Thesis (M.A.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2003. / Thesis advisor: C. Charles Mate-Kole. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in General Psychology." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-55). Also available via the World Wide Web.

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published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate a specific cognitive theory of obsessions; namely, that unwanted and repugnant intrusive thoughts cause distress and persist when the person interprets their occurrence as highly personally significant and important. Two studies were conducted. In the first study, we described the development and undertook a validation study of a new scale of obsessional-compulsive symptoms, the Vancouver Obsessional Compulsive Inventory (VOCI). This measure was a necessary first step because established measures of obsessional-compulsive symptoms are inadequate in their assessment of a number of domains of obsessional-compulsive complaints, particularly obsessions. Our findings in samples of people with obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD), people with other anxiety disorders or depression, community adults, and undergraduate students suggest that the VOCI is a promising new measure. In the second study, we investigated the role of interpretations of the personal significance and importance of intrusive thoughts in the occurrence of obsessions. Specifically, we hypothesized that people who have repugnant obsessions or frequent, distressing intrusive thoughts would interpret their intrusive thoughts as highly personally significant and important. Our hypotheses were, in general, supported. There was a clear relationship between beliefs and interpretations of the importance of thoughts and obsessions in both OCD and nonclinical samples. In addition, these beliefs and appraisals appeared to be specifically related to repugnant obsessions, rather than obsessive-compulsive complaints in general. This research represents one of the first attempts to evaluate the assertion that misinterpretations of intrusive thoughts are fundamental in the experience of obsessions. The development of the VOCI was a necessary first step in evaluating the relationship between interpretations of personal significance and particular obsessional-compulsive complaints. By demonstrating specific interpretations that are associated with clinical obsessions, we hope to refine cognitive-behavioural models of obsessions, and suggest ways in which current cognitive-behaviour therapy for obsessions can be sharpened and made more effective.

The purpose of this investigation was to test the hypothesis that perceived responsibility is a major determinant of compulsive checking. Thirty participants recruited from the community through the local media, who met criteria for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, received four conditions. In the low responsibility condition, perceived responsibility for an anticipated negative eventt was transferred to the experimenter. In contrast, in the high responsibility condition, perceived responsibility for an anticipated negative event was given to the participant. The remaining two conditions served as control conditions. Subjects were assessed before and after each experimental manipulation. Results suggest a causal connection between decreases in perceived responsibility and compulsive checking. Decreases in perceived responsibility produced decreases in several measures critical to compulsive checking. Results from increases in perceived responsibility were less clear. However, increases in perceived responsibility lead to increases in panic and likelihood of anticipated criticism. There were trends for increases in perceived responsibility to lead to increases in perceptions of discomfort experienced, urge to check, and severity of anticipated criticism. There was no relationship between variations in perceived responsibility and perceived extent of controllability over an anticipated negative event. Theoretical implications of the results and, in particular, the value of a cognitive analysis of compulsive checking, are discussed.

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Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a disabling psychiatric condition that causes pervasive and enduring impairments in social and occupational functioning. Previous literature has outlined the core components of the disorder to include disturbances in affect regulation, identity problems, disrupted interpersonal relationships, and impulsive behavior. While several theories have postulated the primacy of one component in driving the remaining components, the etiological and maintaining mechanisms of BPD are poorly understood. Therefore, the present study examined the primacy of one of these components, identity disturbance, in eliciting changes in the affective, interpersonal, and impulsive components of the disorder. The current study employed an experimental manipulation of identity coherence in 388 undergraduates who were screened for high or low levels of borderline personality features. All participants completed measures of affect prior to and immediately following the manipulation and then completed a GoStop task of impulsivity and an interpersonal trust task in a counterbalanced order. The results suggest individuals with high levels of borderline personality features generally report reduced self-concept clarity and are more susceptible to efforts to alter the coherence of their identity than those with lower levels of borderline personality features. Destabilization of identity coherence led to greater difficulties inhibiting behavior in those with high levels of borderline features, whereas it improved behavioral control in those with low levels of borderline features. These results support theoretical articulations of BPD that indicate impulse control problems are a means of regulating one’s internal self-state. Contrary to some characterizations of the disorder, there was no evidence to suggest that alterations of identity coherence led to an exaggerated emotional response or disturbed interpersonal behavior. This finding is consistent with a number of studies examining affective reactivity to emotion induction procedures, interpersonal stimuli, and now alterations in identity coherence indicating that BPD is better characterized by severe, trait negative affect valence compared to healthy controls rather than hyper-reactivity. Moreover, the failure of interpersonal behavior to vary as a function of borderline personality status or experimental task type indicates the importance of dynamic influences during interactions as potential sources for variability in behavior. Although further research is needed to clarify the mechanisms linking identity, affective dysregulation, and interpersonal behavior; psychosocial interventions aimed at maintaining and developing a stable sense of identity may be beneficial for reducing the impulsive behaviors in BPD, which are potentially most critical for establishing the patient’s safety.

