Exploring how care home staff manage responsive behaviours, associated with dementia, in care homes in Ireland, during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: Care home residents with dementia often exhibit responsive behaviours including agitation, aggression and wandering. Psychotropic drugs are often prescribed to manage responsive behaviours but contravene guidance as they increase the risk of serious adverse events and death in people with dementia. Aim: This thesis aims to understand how care home staff manage responsive behaviours to identify the barriers and facilitators to implementing a non-pharmacological approach to behaviour management. Methods: This thesis was underpinned by the transformative paradigm and critical theory. A review of qualitative studies was conducted to synthesise understanding of the facilitators or barriers to implementing non-pharmacological strategies to behaviour management (PROSPERO protocol registration CRD42020165948). The findings from the review, in addition to a qualitative survey and patient and public Involvement informed the design of the qualitative interview study to understand how responsive behaviours are managed by care home staff in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) prior to, and during the Covid-19 pandemic. In total, 25 interviews were conducted with staff from 21 care homes across Ireland. Reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data was informed by Braun and Clarke (2019). All participants provided written informed consent. Ethical approval was obtained from Lancaster University. Findings: The findings from the systematic review and qualitative study found the barriers to taking a non-pharmacological approach to manage responsive behaviours included inadequate staff training and multidisciplinary collaboration. The qualitative study extends current knowledge by showing that a power hierarchy exists between healthcare assistants and nurses that posed a barrier to taking a non-pharmacological approach to behaviour management. Facilitators to taking a non-pharmacological approach included effective leadership and family involvement in resident care. Conclusion: This thesis extends knowledge by conceptualising how responsive behaviours are managed using both pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to identify the facilitators and barriers to implementing non-pharmacological strategies to behaviour management. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Preservice Music Educators' Perceptions of Online Synchronous Fieldwork: A Case Study

The purpose of this instrumental case study was to examine preservice music educators' perceptions of teaching voice lessons to elementary and secondary students during an online synchronous fieldwork experience. I used Garrison et al.'s Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to analyze the participants' perceptions of cognitive presence (i.e., triggering events, exploration, integration, and resolution), social presence (i.e., emotional expression, open communication, and group cohesion), and teaching presence (i.e., structure and design of the fieldwork experience). During initial lessons, participants cited mostly triggering events and exploration, which occurred alongside indicators of social presence. Participants cited technological challenges associated with online synchronous learning (i.e., teaching presence) may have hindered instances of integration and resolution. Music teacher educators may consider using the CoI framework to structure collaborative and supportive online synchronous fieldwork experiences.

The long-term impact of COVID-19: Unveiling the relationship between cognition and quality of life

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between a number of factors including cognitive performance and quality of life (QOL), premorbid Verbal IQ and QOL, cognitive performance and premorbid Verbal IQ, and length of time since COVID-19 diagnosis and QOL. In addition, to evaluate whether cognitive performance and premorbid Verbal IQ predict QOL based on perception of cognitive function or one's well-being in a group of non-hospitalized individuals at least 12 weeks post COVID-19 diagnosis.Twenty-three participants completed the remote study protocol procedures. The protocol consisted of the following tasks: 1. a participant intake form, 2. the Immediate Post Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) Version 4, 3. the Lexical Orthographic Familiarity Test (LOFT), 4. a QOL measure based on emotional health (Neuro-QOL Item Bank v1.0: Positive Affect and Well-Being), and one based on cognitive health (Neuro-QOL Item Bank v2.0: Cognitive Function). The main outcome variables included: the ImPACT Two-Factor Memory and Speed Composites, the LOFT raw score, and T-scores from each QOL measure. A multiple linear regression was used to determine the effect of the Speed Composite from the ImPACT and the LOFT raw score on outcomes from each measure of QOL. A multiple linear regression was also used to determine the effect of the Memory Composite from the ImPACT and the LOFT raw score on outcomes from each measure of QOL. Pearson's correlations were used to determine the relationship between the following: each QOL measure and both the Memory Composite and Speed Composite from the ImPACT, each QOL measure and the LOFT raw score, the LOFT raw score and both the Memory Composite and Speed Composite from the ImPACT, and each QOL measure and days since COVID-19 diagnosis. Findings revealed small-medium positive relationships between cognition and QOL, a small positive relationship with QOL in the cognitive domain and premorbid Verbal IQ, a small positive relationship between premorbid Verbal IQ and objective memory performance, and a small negative relationship between QOL in the emotional domain and length of time since COVID-19 diagnosis. A majority of the relationships lacked statistical significance. Premorbid Verbal IQ and cognitive performance measured via Speed Composite scores, with outliers included in analysis, predicted QOL in the cognitive domain. No additional predictor models for QOL reached significance. Results must be interpreted with caution given the small sample size (n = 23).Relationships between outcome variables varied based on the QOL measure used and the cognitive area assessed. Given findings, clinicians are encouraged to include a measure of speed performance (i.e., reaction time) when assessing cognitive function in individuals following COVID-19 despite hospitalization status. In addition, providing QOL measures to patients presenting with cognitive deficits may reveal functional impairments. Additional research is needed to better understand the long-term impact of COVID-19 on cognition and QOL. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Inertia in cognitive processes: the case of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Developments in factor analysis (Spearman in Am J Psychol 15:201-292, 1904); Thurstone in Multiple factor analysis, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1947), multidimensional scaling (Torgerson in Theory and methods of scaling, Wiley Hoboken, New Jersey, 1958; Young and Householder in Psychometrika, 3:19-22, 1938), the Galileo model (Woelfel and Fink in The measurement of communication processes: galileo theory and method, Academic Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1980), and, more recently, in computer science, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, network analysis and other disciplines (Woelfel in Qual Quant 54:263-278, 2020) have shown that human cognitive and cultural beliefs and attitudes can be modeled as movement through a high-dimensional non-Euclidean space. This article demonstrates the theoretical and methodological contribution that multidimensional scaling makes to understand attitude change associated with the COVID-19 vaccine.

