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Publication Metadata only A Bayesian network analysis to examine the effects of HIV stigma processes on self-concept and depressive symptoms among persons living with HIV(Wiley, 2024) Pala, Andrea Norcini; Department of Psychology; Turan, Bülent; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and HumanitiesObjective: This study examines the relationships between HIV stigma dimensions, self-related mechanisms, and depressive symptoms among persons living with HIV. Background: HIV stigma hinders the well-being of individuals living with HIV, which is linked to depressive symptoms and increased risk of poor clinical outcomes. However, the mechanisms underlying stigma's impact on depression are poorly understood. Psychosocial theories propose that experiencing HIV stigma leads to internalized stigma, impacting self-concept and mental health. Method: Using Bayesian network analysis, we explored associations among HIV stigma processes (experienced, anticipated, internalized, perceived community stigma, and HIV status disclosure) and self-related mechanisms (self-esteem, fear of negative evaluation [FNE], self-blame coping, and social exclusion), and depressive symptoms. Results: Our diverse sample of 204 individuals, primarily men, gay/bisexual, Black, and lower-middle SES, who experienced stigma showed increased anticipated, internalized, and perceived community stigma, FNE, and depressive symptoms. Internalized stigma contributed to self-blame coping and higher depressive symptoms. Anticipated and perceived community stigma and FNE correlated with increased social exclusion. Discussion: This study investigates potential mechanisms through which HIV stigma may impact depression. Identifying these mechanisms establishes a foundation for future research to inform targeted interventions, enhancing mental health and HIV outcomes among individuals living with HIV, especially from minority backgrounds. Insights gained guide evidence-based interventions to mitigate HIV stigma's detrimental effects, ultimately improving overall well-being and health-related outcomes for people with HIV.Publication Metadata only A construal level account of the impact of religion and god on prosociality(Sage, 2020) N/A; N/A; Department of Business Administration; Canlı, Zeynep Gürhan; Karataş, Mustafa; PhD Student; Faculty Member; Department of Business Administration; Graduate School of Business; College of Administrative Sciences and Economics; N/A; 16135This research shows that the two most prevalent religious constructs-God and religion-differentially impact cognition. Activating thoughts about God (vs. religion) induces a relatively more abstract (vs. concrete) mindset (Studies 1a-1c). Consequently, time donation intentions (Study 2) and actual monetary donations (Study 3) after a God (vs. religion) prime increase when people are presented an abstractly (vs. concretely) framed donation appeal. Similarly, people donate more money to distant (vs. close) donation targets, which are construed relatively abstractly (vs. concretely), when a religious speech activates predominantly God-specific (vs. religion-specific) thoughts (Study 4). These effects are mediated by "feeling right" under construal level fit (Study 3). Overall, this research significantly advances extant knowledge on religious cognition and past research on the link between religion and prosociality.Publication Metadata only A cross-linguistic approach to children's reasoning: Turkish- and English-speaking children's use of metatalk(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2024) Hartwell, Kirstie; Köymen, Bahar; Özkan, Fatma Ece; Graduate School of Social Sciences and HumanitiesWhen collaboratively solving problems, children discuss information reliability, for example, whether claims are based on direct or indirect observation, termed as “metatalk”. Unlike English in which evidential marking is optional, languages with obligatory evidential marking such as Turkish, might provide children some advantages in communicating the reliability of their claims. The current preregistered online study investigated Turkish- and English-speaking 3- and 5-year-old children's (N = 144) use of metatalk. The child and the experimenter (E) were asked to decide in which of the two houses a toy was hiding. One house had the toy's footprints. When E left the Zoom meeting, an informant told the child that the toy was in the other house without the footprints in three within-subjects conditions. In the direct-observation condition, the child witnessed the informant move the toy. In the indirect-witness condition, the informant checked both houses and said that the toy was in the other house. In the indirect-hearsay condition, the informant simply said that the toy was in the other house. When E returned, the child had to convince E about how they knew the toy was in the other house using metatalk (e.g., “I saw it move”). Turkish-speaking children used metatalk more often than did English-speaking children, especially in the direct-observation condition. In the two indirect conditions, both groups of 5-year-olds were similar in their use of metatalk, but Turkish speaking 3-year-olds produced metatalk more often than did English-speaking 3-year-olds. Thus, languages with obligatory evidential marking might facilitate children's