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- Creators: Department of Psychology
- Resource Type: Text
- Status: Published
Description
We examined the relations between maternal depression, discipline practices, and toddler mental health outcomes, specifically competence and total problem behavior. Ethnicity was considered as a moderator in all analyses. For the first time, ethnicity was considered as a moderator of the heritability of toddler competence and total problem behavior. The data came from the Arizona Twin Project. A subsample containing only Caucasian (66%) and Hispanic (34%; 87% of Mexican descent) participants was used. Primary caregivers (>95% mothers) reported on levels of maternal depression, discipline practices, and their twins' competency and problem behaviors. It was hypothesized that maternal depression would be associated with less competency and more problem behaviors in toddlers; inductive discipline practices would be associated with higher competency and fewer problem behaviors; and punitive discipline practices would be associated with lower competency and more problem behaviors. Ethnicity was predicted to moderate only the relation between discipline practices and toddler mental health. Consistent with predictions, maternal depression predicted less competency and more problem behaviors, and inductive discipline predicted higher competency and fewer problem behaviors, while punitive discipline predicted lower competency and more problem behaviors. Ethnicity moderated the relation between maternal depression at 12 months and total problem behaviors. The heritability of competence and total problem behavior varied across the Caucasian and Hispanic samples.
ContributorsChon, Sarah Maria (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Bradley, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US. Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans are speculated to reduce lung cancer mortality. However LDCT scans impose multiple risks including false-negative results, false- positive results, overdiagnosis, and cancer due to repeated exposure to radiation. Immunosignaturing is a new method proposed to screen and detect lung cancer, eliminating the risks associated with LDCT scans. Known and blinded primary blood sera from participants with lung cancer and no cancer were run on peptide microarrays and analyzed. Immunosignatures for each known sample collectively indicated 120 peptides unique to lung cancer and non-cancer participants. These 120 peptides were used to determine the status of the blinded samples. Verification of the results from Vanderbilt is pending.
ContributorsNguyen, Geneva Trieu (Author) / Woodbury, Neal (Thesis director) / Zhao, Zhan-Gong (Committee member) / Stafford, Phillip (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The relationship between mental illness (or "madness," as Socrates labeled psychosis, as well as a wide range of states of thought and emotion [Jamison, 1993]) and creativity has been noted since before the times of Socrates. The questions that this noted relationship pose are significant. Famous authors, poets, artists, and musicians who suffered from various forms of mental illness are littered throughout history. Edgar Allen Poe himself noted, "Men have called me mad but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence \u2014 whether much that is glorious \u2014 whether all that is profound \u2014 does not spring from disease of thought \u2014 from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect." Only in recent years have researchers begun to classify these disorders of past artists using modern diagnostic measures. While the concept of a relationship between creativity and mental illness is fascinating in and of itself, understanding the implications of a possible correlation is essential to the care and treatment that individuals with the diseases are given. If, indeed, creativity is linked with affective disorders, what does this mean for the treatment of these disorders? By eliminating the symptoms of mood disorders, are we also inadvertently eliminating creativity? It is important to acknowledge the possibility that mental illnesses like bipolar disorder include benefits to those afflicted. How can we treat the negative symptoms of mood disorders while enhancing the positive symptoms? In order to conclude that there is a link between creativity and mood disorders, it is first necessary to reexamine and reestablish the processes by which mood disorders are diagnosed. Although currently diagnosed on a categorical scale \u2014 meaning the patient is diagnosed under the black-and-white category of manic or depressive at a given point in time \u2014 this paper will argue that mood disorders can be better diagnosed and treated on a continuum of mood states. Furthermore, by viewing mood disorders on such a continuum, writers like Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, whose diagnoses are debated by historians and professionals, can be established as having a diagnosable affective disorder, since both experienced symptoms of depression and mania, if not in the precise timing and manner proscribed by the Diagnostic Manual. Finally, by determining these writers' diagnoses, a relationship can be explored between their creative states and their mood states.
ContributorsKugler, Danica Eileen (Author) / Montesano, Mark (Thesis director) / Holbo, Christine (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Letters and Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Mortality of 1918 influenza virus was high, partly due to bacteria coinfections. We characterize pandemic mortality in Arizona, which had high prevalence of tuberculosis. We applied regressions to over 35,000 data points to estimate the basic reproduction number and excess mortality. Age-specific mortality curves show elevated mortality for all age groups, especially the young, and senior sparing effects. The low value for reproduction number indicates that transmissibility was moderately low.