Can psychological distress account for the associations between COVID-19 vaccination acceptance and socio-economic vulnerability?

Socially disadvantaged individuals and communities consistently showed lower COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. We aimed to examine the psychological mechanisms that could explain such vaccination disparities. This study used data from serial population-based surveys conducted since the COVID-19 vaccination programme being launched in Hong Kong (N = 28,734). We first assessed the correlations of community-level and individual-level social vulnerability with COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was then conducted to test whether psychological distress measured by PHQ-4 can account for the associations between participants' socio-economic vulnerability and COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. The third part analysis examined whether perceived negativity of vaccine-related news and affect towards COVID-19 vaccines accounted for the association between psychological distress and COVID-19 vaccination. Communities with higher social vulnerability scores and participants who had more vulnerable socio-economic status showed lower COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. Individuals with more vulnerable socio-economic status reported higher psychological distress, which lowered COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. Furthermore, higher psychological distress was associated with lower vaccination acceptance through its psychological mechanisms of processing vaccine-related information. We proposed a renewed focus on tackling psychological distress rather than merely increasing vaccine accessibility in more socio-economic-disadvantaged groups for promoting COVID-19 vaccination acceptance.

The effects of using mental health benefits in the workplace

The number of companies that offer mental health benefits increased after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is limited research examining the impact of benefit usage on employees in the workplace. In this experiment, the effects of benefit usage were investigated using a 2 (Mental Health Counselor Utilization: not utilized or utilized) x 2 (Mental Health Day Utilization: not utilized or utilized) x 2 (Social Norms: absent or present) x 2 (Employee Gender: female or male) fully crossed factorial design. A total of 523 individuals with supervisory experience were randomly assigned to read one of sixteen descriptions of a fictional male or female employee who either did or did not make use of mental health benefits in a work setting where such usage was either normative or unknown. Participants then evaluated the employee they read about. This study examined the role of perceived competence as a mechanism to explain the relationship between mental health benefit utilization and employee evaluation. In addition, three moderators were tested to determine whether the effect of benefit usage varies depending on: Prejudice toward People with Mental Illness (PPMI);norms for mental health benefit usage;and the employee's gender. Of the two mental health benefits evaluated, only counselor utilization had significant outcomes. Under some circumstances the mediating role of Perceived Competence and the moderating effects of PPMI and Employee Gender on Employee Evaluation were significant. Male employees were penalized more harshly than their female counterparts for using the counselor benefit. The negative effect of counselor usage was more pronounced when evaluators were high in PPMI. Overall, this study suggests that the effect of utilization varies depending on what kind of mental health benefit is used, characteristics of the evaluator, and characteristics of the employee being evaluated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The impact of neurocognitive impairment on daily life functioning in older adults

The MMSE is one of the most widely used in-person cognitive screeners to assess global cognitive impairment (Folstein, 1975;Fong et al., 2009). The TICS, which is a cognitive screener that can be administered over the telephone, has been found to be highly correlated with the MMSE (Brandt et al., 1988). There is a lack of research comparing the MMSE and TICS ability to predict daily life functioning in older adults with varying degrees of cognitive abilities. Thus, this study examined the utility of the TICS-40 and MMSE to predict daily life functioning at different levels of cognitive impairment (mild cognitive impairment and dementia). Taken from the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study (Plassman et al., 2007), a sample of 157 participants over the age of 70 with mild cognitive impairment or dementia were administered a battery of surveys and tests that included the MMSE, the TICS-40, the index of activities of daily living (ADLs), and the measure of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs, Lawton & Brody, 1969). The TICS and MMSE similarly predicted daily life functioning in the total sample and MCI group (n = 133). The MMSE was a better predictor in the dementia group (n = 24) than in the MCI group. Higher scores on both screeners predicted problems with telephone use and medication management in the MCI group. In the dementia group, higher MMSE scores showed marginal support for fewer problems with telephone use and medication management, while higher TICS scores predicted fewer problems with medication management. Investing resources in the development and knowledge of cognitive screeners and procedures for remote administration would benefit older adults. Regularly screening older adults in their homes may lead to earlier detection of decline, better treatment, allocation of more appropriate resources, and improvement in quality of life for older adults who are unable to meet with clinicians in an in-person setting due to illness such as COVID-19, physical disability, or those living in rural areas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The role of human support and online depression prevention for adolescents