collaborative reasoning. Research Highlights: Children as young as 3 years of age can produce metatalk. Turkish-speaking children produce metatalk more often than English-speaking children. The difference between the two linguistic groups is more pronounced at age 3.Publication Open Access A new method to determine reflex latency induced by high rate stimulation of the nervous system(Frontiers, 2014) Karacan, İlhan; Çakar, Halil İ.; Cidem, Muharrem; Kara, Sadık; N/A; Yılmaz, Gizem; Sebik, Oğuz; Türker, Kemal Sıtkı; PhD Student; Researcher; Faculty Member; School of Medicine; N/A; N/A; 6741High rate stimulations of the neuromuscular system, such as continuous whole body vibration, tonic vibration reflex and high frequency electrical stimulation, are used in the physiological research with an increasing interest. In these studies, the neuronal circuitries underlying the reflex responses remain unclear due to the problem of determining the exact reflex latencies. We present a novel 'cumulated average method" to determine the reflex latency during high rate stimulation of the nervous system which was proven to be significantly more accurate than the classical method. The classical method, cumulant density analysis, reveals the relationship between the two synchronously recorded signals as a function of the lag between the signals. The comparison of new method with the classical technique and their relative accuracy was tested using a computer simulation. In the simulated signals the EMG response latency was constructed to be exactly 40 ms. The new method accurately indicated the value of the simulated reflex latency (40 ms). However, the classical method showed that the lag time between the simulated triggers and the simulated signals was 49 ms. Simulation results illustrated that the cumulated average method is a reliable and more accurate method compared with the classical method. We therefore suggest that the new cumulated average method is able to determine the high rate stimulation induced reflex latencies more accurately than the classical method.Publication Open Access A possible role of prolonged whirling episodes on structural plasticity of the cortical networks and altered vertigo perception: the cortex of sufi whirling dervishes(Frontiers, 2017) Çakmak, Yusuf Ö.; Ekinci, Gazanfer; Heinecke, Armin; N/A; Çavdar, Safiye; Faculty Member; School of MedicineAlthough minutes of a spinning episode may induce vertigo in the healthy human, as a result of a possible perceptional plasticity, Sufi Whirling Dervishes (SWDs) can spin continuously for an hour without a vertigo perception.This unique long term vestibular system stimulation presents a potential human model to clarify the cortical networks underlying the resistance against vertigo. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the potential structural cortical plasticity in SWDs. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of 10 SWDs and 10 controls were obtained, using a 3T scanner. Cortical thickness in the whole cortex was calculated. Results demonstrated significantly thinner cortical areas for SWD subjects compared with the control group in the hubs of the default mode network (DMN), as well as in the motion perception and discrimination areas including the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the right lingual gyrus and the left visual area 5 (V5)/middle temporal (MT) and the left fusiform gyrus. In conclusion, this is the first report that warrants the potential relationship of the motion/body perception related cortical networks and the prolonged term of whirling ability without vertigo or dizziness.Publication Metadata only A sniff of happiness(Sage, 2015) de Groot, Jasper H. B.; Smeets, Monique A. M.; Rowson, Matt J.; Bulsing, Patricia J.; Blonk, Cor G.; Wilkinson, Joy E.; Department of Psychology; Semin, Gün Refik; Researcher; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; N/AIt is well known that feelings of happiness transfer between individuals through mimicry induced by vision and hearing. The evidence is inconclusive, however, as to whether happiness can be communicated through the sense of smell via chemosignals. As chemosignals are a known medium for transferring negative emotions from a sender to a receiver, we examined whether chemosignals are also involved in the transmission of positive emotions. Positive emotions are important for overall well-being and yet relatively neglected in research on chemosignaling, arguably because of the stronger survival benefits linked with negative emotions. We observed that exposure to body odor collected from senders of chemosignals in a happy state induced a facial expression and perceptual-processing style indicative of happiness in the receivers of those signals. Our findings suggest that not only negative affect but also a positive state (happiness) can be transferred by means of odors.Publication Metadata only A universal cue for grammatical categories in the input to children: frequent frames(Elsevier Science Bv, 2018) Moran, Steven; Blasi, Damian E.; Schikowski, Robert; Pfeiler, Barbara; Allen, Shanley; Stoll, Sabine; Department of Psychology; Küntay, Aylin C.; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 178879How does a child map words to grammatical categories when words are not overtly marked either lexically or prosodically? Recent language acquisition