A Physiological and Behavioral Investigation of the Role of Racism-Related Vigilance in Cross-Race Social Feedback

A variety of health disparities exist between White and Black individuals in the United States. These disparities persist even when accounting for factors such as socioeconomic status and access to healthcare, which suggests that the unique social experiences of belonging to a racial minority group may contribute to poorer health outcomes. Prior research has indicated that cross-race social interactions, both positive (e.g. receiving positive feedback from White individuals) and negative (e.g. experiencing discrimination) can evoke physiological stress-responses, which can ultimately influence Black individuals’ health outcomes. Inflammation is a specific physiological mechanism through which race-related social distress can manifest. Racism-related vigilance, which refers the mental actions involved in thinking about, preparing for, and anticipating potential experiences of discrimination (Hicken et al., 2013), represents one psychological construct that may be relevant to the ill-effects observed in both positive and negative cross-race interactions. The current study assesses the relationship between racism-related vigilance, perceived discrimination, and inflammation in Black individuals. It also investigates the extent of racism-related vigilance as a function of the type (e.g. positive or negative) of cross-race social feedback situations to which Black individuals are exposed. Vigilance was assessed using a self-report and a behavioral measure, which involved receiving social feedback from racial outgroup and ingroup evaluators. Inflammation was assayed via level of pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and perceived discrimination was measured via self-report. Heightened racism-related vigilance was associated perceived discrimination, but was not significantly related to levels of inflammation. Further, vigilance did not differ significantly across the different cross-race social feedback conditions. Though the findings of this study do not support predicted hypotheses, implications and future directions for the study of cross-race social experiences and their effects on race-related health disparities are discussed.Bachelor of Art

Black Americans and Schizophrenia: Understanding Racial Disparities in Functioning

Black Americans are diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders at more than twice the rate of White individuals and experience significantly worse outcomes following the diagnostic event. Yet, little research to date has attempted to understand what specific factors contribute to worse functional outcomes among Black Americans with schizophrenia. The current study aims to broaden the current literature on such racial differences in functioning by using data from a double-blind, randomized treatment study to (1) examine baseline racial differences in established predictors of functioning (i.e., neurocognition, social cognition, and symptom severity); (2) investigate whether race moderates the strength of the relationship between these predictors and functioning at baseline; and (3) explore whether there are racial differences in the effectiveness of a novel psychopharmacological intervention of intranasal oxytocin in improving functioning among Black and White individuals with schizophrenia. Results revealed a significant difference in neurocognition at baseline as measured by the RBANS, with Black participants performing more poorly than White participants. No racial differences in measures of social cognition or symptom severity were observed. In addition, at baseline, race was found to moderate the relationship between PANSS-rated general symptoms and functioning measured by the SLOF but did not influence the relationship between other predictors and functioning outcomes. Finally, results indicated that race does not moderate the impact of oxytocin on functioning, social cognition, and symptom severity. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future work aimed at understanding racial disparities in functioning among Black and White Americans with schizophrenia are discussed.Master of Art

Trying Cases in the Media: Legal Ethics, Fair Trials and Free Press

The 2000 symposium consisted of a panel discussion which used role-playing and a mock trial to highlight the issues of lawyer/litigant comments to the press before and during trial and the dilemma of journalists confronted by court demands for documents, testimony, or sources of information obtained in the course of gathering news on pending trials. Participants included: As United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Freedonia: John Douglas, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Richmond. As Freedonia criminal defense lawyer: Gerald Zerkin, Private Defense Attorney. As investigative journalist: Steve Nash, Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Richmond. As federal judge: Judge Margaret P. Spencer, Virginia Circuit Court Judge. As media attorney: Craig Thomas Merritt, Attorney. As first amendment attorney: J. Joshua Wheeler, Attorney and Director of Programs for the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, and adjunct professor at University of Virginia. As Chief Justice: Paul D. Carrington, The Chadwick Professor of Law at Duke University. As Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court: C. Thomas Dienes, Patricia Roberts Harris Professor of Law at George Washington University\u27s Law School; John E. Nowak, David C. Baum Professor of Law at the University of Illinois; Molly Delea, third-year law student, University of Richmond School of Law; Kate Murray, third-year law student, University of Richmond School of Law; Thomas Queen, third-year law student, University of Richmond School of Law; and Courtney Sydnor, third-year law student, University of Richmond School of Law

