This thesis was an attempt to investigate two important cognitive aspects of depression: expectation of success, and changes in this expectation. Recent studies in these areas have yielded inconsistent results. It has generally been concluded that subclinical depressives do not differ from nondepressives in initial expectation of success, though they do at times exhibit smaller changes in success expectancy following personal experiences of success or failure. Two main cognitive theories of depression have attempted to account for this difference between the two populations. Beck (1967) has proposed that depression results from specific negative cognitive processes, among them a denial of personal responsibility of positive events and an exaggeration of personal responsibility for negative events. According to this theory, depressives would have a lower initial expectation of success than nondepressives and would exhibit a smaller increase in success expectancy following success and a larger decrease in success expectancy following failure. Seligman (1975) has proposed that depression results when an individual learns that responses and outcomes are independent of one another, and then makes negative, internal attributions about the cause of that independence. On the basis of Seligman's theory, one could conclude that since depressives see action and outcome as independent, they would shift success expectancy less following both success and failure.

Anxiety is an intense feeling of worry or fear and can often be overwhelming, taking over someone’s everyday activities. Oftentimes, individuals who have feelings of anxiety or are in stressful situations that are anxiety inducing, they can get physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, sweating, fatigue and rapid breathing. Anxiety can also affect an individual’s quality of vision. In circumstances that are highly stressful, individual’s vision can start to diminish temporarily, affecting the peripheral vision as well as making central vision blurry. This study examines the effects of anxiety and vision quality on athletic performance among collegiate athletes. It compares the impact of being in stressful situations among athletes with and without vision disorder during athletic events. By conducting a study focusing on collegiate athletes at the University of Central Florida and comparing their anxiety levels, as well as any changes in their eyesight/perception, we can assess the association between stress and eyesight, and whether this correlation has an impact on their performance. The objective of this study is to assess a potential relationship between athletes’ performance, with and without vision-related disorders, during highly stressful situations. 31 participants, between the ages of 18-27, participated in this study. Using UCF Qualtrics and incorporating the State-Trait Anxiety Survey into an online modality, the survey was sent out to all student athletes. By comparing the data collected in SSPS and One-Way ANOVA, there was no significant difference in the mean anxiety scores between the tested variables, including the type of sport played, the type of refractive errors, and wearing corrective lenses. Future research can focus on assessing a larger athlete sample and perhaps assessing anxiety and vision during performance and competition to better understand the true relationship between anxiety and vision disorders among athletes.

This thesis examined the ways in which present-day 6th through 12th grade theatre educators approach the topic of mental health, both implicitly and explicitly, in theatre education. Through a survey of existing literature, as well as interviews with 6th through 12th grade theatre educators, the researcher examined ways in which theatre educators were aware of the mental health needs of their students in any of the following capacities: explicit discussions regarding mental health, theatre curriculum, show selection, script analysis, and casting choices. The reveal the educator perception that mental health issues are increasingly relevant to 6th through 12th grade youth, and that some educators have been taking specific and creative steps to incorporate explicit discussions surrounding mental health into their classroom and rehearsal processes. The researcher’s intention to conduct this study was to start a conversation about the needs students have for their mental health to be supported in the classroom; moreover, it was the hope of the researcher that this study would bring awareness to how students need more specific education taking place in their classrooms to understand this topic. The researcher specifically analyzed how theatre education spaces provide an opportunity to explore the topic of mental health with students using a unique, arts-based platform.

Concussions are a relatively common neurological injury and are associated with several adverse outcomes including depression. Anhedonia is a core feature of depression, with multiple subtypes, including consummatory anhedonia (i.e., diminished reward liking). Reward liking is related conceptually to the practice of savoring pleasurable stimuli. Savoring has been a component of mindfulness-based interventions that have efficacy in treating depressive symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between lifetime concussion history, reward liking, savoring, and depression severity. 293 participants (56% women; mean age: 19.31) completed an online questionnaire and computer-based image savoring task. Contrary to expectations, no measured aspect of concussion history was related to savoring as defined by the image savoring task. A history of unconsciousness or amnesia following a concussion was positively related to reported reward liking, while a history of multiple concussions was positively related, and time since most recent concussion was negatively related, to self-reported beliefs about savoring in the moment. Reward liking had a negative relationship with depression severity that was fully mediated by "savoring in the moment" beliefs. These findings are explored in the context of recent research examining positive mood and affect following head injuries.

A randomized, experimental pilot study of QUATRO Adherence Therapy examined differences at baseline and follow up in the dependent variables of severity of psychiatric symptomatology and medication concordance as measured by the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale and the Personal Evaluation of Transitions in Treatment for subjects with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder at a community mental health center. The sample was 23 subjects. A questionnaire developed for the study collected data at follow-up. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, /-tests, and repeat Anova to compare groups and determine significance of change following completion of the intervention. Program evaluation was positive. Statistical comparison indicated no significant differences were found in change scores for either group. Implications for further research are that a larger scale randomized controlled study is needed to produce statistical significance.