theories have proposed that distributional information encoded in sequences of words or morphemes might play a central role in forming grammatical classes. To test this proposal, we analyze child-directed speech from seven typologically diverse languages to simulate maximum variation in the structures of the world's languages. We ask whether the input to children contains cues for assigning syntactic categories in frequent frames, which are frequently occurring nonadjacent sequences of words or morphemes. In accord with aggregated results from previous studies on individual languages, we find that frequent word frames do not provide a robust distributional pattern for accurately predicting grammatical categories. However, our results show that frames are extremely accurate cues cross-linguistically at the morpheme level. We theorize that the nonadjacent dependency pattern captured by frequent frames is a universal anchor point for learners on the morphological level to detect and categorize grammatical categories. Whether frames also play a role on higher linguistic levels such as words is determined by grammatical features of the individual language.Publication Metadata only Acceptability, feasibility and potential of an intervention using secret Facebook groups to complement existing HIV prevention strategies among female sex workers in Cameroon, a randomized pilot study(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2023) Vazquez Guillamet, Laia J.; Babey, Mary Mah; Njah, Mercy; Blake, Hassanatu; Jasani, Amy; Kyeng, Rahel; Hao, Jiaying; Long, Dustin; Tih, Pius; Turan, Janet M.; Khan, Eveline Mboh; Dionne, Jodie; Turan, Janet Molzan; School of MedicineThis randomized pilot project evaluated an intervention promoting health care literacy around HIV, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and stigma reduction using private social media groups that complemented existing HIV prevention services among female sex workers (FSWs) in Cameroon. The intervention was 12 HIV and sexual health videos tailored to FSWs that were released over 8 weeks through a secret Facebook group platform. In-person surveys were administered before, after the intervention, and three months later. No HIV seroconversions were detected; all participants completed follow-up and agreed to recommend the intervention to a coworker. Although the intervention was assessed to be acceptable and feasible to implement, poor internet connectivity was a key barrier. In time-series analysis, the intervention group participants reported improved PrEP interest, PrEP knowledge, and condom use along with reduced PrEP and HIV-related stigma, but no impact on sex-work related stigma or social cohesion. Similar results occurred in the control group. Cross-contamination and small pilot study size might have hindered the ability to detect the differential impact of this intervention. As communications technology increases in Cameroon, it is essential to learn more about FSWs preferences on the use of social media platforms for HIV prevention strategies.Publication Open Access Acute dissociative reaction to spontaneous delivery in a case of total denial of pregnancy: diagnostic and forensic aspects(Routledge, 2017) Aydın, N.; van der Hart, O.; Frankel, A.S.; Şar, M.; Omay, O.; N/A; Şar, Vedat; Faculty Member; School of Medicine; 8542This article presents the history of a 21-year-old female college student with total denial of pregnancy who experienced an acute dissociative reaction during the spontaneous delivery at home without medical assistance where the newborn died immediately. Psychiatric examination, self-report questionnaires, legal documents, and witness reports have been reviewed in evaluation of the case. Evidence pointed to total denial of pregnancy, that is, until delivery. The diagnoses of an acute dissociative reaction to stress (remitted) and a subsequent PTSD were established in a follow-up examination conducted 7months after the delivery. Notwithstanding the inherently dissociative nature of total denial of pregnancy, no other evidence has been found about pre-existing psychopathology. For causing the newborn's death, the patient faced charges for aggravated murder, which were later on reduced into involuntary manslaughter. Given the physical incapacity to perform voluntary acts due to the loss of control over her actions during the delivery, and the presence of an acute dissociative reaction to unexpected delivery, the legal case represents an intricate overlap between insanity and incapacitation defenses. The rather broad severity spectrum of acute dissociative conditions requires evaluation of the limits and conditions of appropriate legal defenses by mental health experts and lawyers. Denial of pregnancy as a source of potential stress has attracted little interest in psychiatric literature although solid research exists which documented that it is not infrequent. Arguments are presented to introduce this condition as a diagnostic category of female reproductive psychiatry with a more neutral label: unperceived pregnancy.Publication Metadata only Addressing the mental health needs of those affected by the earthquakes in Türkiye(Elsevier, 2023) Kurt, Gülşah; Uygun, Ersin; Aker, A Tamer; Department of Psychology; Acartürk, Ceren; Faculty Member; Department of Psychology; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 39271N/A