A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Public Reddit and Tumblr Blog Posts on Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

Self-harm is a frightening phenomenon that affects adolescents and young adults all over the world. While non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has a high prevalence rate, it is not a new behavior. One of the earliest documented cases of NSSI was in ancient Greece and it has gained popularity amongst adolescents. NSSI content appears consistently on pro-NSSI social media and blog websites. Social media’s ubiquity has profound impacts on people’s behavior; young people in particular spend hours consuming social media every day. The combination of NSSI behavior and social media creates debate and controversy. While some have argued that social media creates a community of people struggling with similar issues, others argue that social media is a space to perpetuate negativity and rumination. Even though research has attempted to understand and explain NSSI behavior, there has been little research on NSSI behavior and related language on social media. This dissertation examines selected pro-NSSI social media to explore the linguistic processes and psychological processes active in pro-NSSI social media posts. This study, which used a synchronic corpus linguistic design, has two arms; the first arm (A) focuses on pro-NSSI posts on Tumblr and the second arm (B) examined pro-NSSI posts on Reddit. Both the study on Tumblr and the study on Reddit asked the following questions: (1) What is the NSSI specific content word use of the individuals making posts? (2) What is the pattern of use of linguistic processes of the individuals making posts compared to the pattern that appears in blogs overall? (3) What is the pattern of use of psychological processes of the individuals making posts compared to the pattern that appears in blogs overall? The study used an API to collect public, pro-NSSI posts from both Reddit and Twitter that appeared between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017; these posts were then anonymized and analyzed. The API was instructed to scrape posts that: (a) monolingual English and (b) contain at least one term on a NSSI terms list compiled by the researchers. The API was instructed to eliminate user names, URLs, hashtags, location of the posts, posts from outside of the US, photographs, and foreign languages. When added together, the posts collected by the API for Research Arm A (Tumblr) had a total 330,868 total word count. For Research Arm B (Reddit), the corpus’ total word count was 228,172. The data was analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software. For the first research question, the percentage of all words for each NSSI-specific category was reported. In addition, the raw count for each word in each category was listed in rank order. In terms of the second and third research questions, the following were reported for all categories except for emotional tone: (a) percentage of all words, (b) log likelihood statistic of the comparison of the NSSI corpus to general blog norms, and (c) log ratio of the comparison of the NSSI corpus to general blog norms. For the emotional tone category, the following were noted: (a) percentage of all words, (b) one sample z test of proportion with study results as p-hat and general blog norms as p0. When the Tumblr posts from Research Arm A were analyzed, the findings revealed that people posting their NSSI behaviors on public blogs are people who have a high desire to connect with others while sharing their pain and experience of numbness, and use high levels of negative emotional words. Overall, these results demonstrated that people posting on Tumblr about NSSI are hurting individuals reaching out for help. The findings for Research Arm B (Reddit) suggest that the posts were made in the mental state that was characterized by high levels of depression, anxiety, and neuroticism. When both research arms are considered as a whole, the results illustrated a profile of a young person who is struggling with managing intense negative emotions. The results from this study have implications for the clinical treatment by informing the counseling theories used to treat this population, transforming how counselors are trained in NSSI behaviors and investigating how research can further explore the nuances of language to have a better understanding of a difficult problem the plagues so many young people

Let’s practice: Shaping crisis management of preservice counseling professionals

Counselors frequently encounter crises in practice with various factors shaping crisis management. However, limited preparation and training combined with personal and situational characteristics affect a counselors’ ability to properly handle a crisis. The purpose of the present study was to identify factors that could potentially affect the ability to handle a crisis in session among counselors-in-training and add to the understanding of self-efficacy in crisis counseling. The study consisted of participants enrolled in a practicum pre-service course in a CACREP accredited program. Results were analyzed through a narrative research approach, specifically a categorical-content narrative analysis, theory-driven thematic analysis and cross-case analysis was used to compare and contrast each point to identify common themes. Four predefined source of self-efficacy themes identified were performance experience, vicarious performances, verbal persuasion, and imaginal performance as well as three themes derived from narrative analysis: crisis management, practice self-care, and personal characteristics. Findings indicated participants’ exposure to a crisis in a counseling session demonstrated increases in perceived ability to effectively manage and work with a client experiencing a crisis. Participants, who attended to a real or fictional crisis, expressed a positive impact on their crisis counseling self-efficacy. Implications for counselor education and practitioners are discussed

How Well Can we Diagnose Autism in Adults? Evaluating an Informant-based Interview: The Dutch Developmental, Dimensional and Diagnostic Interview – Adult Version (3Di-Adult)

