Psychology Faculty Posters

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https://hdl.handle.net/1794/4317

This collection contains posters presented at conferences by faculty and students in the Dept. of Psychology.

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Browsing Psychology Faculty Posters by Author "DePrince, Anne P."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Abuse Awareness: Physical and Psychological Health Consequences
    (2006-11) Goldsmith, R.E.; Freyd, Jennifer J.; DePrince, Anne P.
    Despite established links between child abuse and psychological symptoms such as depression, dissociation, and anxiety, many abuse survivors experience awareness of specific abuse instances or abuse-related symptoms without acknowledging the abuse itself. The current study examines relations among abuse awareness, physical symptoms, and emotional functioning in young adults. One hundred eighty-five university students responded to questions regarding perceptions of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as standard abuse and symptom measures. Ninety-six individuals completed the questionnaire a second time 1-2 years later. At baseline, labeling oneself as having been abused was not correlated with depression, anxiety, dissociation, or physical health complaints. At follow-up, however, labeling abuse was significantly positively related to depression, anxiety, physical health complaints, and the number of reported visits to a health professional, even after controlling for abuse severity. These results indicate that processes involved in abuse perception appear to be connected to individuals' psychological and physical functioning, and that abuse awareness may have important clinical implications.
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    Child Abuse: Betrayal and Disclosure
    (2006-11) Foynes, M. Ming; Freyd, Jennifer J.; DePrince, Anne P.
    The present study examined the association between perpetrator relationship and disclosure latency (DL) for physical and emotional abuse using a survey methodology with a sample of 202 undergraduate participants. Based on Freyd's Betrayal Trauma Theory (1996), we predicted that abuse by a close perpetrator would be related to longer DL, because nondisclosure may serve as a protective coping mechanism in the same way as unawareness of abuse. BTT frames disclosure as a risk that poses a threat to the emotional needs of the child, without requiring the child's conscious awareness of the way in which the world operates. We found that closeness of perpetrator significantly predicts DL above and beyond other variables such as age at abuse onset, gender of survivor and abuse severity. Abuse by very close perpetrators was associated with a greater likelihood of first disclosure years following abuse, if disclosure ever occurred. While delayed disclosure may allow the attachment relationship to be sustained, it may also prolong abuse and prevent receipt of emotional, legal, or financial support. Since disclosure may result in the loss of important social relationships, it is important to address these risks in interventions geared toward encouraging disclosure to promote ethical intervention delivery.
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    Lack of precision, misleading implications, and ethical issues arising from the use of the label "false memory" for errors in word memory
    (2004-11) DePrince, Anne P.; Allard, Carolyn B. (Carolyn Brigitte), 1968-; Oh, Hannah; Freyd, Jennifer J.
    Since 1995, psychologists have increasingly used the term "false memory" to describe memory errors for details (e.g., errors for words learned in a list); such errors in details were once referred to by other terms, such as "intrusions". "False memories" is also used to refer to suggestibility experiments in which whole events are apparently confabulated and in media accounts of contested memories of childhood abuse. We examined use of the term "false memory/ies" to describe 1.) suggestibility for, or confabulation of, entire events or 2.) errors in details. Using the keyword "false memory/ies", journal articles published between 1992 and August 2003 were identified. Editorials, commentaries, responses to other articles, and book reviews were excluded. Of the 397 articles collected, 222 (55.9%) were empirical reports. Approximately 70% of empirical articles used the term "false memory/ies" to refer to error in details. The shift in language away from prior terms such as "memory intrusions" to a new use of the term "false memory" presents serious ethical challenges to the data-interpretation process by encouraging over-generalization and misapplication of research findings on word memory to social issues. The research and ethical implications of the new use of the term will be discussed.