This study was begun at the request of the Mental Health Division (henceforth known as MHD) of the State of Oregon. The purpose was to conduct a follow-up study on six Day and Residential Treatment Service (henceforth known as DARTS) Centers which are funded by MHD. The purpose of the research was to assess whether or not the Centers are an effective treatment tool. The information acquired by this study will be used to provide information to MHD and the DARTS Center Directors to assist their decision making regarding program direction, and to provide MHD with specific information to be used in preparation for the upcoming state legislative session.

Chapter 1 will cover who is uploading the videos and how individuals navigate from professional to amateur videos and visa versa. The discussion will be in context of YouTube as a public sharing space that can contain personal information. A central advantage of YouTube as a space for health information is health communication. Chapter 2 will focus on social networking and the comments section, where patients voluntarily share their voice in an online medical community.

Although many studies have examined patient barriers to care, few studies have examined mental health therapist biases toward prospective patients. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature by examining therapist biases toward simulated-patients’ race, ability to pay for treatment, and diagnosis. A total of 725 therapists (176 male, 549 female) practicing in Chicago, Illinois were sent emails from simulated-patients requesting a therapy appointment. Therapists were stratified and randomized into different simulated-patient conditions, including race (i.e., White, African American, or Latino/a American), gender (i.e., male or female), ability to pay (i.e., able to pay full fee out of pocket for treatment or unable to pay full fee out of pocket for treatment and asked if the therapist took a sliding scale), and diagnosis (i.e., depression, schizophrenia, or borderline personality disorder (BPD)). Therapist email return rates were determined after a 2-week window, and the responsiveness of their messages was coded. The overall email return rate was 78.76% (n = 571). Results indicate that race and diagnosis are significant predictors of receiving an email response, such that non-White patients are less likely to receive a response than White patients, and patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or BPD are less likely to receive a response than those with depression. Further analyses conclude non-White patients, patients unable to pay full fee for treatment, and patients with schizophrenia or BPD are more likely to be declined for services and not receive a response than White patients, patients able to pay full fee for treatment, and patients with depression.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are an important part of society today. Older adults often report ICTs as difficult to use and unhelpful; however, ICTs can support older adults’ ability to stay in touch with family and friends across long distances and help increase their quality of life. Unfortunately, training programs targeted at teaching older adults to use ICTs are often costly and time-consuming. The current study attempts to determine whether advertisements depicting older adults using ICTs can be used to increase self-efficacy without the use of training programs. A within subjects experimental design was completed using an independent variable in which participants viewed two advertisements. Participants were randomly assigned to view an advertisement PowerPoint depicting younger adults using technology first, or randomly assigned to an advertisement PowerPoint depicting older adults using technology first. The dependent variable was a Technology Self-Efficacy Survey developed for the purposes of this study. Results of a paired samples t-test indicated that participants did not rate their selfefficacy higher after viewing the PowerPoint with older adults depicted using technology, as compared to viewing the PowerPoint with younger adults depicted using technology. Although the results were not statistically significant, this research indicated that older adults generally rated their self-efficacy higher after viewing the PowerPoint with older adults versus the PowerPoint with younger adults. Future research could help determine whether advertisements could be used to increase technology self-efficacy in older adults.

Objectives. Describe older patients’ perceptions about depression and characteristics associated with acceptance of treatments. Design. Cross-sectional study. Setting. Three primary care clinics in Iowa. Participants. Consecutive sample of 529 primary care patients. Measurements. Depression screening tool (a 9-item patient health questionnaire [PHQ-9]) and questionnaire including sociodemographic data, patient attitudes about depression, and acceptability of different treatments. Results. Mean age was 71.9 years (range 60–93 years), 314 (59%) female. Among the 529 participants, 93 (17.5%) had history of depression and 60 (11.3%) had PHQ-9 scores of 10 or greater. Participants believed depression is a disease for which they would use medication and counseling. Accepting medications from primary physicians was strongly associated with a past history of depression (P < 0.01) and with agreeing that depression needs treatment (P < 0.01). Counseling was not acceptable for those believing that they can control depression on their own (P < 0.01). Older patients (P < 0.001) and those with higher education levels (P < 0.01) were less likely to accept herbs or supplements as treatment options. Willingness to discuss treatments with family was associated with not using alcohol as a treatment and acceptance of all other treatment options (P < 0.001). Conclusions. Attitude that depression is a disease and the willingness to discuss depression with family may enhance treatment acceptance.