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Department of Psychological Services
Show moreOnline education has been prevalent for years, but with the spread of the Covid-19, it became the most viable option for students all over the world. Out of these students, an estimated 15-20% of them show signs of what the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes as Specific Learning Disorder (SLD). Students with SLD experience difficulties with learning and using academic skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics. These difficulties are independent of intelligence. Over the past two decades, SLD has also been referred to as dyslexia or a learning disability. While adapting to online instruction could prove difficult for students with SLD, it is also an opportunity to provide them with a more individualized and flexible education. Research about online learning and SLD from before the pandemic led to the identification of best practices for instructing students with SLD during, and possibly after, the pandemic. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to determine whether making accommodations such as asynchronous learning materials, multimedia instruction, and text reading affordances available would lead to an online learning environment that would be advantageous for students with SLD. Research indicates that asynchronous learning, multimedia instruction, and text reading affordances can lead to be better learning for students with SLD. Asynchronous learning materials are materials, such as video recordings of lectures, that students can access outside of designated class times. Multimedia instruction involves presenting information in multiple formats such as images and audio, as opposed to solely text-based learning. Affordances such as adhering to certain recommended fonts and styles of writing can also make text more accessible to students with SLD. None of these supplements to instruction have proved universally helpful to students with SLD. Therefore, it is best to let the students to decide which accommodations are useful and when. Online learning presents a unique opportunity to make these accommodations available and allow students to pick and choose which of these accommodations best assist them.
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Show moreEssential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic face heightened levels of anxiety and depression due to increased work demands, lack of adequate personal protective equipment, fear of contracting the virus, and fear of spreading it to loved ones. This is a time of urgent need for mental health support for workers affected by the pandemic crisis. Clinicians may employ empirically supported interventions derived from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and related therapies. Psychological First Aid, an evidence-based crisis intervention, may be utilized to emphasize basic needs and support, but is intended as an acute disaster intervention. Given that a pandemic is an ongoing and prolonged stressor, additional CBT-informed interventions are likely needed to fully support essential workers during these times. It is recommended that clinicians help essential worker clients meet their basic needs by modifying health and sleep habits where possible and helping them advocate for their needs using interpersonal effectiveness skills. Empathic listening, validation of the crisis at hand, and values clarification can aid the therapeutic relationship, help them feel a renewed sense of purpose and meaning in their careers and with their families, and facilitate behavior change consistent with chosen values. Self-monitoring through a daily diary can help clients focus their thoughts and recognize maladaptive patterns in their thoughts and behaviors. In tandem with these techniques, behavioral activation and coping strategies including relaxation, distress tolerance, and acceptance promote engaging in positive and adaptive activities. Finally, therapists can help clients reduce anxiety related to the pandemic by helping them limit information intake.
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Show moreGamification is the application of game elements such as badges, points, leaderboards, … to a nongame area of activity. The corporate setting has burgeoned in incorporating gamification into areas such as recruitment, training, and marketing with established corporations reported to have success in gamifying their business. However, the current literature report mixed results on whether gamified training could lead to an improvement in performance. This article attempts to summarize the current state of gamified training and its effectiveness by conducting a meta-analysis on the subject. Although an effect size was calculated, the result was unreliable due to a lack of papers meeting our criteria of inclusion for the meta-analysis. This implied a lack of rigorous empirical research methodology on this topic. As gamification becomes more prevalent in training settings, this paper hopes to provide recommendations for future researches in examining the effectiveness of this novel training model.
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Show moreThe process of dating has changed significantly in the past three decades. This has left people, especially young adults, confused, and unsure of what has changed or how to act. This literature review aims to explain the factors that have caused the “dating game” to change in regards to perceptions of sexual attraction, mainly the shift of personality preferences away from evolutionary characteristics, the decrease in conformity in today’s society, and the recent rise of online dating. A brief overview of the timeless evolutionary factors, which have affected attraction for centuries, will set the stage for how these factors are no longer as essential towards sexual attraction in the current time. A thorough comparison of attractive personality preferences from before 1990 and after 1990 will highlight the change that has occurred. Using the same before and after method, a decrease in conformity in today’s society will also be demonstrated regarding preferred personality preferences. Furthermore, the effect of online dating becoming more popular will be explained in its relevance to the change in perceptions of sexual attraction. Finally, the significance of these findings will be analyzed, and advice will be offered to the current generation concerning how to proceed in these perilous times.
