Although we have several therapeutic interventions for depression, we lack an understanding of the mechanisms that underlie these interventions. To gain a better understanding of the mental health conditions we treat, diagnoses we make, and interventions we use, mechanistic understandings are necessary. There is evidence that exposure to depressive emotion and cognitions can yield therapeutic outcome. The current study examines the physiology associated with an intervention, expressive writing (EW), which other research has shown to produce therapeutic outcomes because it increases exposure to negative feelings. The current study tests the hypothesis that EW increases depressive emotion, cognition, and physiology. Depression has been associated with decreased respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and increased heart rate (HR). RSA and HR were measured while participants did either EW or a control writing (CW) task. Because measures of RSA can be confounded by respiratory rate (RR), RR was also measured and statistically controlled for. Results revealed that EW does not alter RSA or HR. Interestingly, exploratory regression analyses between HR and RR during EW suggest that EW might trigger exposure to a depressive physiological state. Further investigation into the relationship between HR and RR during EW is warranted. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The current study examines the emotion, cognition, and physiology associated with an intervention, expressive writing (EW), which is commonly used as a treatment for anxiety and depression. Research has suggested that EW produces therapeutic outcome because it increases exposure to negative feelings. The current study tests the hypothesis that EW increases depressive emotion, cognition, and physiology. Results suggest that EW increases depressive emotion and cognition but does not alter some of the physiological parameters that have been associated with depression in prior research. An unpredicted exploratory result was that EW affected the relationship between heart rate and respiratory rate. Further investigation into the relationship between heart rate and respiratory rate during EW is warranted.

This manuscript will explore the intersection of perceived disability due to limb loss and self-identity. The research is centered around the work in the Limbitless Solutions laboratory, where clinical research is providing children with customized prostheses. This research applies a focus on how customization can lead to positive identity construction. By facilitating active engagement in the design process a stronger connection is formed between the participant and their prosthetic device.

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The transition to college can introduce new roles, opportunities, and challenges for growth and adjustment. Effective management of these challenges promotes personal adjustment and academic success (Chemers, Hu, and Garcia, 2001). However, difficulty in managing aspects of this transition introduces risks for dysfunction in emotional, social, and academic areas (Heiligenstein and Guenther, 1996). These risks are exacerbated for students who from underrepresented backgrounds at their college and within their field of study (Strayhorn, 2012). Among undergraduates, expressive writing interventions have been used to improve adjustment. These brief activities of self-reflection were originally used to address past hurts and have been adapted to attend to life's benefits. Reflections on both negative and positive life experiences have been tied to improvements in well-being, social success, and physical health (Emmons and McCullough, 2003; Sloan and Marx, 2004). This is the first study to directly compare effects of expressive writings focused on strong negative emotional experiences with effects of writings focused on positive emotional experiences (gratitude). Furthermore, questions remain about mechanisms of influence for these two writing paradigms. The current study tested the influence of these paradigms on student adjustment during the college transition, and assessed emotion mechanisms specific to each writing paradigm. One hundred sixty-one incoming college students were recruited into an online study during the fall semester. Students reported on emotional, social, and academic outcomes at the third, fifth, and eighth weeks of the incoming academic semester. Students were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: a group writing on emotion-focused prompts; a group writing on gratitude-focused prompts; and a control group with no assigned writings. During the fourth week of the semester, students in the experimental groups spent four days writing about their respective group prompts. Students in the emotion-focused writing group showed improvements in willingness to share intimate life events with others (i.e., length of writing, comfort with self-disclosure, recent heart-to-heart conversations). Students in the gratitude-focused writing group showed increases and maintenance of psychological resources (i.e., life satisfaction, involvement in group meetings, instances of studying). I discuss the implications of these findings below. / Ph. D.

Experiences of attunement, a deeply felt and embodied state of consciousness that results from tuning in to oneself, others, events, energies, and the environment, are the basis for realization of innate human capacities for connection and growth (Kossak, 2015). In an educational context, the process of 'tuning in' fosters the development of relationally based and embodied knowledge (Blades and Bester, 2013; Lutzker, 2014). Though rarely referenced and never studied comprehensively in counselor education, attunement contributes to the development of relational qualities and creativity necessary to provide effective counseling services (Duffey, Haberstroh, and Trepal, 2009; Kossak, 2015). Based on a synthesis of knowledge from diverse fields, this study was an exploration of attunement in counselor education involving several forms of measurement and the expressive arts as vehicles through which to foster attuned states. The researcher explored attunement as it occurred among master's level counselors-in-training engaging in improvisational group drumming, an intervention that has been shown to promote attunement (e.g., Kossak, 2008a). Perceptual, behavioral, and physiological measures were used to identify an occurrence of attunement. Audio and video data were used to contextualize the overall drumming experience and the process of 'tuning in' that led to attuned states. Findings from this study increase understanding of the phenomenon of attunement in the context of improvisational group drumming. Results shed light on how relational qualities and creativity develop and may promote more relational-responsive pedagogical practices in counselor education. Ultimately, results may contribute to the development of counselors with greater capacities for relating to diverse clients, responding to the complexities of their work, and creating meaningful change within their communities and society at large. / Ph. D.