Depression is a mental health disorder that is impacting youth within the United States at high rates. It is estimated that 3.2 million youth in the United States have experienced at least one major depressive episode. The rate of depression in youth is increasing over time. Depression poses a high risk to youth for general poorer life outcomes such as worse academic performance, suicidal behavior, physical health problems, and comorbid mental health problems. Depression presents a significant burden to society with adverse financial implications and substantial costs to the public health sector. It is imperative to direct resources and research into depression prevention efforts. Some prevention efforts have included online programs. CATCH-IT (Competent Adulthood Transition with Cognitive Behavioral Humanistic and Interpersonal Training) is an internet-based depression prevention program for adolescents that has shown to reduce depression in subsyndromal youth (Van Voorhees, Ellis, et al., 2005;Van Voorhees, Paunesku, et al., 2008). Coupled with the Internet program, participants received human support measures (e.g., contacts, motivational interviews) to supplement the online depression prevention program. However, research on the effect of human support on engagement and depressive clinical outcomes in youth has produced mixed results when looking at the effects over time. This study is a secondary analysis that seeks to understand how human support impacts the relationship between the efficacy of CATCH-IT on overall level of engagement with the intervention and clinical depression scores. Given the emerging utilization of telemental health and digital tools to provide treatment in the context of COVID-19, behavioral intervention technologies (BITs) targeting adolescent depression may become a therapeutic forefront to the peri- and post-pandemic period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Improving elementary students social-emotional health through an after-school mentorship physical activity program

Children's poor social-emotional functioning has been an increasing concern prior to and amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Childhood and adolescence are critical stages of life where they acquire key cognitive and social-emotional skills that shape their future mental health. When a student's social-emotional health suffers, so do their relationships, academics, and physical health. The theory of improvement hypothesized that students' social-emotional health can be improved via fostering trusting relationships, boosting self-esteem, and promoting healthy role models and positive adult-child relationships. To address the problem of practice, the primary investigator implemented a social-emotional learning (SEL)-infused, 8-week physical activity after-school program with a strong mentor/role model component. The following inquiry questions guided this dissertation in practice project: 1) How does students' social-emotional health change after participating the after-school social-emotional learning-infused physical activity program? And 2) What are faculty, staff, and parent perceptions of the impact of a social-emotional learninginfused physical activity program on third grade students? Measures included time sample observations during the program of n=7 at-risk students with behavioral or emotional challenges, field notes compiled by the primary investigator throughout the program, and focus groups with key stakeholders (i.e., n=8 teachers, n=8 parents, and n=12 mentors) conducted post-program. The patterns in changes of student behavior over time were reported as case-study narratives for each observed student. Focus group transcripts and field notes were coded using content analysis v method and analyzed for key categories and themes. Overall, students' time sample data showed positive improvements in social-emotional health as well as on-task behavior. Three themes were identified in the qualitative data, including: 1) Growing and thriving together: benefits of the afterschool program 2) Trial and error: reflecting on what went well and didn't go well in the program and 3) Onward and upward: Fine tuning the program for the future. This program demonstrated initial success for improvements in 3rd grade children's social-emotional health. Implications for practice include improved training for all stakeholders in social-emotional learning, inclusion of mentorship, and additional administrative buy-in, including logistical support and funding. Future research can investigate the effect on mentor and student overall mental health and academic achievement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The effect of a brief mindfulness intervention on cognitive distortions: A microtrial exploring a potential mechanism for the reduction of depressive symptoms

Despite the greater need to treat and prevent depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how mindfulness interventions yield such results. This study used a microtrial design to explore whether a reduction in cognitive distortions could be the mechanism through which mindfulness produces improvements in depressive symptoms. The study also used a dismantling model to compare the effects of the physical practice and cognitive components of an online mindfulness intervention on cognitive distortions. It was hypothesized that the physical practice component, the cognitive component, and the interaction of the two would produce greater reductions in cognitive distortions than conditions without these components. The data did not support these hypotheses, but did establish that cognitive distortions can change after a short period of time.There was no evidence of differences in cognitive distortions based on the presence or absence of the physical practice component. Exploratory data analysis found that, from baseline to post-intervention, participants who received the physical practice component experienced a decrease in mindfulness, while those who did not experienced an increase in mindfulness. Taken together, these results can be explained by disproportionate lack of compliance with the physical practice component. Given the online administration, participants may have been less likely to engage with the physical practice component given that it involved more active participation and may have instead engaged in multi-tasking which reduced their present-moment awareness. Participants who received the cognitive component experienced greater increases in cognitive distortions from baseline to post-intervention as compared to those who did not receive the cognitive component. Exploratory data analysis found that participants who were higher in cognitive distortions pre-test who received the cognitive component showed greater increases in cognitive distortions from baseline to post-intervention as compared to those who did not receive the cognitive component. The focus on metacognition may have increased awareness of existing cognitive distortions or caused more cognitive distortions through self-recrimination after becoming aware of negative thought patterns. This may have been especially true among individuals with higher cognitive distortions at baseline. Participants who received both the physical practice and cognitive components showed smaller increases on self-esteem IAT scores from baseline to post-intervention, as compared to those in the cognitive condition and physical practice condition. These results could indicate detrimental effects from the extra cognitive instructions in the full intervention condition, amounting to an extended dose of the cognitive component. Future research should explore the effects of the cognitive component after multiple sessions. When individuals first engage in metacognition, a period of self-judgment may precede any long-term improvements. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Attitude embeddedness and attitude consistency: Major factors in conceptualizing attitude properties

