Matching Items (5)
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- All Subjects: Cannabis
- Creators: Meier, Madeline
Description
Psychotic-Like Experiences (PLEs) are prevalent in the general population and may be a marker of risk for psychosis, yet little is known about the everyday functioning of individuals with PLEs. The purpose of this study was to compare everyday functioning of people with and without PLEs. Participants were 108 college students enrolled in an introductory psychology course who were selected for participation in the study because they scored in the top and bottom 10% of a screening test for PLEs. Informants were emailed questionnaires and asked to report on the participants' functioning in three domains: interpersonal functioning, disorganized behavior, and cognitive-perceptual functioning. Informants also reported on participants' attention and memory problems. Results showed that, consistent with prior research, individuals high in PLEs were from lower SES families and reported more depression, anxiety, and substance use. Moreover, informants for participants high in PLEs reported more unusual/disorganized behavior than informants for participants low in PLEs. No differences were observed between individuals high versus low in PLEs for informant-reported interpersonal functioning and attention and memory problems, however. Findings suggest that noticeable difficulties among individuals with PLEs are limited to disorganized behavior. More research is needed to determine the functional consequences of disorganized behavior among individuals with PLEs.
ContributorsLynch, Emily Nicole (Author) / Meier, Madeline (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Low, Sabina (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Marijuana is currently the mostly widely used illicit drug in the U.S., and has been for multiple decades (Johnston et. al., 2016). Despite a growing belief that marijuana use is not harmful, over 4 million Americans have met criteria for marijuana use disorders in the past year alone (CBHSQ, 2015). According to marijuana trajectory studies, about a third of marijuana users will end up quitting later in life, but some \u2014 such as those who meet criteria for dependence \u2014 have a much greater difficultly quitting. Therefore, by looking at marijuana users who were successful in quitting, and comparing them to ongoing adult marijuana users, factors that may assist in helping an individual quit \u2014 such as certain motivations for quitting \u2014 may be identified. To study these issues, data was collected from 507 participants from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. It was found that adolescents who used marijuana weekly for at least one year were likely to be ongoing marijuana users in adulthood and that adolescents who had a warm relationship with their primary caretaker were likely to have quit marijuana by adulthood. It was also found that Black participants were more likely to have legal, monetary, and religious reasons for quitting than were White participants. Furthermore, participants who used regularly in adolescence were likely to list legal reasons, as well as a concern that marijuana use was needed to feel normal. Finally, it was found that not a single motivation for quitting marijuana was associated with a shorter period of abstinence. The implications of these findings for motivations to quit marijuana are the focus of the discussion.
ContributorsGomez, Kira Elise (Author) / Pardini, Dustin (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Meier, Madeline (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
The need to fully understand the possible consequences of young-adult cannabis use has become increasingly critical as a result of major cannabis policy changes. The purpose of this study was to determine if young-adult users exhibit cognitive deficits on laboratory-based tests and memory and attention deficits in everyday life. Participants were 152 students from a large U.S. university enrolled in introductory psychology courses and the top and bottom 10% of the 12-item Yale University PRIME Screening Test for psychotic-like experiences. Participants were asked about their cannabis use and were given six cognitive tests spanning executive function and memory. To test functional impairment in memory and attention, participants were asked to nominate informants (people who knew them well) and these rated the participants on an attention problems scale of four items and a memory problems scale of three items. Results showed that individuals who used cannabis more frequently were rated as having more attention and memory problems and that, consistent with prior research, more frequent cannabis use was associated with worse memory test performance, though the association was not present between frequency of use and executive function test performance. Additionally, it was found that informant-reported attention problems were associated with poorer performance on two of the executive function cognitive tests. The present findings suggest that individuals who use cannabis more frequently experience noticeable memory and attention problems in everyday life, despite the lack of significant correlation between this functional impairment and cognitive test performance. Informant reports, therefore, may be useful in future research for understanding or predicting cognitive impairment in young adults.
ContributorsCarbajal, Lucia (Author) / Meier, Madeline (Thesis director) / McClure, Samuel (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This study was designed to learn what students call various forms of cannabis. A survey was created with questions designed to understand students' knowledge of types of cannabis, methods of use, and potency. An introduction and methods section of the research paper is included.
ContributorsCollins, Ryleigh Anne (Author) / Meier, Madeline (Thesis director) / Perez, Marisol (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Adult use of cannabis was legalized in Arizona on November 3, 2020. The goal of this thesis was to assess the distribution of licensed adult use (recreational) cannabis dispensaries in Arizona as it relates to area deprivation in the state. On June 30, 2021, the vast majority of licensed adult ust dispensaries (n=92/143) were located in Maricopa County, so our analyses focused only on Maricopa County. ArcGIS Pro was used to map the dispensaries and determine the local density of dispensaries in each Maricopa County block group. We used three complementary statistical analyses, which collectively showed that adult use cannabis dispensaries were disproportionately located in areas of higher socioeconomic deprivation in Maricopa County. These results may have implications for existing health disparities.The study was limited because we did not account for geospatial autocorrelation, we did not assess unlicensed dispensaries, and we did not control for zoning laws. In future studies we plan to account for all three of these limitations to better understand the placement of adult-use cannabis dispensaries within Arizona. Future studies will also compare these results to the distribution of off-premise alcohol outlets and cannabis-related hospitalizations in Arizona.
ContributorsJenks, Olivia (Author) / Meier, Madeline (Thesis director) / Boustead, Annie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2022-05