SOCIAL ASPECTS OF DEVELOPING AND SUSTAINING VOLUNTARILY REDUCED CONSUMPTION ACTIVITY IN NEW YORK CITY
Year of Dissertation:
2012
This dissertation examines the social aspects of voluntarily reduced consumption activity using the principles of cultural historical activity theory. Voluntarily buying less is viewed as ongoing interactive social process that is initiated and sustained as individuals engage with their surroundings. Data was collected from 320 online survey respondents living in the New York City Metro area, followed by a purposeful sampling of 24 participants for in-person, follow up interviews. Interviews revealed the social contextual influences on initiating voluntarily reduced consumption activity. For example, family experiences, personal life changes, and historical events played a role in individuals' choice to voluntarily buy less.
PROBLEM SOLVING THROUGH TOOL USE IN ASIAN ELEPHANTS
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Spontaneous problem solving without evident trial and error behavior has been referred to as insight. Surprisingly, elephants, thought to be highly intelligent, have failed to exhibit insightful problem solving in previous cognitive studies. I conducted ten experiments investigating problem solving through tool use on three Asian elephants. Experiment 1 was designed to test means-end recognition. Trays with food placed on one end were positioned outside the bars of the elephants' stalls. Each of the elephants pulled the tray, showing understanding of the means-end relationship. In Experiments 2 and 3, I tested if elephants would use sticks as tools to reach food trays placed just beyond their trunk reach or use sticks to knock out-of-reach fruit from an artificial tree. None of the elephants employed sticks to accomplish either task. A chain pulling problem to attain food through a multi-step solution was presented in Experiment 4. All elephants solved the problem and one completed the task immediately, suggesting insightful problem solving. In Experiment 5, I investigated if elephants, when presented with different types of potential tools, a movable platform and sticks, would show tool use to reach food suspended overhead, out-of-reach. Without prior trial and error behavior, a 7-year-old male showed spontaneous problem solving by moving a large plastic cube, on which he stood, to acquire the food. In Experiments 6-8, I tested if the elephant would generalize this ability to other positions and objects, which he demonstrated. In Experiment 9, I examined if tool use with sticks differed in relation to suspended food or an object. No difference was found. Social learning was tested in Experiment 10 by having one elephant demonstrate the solution to a tool use problem while a second elephant observed. No social learning was exhibited. The elephant's behavior in experiments 5-8 was consistent with the definition of insightful problem solving. Previous failures to demonstrate this ability in elephants may have resulted not from a lack of cognitive ability but from the presentation of tasks requiring trunk-held sticks as potential tools, thereby interfering with the trunk's use as a sensory organ to locate the targeted food.
DIFFERENTIAL RELATIONSHIPS OF MISMATCH NEGATIVITY AND VISUAL P1 DEFICITS TO PREMORBID CHARACTERISTICS AND FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME IN SCHIZOPHRENIA
Year of Dissertation:
2013
Abstract
Motor Control Mechanisms of Whisking in Rat
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Rhythmic movements underlie a large number of critically important motor behaviors. How different levels of neural organization and control interact to produce these movements, then, is a central question in motor control. Using the whisker system in rat we investigate the role played by the motor cortex, a key structure in the generation of complex movements, in the control of whisking. We begin by measuring the movements of the whiskers and the mastacial pad, controlled by the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles, respectively, to clarify the interaction of these two components in the organization of whisking. We find that though both contribute to movement kinematics, the whisker alone makes a relatively larger contribution. We next investigate the relationship between local field potential activity and exploratory whisking and find that brief increases in vMCx activity precede both whisking onset and changes in whisking patterns. Lastly, we investigate the relationship between unit activity in the rhythmic subregion of vMCx and whisking in head-fixed rats engaged in one of two behavioral tasks. We find that spike rate is most often correlated with whisking amplitude/velocity, and that this relationship is independent of behavioral context. We also find occurrences of significant coherence between whisker movements and unit activity, which vary with behavioral task. These results suggest that, though the motor pattern underlying whisking is generated subcortically, vMCx plays a role in both initiating movement and modulating kinematic properties of whisking.
THE IMPACT OF MOOD DISORDERS ON COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN UNDERGOING TREATMENT FOR EARLY-STAGE BREAST CANCER
Year of Dissertation:
2010
PURPOSE: Many post-menopausal women who are treated for early-stage breast cancer report experiencing cognitive difficulties following adjuvant chemotherapy. However, the generalizability of the results of a number of studies that have attempted to document the association between adjuvant chemotherapy and cognitive dysfunction has been limited due to inconsistencies in the investigative methods used, thus introducing the possibility that other factors are contributing to reports of cognitive problems. The current study examines the possibility that a history of mood disorders in post-menopausal breast cancer patients predisposes them to cognitive difficulties following adjuvant treatment. METHODS: Sixty-five postmenopausal women with non-metastatic breast cancer were administered the SCID-I before adjuvant therapy (Time 1) to determine psychiatric status. Thirty women were found to have a history of mood disorder, while thirty-one women were found to have no history of mood disorder. Participants were administered neuropsychological tests before adjuvant therapy (Time 1), six months after treatment (Time 2), and at a final six-month follow-up (Time 3). Cognitive domains measured included motor, language, attention/concentration/working memory, visuospatial, memory (verbal and visual). RESULTS: Group comparisons found significant differences in several domains at Time 1 (attention) and Time 2 (visual spatial and visual memory), but in each case the mood disorder group means were higher than the group means of the non-mood disorder group. No significant results were found at Time 3. CONCLUSION: In postmenopausal women, a history of mood disorder was associated with higher performance in selected cognitive domains. Reasons for these paradoxical results are explored and suggestions for future research are proposed.