There were two broad goals pertaining to attitude strength that were explored in this dissertation. First, research and theory have suggested that many of the traditionally examined subjective attitude properties are distinct constructs. Yet, many attitude properties conceptually overlap with one another. In order to better understand the landscape of attitude properties, I examined the factor analytic structure of a comprehensive set of attitude strength antecedents. Participants reported attitudes toward the topic of GMOs (Study 1) or toward a topic they identified as important to them (Studies 2-6) and various subjective properties of their attitudes. In Studies 1-3, exploratory factor analyses revealed that the various strength antecedents reflected a two-factor structure that differentiated properties relating to an attitude's embeddedness in one's core values and identity from properties reflecting a consistency or entrenchment in an attitude. In Studies 4-6, confirmatory factor analyses determined that, in addition to the over-arching two-factor structure, including 'minor factors' reflecting each attitude property further improved model fit (see Appendix F for a summary of the indices of fit for each study). I therefore propose a hybrid model, wherein the various attitude properties form an over-arching two-factor structure in which each major factor includes additional 'minor' constructs. Across studies, moral basis loaded highly on an embeddedness factor along with values basis (all studies), importance (Studies 4-6), affective and cognitive meta-bases (Studies 5-6), self-definition, and subjective attitude strength (Study 6). The consistency factor was composed of subjective ambivalence (all studies), correctness, clarity (Studies 1-4), attitude-relevant knowledge (Studies 4-6), and certainty (Studies 5-6).The second goal of this dissertation was to understand, given the factor structure of the subjective attitude properties, which behavioral outcomes are better predicted by embeddedness versus consistency. I took an exploratory approach examining a variety of different behavioral domains, and found that attitude embeddedness (vs. consistency) predicted an increased attempt to shape one's environment by selectively exposing oneself to those who agree with one's position (Studies 4 and 7) and selectively exposing oneself to more biased news sources (Study 8). Attitude consistency (vs. embeddedness), on the other hand, better predicted the strength of relation between self-isolation attitudes and behaviors in the context of COVID-19 (Studies 9-10). I also examined the ability of each attitude feature to predict advocacy intentions (Studies 3-6). Embeddedness and consistency (as latent variables) each independently predicted advocacy intentions. It seemed that one way to understand these patterns would be that embeddedness plays a larger role when attitudes might serve value-expressive or social identify functions, whereas consistency might play a larger role when attitudes serve primarily utilitarian functions. Study 11 put that possibility to a confirmatory test, finding that in different contexts different attitude properties better predicted advocacy outcomes (Study 11). In particular, attitude embeddedness increased advocacy intentions for attitudes that served a social identity function, whereas attitude consistency increased advocacy intentions for attitudes that served a utilitarian function. Taken together, this work helps us to understand how attitude properties relate and the contexts under which different classes of attitude properties predict different outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

What matters when lectures move online? Measuring the impact of fluency, modality, and feedback on students' metacognitive judgments and learning

Due to precautions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, many courses were forced to shift online, thus quickly increasing the prevalence of online courses and video-recorded lectures. Recent data on student learning indicate that student engagement suffers when courses are delivered virtually;anecdotally, this finding is an agreement with instructors' experiences. Perhaps the decrease in student engagement could be due to their involvement in other activities while they "attend" lectures online (e.g., doing dishes, folding laundry). In three experiments, I evaluated the impact of various factors that could be influencing learning online-specifically, I manipulated lecturer fluency, information modality, and feedback and measured their effect on students' metacognitive judgments and actual learning performance. All experiments were conducted online. In Experiment 1, lecturer fluency (fluent or disfluent) and information modality (audio or video) were manipulated in a repeated measures design (Time 1 and Time 2). Students in the fluent lecturer conditions not only reported higher judgments of learning (JOLs) but also performed better on a measure of actual learning compared to those in the disfluent lecturer conditions. Additionally, students performed better when they listened to the lectures rather than viewed them (i.e., an audio superiority effect was observed). Further, student-participants' reported lower JOLs and exhibited higher learning performance at Time 2 (versus Time 1). Therefore, Experiment 2 aimed to further explore the impact of instructional modality (replicating elements of Experiment 1) in addition to feedback. Participants were provided false positive feedback, false negative feedback or were not provided any feedback after being presented a video or audio lecture. As in Experiment 1, JOLs decreased while actual learning performance increased at Time 2. Additionally, there was a significant effect of false feedback on participants' JOLs. Participants that received false negative feedback demonstrated lower JOLs at Time 2 than those that did not receive any feedback. However, unlike Experiment 1, there were no significant effects of modality on JOLs or learning performance. I next sought to investigate how feedback would impact study choice. Thus, Experiment 3 was a replication of Experiment 2, but participants were asked whether they wanted to restudy the lecture material prior to taking a test at both Time 1 and Time 2 (with feedback only preceding their Time 2 choice). While there were no significant main effects of the manipulated variables (i.e., modality or feedback), participants that chose to restudy the materials showed increased learning performance compared to those that chose not to restudy. The findings from these three experiments have important implications for online learning. For instance, feedback might be ineffective in improving students' learning unless it is individually tailored and concrete. The results also indicate that courses should be designed such that the same test format is administered consistently. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Occupational stress and cognitive processes among teachers in the COVID-19 pandemic

