Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is classified as an anxiety disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV of the American Psychiatric Association. It is characterised by three main symptom clusters: re-experiencing (of which flashbacks are the hallmark symptom); hyperarousal; and avoidance. Diagnosis requires not only the occurrence of a traumatic event but also an intense emotional (fear, horror, or helplessness) reaction to it. Epidemiological data suggest that 80% of people will experience at least one qualifying event in their lifetime. However, prevalence rates of PTSD are much lower. Additionally, individuals with PTSD tend to experience flashbacks of only two or three particular ‘hot-spots’ of the entire trauma. Therefore, the question arises: why do some moments of trauma flash back and not others? Clinical-cognitive theories of PTSD suggest that shifts in information processing at the time of the trauma (i.e. peri-traumatically) are the mechanism whereby flashbacks are created. However, for ethical and practical reasons peri-traumatic processes in real trauma are seldom studied. An analogue traumatic event has been developed to help study peri-traumatic processes – the trauma film paradigm. This paradigm is used through-out this thesis with the goal of investigating peri-traumatic cognitive mechanisms in flashback formation. Studies 1 and 2 extend previous work using dual tasks to manipulate intrusions in-line with clinical-cognitive theories. Studies 3 and 4 use neuroimaging techniques to investigate brain regions involved in real-time peri-traumatic encoding of analogue flashbacks. Chapter 9 presents heart rate data relating to peri-traumatic physiological response to flashback encoding. All of these studies support the notion that peri-traumatic shifts in processing are involved in flashback formation. In particular, Study 3 suggests that there may be a particular neural signature associated with the formation of flashbacks. Investigation of these brain areas may help solve the questions of why some individuals are more vulnerable to PTSD and why only a few specific moments of a trauma subsequently flashback. Furthermore, an improved understanding of the cognitive mechanisms involved in flashback formation may allow theory and evidence led improvements in PTSD treatments.

Schizophrenia demonstrates high heritability in part accounted for by common simple nucleotide variants (SNV), rare copy number variants (CNV) and, most recently, rare SNVs Although heritability explained by rare SNVs and CNVs is small compared to that explained by common SNVs, rare SNVs in functional sequences may identify specific disease mechanisms. However, current exome methods do not capture a large proportion of potentially functional bases where rare variation may impact disease risk: as much as two-thirds of conserved sequences lie outside the exome in non-coding regions of cross-species evolutionary constraint. We reasoned that the candidate loci from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Phase 1 (PGC-1) schizophrenia study represent good target loci to test for the impact of rare SNVs in non-coding constrained regions. We developed custom reagents to capture mammalian constrained non-coding regions, exons, and 5’- and 3’-untranslated regions (UTRs) in the 12 PGC-1 loci for pooled sequencing in 912 cases and 936 controls. Compared to our coding targets, our noncoding targets contain substantially more highly conserved bases (46,412 vs. 31,609) and variants (390 vs. 193). Using C-alpha to detect excess variance due to aggregate risk increasing or decreasing rare SNV effects, we identified signals attributable to alleles with MAF < 0.1% in both coding sequences and in functional non-coding sequences, including variants within ENCODE transcription factor binding sites, DNase hypersensitive regions, and histone modification sites in neuronal cell lines. We also observed significant excess risk-altering variation in the CUB domain of CSMD1, a gene expressed in the developing central nervous system. These results support the hypothesis that common and rare variants in the same loci contribute to schizophrenia risk, but highlight the need to expand capture strategies in order to detect trait-relevant sequence variation in a broader set of functional sequences.

We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants’ abilities to encode and retain information over a 6‐month period. Sixty‐six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional‐ relation and enabling‐relation action sequences. Half the children were distracted by a “Mister Monkey” mechanical toy during the conventional‐relation sequence, while the other half was distracted during the enabling‐relation sequence. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire indexed endogenous factors at both ages. Immediate postmodel production of target actions indexed encoding efficiency, and 6‐month production of target actions indexed long‐term recall. The exogenous distracter impacted encoding efficiency (i.e., immediate recall), but not long‐term recall. Endogenous factors (i.e., temperament) were primarily associated with long‐term recall. Of special interest was our finding that endogenous factors, especially surgency, moderated the effect of the exogenous distracter. It appears that when learning conventional‐relation sequences in the presence of exogenous distracters, surgency mobilizes attentional resources toward the learning objective; however, when learning enabling‐relation sequences under the same conditions, surgency either boosts the saliency of the distracters or boosts children’s susceptibility to them.

The behavioral effects of nicotine on locomotor activity in a rodent model of psychosis were analyzed. This model is based on neonatal quinpriole treatment (a dopamine D2/D3 agonist) which causes increased D2 receptor sensitivity, a phenomenon known as D2 priming that is common in schizophrenia. D2-primed adolescent rats did not demonstrate nicotine-induced hypoactivity early in training, and males demonstrated more rapid sensitization to nicotine as compared to controls administered nicotine. D2-primed females administered nicotine demonstrated increased stereotypic behavior. D2-primed adult rats given nicotine demonstrated significantly more robust sensitization to nicotine than controls given nicotine. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) was analyzed in the nucleus accumbens. BDNF was significantly increased in nicotine treated adolescent females but was not affected in males. Nicotine alleviated BDNF deficits in D2-primed adults. These results suggest that sensitization to nicotine in D2-primed rats is age dependent, and nicotine induced changes in BDNF that is age and sexdependent.

