<p> Depression following cardiac surgery is more common than appreciated and can adversely impact length of stay, recovery, and quality of life. The purpose of this study was to identify those at increased risk of developing post-operative depression and to intervene early to decrease the mortality and morbidity associated with post-operative depression. This study prospectively analyzed various patient characteristics, socio-economic factors, and fatalism to determine their relationship to post-operative depression. If a correlation was identified, then pre-operative intervention could be initiated to mitigate the adverse effects of depression on recovery. </p><p> Consecutive patients scheduled for coronary bypass or valve surgery were screened for inclusion in the study. Patients under the age of 40, those with pre-existing depression, and patients needing reoperation were excluded. One hundred twenty-five patients who met criteria were followed over a 12-week period. Baseline data relating to heart surgery (Euroscore), socio-economic demographics, depression score (PHQ9), and a fatalism scale were collected. Follow-up assessments for depression occurred at 6 weeks and at 12 weeks post-surgery. Data were collected by chart review and direct face-to-face interviews, and were analyzed utilizing SAS software. </p><p> Eighty-four men and 41 women met the inclusion criteria. One hundred fourteen (91%) completed follow-up at 6 weeks, and 105 (84%) completed the follow-up at 12 weeks. The mean fatalism score was 49.4 (22-88), and the mean depression score was 4.0(0-11). Fatalism, Euroscore, baseline PHQ-9 score, gender, race, marital status, education level, church membership, and diabetes explained 22% of the variability in PHQ-9 scores at both 6 and 12 weeks. However, this was not significant (p=> 0.05). </p><p> Fatalism was found to be associated with depression, but socio-demographic factors explained more variability in depression at 6 weeks and 12 weeks. Further studies to identify other determinants of postoperative depression are warranted. The results suggest that pre-operative interventions to limit subsequent depression should be explored.</p>

<p> Prejudice and discrimination based on gender occurs within the referral and assessment process of students' social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. Gender disproportionality has received little attention in special education research (Sullivan &amp; Bal, 2013), yet researchers have found that males are more likely than females to be identified as having learning disability, cognitive disability, emotional disability, other health impairment, speech-language impairment, and low-incident disability (Coutinho &amp; Oswald, 2005). Gender is often discussed as a risk factor for several mental health disorders and gender differences in the experience and prevalence of disorders are emphasized in the Diagnostic and <i>Statistical Manual, 5^th edition</i> (DSM-5) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The purpose of this study was to examine student, parent, and teacher ratings on a behavioral rating scale, the <i>Behavioral Assessment System for Children, 2^nd edition</i> (BASC-2), for similarity based on the gender of students. The normative data from the BASC-2 rating scale were examined for similarities through independent <i>t</i>- tests of equivalence. </p><p> Results indicated that the genders were similarly rated on the majority of the subscales on the BASC-2. Correlations and coefficients of determination were weak and did not demonstrate substantive strength between the BASC rating scales subscales and gender. At the large effect size 100% equivalence was found, at the moderate effect size 86% equivalence was found, and at the small effect size 16% equivalence was found.</p>

<p> Youth are having sexual intercourse at an early age and as such, are engaging in risky behaviors that are associated with adverse health outcomes, including HIV infection. Little research has been undertaken to examine the influence of contextual factors on youth intentions to delay sexual involvement. To address that gap, this study aimed to examine the influence of age, gender, race, immigration status, HIV knowledge, HIV-related stigma, concern about HIV, direct exposure to HIV/AIDS, peer pressure, and religious influence on youth intentions to delay sexual involvement. Delayed sexual involvement was conceptualized as youth attitudes towards abstaining from sex, their knowledge of the consequences of sexual involvement, and perceived parent or peer disapproval of the behavior. The theory of reasoned action was used as a framework to guide the study. The cross-sectional study involved secondary data analysis of baseline data pooled from a program evaluation. The sample included 536 urban low-income African American and Latino youth aged 11 to 16 years at high risk of HIV/AIDS. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that the weighed combination of the predictor variables, age, gender, race, immigration status, HIV knowledge, direct exposure to HIV/AIDS, peer pressure, and religious influence explained the greatest variance of intention to delay sexual involvement (<i>R</i>² = .246, <i> p</i> &lt; .05). Also observed was a significant relationship between age, gender, and sexual intentions across the regression models. These findings can enhance HIV prevention and social change initiatives because of the potential to impact youth early sexual debut, reduce risky sexual behavior, and consequently decrease the rates of HIV infection among youth.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore treatment options for aggression-related disorders. Two activities were examined to validate their use as frustration-reduction techniques --yoga and therapeutic drumming. Twenty-two college students were randomly assigned to participate in one of three groups--yoga, drumming, or silence (control)--following experimentally-induced frustration using a computerized Stroop color-word technique. Self-reported emotion levels and physiological responses were tracked at baseline, post-frustration, and post-treatment to measure responses to treatment. Results indicate that self-reported frustration levels were significantly reduced in all experimental groups, but physiologic responses showed no significant changes. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) indicated no significant difference in lowered frustration for any of the treatment groups, suggesting that they are equally effective. These results also suggest that the passage of time may be key to successful emotion regulation. Further study should examine control variables and methodology to identify other factors that may be involved in regulating aggressive emotions. </p>