Education is an area directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many teachers started to have new work demands, which can be perceived as stressful variables. This study aimed at analyzing the relationship between cognitive planning and occupational stress among teachers from Distrito Federal, in the COVID-19 pandemic context. This is a correlational and quantitative study, whose variables are cognitive planning, occupational stress and cognitive failures. Data collection was performed electronically with 29 adults aged between 30 and 49 years old, by applying the Cognitive Planning Scale, the Work-related Stress Scale and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire. The analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, parametric and non-parametric tests and correlations. The results indicated that there was no significant relationship between cognitive planning and occupational stress. In addition, the study contributed to the discussion of the effects of the pandemic on basic education professionals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Portuguese) A educacao e uma area diretamente afetada pela pandemia da COVID-19. Muitos professores passaram a ter novas exigencias de trabalho, que podem ser percebidas como variaveis estressoras. Este estudo teve por objetivo analisar a relacao entre planejamento cognitivo e estresse ocupacional de professores do Distrito Federal no contexto da pandemia da COVID-19. Trata-se de um estudo correlacional, quantitativo, tendo como variaveis planejamento cognitivo, estresse ocupacional e falhas cognitivas. A coleta de dados foi realizada eletronicamente, com 29 adultos entre 30 e 49 anos, por meio da aplicacao da Escala de Planejamento Cognitivo, da Escala de Estresse no Trabalho e do Questionario de Falhas Cognitivas. A analise foi conduzida por meio de estatisticas descritivas, testes parametricos e nao parametricos e correlacoes. Os resultados indicaram que nao houve relacao significativa entre planejamento cognitivo e estresse ocupacional. Ademais, o estudo contribui para a discussao dos efeitos da pandemia nos profissionais de Educacao Basica. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Spanish) La educacion es un area directamente afectada por la pandemia COVID-19. Los profesores empezaron a tener nuevas demandas laborales que pueden percibirse como variables estresantes. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar la relacion entre planificacion cognitiva y estres ocupacional entre profesores del Distrito Federal, en el contexto de la pandemia COVID-19. Se trata de un estudio cuantitativo y correlacional, cuyas variables son la planificacion cognitiva, el estres laboral y las fallas cognitivas. La recoleccion de datos se realizo en forma electronica con 29 adultos de 30 a 49 anos de edad, mediante la Escala de Planificacion Cognitiva, la Escala de Estres Laboral y el Cuestionario de Fallas Cognitivas. El analisis se realizo mediante estadistica descriptiva, pruebas parametricas y no parametricas y correlaciones. Los resultados indican que no hubo relacion significativa entre planificacion cognitiva y estres ocupacional. Ademas, el estudio contribuye a la discusion de los efectos de la pandemia en profesores. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Sensemaking in-between the known and the unknown: Narratives of immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States

In today's hyperconnected, fast-changing environment, where uncertainty is the only certainty, individuals often find themselves in ambiguity, in-between the known and the unknown times and spaces. During ambiguous transitions, individuals deliberately engage in a cognitive process to make sense of their circumstances by generating the stories of who they are and what is happening. These stories ongoingly update a mental map that enacts a more ordered environment under liminality. This qualitative research collected and analyzed the narratives of 20 relatively resourceful immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States to explore their sensemaking during immigration, entrepreneurship, and the COVID-19 pandemic. This purposeful sampling was informed by the concept of the hybrid identity of immigrants and the emerging evidence that some resourceful immigrant entrepreneurs rely on diverse repertoires of approaches to travel across the complexity of multilayered cultural and institutional contexts. By exploring the sensemaking narratives of these immigrant entrepreneurs, the study investigated how they navigated the tensions in-between two spaces (home culture and host culture) and two times (pre-COVID-19 and during prolonged COVID-19). As a result, this study excavated detailed cognitive processes (mental dialogues weaving different elements into a holistic narrative), influencing factors (backgrounds and surroundings), and characteristics (disequilibrium, ambivalence, and randomness) of sensemaking in uncertainty and ambiguity with rich empirical accounts. Furthermore, the investigation resulted in three overarching findings. First, the study detangled multilayered contextual factors at three levels-global/national/regional, community/institutional, and family/individual-dynamically influencing immigrant entrepreneurs. Second, the study found insights into immigrant entrepreneurs' identity and strategies for navigating continuous changes. Identity was constructed with both solid and fluid stories of participants' values/beliefs, self-evaluations, feelings, and sense of belonging. Immigrant entrepreneurs switched on different modes of actions (develop, strive, quest, create, reflect, and retreat) and strategies (hybrid, match & connect, niche, flow, and bricolage) to respond to changing contexts. Intellectual humility facilitated the cognitive process of immigrant entrepreneurs in shifting their approaches. Third, the study highlighted the narrative mode of thinking, allowing participants to resolve identity paralysis and integrate ambivalence using metaphors and dialectical sequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Attention impairment in depression and anxiety

