3,351 research outputs found
Examining rumination, devaluation of positivity, and depressive symptoms via community‐based network analysis
Objective: Components of rumination, including brooding and reflection, as well as devaluating prospective positivity, may help maintain depressive symptoms. We examined these components together for the first time using network analysis. Methods: We examined the robustness of rumination communities of closely related items in one network and then examined the interrelationships between rumination communities, devaluation of positivity, and depression, in a second network. Results: Three rumination communities emerged, replicating findings of Bernstein et al. (2019). Within a dense network, nodes representing brooding, reflective pondering, and difficulty trusting positive feelings were most influential. In addition, the node representing the depressive symptom negative self‐views shared strong edges with nodes representing devaluation of positivity and brooding. Conclusion: Brooding, reflective pondering, and elements of devaluing positivity are influential to depressive symptoms and may be important future experimental and therapeutic targets. Depressed individuals with negative self‐views may engage in brooding and devalue their experience of positivity
Assessing Prevalence of Eating Disorders Among College Students
Eating disorders have become a subject of concern for college-aged young adults in recent years. Risk factors like social media use are contributing to an increase in affected students, and research suggests that gender along with other variables plays a significant role. This thesis examined the current research on eating disorders and risk factors associated with their development. Through an online survey, information from freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate students at The University of Southern Mississippi regarding their current eating behaviors, feelings toward food and body, and demographic information was collected. Data collected indicated the student population’s level of disordered eating, which was compared with the findings of previous research
Generation OnlyFans: Examining the Effects of Raunch Culture on Depression via Social Media Use and Social Comparisons
Raunch culture is a term describing the promotion of overtly sexual representations of women. This concept may provide people opportunities to engage in positive social comparisons, but also negative social comparisons. As such, this concept could also relate to the phenomenology of depression in women. In an attempt to further investigate the effects of raunch culture, this study examined relationships between raunch culture, depression, and social media use in undergraduate students. Participants (N = 199) from a moderately-sized university in the Midwest completed measures of raunch culture, depression, social comparison, and social media use via an online platform. Primary hypotheses centered around the impact of raunch culture on depressive symptoms, as well as other variables such as social comparison and social media behaviors and their involvement regarding the relationship between endorsement of raunch culture and depression. Findings suggest that students with greater depressive symptoms were more likely to be accepting of behaviors associated with raunch culture, and that this effect may be more prominent in women. Results also indicate that raunch culture may be associated with an unfolding pathway, wherein endorsement of these features is associated with more intense consumption of social media, which in turn can lead to higher rates of social comparison and ultimately affect depressive symptoms. Future research may benefit from examining raunch culture and social media involvement in the context of other important psychosocial variables
Bosonization and Cluster Updating of Lattice Fermions
A lattice fermion model is formulated in Fock space using the Jordan-Wigner
representation for the fermion creation and annihilation operators. The
resulting path integral is a sum over configurations of lattice site occupation
numbers which may be viewed as bosonic Ising-like variables.
However, as a remnant of Fermi statistics a nonlocal sign factor arises for
each configuration. When this factor is included in measured observables the
bosonic occupation numbers interact locally, and one can use efficient cluster
algorithms to update the bosonized variables.Comment: 7 pages Latex, no figure
(Never) Mind your p's and q's: Von Neumann versus Jordan on the Foundations of Quantum Theory
In two papers entitled "On a new foundation [Neue Begr\"undung] of quantum
mechanics," Pascual Jordan (1927b,g) presented his version of what came to be
known as the Dirac-Jordan statistical transformation theory. As an alternative
that avoids the mathematical difficulties facing the approach of Jordan and
Paul A. M. Dirac (1927), John von Neumann (1927a) developed the modern Hilbert
space formalism of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we focus on Jordan and von
Neumann. Central to the formalisms of both are expressions for conditional
probabilities of finding some value for one quantity given the value of
another. Beyond that Jordan and von Neumann had very different views about the
appropriate formulation of problems in quantum mechanics. For Jordan, unable to
let go of the analogy to classical mechanics, the solution of such problems
required the identication of sets of canonically conjugate variables, i.e., p's
and q's. For von Neumann, not constrained by the analogy to classical
mechanics, it required only the identication of a maximal set of commuting
operators with simultaneous eigenstates. He had no need for p's and q's. Jordan
