Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-136). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-278).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Columbia University. / Typescript. Library has photocopy.

The following pages are thoughts and ideas that go through my head when creating art that is intended to be seen, analyzed and somewhat understood by an audience. Though there are some aspects contained within that may touch directly on how I make sculpture on a practical and aesthetic level, my hope is that this document will function more as a work that will provide the reader with a sense of hope as it relates to art making, that while what we do as makers can often seem pointless, we must have some kind of faith that art can be useful, and we ought to try to make sense out of things if we can. If there is any reason at all why I continue to make things, beyond general foolishness or to prevent from being bored, it lies somewhere said or unsaid within this document. The title of this document, “Why the Ocean’s Near the Shore” comes from the song the Scarecrow sings in The Wizard of Oz “If I Only Had a Brain”, stating that if only he were smart enough he could tell Dorothy something meaningful like why this is the case; this may not be so impressive to someone with a brain, but for someone without, it is certainly profound.

This study resulted in the development of the Discouragement Scale for Adults (DSA), an assessment instrument for the Adlerian construct of discouragement in adults more than 18 years of age. The DSA is a 60-item instrument that contains five sub-scales corresponding to five life tasks identified in Adlerian literature as work, love, society, self, and spirituality. Age, gender, and ethnicity norms were established for the DSA using a diverse sample (N=586). Additional normative data was developed with a presumed discouraged sample (N=47), and a special sample of traditional college students aged 18-27 years (N=531). Findings on the norm sample indicated that females are less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and on society and spirituality sub-scales. The 18-34 year old group was more discouraged than other age groups on the Total DSA and on work, society, and spirituality sub-scales. Presumed discouraged sample findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the society sub-scale. College student findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and sub-scales of love, society, spirituality, and work. A significant difference was found among ethnic groups in self sub-scales. Students with no absences per week were less discouraged than students with two absences per week. Students with lower grade point averages (GPA) were more discouraged on the Total DSA and work sub-scales. DSA internal consistency coefficients were .9392, .9496, and .9327 for norm, presumed discouraged, and college student samples respectively. Correlations between DSA and two social interest surveys reflect an inverse relationship between discouragement and social interest. Results indicate that the DSA is a useful assessment instrument for research and counseling purposes with college students. Further research should include greater geographical and ethnic diversity as well as validation among diverse college samples and non-traditional students. Additionally, a standard range of scores should be established to indicate varying levels of discouragement.

No description available.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a common and debilitating mental illness primarily characterized by depressed mood and anhedonia, as well as a heterogenous mixture of other somatic symptoms. Existing therapies for MDD act primarily on monoamine transporters and receptors, with only partial success. A more recent advancement in depression treatment is the identification of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist (R,S)-ketamine, which has shown efficacy in individuals with treatment resistant depression. Studies have raised the possibility of a mu opioid receptor (MOR)-dependent component to the actions of (R,S)- ketamine, through direct activation of MOR or indirect effects of NMDAR antagonism on endogenous opioids. Considering the ongoing global opioid epidemic, in which over prescribing of opioid painkillers and greater availability of illicit opioids has caused significant morbidity and mortality, studies suggesting an opioid component to ketamine’s actions have caused concern. We undertook the current experiments to better understand 1) the contribution of MORs to the behavioral effects of ketamine, and 2) how very low efficacy agonism of MOR may lead to a better separation between the desirable and undesirable effects of opioid drugs. Previous work from collaborators had established that a single dose of (R,S)-ketamine, specific hydroxynorketamine (HNK) metabolites, and the memantine derivative fluoroethylnormemantine (FENM), given one week before a contextual fear conditioning stressor could prevent the development of learned fear and behavioral despair. Moreover, some of these drugs also prevented the development of learned fear and behavioral despair when given shortly after the contextual fear conditioning stressor. We were interested in how (R,S)- ketamine’s reported MOR activity may contribute to these behavioral effects. We began by testing these compounds in cell-based signaling assays to determine their ability to directly activate MORs. We found that the parent (R)- and (S)-ketamine enantiomers could activate MORs with low potency in a high amplification G protein activation assay. In contrast, in low amplification miniG-based assays, the compounds tested showed little to no activation of MOR, suggesting that (R,S)-ketamine activates MOR with low potency and low efficacy. We moved to experiments in mice with the pseudo-irreversible MOR antagonist methocinnamox (MCAM) and attempted to block various behavioral effects of (R,S)-ketamine and the more selective NMDAR antagonist (FENM). We found that MCAM pretreatment blocked effects of (R,S)-ketamine on antinociception, behavioral despair, and learned fear, while other effects such as anesthesia and changes in hippocampal electrophysiology were not prevented by MCAM. With FENM the antinociceptive effects were less potent and less impacted by MCAM; however, the effects on behavioral despair and learned fear were still MORdependent. These results suggest that the protective effects of (R,S)-ketamine and FENM against stress may be an indirect effect of NMDAR antagonism on endogenous opioids. In a separate line of experiments, we used a range of doses of MCAM to antagonize the behavioral effects of morphine, the MOR agonist antidepressant tianeptine, and the MOR partial agonist 7-OH mitragynine. 7-OH mitragynine is a metabolite of mitragynine, the major alkaloid in kratom, which some reports suggest may have antidepressant and anxiolytic properties. Based on fundamentals of pharmacology, we hypothesized that inherent differences in the presence of “spare receptors” or receptor reserve between brain circuits could be revealed by differential inhibition by MCAM across behaviors and agonists. We assessed the inhibitory potency of MCAM against these drugs in tests of antinociception, hyperlocomotion, behavioral despair, respiration, and gastrointestinal motility. We found that MCAM pretreatment more potently inhibited the low efficacy agonist 7-OH mitragynine in the tests of antinociception, behavioral despair, and constipation. These data suggest that in circuits modulating antinociception, behavioral despair, and constipation, differences in receptor reserve likely facilitate the response to low efficacy agonists. However, our data also argue that the wider therapeutic window of G protein biased, low intrinsic efficacy MOR agonists is not solely a result of differences in the number of “spare” MORs regulating the effects of opioids in different circuits.

