Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2015, College of Sciences and Health Professions

Intro: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mood disorder that affects 2-4% of the general population, up to 20% of psychological inpatients, and 10% outpatients. It is characterized by unstable affect, behavior, mood, interpersonal relationships, and self-image, and tends to stem from a history of abuse. The DSM-5 scales are labeled as: impulsivity, affect inability, abandonment, unstable relationships, self-image, suicide, emptiness, anger, and quasi-psychotic states. A general finding shows those with BPD tend to have difficulty recognizing and reacting to negative emotions (mainly fear, anger, and disgust). Additionally, researchers have found the brain areas that relate to emotion, planning, attention, memory, and decision-making are smaller in borderlines than healthy subjects. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine participants with subclinical borderline features and determine the relationships between facial affect recognition deficits. Methods: Two-hundred-and-three potential participants were screened using the Borderline Personality Questionnaire (BPQ). Thirty-five undergraduates from Cleveland State University participated in a computer-based study assessing reaction times (RT) and accuracy to Ekman's Pictures of Facial Affect, the now-standard emotional facial stimuli. Results: The majority of participants were Caucasian (68.8%), female (88.6%), and right-handed (94.3%). Mean age was 20.89 ± 4.75 (range= 23). There were 3 (8.6%) subjects of Hispanic ethnicity. Sixteen (45.7%) of the 35 subjects exhibited high borderline traits, as defined as scoring at least 1.5 standard deviations above the mean on the BPQ. There were no significant differences comparing RT and accuracy between groups (all p values = .124). With regard to lateralization, there is a significant difference in the relative disgust index when comparing borderlines (M= .61 ± .08) to controls (M= .73 ± .12) (t(33)=1.31, p= .002). Conclusions: Our sample of adults with (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Amir Poreh PhD (Advisor); Boaz Kahana PhD (Committee Member); Andrew Slifkin PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Personality Psychology

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

The goal of this study was to investigate the social cognitive domains of facial affect processing and emotional intelligence in patients who had undergone anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) for the treatment of medically intractable temporal lobe epilepsy. It was hypothesized that patients who underwent right ATL would perform more poorly than left ATL patients on measures of facial affect processing and emotional intelligence. Additionally, we expected poorer performance on measures of social cognition to predict poorer psychosocial functioning. Participants were sixteen individuals who had undergone ATL at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. They completed a facial affect processing battery, a performance based emotional intelligence test, neuropsychological measures (memory, attention executive ability, and confrontation naming), and self-report questionnaires of quality of life and psychosocial functioning. Data from 16 participants (8 right ATL; 8 left ATL) were analyzed. Participants with right ATL were less accurate than participants with left ATL in their ability to identify the presence and rate the intensity of emotions in facial expressions. The right ATL group performed more slowly than the left while comparing the relative intensity of emotions depicted in two faces and when rating the intensity of the emotional valance of facial expressions (p < .10 for all comparisons). Despite their slower performance, the right ATL group was significantly more accurate than the left ATL group in their ability to compare the relative intensity of emotions depicted in two faces (p < .10). Poorer ability to rate the relative intensity of emotions depicted in faces and to incorporate one's own emotions into decision making were significantly related to poorer self-reported functioning on multiple domains of quality of life and psychosocial functioning, all p < .05.

Committee: Paula Shear Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Steven Howe Ph.D. (Committee Member); Gerald Matthews Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Privitera M.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Arts and Sciences : Psychology

Patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BPD), by definition, have problems with emotional regulation. However, it remains uncertain whether these patients are also deficient at processing other people's emotions, particularly while in the manic state. The present study examined the ability of 25 manic patients and 25 healthy participants on tasks of facial recognition and facial affect recognition at three different presentation durations: 500ms, 750ms, and 1000ms. The groups did not differ in terms of age, education, sex, race or estimated IQ. In terms of facial recognition, the groups did not differ significantly on either a novel computerized facial recognition task or the Benton Facial Recognition task. In contrast, the BPD group performed significantly more poorly than did the comparison group on a novel facial affect discrimination task and a novel facial affect labeling task at 500ms presentation duration. Facial affect processing was not impaired at longer presentation durations. Further, the patient group slower on all three computerized tasks. This study indicates that patients with BPD may need more time to examine facial affect, but exhibit a normal ability to recognize faces.

Committee: Stephen Strakowski (Advisor) Subjects: Psychology, General

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Arts and Sciences : Psychology

This study sought to replicate the finding that adolescents with bipolar disorder (BPD) have facial affect processing deficits as well as to examine the relationship between these labeling deficits and social choices based on affective information. Participants with bipolar disorder were compared with healthy adolescents on tasks of facial affect recognition, facial recognition, attention, and facial affect interpretation. These results suggest that adolescents with BPD have mild reductions in their ability to label emotions relative to healthy adolescents. Additionally, response speed was shown to be quicker for those with bipolar disorder when making social judgments about happy, angry and neutral faces. No significant differences were found between groups when making social judgments with respect to accuracy. Finally, groups did not differ with respect to response speed when labeling or making forced choice judgments about affect.

Committee: Paula Shear PhD (Committee Chair); Robert Stutz PhD (Committee Member); Melissa DelBello PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Behaviorial Sciences; Developmental Psychology; Mental Health; Psychological Tests; Psychology