and von Neumann also stated the characteristic new rules for probabilities in
quantum mechanics somewhat differently. Jordan (1927b) was the first to state
those rules in full generality. Von Neumann (1927a) rephrased them and, in a
subsequent paper (von Neumann, 1927b), sought to derive them from more basic
considerations. In this paper we reconstruct the central arguments of these
1927 papers by Jordan and von Neumann and of a paper on Jordan's approach by
Hilbert, von Neumann, and Nordheim (1928). We highlight those elements in these
papers that bring out the gradual loosening of the ties between the new quantum
formalism and classical mechanics.Comment: New version. The main difference with the old version is that the
introduction has been rewritten. Sec. 1 (pp. 2-12) in the old version has
been replaced by Secs. 1.1-1.4 (pp. 2-31) in the new version. The paper has
been accepted for publication in European Physical Journal
Understanding the Contribution of Direct Use of Gas to New Zealand’s Future Energy Efficiency Objectives
A report produced for the Gas Association of New Zealand. Includes 2008 Addendu
Using Theory to Guide Exploratory Network Analyses
The use of exploratory network analysis has increased in psychopathology research over the past decade. A benefit of exploratory network analysis is the wealth of information it can provide; however, a single analysis may generate more inferences than what can be discussed in one manuscript (e.g., centrality indices of each node). This necessitates that authors choose which results to discuss in further detail and which to omit. Without a guide for this process, the likelihood of a biased interpretation is high. We propose that the integration of theory throughout the research process makes the interpretation of exploratory networks more manageable for the researcher and more likely to result in an interpretation that advances science. The goals of this paper are to differentiate between exploratory and confirmatory network analyses, discuss the utility of exploratory work, and provide a practical framework that uses theory as a guide to interpret exploratory network analyses
Combination interventions for Hepatitis C and Cirrhosis reduction among people who inject drugs: An agent-based, networked population simulation experiment
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is endemic in people who inject drugs
(PWID), with prevalence estimates above 60 percent for PWID in the United
States. Previous modeling studies suggest that direct acting antiviral (DAA)
treatment can lower overall prevalence in this population, but treatment is
often delayed until the onset of advanced liver disease (fibrosis stage 3 or
later) due to cost. Lower cost interventions featuring syringe access (SA) and
medically assisted treatment (MAT) for addiction are known to be less costly,
but have shown mixed results in lowering HCV rates below current levels. Little
is known about the potential synergistic effects of combining DAA and MAT
treatment, and large-scale tests of combined interventions are rare. While
simulation experiments can reveal likely long-term effects, most prior
simulations have been performed on closed populations of model agents--a
scenario quite different from the open, mobile populations known to most health
agencies. This paper uses data from the Centers for Disease Control's National
HIV Behavioral Surveillance project, IDU round 3, collected in New York City in
2012 by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to
parameterize simulations of open populations. Our results show that, in an open
population, SA/MAT by itself has only small effects on HCV prevalence, while
DAA treatment by itself can significantly lower both HCV and HCV-related
advanced liver disease prevalence. More importantly, the simulation experiments
suggest that cost effective synergistic combinations of the two strategies can
dramatically reduce HCV incidence. We conclude that adopting SA/MAT
implementations alongside DAA interventions can play a critical role in
reducing the long-term consequences of ongoing infection
A Network Approach to Understanding Narcissistic Grandiosity via the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory
The narcissistic admiration and rivalry concept (NARC) model of grandiose narcissism posits that striving for uniqueness, grandiose fantasies, and charmingness define narcissistic admiration, whereas striving for supremacy, devaluation, and aggressiveness define narcissistic rivalry. Given these complex interrelationships, we explored the structure of grandiose narcissism using the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ) and Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) via network analysis in four separate samples which allowed us to assess the extent to which these networks replicated across these samples (total N = 3,868). Overall, grandiose cognitions from the NARQ emerged as a highly central node in each network, providing compound evidence for its replicability and generalizability as an important feature of grandiose narcissism within the NARC model. Charmingness from the NARQ emerged as a central node throughout Samples 1, 2, and 3, with strong connections to features of narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry (e.g., grandiose fantasies and aggressiveness), but was less central in Sample 4. To our knowledge, this is the first research to examine the replicability of the network structure of grandiose narcissism across various samples. These findings add to an increasingly important dialogue regarding replicability in psychological network science
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