Browsing by Subject "Psychopathology"
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Item Adolescent social media use: Coping or avoidance?(2017-03-13) Harmon, Jennifer Marie; Venta, Amanda; Henderson, Craig; Crosby, JamesThe growing frequency of social media site use raises concerns regarding its psychological effects on users, particularly adolescents. The current study examined the moderating roles of social media coping and experiential avoidance within the relation between frequency of social media use and internalizing/externalizing symptoms of psychopathology in a sample of 334 college students between 17-19 years of age. It was found that neither social media coping nor experiential avoidance appeared to be related to internalizing or externalizing symptoms in the present sample.Item A computational model of language pathology in schizophrenia(2010-12) Grasemann, Hans Ulrich; Miikkulainen, Risto; Hoffman, Ralph E.; Mooney, Raymond J.; Love, Bradley C.; Ballard, Dana H.; Kuipers, Benjamin J.No current laboratory test can reliably identify patients with schizophrenia. Instead, key symptoms are observed via language, including derailment, where patients cannot follow a coherent storyline, and delusions, where false beliefs are repeated as fact. Brain processes underlying these and other symptoms remain unclear, and characterizing them would greatly enhance our understanding of schizophrenia. In this situation, computational models can be valuable tools to formulate testable hypotheses and to complement clinical research. This dissertation aims to capture the link between biology and schizophrenic symptoms using DISCERN, a connectionist model of human story processing. Competing illness mechanisms proposed to underlie schizophrenia are simulated in DISCERN, and are evaluated at the level of narrative language, the same level used to diagnose patients. The result is the first simulation of a speaker with schizophrenia. Of all illness models, hyperlearning, a model of overly intense memory consolidation, produced the best fit to patient data, as well as compelling models of delusions and derailments. If validated experimentally, the hyperlearning hypothesis could advance the current understanding of schizophrenia, and provide a platform for simulating the effects of future treatments.Item The MMPI-2 restructured clinical (RC) scales and measurement of depression in epilepsy(2008-09-19) Simmons, Alexander Douglas; Lacritz, LauraThis study examined the Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) in a sample of 137 patients with epilepsy. The purposes of the current study were (1) to provide information regarding the psychometric performance of the RC Scales in an epilepsy population, and (2) to examine interpretive characteristics of the RC Scales in an epilepsy population. Internal consistency, internal discriminant validity, and external discriminant and convergent validities were assessed for select RC Scales. Results indicated that the RC Scales showed a modest improvement in general psychometrics over the Clinical Scales. Specifically, the RC Scales displayed slightly better internal consistency and lower scale intercorrelations. Using the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology, Self Report (IDS-SR) as a criterion, RCd ("demoralization") outperformed RC2 ("low positive emotions") and Scale 2 ("Depression") in predicting depressive severity. Throughout this study, results consistently indicated a close relationship between RC Scales measuring depression, anxiety, and health symptoms; this relationship seemed to reflect comorbidity of symptoms rather than substantial construct overlap. Additionally, several subgroups were defined based on Clinical Scale scores (i.e., a "conversion V" group, a "floating profile" group), and IDS-SR scores; RC Scale scores were examined in these groups. Subjects who demonstrated the conversion V profile tended to have large elevations on RC1 in the absence of comparable elevations on RCd and RC2, and a low score on RC3. Those with a floating profile showed only slight elevations on RCd, RC1 ("health complaints"), RC2, and RC8 ("aberrant experiences"). Subjects classified as at least moderately depressed using the IDS-SR, had only mild elevations on RCd and RD8, with highest elevation for RC1. In summary, the RC Scales showed acceptable performance in this sample, though they were differentially elevated in comparison to the Clinical Scales, indicating that even slight elevations on the RC Scales should be carefully considered in interpretation.Item The Relationship Between Maternal Psychopathology and Acute Treatment Outcomes of Children and Adolescents Diagnosed With Anorexia Nervosa(2006-8-11) Spector, Sarah M.; Kennard, BethRecent studies have suggested that maternal psychopathology influences the psychiatric status of children. However, there is a lack of research in the eating disorder literature pertaining to the impact of maternal psychopathology, specifically related to depression and eating disordered cognitions, on a child or adolescent diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between maternal psychopathology and eating disorders. Specifically, this study examined the relationship between maternal eating disordered cognitions and depression and severity of child's psychopathology, as well as the relationship between maternal eating disordered cognitions and acute treatment outcomes of a child or adolescent diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. The sample consisted of 43 children and adolescents between the ages of ten and seventeen years of age, with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa or eating disorder not otherwise specified. All subjects were being treated at Children's Medical Center psychiatric unit as an inpatient or partial hospitalization patient. At entry to treatment, all patients were administered a structured clinical interview to obtain comprehensive psychiatric diagnoses. Additionally, subjects and their mothers or female caregivers completed self-report measures of eating disordered cognitions and depressive symptomatology. The relationship between maternal psychopathology, child eating disordered psychopathology, and relationship to treatment outcome was assessed. Results revealed a significant relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and the severity of the child's eating disordered cognitions. However, despite the expectation that the degree of maternal eating disordered cognitions at admission would predict the child's outcome over an acute period of treatment, no significant relationship was found. Results from this study suggest that maternal depression may play a more influential role in the child's eating disorder psychopathology than maternal eating disordered cognitions.