<p> Individuals with profound multiple disabilities (PMD) have significant deficits in intellectual functioning in addition to physical disabilities and associated medical conditions. Often, these individuals have communication deficits making the expression of basic wants and needs challenging. Given the communication difficulties associated with profound multiple disabilities, there is a need for systematic assessment to better understand emotional responses of individuals with profound multiple disabilities, including happiness responses. Methods to identify emotions of individuals with profound multiple disabilities have improved over the past few years. Within the field of psychology, there has been a growing base of empirical information regarding happiness. One of the defining concerns of positive psychologists is the positive emotion of happiness. Applied behavior analysis provides a body of research and theoretical underpinnings to examine theoretical gaps in expression of emotions for individuals who have profound multiple disabilities. This quantitative study assessed whether presentation of preferred items and activities during multiple periods of the day (and over multiple days) increased indices of happiness (over time/sustained) in individuals with PMD. A multiple baseline design across participants was utilized to measure changes in indices of happiness of the participants. Participants were recruited from an adult day activity program specializing in providing assistance to individuals with disabilities. For Mary, baseline indices of happiness were 26.67% of intervals, increasing 6.76% during intervention to 33.43%. For Caleb, baseline indices of happiness were 20.84% of intervals, increasing 6.34% during intervention to 27.18%. For Mark, baseline indices of happiness were 40.00% of intervals, increasing 12.75% during intervention to 52.75%. Overall interobserver agreement was 82.8%, with interobserver agreement observations occurring during 63.04% of the observations. The results of the investigation demonstrated that presenting preferred items and activities increased the indices of happiness compared to baseline rates of indices of happiness. Results may have been more robust if the participants were assessed for overall responsiveness patterns prior to the initiation of measurement of indices of happiness.</p>

<p> Crime and drug use are social issues that have profound negative effects on society. Trait displaced aggression (TDA) is the tendency of an individual to respond to a provocation by aggressing against a target other than the original provocateur. The current study was the first to examine whether TDA was associated with (a) specific criminal behaviors, and (b) specific types of drug use as well as the first to assess the potential mediating effect of impulsivity on these relationships. Participants were administered self-report questionnaires assessing TDA, drug use, criminal behavior, and impulsivity. TDA was related to violent but not nonviolent crime and this relationship was mediated by impulsivity. In addition, TDA was related to the use of several specific drugs including crack, marijuana, and cocaine. Implications of these findings for reducing both crime and drug use will be discussed.</p>

<p> The three studies that follow were designed to advance the field's knowledge of positive coping patterns in response to insidious, ongoing natural and human-generated disaster threat. They will address the following three aims: 1) to create a psychometrically sound measure of self-efficacy as it applies to human-generated and natural disaster events; 2) to test a theory-driven moderation model of emergency preparedness self-efficacy and its role in the relationship between perceived risk and psychological outcomes; and, 3) to examine how the role of emergency preparedness self-efficacy might vary in ethnically diverse populations. Although numerous assessments of disaster mental health functioning exist, the field has lacked continuity of measurement across disasters; a parsimonious, all-hazard measure is needed in order to identify important psychological risk and resilience factors across disasters. In Paper 1, the psychometric properties of the Emergency Preparedness Self-Efficacy (EPSE) scale are evaluated; this scale assesses an individual's perceived self-efficacy with respect to preparation for, and response to emergencies arising in natural and human-generated disasters. Results from undergraduate and community samples suggest reliability and validity of this emergency preparedness self-efficacy measure. Paper 2 examines the moderating roles of both general self-efficacy and domain-specific (emergency preparedness) self-efficacy on the relationship between the ongoing perceived risk of human-made disaster (terrorism) and mental health outcomes. As hypothesized, emergency preparedness self-efficacy (but not general self-efficacy) moderated the relationship between perception of risk and anxiety and perception of risk and general distress. Greater emergency preparedness self-efficacy reduced the impact of risk perception on both mental health outcomes, highlighting the protective function of the contextually specific belief in one's capacity to overcome hardship and exercise control. Paper 3 examines how the moderating effect of emergency preparedness self-efficacy might differ for the ethnic minority subgroup as compared to the Caucasian subgroup. Results revealed that the relationship between perceived risk and anxiety was stronger for individuals with lower levels of emergency preparedness self-efficacy, compared to those with higher levels of emergency preparedness self-efficacy, in the Caucasian subsample. However, the relationship between perceived risk and anxiety did not differ according to level of emergency preparedness self-efficacy in the ethnic minority subgroup. Although preliminary, findings reveal a differing role of self-efficacy in response to ongoing terrorism threat for Caucasian versus ethnic minority individuals. Limitations of these studies are noted and recommendations for future research are provided. However, in combination, these studies provide evidence to support the psychometric properties of a scale for self-efficacy for disasters, which is noticeably absent from the field; highlight intervention opportunities at the individual level; and, demonstrate the need to tailor interventions to differing protective mechanisms across cultural populations.</p>