Stigma, Intimacy, and Well-Being: A Personality and Social Structures Approach
Year of Dissertation:
2009
Advisor:
Suzanne Ouellette
There is widespread belief that intimacy and romantic interpersonal relationships are not as meaningful for individuals in or pursuing same-sex relationships as they are for heterosexual individuals. These unfounded stereotypes and assumptions create social stressors in the form of macrosocial and interpersonal stigmatization in lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals' lives. Thus far, social scientists have established general negative associations between experiences of stigmatization and relationship quality among LGB individuals. However, little is known about the processes through which stigma becomes meaningful in the lives of LGB individuals and its resulting impact on their experiences of intimacy and psychological well-being. This dissertation addressed two primary aims: (a) to systematically investigate similarities and differences in LGB and heterosexual individuals' meanings and experiences of intimacy; and (b) to understand the mechanisms that link stigma-related processes to LGB individuals' lived experiences of intimacy and the resulting implications for their relational and psychological well-being. Two mixed-method studies using purposive national online samples addressed these aims. The results of both studies demonstrated that intimacy was experienced as equally meaningful among LGB and heterosexual individuals; however, LGB individuals experienced significantly more adversity in the form of stigma-related processes associated with intimacy compared to heterosexuals. Both studies showed that stigma-related processes were negatively associated with LGBs' experiences of intimacy, relationship quality, and psychological well-being. These associations were partially mediated by the meaningfulness LGBs attributed to their pursuits and experiences of intimacy. Study 2 further demonstrated that individuals in same-sex couples make meaning of their experiences of stigma and intimacy via multiple narrative strategies. Some of these strategies reinforced the negative impact of stigmatization on intimacy, while others allowed individuals to cope with, resist, and overcome stigma-related processes. These findings bolster existing research on stigma and intimacy among LGB individuals. They also challenge researchers to broaden their approaches to address the multiple pathways and mechanisms through which stigma impacts the lives of marginalized individuals. Furthermore, this dissertation demonstrates the utility of a personality and social structures approach to the study of stigma, thereby highlighting important implications for intervention and policy reform.
Therapists' Use of their Visual Images in Therapy
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Therapists frequently experience a spontaneous appearance of a picture or sequence of pictures in their minds, while listening to their patients; in this research project I refer to these experiences as Therapists' Visual Images. The roles that these visual images play in the process of therapy may vary between different therapists, patients, and contexts. The goal of this study is to expand the theoretical understanding of this phenomenon that is common among therapists, but had not yet been studied using a controlled research. This study will examine the scope of the use of visual images that therapists experience during sessions and the processes that lead to these various uses of the image.
Getting into character: Cultivating identities in a teen-theatre peer-education program
Year of Dissertation:
2011
This study investigated the role of community theatre participation on adolescent and young adult identity development. The theatre program, known as The SOURCE, focuses on sex-education through a peer-education model. The experiences of young adults, who are now aged 18-34, were examined through interviews (N=20), identity maps (N=9), and a survey (N=64) in order to understand how participation in this group influenced their development. While much of the literature documents the successes of such programs while youth participate, few document the longer-term impacts of such participation (Saldaña, McCammon, Omasta, & Hines, 2011). Data reveal how such involvement informed the youths' developing social and interpersonal lives, and their broader understanding of self.
Towards a new model of intervention with Latino families surviving domestic violence
Author:
Claudia Garcia-Leeds
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Attempts to understand and explain domestic violence have traditionally focused on biological, psychological and sociological models. These multi-modal perspectives have not completely succeeded in providing a truly integrated perspective of Latino families struggling with domestic violence, as they often fail to adequately acknowledge the impact of language, poverty, and undocumented status on the survivors' ability to overcome domestic violence. The goal of this study was to attempt to create a more effective treatment model by leveraging the knowledge and skill sets of those who work most closely with these families in crisis: the direct care workers.
The Effects of Prompt Fading and Differential Reinforcement on Selection of Novel Activities by Children with Autism
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Individuals with autism often show limited variability in selecting leisure activities. Repeatedly engaging in only one or a few activities may lead to decreased opportunities for social interaction and leisure skill development. The current study evaluated the effects of prompt fading and differential reinforcement on selection of novel activities (activities which had not yet been chosen during a given session), activity engagement, frequency of activity selection, and trials on which each activity was selected, in three students with autism. Prompting consisted of placing a small sticker dot below activities (or on their pictorial representations) that had already been selected during a session. Sticker size was faded systematically. The results show that the use of prompt fading and differential reinforcement for selecting novel activities increased selection of novel activities. Engagement in the activities selected was initially high for each of the three participants, and remained high throughout the study. Although the frequency of selection for each activity became more similar across activities in the post-baseline conditions for all participants, the activity with the highest average frequency of selection in baseline remained the highest throughout the study for two participants. The third participant equalized his selections so that the activity with the highest frequency of selection in baseline had the same average frequency as two other activities in all post-baseline conditions, with those having the highest overall frequency of selection. With respect to the trials on which each activity was selected, the activity chosen on the first trials in baseline continued to be chosen on the first trials throughout the study for one participant. The remaining two participants did show some shift in the activities chosen on the initial trials. This study then, demonstrates the efficacy of a treatment package in increasing the selection of activities not yet chosen in a session. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to social validity and stimulus control of novel selection behavior.