ContributorsJenner, Melinda Eva (Author) / Chowell-Puente, Gerardo (Thesis director) / Kostelich, Eric (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Abortion is a highly controversial procedure, and it has divided the country into two factions: pro-life and pro-choice. This intense debate is marred by anger through protests and violent actions against supporters of abortion. With all of the tension surrounding the moral significance of the abortion issue, the question arises: How did specific figureheads, events, and contributing factors lead to the generation of the stigma and polarization surrounding the dichotomy of pro-life versus pro-choice abortion stances in the United States of America?
ContributorsAbdi-Moradi, Sepehr (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / O'Neil, Erica (Committee member) / Abboud, Alexis (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The depiction of mental illness, schizophrenia in particular, within film is a unique phenomenon that film directors have decided to undertake more so in the last 20 years than ever before in cinematic history (Wedding & Niemic, 2014; Robinson, 2004; Gabbard & Gabbard, 1999; Wahl, 1997). Countless filmmakers have taken on the challenge of depicting this complex, yet degenerative condition that entails auditory and visual hallucinations, disorganized thought and speech, and delusions. Its portrayals are usually exaggerated and romanticized, and convey a sense of separate "Otherness" with those who have a mental disorder. And while filmmakers try to encapsulate the schizophrenic experience, it is not without psychiatric error and regarding the person who has schizophrenia as a spectacle. This unfair and ostracizing view of people who have schizophrenia is fueled by films like A Beautiful Mind and The Shining where the film either creates impossibly high standards for schizophrenics to perform at, or the film paints the character as a violent savage. In either case, the end result is the marking and, usually, denouncement of the schizophrenic for their illness. What filmmakers tend to overlook is how much the public learns from the cinematic portrayals of these disorders, and that their films are contributing to an overarching issue of public presumptions of actual schizophrenia and how it is perceived. While the Hollywood approach offers a depiction that is usually more tangible and enjoyable for masses of audiences, spectators should recognize that these are artistic interpretations that take liberties in their depictions of schizophrenia. Viewing these films with an objective mindset to better understand the inner workings of schizophrenia is absolutely crucial in arriving anything close to the truth behind this mental illness that has been demonized long enough.
ContributorsFraga, Nicholas Andrew (Author) / Miller, April (Thesis director) / Cavanaugh Toft, Carolyn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The 284 residents of the rural community of Cooper Landing, Alaska are subject to many health risks. Cooper Landing is home to a large population of older adults whom suffer from a disproportionate physician to population ratio. Limited rural health care infrastructure and poor physician to population ratios are not conducive to primary health care implementation. Limited access to primary health care is linked to vast health disparities in rural communities like Cooper Landing. Preventive care and healthy lifestyle incentives have been largely overlooked as viable alternatives to primary health care access. In Cooper Landing, implementation of such incentives has proved to be either underutilized or unsuccessful by the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. To remedy this, the Rural Alaska Wellness Project (RAWP), a nonprofit organization, carries out its mission to promote health and wellness by providing a community resource for preventive care in Cooper Landing, Alaska. RAWP intends to increase the availability of the Cooper Landing School's gymnasium for community use, donate fitness equipment, implement TeleHealth initiatives, and host annual health fairs through grant funding, generous donations, and fundraising activities.
ContributorsNolan, Erin Sachi (Author) / Shockley, Gordon (Thesis director) / Hrncir, Shawn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Background: While research has quantified the mortality burden of the 1957 H2N2 influenza pandemic in the United States, little is known about how the virus spread locally in Arizona, an area where the dry climate was promoted as reducing respiratory illness transmission yet tuberculosis prevalence was high.
Methods: Using archival death certificates from 1954 to 1961, this study quantified the age-specific seasonal patterns, excess-mortality rates, and transmissibility patterns of the 1957 pandemic in Maricopa County, Arizona. By applying cyclical Serfling linear regression models to weekly mortality rates, the excess-mortality rates due to respiratory and all-causes were estimated for each age group during the pandemic period. The reproduction number was quantified from weekly data using a simple growth rate method and generation intervals of 3 and 4 days. Local newspaper articles from The Arizona Republic were analyzed from 1957-1958.
Results: Excess-mortality rates varied between waves, age groups, and causes of death, but overall remained low. From October 1959-June 1960, the most severe wave of the pandemic, the absolute excess-mortality rate based on respiratory deaths per 10,000 population was 17.85 in the elderly (≥65 years). All other age groups had extremely low excess-mortality and the typical U-shaped age-pattern was absent. However, relative risk was greatest (3.61) among children and young adolescents (5-14 years) from October 1957-March 1958, based on incidence rates of respiratory deaths. Transmissibility was greatest during the same 1957-1958 period, when the mean reproduction number was 1.08-1.11, assuming 3 or 4 day generation intervals and exponential or fixed distributions.
