them finish and move on to a more productive life after college.Item Communication apprehension: a correlate of helping behavior(Texas Tech University, 1980-08) Kane, Marjorie LauraNot availableItem Computer-mediated communication : writing to speak without foreign language anxiety?(2002-08) Arnold, Marion Nike; Abrams, Zsuzsanna