Browsing by Subject "trauma"
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Item Identifying Callous-Unemotional Subtypes among Justice-Involved Youth(2014-08-06) Magyar, Melissa SueConsiderable evidence suggests that the presence of a callous and unemotional interpersonal style identifies an important subgroup of antisocial and aggressive youth. Relative to other children with conduct problems, youth high on callous-unemotional (CU) traits are distinguished by the absence of empathy, lack of guilt, callous and uncaring behaviors, and poverty in emotional expression. Despite the recognized heterogeneity of high CU youth as well as importance of the presence of CU traits, no study to date has attempted to disaggregate these youth into meaningful subgroups. Therefore, the current study sought to address this void in the literature by investigating whether justice-involved male youths could be disaggregated into distinct CU trait variants, consistent with theoretical and empirical conceptualizations of primary and secondary variants of psychopathy. The study involved a multi-ethinic, community corrections sample comprised of 151 male juvenile offenders. The entire spectrum of criminal offenses and levels of supervision were represented in this sample. The initial set of model-based cluster analyses failed to yield conceptually coherent primary and secondary variants, despite the inclusion of additional theoretically relevant variables. The failure of the ICU dimensions to identify meaningful clusters among the current juvenile offender sample raised concerns about the psychometric properties of the ICU, along with its factor structure. To address these concerns, additional model-based cluster analyses with various permutations of revised, unidimensional ICU subscale(s) and theoretically relevant variables were conducted. Additionally, an alternative subtyping/classification approach using scales from the Personality Assessment Inventory-Adolescent Version (PAI-A; Morey, 2007b) was applied to the sample in an effort to identify meaningful subgroups. However, both sets of supplementary analyses still failed to yield meaningful, homogeneous psychopathic variants consistent with the theoretical and empirical literature. Contrary to expectations, the current study findings offer little support for the utility of callous-unemotional traits to disaggregate justice-involved youth into meaningful homogenous subgroups. Thus, the present study?s contribution to the growing subtyping literature appears to further complicate our understanding of juvenile psychopathic variants. In order to more concisely parse out the heterogeneity of juvenile psychopathic traits, future research of the distinct developmental pathways of callous-unemotional traits among juvenile samples is needed.Item Jim Crow's Legacy: Segregation Stress Syndrome(2012-07-16) Thompson-Miller, RuthThis dissertation is based on a qualitative research project that documents the experiences of nearly 100 elderly African Americans who lived in the total institution of Jim Crow. The collective long lasting psychological effects connected with the racial violence that occurred in the total institution are a critical aspect. In the interviews African Americans shared how on a daily basis they found themselves dealing with anxiety, fear, humiliation, shame, and stress. The narratives were analyzed utilizing the extended case method. The dissertation documents and explores symptoms of a "segregation stress syndrome" for the chronic, enduring, extremely painful experiences and responses to the total institution of Jim Crow that are indicated by numerous respondents in this research project. Preliminary findings indicate that the symptoms of "segregation stress syndrome" are similar to PTSD symptoms documented in psychiatric literature. However, "segregation stress syndrome" differs from PTSD because the traumatic experience was not a one-time occurrence; it was sustained, over time, in African American communities. In addition, the racial violence that occurred was a form of systematic chronic stress, the type that has been shown to have a detrimental impact on a person's psychological well-being. Lastly, the historical and collective trauma that ensued has contributed to an intergenerational aspect of "segregation stress syndrome." The intergenerational aspect predisposes some younger African Americans to psychological damage, stress, and trauma even though contemporary forms of racial violence are seemingly less damaging.Item Legal segregation: racial violence and the long term implications(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Thompson-Miller, Ruth K.This thesis explores the research questions: How did African Americans cope with the oppressive system of legal segregation? How did they survive and raise their families? What were African Americans?????? everyday interactions with whites like during legal segregation? What coping and resistance strategies did they utilize to survive? Using case studies from nearly 100 in-depth interviews with elderly African Americans between the ages of 50-90 in the Southeast and Southwest, I use qualitative methods to detail and analyze the experiences of elderly African Americans. This thesis explores how the exploitation and oppression of African Americans during legal segregation were enshrined by means of racial violence and discrimination in every aspect of American society. Much of the racial violence was legitimized and essential to the routine operation of legal segregation in the United States. Building on the work of Jackman(2002), Blee(2005), and Feagin (2006) for this thesis, I conceptualize racial violence as physical violence, written violence, and/or spoken violence, including being called ??????nigger,?????? ??????boy,?????? and ??????uncle.?????? The racial violence can be individual or collective which, intentionally or unintentionally, inflicts or threatens to inflict physical, psychological, social, or material injury on African Americans who often resist. In addition, the racial violence can occur in any public or private geographical location including, the street, workplace, and home. Lastly, an individual does not have to witness or personally experience the racial violence to be psychologically injured or affected by it. During legal segregation the respondents faced actual everyday racial violence or the threat of racial violence in the form of lynchings, sexual abuse, house burnings, imprisonment, rape, and being incessantly called ??????nigger.?????? I argue that the psychological traumatic experiences of fear, anxiety, stress, anguish, humiliation, stigmatization and shame can affect a person??????s life for a very long time. Every one of these injuries is apparent in the interviews with elderly African Americans who survived legal segregation. Thus, I suggest the important idea of a ??????segregation stress syndrome,?????? for the chronic, enduring, extremely painful responses to official segregation that are indicated by the respondents.Item The impact of written emotional disclosure on laboratory induced pain(Texas A&M University, 2005-11-01) Creech, Suzannah K.Previous research has demonstrated the impact of negative emotional states on pain modulation. The direction of this modulation has been shown to correspond to the arousal level and the valence of the emotional state, whether naturally occurring or induced in the laboratory. Other research has consistently linked written emotion disclosure of trauma to better long-term health outcomes among several populations. As most of these studies have focused on long-term health outcome effects of disclosure, little research has been done on the immediate effects of the paradigm on affective or physiological states. This study investigated the short-term effects of written disclosure of trauma on laboratory-induced pain, affective state, and other physiological measures of stress and arousal. Other goals of the study included investigating preexisting differences in pain sensitivity between participants corresponding to lifetime experience of trauma, and determining the degree to which baseline pain testing alters pain sensitivity after emotion induction by creating a conditioned, contextual fear. This is the first study to apply the written emotional disclosure paradigm to laboratory-induced pain.