The study analyzed how parenting stress and discouragement affect stepfamily functioning. Whether the parent was a biological parent or stepparent, whether the stepparent was a stepmother or stepfather, or whether the marriage had been formed more or less than two years was also considered. One assumption made was that increased parenting stress and discouragement will lead to decreased family functioning. Other assumptions were that there will be more increased parenting stress and discouragement and decreased family functioning found in stepparents than biological parents, in stepmothers more than stepfathers, and in parents in families formed less than two years more than those in families formed more than two years. Complete data was collected from 30 subjects. Three instruments were used in the study. The Parenting Stress Index measures how much stress parents experience in areas relating to how they see their child and how they see themselves as parents. The Discouragement Scale for Adults was developed to measure the Adlerian concept of discouragement in an adult population. The Family Assessment Device measures how a family functions.

According to Alfred Adler, founder of Individual Psychology, a feeling of inferiority is in some degree common to all people. People who are unable to overcome these inferiority feelings by striving for cooperation may become discouraged. Although there are three scales to measure social interest, no scales measuring discouragement for adults was found. Additionally, Adler held basic assumptions regarding homosexuality, and the findings suggest that the assumptions should be reexamined. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, three University of North Texas candidates developed a discouragement scale for adults 18 years of age and older, known as the Discouragement Scale for Adults (DSA). Discouragement was examined relative to the five life tasks. Second, this candidate normed the instrument for the scores of gay male subjects and compared it to the scores of the other subject groups. Since the emphasis was on developing the instrument and norming it for various subject groups, no hypothesis was developed. Data was collected on three subject groups, known as the general norm subjects, the discouraged subjects, and the gay male subjects. Analyses were performed on the scores. Among the analyses, it was found that gay male subjects were slightly more discouraged than the general norm subjects, and the discouraged subjects were far greater discouraged than the other two subject groups. Initial reliability and validity was found to be high, offering support that the DSA is a reliable and valid instrument. The recommendations for further research include cultural and gender studies, predicting behavior, counseling intervention, and exploring the relationship between discouragement and stressors, such as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

This thesis serves to classify Black Humor as a philosophy, which holds that the world is meaningless and absurd, and as a literary technique. Historical origins are discussed and the idea is related to a reflection of the middle-class syndrome of twentieth century man. Close philosophical and literary relatives are presented and a pure work isn't defined. Black Humor literary characteristics are described in terms of style, theme, plot, setting, chronology, and characteristic ending. Black Humor characters are classified as "non-heroes" divided into four categories. Prevalent use and treatment of traditional forbidden subjects of sex, defecation, money, violence, emotionlessness, religion, death, and "illogical" logic are stressed. In summary, Cat's Cradle is examined in light of the Black Humor characteristics described and found to be other than a pure Black Humor work.