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Show moreChallenging communication environments, in which listeners must recognize and comprehend the target speech of interest amongst acoustic background competition, are prevalent in everyday life. Older adults with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), which occurs due to inner ear or neural pathway damage, are known to have significant difficulty hearing in such environments, and especially those with competing background talkers present (such as in noisy restaurants). Previous work in the Speech and Auditory Research (SpAR) laboratory has indicated that older adults with SNHL have deficits using prosodic contour differences (i.e., intonation differences) between target and masker speech to improve target speech recognition, even when using prescriptive amplification (i.e., individualized hearing aid amplification). This study aims to build upon these previous findings and determine whether the inability to take advantage of prosodic contour cues in multi-talker backgrounds for older adults with SNHL is related to reductions in speech audibility. In this project, young adults with normal hearing (HL), or have hearing thresholds within normal limits, were presented with speech that had been processed to match the audibility profile of older adults with SNHL (i.e., speech was presented via a simulated hearing loss program). The younger NH participants were presented with speech that matched the average frequency-dependent audibility of the older adults with SNHL from a previous experiment (Wasiuk et al., 2020). Prosodic contour cues of target and masker speech were systematically manipulated to be flat, normal, or exaggerated. Target speech was presented with two competing talkers in the background (i.e., two-talker maskers). It was hypothesized that a simple loss of audibility, as experienced by older adult listeners with SNHL, can significantly impair a young NH listener’s target speech recognition in a multi-talker environment. This research has important implications for older adults in real-world multi-talker environments, and may contribute to the improvement of hearing aid amplification technology to help those with SNHL communicate more effectively in their everyday lives.
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Show moreHomelessness among persons with severe mental illness (SMI) and co-occurring substance use disorders (SUD) is a prominent social issue in the United States today. Not only do persons with SMI make up a significant portion of the overall homeless population, SUDs make it more difficult for them to recover successfully. Recovery among these populations is multi-faceted, and all aspects of recovery should be accounted for so that this population has the best chance to succeed. There are a number of programs in place that attempt to place persons with SMI and SUD into housing while providing treatment, including Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). PSH uses a Housing First (HF) approach, meaning that treatment and sobriety is not a requirement to get housing. The research shows that HF is largely successful in providing stable housing for these populations, but drop-out rates are still large. Programs need to accommodate for these issues by strengthening the supports already provided, or providing new and improved supports. As of now, there is not enough data to assess how COVID-19 affects the recovery of these populations. Either way, new and improved supports can foster the success of this vulnerable population.
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Show moreNeuroticism is one of the dimensions of the Big Five personality model that measures different personality traits. Individuals who score high on the scale of neuroticism are more likely to experience negative emotions such as anxiety or fear, and these individuals are prone to lacking adaptive coping skills when dealing with stressors (Widiger, 2009). Another method to better appreciate differences in personality is known as the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS). Higher BIS scores are associated with increased sensitivity to punishments and increased experience of negative emotions such as anxiety and guilt (Carver &White, 1994). The relationship between neuroticism and BIS sensitivity was investigated in this study. My hypothesis was that individuals who score higher on neuroticism will also have greater BIS sensitivity. A Pearson correlation was performed using Neuroticism ad BIS data and a significant relationship was uncovered, r(112)=0.68, p<0.001. The hypothesis that high-neuroticism individuals will have more activated BIS is supported by the collected data.
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Show moreSuicide is the third leading cause of death among the adolescent population worldwide. The period of adolescence is a critical time of change and growth, and is especially important in the development of self-esteem. Self-Esteem is defined as the individual’s subjective evaluation of her or his worth as a person. Positive view of the self is generally associated with successful work, relationships, and health. Some factors that may lead to a negative view of the self are stressful life events and changes and relationships. Self-esteem becomes more stable and more difficult to change in adulthood; therefore, it is critical to focus on it in adolescence to prevent negative outcomes later in life. Previous research has shown that low self-esteem is a risk factor in suicidality. In addition, it can lead to other common risk factors such as hopelessness and depression. The Self-Esteem Worksheet was developed to assess self-esteem in an idiographic manner. This scale allows for the participant to express factors related to their personal self-esteem while still allowing analysis in a quantitative manner. The current study aims to answer the questions 1) Do family environment, relationships, school performance, and physical appearance serve as significant indicators of self-esteem? 2) What are the gender differences regarding indicators of self-esteem? 3) What is the impact of substance use on suicidality and self-esteem? This study will analyze a group of adolescent psychiatric patients and their responses to the Self-Esteem worksheet along with other methods regarding self-esteem, depression, and suicidality.
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Show moreThere is an increasing need to accurately and efficiently describe a bilingual child’s dynamic linguistic experience during audiological evaluations. This report documents an approach at qualitatively capturing linguistic exposure and usage information in a time-efficient manner. A well-known pediatric bilingual survey was administered to 83 parents of bilingual children, obtaining information on the child’s exposure (input) to and usage (output) of Spanish and English on an hourly basis (17 time frames) during a typical weekday and weekend. Parents also completed a questionnaire that obtains demographic information of the child and family, parent-rated language proficiency of the child, and a family language history profile. A factor analysis, utilizing three time intervals, indicated that condensing the full-length survey’s 17 time frames to three time frames accounts for > 74% of the variation in language exposure and usage information. Data suggest that there is potential to condense the full-day diary approach (17 time frames) to a more time efficient method of collecting data from only three time intervals while capturing similar valuable linguistic information providing information to the audiology clinician about the dynamic pediatric bilingual linguistic experience. Next steps will require data collection for the full-length hour-by-hour survey and for the condensed time intervals within the same cohort of children. These data are necessary to confirm a strong correlation between the language exposure and usage information of the two approaches.
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