In the everyday environment, we receive information from various sensory inputs, and yet, we perceive and integrate the incoming information in a way that is meaningful. Remarkably, infants and toddlers are capable of sensory integration early in life. By integrating information, particularly speech, infants ultimately learn to reproduce language by late toddlerhood. These language skills form a foundation for learning and achievement later in life, and there is documented evidence that language skills vary by experiences related to socioeconomic status (SES). Language disparities can be measured early in development, and continue to divide throughout childhood. Although there is clear evidence that language learning trajectories are influenced by SES, less is known about multisensory integration (MSI) as they are measured here and how these skills may differ as a function of SES. Here, MSI was investigated to gain insight into the potential changes that occur in MSI and expressive vocabulary for 68 toddlers between 18 months and 24-months. Finally, this relationship was investigated in the context of SES. At 18-months, toddlers demonstrated significant matching for nonsocial conditions, and at 24-months toddlers also matched for low competition social trials, thus demonstrating an improvement in matching from 18 to 24-months. There were no significant relationships between MSI and expressive vocabulary, and only one unexpected relationship between MSI and SES. These findings extend the research from Bahrick and colleagues (2018) by supplementing the previously studied 12-month-olds and 2-5-year-olds with an earlier age (e.g., 18-months), and open new doors for studying toddlers’ emerging social MSI. / M.S. / In the everyday environment, we experience various sights and sounds from multiple sources, and yet, we perceive the incoming information in a way that is meaningful. Infants and toddlers are also capable of combining multiple sources of information together in a way that is beneficial for language learning. Merging sensory information (e.g., correctly matching their mother’s voice to their mother) creates a foundation for language learning. There is evidence that suggests language abilities differ as a result of socioeconomic status (SES), and can be found early in development and continue to progress into childhood. Although research indicates differences in language arise as a result of SES, it is unclear whether the ability to merge multiple sources of information (also known as multisensory integration), particularly while experiencing competing information (e.g., noise, multiple speakers) also differs as a result of SES. Here, the ability to integrate multiple sources of information and vocabulary in young toddlers ages 18-months and 24-months was studied to understand whether these skills progress with age and also whether they differ as a result of SES. 18-month-olds demonstrated better integration of sensory information when blocks were falling (e.g., nonsocial event) than when women were shown on the screen speaking in child-directed speech (e.g., social event). At 24- months, toddlers also correctly matched the information of the social event when there was no competing information on the screen, thus improving social integration from 18-months. There were no significant relationships between MSI and vocabulary, and only one relationship between MSI and SES. More research will need to be conducted to understand the improvement of social integration from 18 to 24-months, and more questions will need to be addressed on how SES may play a role in integrating information.

Thesis advisor: R. Shep Melnick / Many political thinkers have suggested that religion is a necessary prerequisite for the proper functioning of American democracy. Foremost among them is Alexis de Tocqueville who argues, in particular, that religion serves as a counterbalance to individualism and crass acquisitiveness—two of the most worrisome aspects of American democracy. Yet, Tocqueville’s own analysis bids us to ask whether religion still serves this beneficial purpose nearly 200 years later, or whether democratization and individualism have not remade religion itself. The primary theme of the dissertation is therefore to investigate whether democratization and individualism have wrought changes of real significance in American religion and religious institutions. In the first part, I argue against the secularization thesis on the grounds that contemporary developments in American religion, such as the so-called rise of the “nones” and the growing distrust of organized religion, are explicable not by secularization but by democratization and individualism. To understand this phenomenon better, I return to the French liberal tradition of Benjamin Constant and Alexis de Tocqueville to articulate a theory of democratic deformalization—a process whereby American democracy breaks down the “formal” elements of religion. In the second part, I argue that individualism has caused a host of quantitative changes in American religion, including declining church membership, dwindling church participation, and a collapse in the perceived importance of organized religion itself. There are notable qualitative changes as well, including increasingly tenuous connections to churches, a proliferation of religious options within churches, and a new megachurch model that is better able to cater to individual taste and preference. In the third and most substantial part, I take up the question of whether individualism itself has changed or evolved over time, in predictable or unpredictable ways. Here, I argue that there has been a general shift from utilitarian individualism towards expressive individualism, with profound consequences for religious institutions and for society itself. The former, with its connection to the Protestant work ethic and Puritan social philosophy tends to cause an inclination in individuals to partake in community, submit to institutions, and follow moral and religious rules; the latter, with its belief in authenticity, causes a profound disdain for communal sources of authority, social institutions, and moral constraints. I conclude by arguing that the anthropology of expressive individualism, and its historical growth since the 1960s, proves to be the fundamental cause behind all these changes. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Naming refers to encountering a new word and subsequently being able to use it both expressively and receptively. Sometimes, this can happen in as little as a single experience. Several recent studies have explored factors that influence the acquisition of naming in adults. However, these studies used familiar stimuli for which the participants already had names. In these studies, preexisting stimulus-response relations with the stimuli could have impeded the acquisition of new names for some participants. In contrast, the present study used unfamiliar ("arbitrary") stimuli. In addition, an equivalence test was used to validate the findings because some theorists have claimed that naming is required for equivalence. The results revealed some advantages to teaching naming with arbitrary stimuli. Interestingly, a subset of participants had high scores on equivalence tests without having high scores on expressive tests. This indicates that, contrary to naming theory, naming may not be necessary for equivalence and match-to-sample tests may not be the best test of equivalence. These findings support the independence of the expressive and receptive repertoires both in the development of naming and equivalence.