Our experience of the world is defined not only by what surrounds us, but also by what we pay attention to. Because goal-directed attention is essential for so many aspects of cognition, from perception to learning to decision-making, impairments of attention in the context of mental illness can be severely debilitating. Despite this impact, we know relatively little from human neuroscience about the specific attention impairments that comprise "concentration difficulties," a symptom and diagnostic criterion of mood and anxiety disorders that is often not alleviated with current first-line treatments. In this dissertation, I aim to better understand mechanisms of goal-directed attention in healthy adults and characterize various forms of attention impairment in individuals with depression and anxiety using multimodal human neuroscience methods.First, I review the state of the field regarding attention impairments in depression and anxiety (Chapter 1). I highlight both the key advances in cognitive neuroscience regarding the neural correlates of subtypes of attention and the ways in which these findings might inform precision psychiatry. Next, I investigate a potential neural correlate of selective attention in a sample of healthy adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (Chapter 2). Using statistical analysis tools to disentangle ongoing neural activity from stimulus-driven activity, I demonstrate that stimulus-independent neural signals are associated with the sharing of attended visual information across the cortex. Leveraging these findings, I then characterize selective attention impairments in adults with Major Depressive Disorder using fMRI and electro-encephalography (EEG) (Chapter 3). I find that feature-based selective attention impairments are severe in a subset of depressed individuals and are specifically associated with fronto-parietal hypo-connectivity and decreased posterior alpha oscillations, consistent with my prior observations of selective attention correlates in healthy adults.I then develop a machine-learning algorithm that can successfully predict changes in selective attention with antidepressant pharmacotherapy and show that stressors occurring in childhood are associated with poorer selective attention in depressed adults (Chapter 4). In a study of individuals with a range of mood and anxiety symptoms, I develop novel behavioral paradigms to assess transdiagnostic sub-domains of attention impairment (Chapter 5). These data reveal that spatial attention impairments partially mediate the association between early life stress and anxiety and are associated with increased anxiety and concentration problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, I put forward a theoretical model for how attention may become impaired in depression and anxiety and detail important directions for future research (Chapter 6).Together, these findings provide insight into the neural mechanisms underlying different subdomains of attention, clarify our understanding of attention impairments as a trans-diagnostic symptom dimension, and identify neural targets for the development of more personalized treatment, setting the stage for future studies in both basic and clinical neuroscience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Cognitive mechanisms for reasoning with uncertainty visualizations

The joint proliferation of data-driven interfaces in public life and data science in organizations makes reasoning with uncertainty in data visualizations critically important. Lay people and data analysts alike make visual judgments about data almost daily---whether relying on a deluge of Covid-19 visualizations to manage risks to personal and public health, or using exploratory data analysis to drive business decisions. In order to design data visualization software that supports statistically rigorous judgments in these contexts, the visualization community must understand how people reason with uncertainty visualizations. My dissertation addresses cognitive mechanisms that chart users rely on when reasoning with uncertainty: (1) automatic perceptual processing, through which the visual system makes intuitive inferences;(2) heuristic strategies, used to interpret visualizations and make consequential decisions;and (3) model-based thinking, whereby analysts compare observed patterns in data with counterfactual predictions from models (either mental or realized in software) that might explain the data. As a capstone to my thesis, I present Exploratory Visual Modeling (EVM), a prototype visual data analysis tool that deploys these cognitive mechanisms to support more rigorous exploratory data analysis. The tool enables analysts to express their provisional mental models of data generating process as formal statistical models and to check predictions from these models against observed patterns in data. I present insights from the design process of EVM, as well as considerations for evaluating the design hypothesis that the model checks enabled by EVM facilitate improvements in generative thinking during exploratory data analysis. EVM deploys automatic and heuristic cognitive mechanisms in service of model-based thinking, providing a proof-of-concept for new ways of designing visualization software. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Relationship among grit, social support, optimism, illness-related distress and psychosocial outcomes in COVID-19 long haulers