<p> Synesthesia is an unusual blending of the senses that occurs in about four percent or more of the human population. Much effort has been devoted to establishing criteria to define what synesthesia is ever since the phenomenon reemerged as a fascination within the scientific community in the late 1970s. To date, the most common criteria for synesthesia are that synesthetic experiences be automatic, consistent, rely on an external stimulus that triggers the phenomenological experience, and that this experience is fully conscious to the mind. This framework allows for some differentiation of synesthetes compared to non-synesthetes within the human population, and yet it also creates a self-selecting bias in the synesthetic population; if the scientific community defines criteria for synesthesia, and then only studies people whom fit those criteria, the resulting data will likely validate the definitions if only because they have been defined that way. What is left unknown are ways that synesthetes, as a community of otherwise normal human beings, vary in subtle ways, both in their psychophysical behavior and in their neurobiological form and function in relation to other human beings who do not experience any form of conscious, unusual sensory blendings yet defined as synesthesia.</p><p> The studies described in this thesis explore whether perception in the population of individuals currently defined as synesthetes is in fact uniquely different from perception in the rest of the human population. These unique differences in perception are also used here to better inform our understanding of the functions of the human brain. Chapter 2 introduces the concept of perceptual binding and its relation to synesthesia. Some synesthetes experience colors that are associated with letters and numbers, and these so-called grapheme-color synesthetes may rely on similar brain mechanisms to bind their synesthetic colors to space as the ones they (and most humans) use to bind color to space normally. Chapter 3 addresses the question of binding with regard to an unusual phenomenon specific to grapheme-color synesthetes: that it is possible for some of these synesthetes to experience two colors that are spatially co-localized without blending. The results of this behavioral study will be shown to correlate with the vividness of visual imagery, a measure that extends beyond synesthetic phenomenology. Finally, Chapter 4 demonstrates how synesthetes differ from well-matched non-synesthetes in relation to behavior and the anatomy of the brain. Specifically, synesthetes have more vivid visual imagery as a population, more arborized white matter, and show a positive correlation between vivid imagery and increased axonal branching that is absent in non-synesthete controls. Together, these studies suggest that the brains of synesthetes rely on attention-specific mechanisms used by most humans to bind color to space. However, synesthesia as a whole may not simply be one end of a continuum of brain differences. Rather, synesthetes may be unique both in their phenomenological experiences of the world, and in some ways, the organization of the brain that creates them.</p>

<p> The primary goal of the present study was to examine whether avoidance and intolerance of uncertainty predict depression and anxiety through rumination over a two week time period. Results indicated that cognitive, behavioral, and experiential avoidance all individually predicted depressive and anxious symptoms over two weeks. Cognitive, behavioral, and experiential avoidance all predicted rumination one week later. Intolerance of uncertainty predicted higher levels of anxiety and depression but not rumination. No evidence emerged that rumination acted as a mechanism of action between any of the hypothesized mediational models for depressive symptoms. Only the cognitive and experiential avoidance mediational models indicated mediation for anxiety. </p>

<p> Social learning has been shown to have a significant impact on moral development. Research has established that the progression of moral development is consistent and universal. Several factors can impact the rate at which children progress through the moral stages. Children's moral reasoning can be shaped by observations of media characters. Due to their recent resurgence in popular culture and the media, as well as their consistent popularity with children, superheroes have been identified as potential social models of morality. In a sample of 108 fifth grade students, a significant positive correlation was revealed between superhero knowledge and exposure. The sample was divided by gender due to significant differences in superhero knowledge and exposure as well as level of moral judgment. A linear multiple regression for the males approached but did not reach significance. A linear multiple regression for females also failed to reach significance. Limitations of the current study and implications for future research are discussed.</p>