Cette recherche combine des éléments qui appartiennent à l'histoire de la philosophie, à la philosophie politique et à la philosophie du langage. Son objet est d’observer et de recomposer certaines des étapes qui marquent, dans la philosophie de Rousseau, l’émergence progressive et radicale du langage en tant que facteur politique. Plus précisément, elle fournit une étude de la conception pragmatique du langage qui sous-tend la thèse principale de l’Essai sur l’origine des langues, selon laquelle la parole ne tire pas son origine des besoins physiques mais des passions considérées comme « besoins moraux ». Rousseau estime que contrairement aux besoins physiques, inéluctablement ressentis par les hommes indépendamment de l’éventualité et des circonstances de leur rencontre, les passions ne s’animent jamais « tant qu’elles sont de nul effet » (Emile, II, OC IV, Pléiade, p. 321), à savoir tant qu’elles ne sont pas en mesure d’agir l’une sur l’autre à l’intérieur d’une relation dont elles constituent les pôles. Or précisément parce qu’il pense que la parole, à son origine, a été occasionnée par ce type d’affections qui se développent dans l’âme humaine en produisant leurs effets à l’intérieur des relations, il considère également que son rôle primitif n’a pas consisté à représenter un contenu préconstitué par rapport à sa matérialisation phonique, mais à exercer une force immanente à l’expression sonore du sentiment. En ce sens, la tâche que s’assigne Rousseau dans l’Essai sur l’origine des langues est de rendre compte des facteurs qui ont permis à la langue de se rendre porteuse, dans un moment chronologiquement et logiquement secondaire de son histoire, de significations générales et abstraites de toute attitude émotive inhérente à l’acte d’énonciation du sujet. Le grand intérêt de cette explication consiste à attribuer l’éclosion et le progrès de la dimension représentative du langage à une modification de sa fonction sociale et politique, une modification qui consiste dans la suppression graduelle de la nécessité d’exercer par la parole une action morale sur autrui, d’exciter et de calmer les passions par les sonorités du discours, d’agir avec force dans le langage et d’influer par là-même sur la société. / This research combines elements of history of philosophy, political philosophy, and philosophy of language. It aims at investigating and reconstructing certain stages which, in Rousseau’s philosophy, mark the progressive and radical emergence of language as a political factor. In particular, the research provides a study of Rousseau’s pragmatic account of language, insofar as it underpins the main thesis of the Essay on the Origin of Languages. According to this thesis, speech does not originate from physical needs, but from human passions, conceived of as “moral needs”. Rousseau affirms that, contrary to physical needs, which inevitably arise in humans regardless of different occasions and circumstances, “the passions never become animated so long as they are of no effect” (Emile II, A. Bloom tr., New York, 1979, p. 92). Passions, that is, are only aroused in humans by acting upon each other, within a relationship of which they constitute the opposite poles. Since, according to Rousseau, speech was first caused by human passions — which can only develop in the soul and produce their effects within social relationships — he maintains that the original function of speech was not to represent a content that existed previously to its phonic materialisation. Rather, its primary role was to exert a power that is immanent to the voiced expression of feelings. In this sense, Rousseau’s goal in the Essay on the Origin of Languages is to provide an account of the elements that allowed language to become the bearer, in a logically and chronologically subsequent moment of its history, of general and abstract meanings, which are independent of any emotional attitude inherent in the subjective act of enunciation. A particularly interesting aspect of Rousseau’s explanation is that it ascribes the birth and progress of the representative dimension of language to a modification of its social and political function. This modification consists in the gradual suppression of the human needs to produce moral effects in the souls of others, excite or calm down passions through the sounds and tones of speech, and to exert an influence on society by forcefully acting through language.