The current study evaluated a brief, informant-based autism interview: the Developmental, Dimensional and Diagnostic Interview – Adult Version (3Di-Adult). Feasibility, reliability and validity of the Dutch 3Di-Adult was tested amongst autistic participants (n = 62) and a non-autistic comparison group (n = 30) in the Netherlands. The 3Di-Adult consists of two scales based on DSM-5 criteria: A scale ‘Social communication and social interaction’ and B scale ‘Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities’. ROC curves were used to determine cut-off scores for the A and the B scale, using an ASD diagnosis made by an independent clinician as the criterion. Mean administration time was 42 min. Internal consistency of the A scale (α = 0.92) and the B scale (α = 0.85) were good. Inter-rater reliability (ICCs = 0.99) and inter-rater agreement (ICCs ≥ 0.90) were promising. The 3Di-Adult showed good sensitivity (80.6%) and specificity (93.3%). Positive and negative predictive value were 96.2% and 70.0% respectively. Comparisons with the Autism-Spectrum Quotient-Short to investigate the convergent validity showed moderate, significant correlations with the 3Di-Adult in the total sample. Males, as compared to females, displayed significantly more autistic features on the 3Di-Adult. No relationship was found of the 3Di-Adult with education level, intelligence and age of the participants or informants. The feasibility and psychometric properties of the Dutch 3Di-Adult are promising, indicating that it can be a time-efficient, valid and reliable tool to use in diagnosing autism in adults according to DSM-5 criteria

Let’s practice: Shaping crisis management of preservice counseling professionals

Counselors frequently encounter crises in practice with various factors shaping crisis management. However, limited preparation and training combined with personal and situational characteristics affect a counselors’ ability to properly handle a crisis. The purpose of the present study was to identify factors that could potentially affect the ability to handle a crisis in session among counselors-in-training and add to the understanding of self-efficacy in crisis counseling. The study consisted of participants enrolled in a practicum pre-service course in a CACREP accredited program. Results were analyzed through a narrative research approach, specifically a categorical-content narrative analysis, theory-driven thematic analysis and cross-case analysis was used to compare and contrast each point to identify common themes. Four predefined source of self-efficacy themes identified were performance experience, vicarious performances, verbal persuasion, and imaginal performance as well as three themes derived from narrative analysis: crisis management, practice self-care, and personal characteristics. Findings indicated participants’ exposure to a crisis in a counseling session demonstrated increases in perceived ability to effectively manage and work with a client experiencing a crisis. Participants, who attended to a real or fictional crisis, expressed a positive impact on their crisis counseling self-efficacy. Implications for counselor education and practitioners are discussed

Utility of the 3Di Short Version for the Diagnostic Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Compatibility with DSM-5

The Developmental Diagnostic Dimensional Interview-short version (3Di-sv) provides a brief standardized parental interview for diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study explored its validity, and compatibility with DSM-5 ASD. 3Di-sv classifications showed good sensitivity but low specificity when compared to ADOS-2-confirmed clinical diagnosis. Confirmatory factor analyses found a better fit against a DSM-5 model than a DSM-IV-TR model of ASD. Exploration of the content validity of the 3Di-sv for the DSM-5 revealed some construct underrepresentation, therefore we obtained data from a panel of 3Di-trained clinicians from ASD-specialized centers to recommend items to fill these gaps. Taken together, the 3Di-sv provides a solid basis to create a similar instrument suitable for DSM-5. Concrete recommendations are provided to improve DSM-5 compatibility

Subgrouping the autism "spectrum": reflections on DSM-5

DSM-5 has moved autism from the level of subgroups ("apples and oranges") to the prototypical level ("fruit"). But making progress in research, and ultimately improving clinical practice, will require identifying subgroups within the autism spectrum

A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Public Tumblr Blog Posts on Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

Rates of Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has have steadily been on the risen among in adolescents and young adults. This study collected pro-NSSI public blog posts from Tumblr on pro-NSSI and analyzed the content linguistically using LIWC software. , examining the The NSSI -specific words, the linguistics properties and the psychological linguistic properties were examined. The results align with similar studies conducted on understanding the language markers of mental health. For NSSI specific word categories, the methods of engaging in NSSI was the most frequently used in the Tumblr blogs. This aligns with literature about the need for people to express their emotional pain to others who may understand. The linguistic properties demonstrated some unique results that can be best explained by the numbing feeling that is found in individuals who utilize NSSI and their tendency to avoid expressing painful experiences in a manner that would increase their vulnerability. The psychological properties of these public Tumblr posts were revealed through the dominantly in a negative emotional tone of the writing, which is also indicative of anyone struggling with severe mental illness. These findings suggest that treatment which specializes in shame and increasing self-compassion, such as Compassion Focused Therapy, would be more beneficial to these individuals who struggle with pain, shame and emotional distress than current treatment programs