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (i.e., COVID-19) led to the death of more than 6 million individuals globally. This viral infection manifests differently in individuals, with some experiencing mild symptoms and others experiencing severe symptoms that result in hospitalization or even death. Survivors of COVID-19 may recover in days, while others experience prolonged symptoms for weeks or months after initial illness manifestation (Navabi, 2020). These prolonged symptoms, termed "long-covid," can be continuous or relapsing and remitting and may be new or the same symptoms of acute COVID-19 (Raveendran et al., 2021). Research on chronic illness indicates that individuals with chronic health conditions experience higher rates of depression and anxiety, which are associated with reduced quality of life (QoL;Gerontoukou, 2015;National Institute of Mental Health, 2021;Obo et al., 2014). Long-covid patients also experience increased rates of depression and anxiety and decreased QoL (Frontera et al., 2021;Ismael et al., 2021;Ma et al., 2020;Mendez et al., 2021;Talman et al., 2021;Temperoni et al., 2021). However, resilience (i.e., successfully adapting to adversity;VandenBos, 2007), can protect against the harmful psychological effects of chronic illness (Manning et al., 2016). Specifically, grit, social support, and optimism are associated with better mental health outcomes in chronic illness populations (Ratajska et al., 2020;Sharkey et al., 2018;Zenger et al., 2010). Another important component of adjustment to chronic illness is cognitive appraisal of illness, which can facilitate or impede mental health outcomes in patients. Illness intrusiveness (II;i.e., disruption of lifestyles, activities, and interests) and illness uncertainty (IU;i.e., cognitive experience where illness outcomes are unpredictable and ambiguous) are both associated with poorer adjustment to chronic illness and poor mental health and QoL outcomes (Devins, 1994;Gromisch et al., 2019;Pai et al., 2006;Schiele et al., 2019;Szulczewski et al., 2017). However, research suggests that resilience variables can decrease II and IU (Carroll & Arthur, 2010;Neri et al., 2011;Sajjadi et al., 2015). The current study examined the resilience variables of grit, optimism, and social support and their effect on anxiety, depression, and QoL. Mediators of II and IU were assessed. A total of 217 long-covid patients recruited through snowball sampling were asked to complete questionnaires measuring the related constructs. It was hypothesized that resiliency would be negatively associated with poor mental health outcomes and positively associated with QoL. It was also hypothesized that II and IU would mediate these relationships. The data was analyzed using Model 4 of the PROCESS macro for SPSS by Andrew Hayes. Results indicated that social support and optimism were negatively associated with anxiety and depression and positively associated with QoL. Grit was negatively associated with anxiety and depression but did not influence QoL outcomes. IU and II were negatively associated with grit, social support, and optimism. There was partial support for IU mediating the relationships between grit and anxiety and depression, social support and anxiety and depression, and optimism and anxiety. IU did not mediate the relationship between optimism and depression. II did not mediate the relationships between grit and anxiety and depression, social support and anxiety and depression, and optimism and anxiety and depression. II and IU fully mediated the relationship between grit and QoL and social support and QoL. There was partial mediation for II and IU between optimism and QoL. These results were discussed in terms of effective interventions for reducing negative outcomes in long-covid patients. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Hindsight bias and COVID-19: Hindsight was not 20/20 in 2020

Hindsight bias occurs when outcome information distorts people's memories of past beliefs or exaggerates perceptions of outcomes' foreseeability or inevitability. We investigated whether community and university participants in Canada and the U.S. exhibited hindsight bias for COVID-19. In Experiment 1 (N = 175), participants made original judgments about COVID-19 outcomes. Two months later, participants learned outcome information and recalled their original judgments (memory design). They also rated the foreseeability and inevitability of COVID-19. In Experiment 2 (N = 754), we used a hypothetical design. Participants learned outcome information before estimating how naive peers would have responded 2 months earlier. Participants exhibited hindsight bias in memory and hypothetical estimations. However, they rated COVID-19 as unforeseeable and avoidable and generally did not exhibit differences in foreseeability and inevitability ratings across the two timepoints. Thus, hindsight bias for COVID-19 differs across memory distortions, foreseeability, and inevitability and extends to hypothetical judgments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement Hindsight can cloud the past by biasing people's beliefs about what was known prior to an outcome. Hindsight can also bias people's beliefs about the foreseeability or inevitability of an outcome. We explored hindsight bias for COVID-19 in two experiments. In both experiments, Canadian and U.S. participants made foresight judgments about several COVID-19 outcomes (e.g., case rates in various countries). Participants also judged how foreseeable and inevitable COVID-19 was. Two months later, we recruited two groups of participants: (a) a sample that previously completed the foresight judgments and (b) a new sample. Both groups received outcome information. In Experiment 1, group (a) had to ignore their current outcome knowledge and recall their original judgments for the COVID-19 outcomes. They also rated their current perceptions of foreseeability and inevitability. In Experiment 2, group (b) had to ignore their current outcome knowledge and estimate how a naive peer would have responded to the same questions 2 months prior. We observed hindsight bias: Outcome information biased people's judgments about what they, or someone else, previously believed about various COVID-19 outcomes (e.g., death rates). Additionally, Canadian and U.S. residents perceived COVID-19 as unforeseeable ("I never could have seen this coming") and avoidable ("this didn't have to happen"). However, they generally did not demonstrate differences in foreseeability and inevitability ratings across the two timepoints. This work has applied significance for the field because it is one of the few studies to investigate hindsight bias for a real world, evolving event that is negative and self-relevant for everyone. Our results reveal the importance of studying hindsight bias for COVID-19 through various measures to determine how it affects other types of judgments (e.g., evaluations of public health authorities, vaccination tendencies, etc.);this can inform public health practices aimed at mitigating COVID-19 and future public health crises. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Wear a mask and don't drink bleach: The role of neurocognition and health literacy in COVID-19 information seeking skills, knowledge, prevention intentions, and prevention behaviors