Relatively few studies have investigated the relationship between early childhood attentional control and later cognitive outcomes, especially language development. The current study is an investigation of the relationship between the executive functioning (EF) component of attentional control and language ability in the second year of life. More specifically, the predictive nature of two aspects of attentional control, attentional focus and resistance to distraction, was be the primary focus of the proposed study. Although it was expected that children both high in attentional focus and resistance to distraction would have significantly superior language development than infants with lower attentional capacities, analyses indicated associations between the postural deviation component of resistance to distraction and language. Attentional focus was also related to infant language ability. Avenues for future research regarding early childhood attentional control, resistance to distraction, and language ability are discussed.

Objective: Children and youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems or at risk of entering them are known to have high rates of mental health problems and psychiatric disorders. Many states are struggling with the provision of mental health services for these important populations, both providing timely and adequate access to services as well as providing evidence-based interventions to address their complex needs. The state of Tennessee developed a program of regional Centers of Excellence (COEs) based within pediatric tertiary centers that provide clinical and consultative services, and technical assistance to behavioral health providers and regional branches of the state child welfare agency. These are oriented to improve access, quality, and effectiveness of care. Methods: This manuscript briefly reviews the history and process of development for the Tennessee COEs for Children in State Custody. It also outlines their evolving clinical and consultative activities, and activities to develop services infrastructure on behalf of children in custody with complex behavioral health needs. Results: The COEs have provided a significant number of direct consultative and clinical services that have been formally evaluated as highly valuable by stakeholder agencies. They have also developed an infrastructure for training and dissemination of best practices and evidence-based interventions oriented to the special needs of children in state custody. Conclusions: The Tennessee COEs serve as a national model for the building and development of regional systems, both for children in state custody and for other children and youth with complex mental health needs.

Background: Nearly 45 million adults in the United States live with a mental health disorder and only 43% of them seek treatment. One of the major barriers to seeking treatment is accessibility and can be addressed through telepsychology, or providing services with technology. With technological improvements in written communication, using computer-mediated communication (CMC; e.g. text messaging) has become more regularly used and examined in healthcare. To date, little research has focused on the use of practitioner language in telepsychology. Method: Two samples (university sample and national sample) totaling 396 participants were asked to rate a therapist on attractiveness (i.e. likability and sociability), expertness, and trustworthiness after reading one of four text-message introductions. The messages varied in the language used: Jargon, jargon with layman explanations, layman only, and text speak. Analysis: The participants’ ratings of the therapist were analyzed using analysis of variance to examine differences between the rating means. Results: University participants rated a therapist higher in attractiveness when the text-message used layman language only compared to jargon, jargon with layman, and text speak. Both samples rated the therapist lower in attractiveness, expertness, and likelihood to use services of therapist when the text-message contained text speak.

Social anxiety is a disorder where people fear social interactions and is associated with physiological changes. Eye tracking studies have shown that people with social anxiety spent more time gazing at emotional faces presented on a computer screen and spent more time gazing at the eye region. There has been limited studies on tracking eye gaze in a real-life setting interacting with another person. We used a wearable eye tracker during a brief one-on-one interview about participants’ challenges faced at work or school. Along with self-report psychological measures about social anxiety and shyness, we also measured participants’ salivary cortisol as a metric for physiological stress. We hypothesized that socially anxious individuals would have higher cortisol levels and spent more time gazing at the face. However, there was no change in cortisol levels before and after the interview. In addition, socially anxious individuals had lower cortisol levels than less anxious people. Furthermore, the time spent fixating on the region of interest (ROI), which was the face, was not correlated with social anxiety, anxiety or shyness. Paradoxically, the more socially anxious participants seem to have had a lower physiological stress response than less socially anxious participants.

Autonomy is one of the most commonly studied job characteristics in the work design literature and is commonly associated with large and positive effects on job satisfaction. There is reason to believe that autonomy may interact with personality characteristics to affect attitudinal outcomes, but prior research has tended to focus on the original growth-need-strength construct as a potential moderator with mixed results. One glaring gap in the literature is the lack of research that examines the Big Five constructs of personality as a potential class of moderators. Grant, Fried, and Juillerat (2010) have suggested additional research into the Big Five as moderators of individuals' attitudinal reactions to job characteristics. Moreover, several researchers (e.g., Dudley, Orvis, Lebiecki, & Cortina, 2006; Judge, Heller, & Mount, 2002; Major, Turner, & Fletcher, 2006) have called for increased attention to the facets of the Big Five in conducting such research. This dissertation addressed these two gaps in the research literature. First, the study examined conscientiousness as a potential moderator of the relationship between the job design characteristic of autonomy and the outcomes of job satisfaction and person-job fit. Second, the study tested specific hypotheses regarding these interactions using both the global construct of conscientiousness and the narrower sub-traits--or facets--that exist underneath the broader trait. This dissertation also contributes to the research literature by creating a new measure of person autonomy fit adapted from an existing person job fit measure (Cable & DeRue, 2002) and by showing that person autonomy fit mediates the effect of autonomy and job satisfaction and person job fit. Data were collected at two time points from 181 employees at a national wholesale distribution cooperative. Participants came from the corporate office and 10 independently owned locations across the United States, and held a wide variety of jobs. The results indicated strong main effects for autonomy and conscientiousness and its facets on job satisfaction, and a strong effect of autonomy on person-job fit, but did not find evidence of interactions between autonomy and conscientiousness or any of its facets. Moreover, the results indicate that person autonomy fit mediates the effect of autonomy on these two attitudinal outcomes. Based on these results, I suggest that organizations interested in creating work environments that foster high levels of job satisfaction can do so using at least two mechanisms: 1) by selecting individuals with higher levels of conscientiousness and 2) by providing high levels of autonomy in the workplace. I also argue that the potential payoff of providing autonomous work environments is far higher than for selecting workers predisposed to be more satisfied with their jobs. Finally, I suggest that more research is needed to understand the complex interaction between individual differences and workplace environments.

Thesis (D.Psyc.(Clin.))--University of Wollongong, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 70-81.