Objective: Primarily, to determine if affective Theory of Mind (ToM) decoding differs between patients with bipolar disorder who are experiencing mania, euthymia, or depression. Secondarily, to determine if a bias in ToM in patients experiencing different affective episodes is related to a positive, negative, or neutral valence of the target. Finally, to determine if mental state decoding is related to the severity of depressive, manic, or anxious symptoms Methods: A prospective, cross-sectional, study of ToM in patients with bipolar disorder experiencing mania (n = 14), depression (n = 25), or euthymia (n = 20), using the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task” (Eyes Task) and the Animal Task developed to control for nonsocial response demands of the Eyes Task. Measures of depressive and anxious symptoms were taken using self-report scales. Interview measures of depressive and manic symptoms were also conducted. A review of patient records was conducted to collect information regarding medications, and course of illness variables. Results: Patients experiencing mania were significantly impaired in mental state decoding compared to euthymic and depressed patients with bipolar disorder. No significant difference was observed between the depressed and euthymic groups. These relationships were maintained when controlling for age of illness onset and Animal Task accuracy. No effect of valence was found. Manic symptom severity was negatively correlated to Animal Task accuracy but no other relationships between Eyes and Animal Tasks and the severity of manic, depressive, or anxious symptoms were found. Group differences in Eyes Task performance were not due to differences in demographics, axis I comorbidities, history of psychosis, or course of illness measures. Limitations: The sample was too small to assess differences between acutely and chronically ill patients. There was no assessment of neurocognition or intelligence using tasks previously validated with manic patients. Conclusions: Patients with bipolar disorder experiencing mania were significantly impaired in mental state decoding compared to patients who were depressed or euthymic. The deficit in ToM decoding in manic patients independent of indicators of illness severity may be indicative of qualitative differences in interpersonal dysfunction between mania, depression, and euthymia in patients with bipolar disorder. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-02-10 13:18:17.667

Stigma is one of the key barriers to mental health services and there has been growing efforts to develop anti-stigma programs. However, little research has been done on quantifying experiences of stigma and their psychosocial impacts in the perspectives of those that suffer from mental illnesses. It is essential to develop an instrument that quantifies the extent and impact of stigma. Therefore, we conducted a study to field-test The Inventory of Stigmatizing Experiences and measure the difference in perceived stigma and its psychosocial impacts on Korean and Canadian patients with Depression and Bipolar disorders. A cross-sectional comparison study was conducted. Data collection took place at tertiary care hospitals located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and Seoul, South Korea. In total, 214 Canadian and 51 Korean individuals with depression and bipolar disorder participated. Canadian participants reported significantly higher experience with stigma (p << 0.05) and its impact (p << 0.05) compared to Korean participants. Moreover, patients with bipolar disorder had significantly higher scores on both stigma experience and impact compared to patients with depression (p << 0.05). However, the diagnosis status was not a significant factor in the linear regression analyses, whereas nationality remained as a strong predictor of stigma. Age of symptom onset was also a strong predictor for both stigma experience and stigma impact. Marital status was also a significant factor for stigma impact. Both subscales of the inventory (the stigma experiences scale and the stigma impact scale) were highly reliable, with reliability coefficients of 0.81 and 0.93, respectively. In conclusion, there seems to be higher level of stigma and impact in the Canadian population compared to the Korean population. In addition, bipolar disorder patients may experience more stigma and higher impact compared to patients with depression. These differences in stigma experience and its impact in different populations (by nationality and diagnosis) suggest the need to develop more tailored anti-stigma programs. The Inventory of Stigmatizing Experiences is a highly reliable instrument. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-17 12:23:14.762

This thesis reports on two studies which examined possible inhibitory deficits in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as the children's response to reinforcement contingencies. In the first study, a go/no-go discrimination learning task developed by Newman, Widom, and Nathan (1985) was used to investigate the effects of reward and response costs on the ability of ADHD and normal children to learn to respond to some stimuli and inhibit responding to others. Children were tested on four conditions involving different combinations of rewards and response costs. ADHD children showed poorer inhibitory control compared to control children across the four conditions, implicating a generalized inhibitory deficit. Study 2 assessed the psychophysiological responses of ADHD and control children to reward and the termination of reward during a repetitive motor task. Based on Gray's (1982, 1987a, 1987b) psychobiological model, Fowles (1980, 1988) suggested that heart rate increases during reward are reflective of activity in Gray's hypothesized behavioral activation system, while skin conductance increases when reward is removed are reflective of activity in his behavioral inhibition system. Compared to control children, ADHD children failed to show the expected increase in skin conductance during extinction, implicating a deficit in their behavioral inhibition system. In addition, ADHD children showed faster heart rate habituation to reward which, together with other evidence discussed, suggests that they also have behavioral activation abnormalities. This, the findings from the two studies provide strong evidence that ADHD children have both generalized inhibitory deficits and an abnormal response to rewards which, in some situations, may exacerbate their poor inhibition.