The rapid development of COVID-19 into a pandemic required people to quickly acquire, evaluate, and apply complex health-related information. The present study examined the possible interplay between neurocognition and health literacy in the early uptake and use of COVID-19 public information. The current study aims were to evaluate: 1) the contribution of neurocognition to COVID-19-related online information seeking skills, knowledge, prevention intentions, and prevention behaviors;and 2) the effects of health literacy on the relationship between neurocognition and these COVID-19 outcomes. Two hundred and seventeen adults completed a telephone-based assessment including standardized measures of neurocognition, health literacy, and COVID-19 health outcomes (i.e., COVID-19 online information seeking skills, knowledge, prevention intentions, and prevention behaviors). Multiple regression models with data-driven covariates revealed that neurocognition, specifically memory and executive functions domains, was independently associated with COVID-19 knowledge, but not COVID-19 online information seeking skills, prevention intentions, or prevention behaviors. A series of hierarchical multiple regressions with data-driven covariates showed that health literacy was independently associated with all measured COVID-19-related outcomes and did not interact with neurocognition for any of these outcomes. These findings suggest that the acquisition of COVID-19 knowledge in the early months of the pandemic was partially explained by individual differences in declarative verbal memory and executive functions. Thus, future studies might examine whether executive functions and memory supports (e.g., spaced retrieval practice) can improve COVID-19-related knowledge in vulnerable populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Patterns of emotions and emotional experiences in the daily lives of individuals with social anxiety disorder

The present dissertation focuses on patterns of emotions and emotional experiences of individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) in their daily lives. Much of the research on SAD has been conducted in controlled laboratory settings which prioritize internal validity at the expense of external validity. This literature has contributed significantly to our understanding of the disorder. However, examining SAD outside of the lab and its influence on participants' daily lives is extremely important and can complement previous research and facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the disorder. In addition, most of the research on SAD has focused on cognitions and behaviors and the few studies that have examined emotions focused on the broad concepts of positive and negative affect. In the present dissertation we wanted to broaden our understanding of emotions in SAD and examine discrete emotions and emotional patterns that may be related to the disorder and its maintenance. To achieve these goals we used the experience sampling method (ESM), a research paradigm that involves real-time systematic collection of self-report data aimed to tap naturally occurring discrete emotions and events as well as participants' emotional reactions to them. We examined 88 individuals (44 with SAD and 44 without SAD) over the course of 21 days, and during naturalistic interactions occurring in their daily lives. Specifically, the first two studies included in this dissertation each focused on a discrete emotion and its experience and role in the disorder: the first was loneliness, and the second was envy. In the third study we examined the use of visual and non-visual mediums of communication with others and their impacts on emotions. This third study was especially pertinent in light of the COVID-19 pandemic which had a substantial impact on the ways in which individuals around the world interact. Below, we describe each of these studies. The first study included in this dissertation- "All by Myself: Loneliness in Social Anxiety Disorder" (Oren-Yagoda, Melamud-Ganani, & Aderka, in press) examines loneliness among individuals with and without SAD, contexts that may moderate the experience of loneliness, and the temporal relationship between loneliness and anxiety. Findings from this study indicated that individuals with SAD experienced significantly more loneliness compared to individuals without SAD. Characteristics of social situations (negativity, positivity, and meaningfulness) predicted loneliness for individuals with SAD but not for individuals without SAD. Finally, for individuals with SAD, both anxiety and loneliness predicted changes in each other creating a deleterious cycle. Findings from this study are discussed in the context of the SAD literature, CBT models and interpersonal models of SAD, the bivalent fear of evaluation model and potential clinical implications for treatment are presented. The second study included in the dissertation- "The grass is always greener: Envy in social anxiety disorder" (Oren-Yagoda, Schwartz, & Aderka, 2021) examines envy in SAD and its potential role in maintaining the disorder, social contexts and modes of communication that may serve as moderators of envy in SAD, as well as the temporal relationship between envy and anxiety in the disorder. Findings from this study indicated that individuals with SAD experienced elevated envy compared to individuals without SAD especially in social (compared to non-social) contexts. In social events, individuals with SAD also demonstrated an effect for modes of communication. Specifically, they experienced elevated levels of envy when the mode of communication was visual compared to voice/text (but not individuals without SAD). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)