Conclusions: Maricopa County largely avoided pandemic influenza from 1957-1961. Understanding this historical pandemic and the absence of high excess-mortality rates and transmissibility in Maricopa County may help public health officials prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks of influenza.
Methods: Using archival death certificates from 1954 to 1961, this study quantified the age-specific seasonal patterns, excess-mortality rates, and transmissibility patterns of the 1957 pandemic in Maricopa County, Arizona. By applying cyclical Serfling linear regression models to weekly mortality rates, the excess-mortality rates due to respiratory and all-causes were estimated for each age group during the pandemic period. The reproduction number was quantified from weekly data using a simple growth rate method and generation intervals of 3 and 4 days. Local newspaper articles from The Arizona Republic were analyzed from 1957-1958.
Results: Excess-mortality rates varied between waves, age groups, and causes of death, but overall remained low. From October 1959-June 1960, the most severe wave of the pandemic, the absolute excess-mortality rate based on respiratory deaths per 10,000 population was 17.85 in the elderly (≥65 years). All other age groups had extremely low excess-mortality and the typical U-shaped age-pattern was absent. However, relative risk was greatest (3.61) among children and young adolescents (5-14 years) from October 1957-March 1958, based on incidence rates of respiratory deaths. Transmissibility was greatest during the same 1957-1958 period, when the mean reproduction number was 1.08-1.11, assuming 3 or 4 day generation intervals and exponential or fixed distributions.
Conclusions: Maricopa County largely avoided pandemic influenza from 1957-1961. Understanding this historical pandemic and the absence of high excess-mortality rates and transmissibility in Maricopa County may help public health officials prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks of influenza.
ContributorsCobos, April J (Author) / Jehn, Megan (Thesis director) / Chowell-Puente, Gerardo (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has become the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States with a combined 5-year survival rate of only 16%. Even with advancements in aggressive chemotherapeutics, there has been little improvement in patient survival. LKB1 (liver kinase B1)/STK11 (serine-threonine kinase 11) is a tumor suppressor gene mutated in ~30% of NSCLC adenocarcinomas and loss of LKB1 is associated with a more aggressive cancer phenotype. In LKB1-deficient NSCLC, we observe significantly elevated expression and secretion of the chemokines CCL2, CCL5, and CCL20, which are involved in macrophage recruitment. Numerous studies have shown that high infiltration of a unique subset of macrophages called tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) is associated with poor prognosis in patients with various cancers. mTORC1-HIF1-α and NFκB are two pathways that have been shown to regulate chemokine secretion and are often up-regulated in the absence of LKB1. Dosing LKB1-null cell lines with inhibitors of mTOR and NFκB in addition to silencing HIF1-α gene expression demonstrate that NFκB but not mTORC1-HIF1-α signaling may play a role in regulating chemokine secretion in LKB1-deficient NSCLC. Collectively, these results provide insight into the mechanisms responsible for the aggressive phenotype associated with LKB1-deficient non-small cell lung cancer.
ContributorsO'Brien, Kelley Xiao-Fung (Author) / Blattman, Joseph (Thesis director) / Inge, Landon (Committee member) / Friel, Jacqueline (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
While the concept of healthcare is largely respected in Arab culture, the stigma underlying mental health is particularly startling. This study examined the differences in mental health treatment-seeking behaviors using data from Arabs living in Syria (12.9%) and Arabs (25.6%) and non-Arabs (61.5%) living in the United States of ages 18-60. A Web-based survey was developed to understand how factors like religiosity, acculturation, and positive attitudes towards psychological treatment increased help-seeking behaviors. This survey was also provided in Arabic to include non-English speaking participants. It was hypothesized that Arab-American individuals will be more open to pursuing professional psychological help when suffering from mental symptomology (i.e. anxiety) than individuals who identified as Syrian-Arabs. In contrast, both Syrian-Arabs and Arab-Americans would definitely pursue professional help when suffering from physical symptomology (i.e. ankle sprain). Striking differences were found based on Western acculturation. Findings suggested that Arab-Americans were less inclined towards treatment and more trusting of an in-group physician ("Dr. Ahmed") whereas Syrian-Arabs were more inclined to pursue psychological treatment and preferred to trust an out-group physician ("Dr. Smith"). The results of this study identify main concerns regarding Arab attitudes towards seeking mental health treatment, which can better inform future research and mental health services for this minority.
ContributorsRayes, Diana S (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Cohen, Adam (Committee member) / Olive, Michael Foster (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05