Pathways to functional outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Meta-analysis of social cognitive and neurocognitive predictors

The current meta-analysis explored relationships between functional outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and different domains of neurocognition and social cognition. Literature searches were conducted in PsycINFO, PubMed, and ProQuest to identify articles reporting correlations between cognition domains and functional outcomes. Of 1361 articles identified, 166 met all inclusion criteria (12,868 participants; 518 correlations). Fifty-three random-effects meta-analyses yielded mean correlation estimates for relationships between neurocognition and social cognition and functional outcomes. Overall, associations between social cognition and neurocognition, and functional outcomes demonstrated significant small-to-medium effect sizes. Social cognition explained more unique variance in functioning than neurocognition (7.3% vs. 4.4%; 9.2% total average variance). Social cognition also mediated the relationship between neurocognition and functional outcomes. A significant proportion of the variance in the relationships between cognition and functional outcomes remained unexplained. These findings suggest that integrated interventions targeting both neurocognition and social cognition may optimally improve functional outcomes. Standardized measurement of cognition and functioning, longitudinal studies, and tests of additional moderators (e.g., first episode samples) in future research were identified as important future directions

The Neural Underpinnings of Intergroup Social Cognition: An fMRI Meta-Analysis

Roughly twenty years of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated the neural correlates underlying engagement in social cognition (e.g., empathy, emotion perception) about targets spanning various social categories (e.g., race, gender). Yet findings from individual studies remain mixed. In the present quantitative functional neuroimaging meta-analysis, we summarized across 50 fMRI studies of social cognition to identify consistent differences in neural activation as a function of whether the target of social cognition was an ingroup or outgroup member. We investigated if such differences varied according to social category (i.e., race) and social cognitive process (i.e., empathy, emotion perception). We found that social cognition about ingroup members was more reliably related to activity in brain regions associated with mentalizing (e.g., dmPFC), whereas social cognition about outgroup members was more reliably related to activity in regions associated with exogenous attention and salience (e.g., anterior insula). These findings replicated for studies specifically focused on the social category of race, and we further found intergroup differences in neural activation during empathy and emotion perception tasks. These results help shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition across group lines

Clinical and psychosocial outcomes of Black Americans in the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode Early Treatment Program (RAISE-ETP) study

PURPOSE: In the US, Black people diagnosed with schizophrenia experience worse psychosocial and clinical outcomes than their White counterparts. While racism-related factors contribute to these disparities, an additional understudied explanation may be that psychosocial treatments for psychotic disorders are less effective for Black than White individuals. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which best treatment practices for first-episode psychosis (FEP) are effective for Black and White participants. METHODS: We conducted a secondary data analysis of the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode Early Treatment Program (RAISE-ETP), a two-year multisite trial that compared a coordinated specialty care intervention for FEP (NAVIGATE) to community care as usual (CC) in 34 sites across the US. Specifically, we compared interviewer-rated quality of life and symptoms, as well as self-reported mental health and stigma, between 139 Non-Latinx Black and 172 Non-Latinx White participants with FEP in NAVIGATE and CC. RESULTS: We found few differences between Black and White participants over two-year outcomes, either overall or in terms of benefit from NAVIGATE. Across both treatment conditions, Black participants improved less than White participants on positive symptoms, an effect driven primarily by suspiciousness/persecution. In NAVIGATE, self-reported mental health stigma decreased for both Black and White participants, while in CC stigma decreased for White participants but increased for Black participants. This effect was driven primarily by experienced stigma rather than self-stigma. CONCLUSION: NAVIGATE benefits both Black and White individuals diagnosed with FEP. Mental health stigma and positive symptoms may be particularly important aspects of treatment for Black individuals diagnosed with FEP

Physical Activity Can Enhance Life (PACE-Life) : Results from a 10-week walking intervention for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Premature mortality in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) is largely due to high rates of chronic health conditions. Although exercise has been shown to improve health in this population, scalable and accessible interventions are limited. Aim To examine the impact of Physical Activity Can Enhance Life (PACE-Life), a novel walking intervention, on physical activity, and on secondary outcomes of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), physical health, autonomous motivation, social support, and quality of life. Method Sixteen individuals with SSDs were enrolled in a 10-week open trial. The intervention included walking groups, home-based walks, Fitbit use, and goal-setting and if-then plans. Within-group effect sizes were calculated to represent changes from baseline to post-test and 1-month follow-up. Results Participants increased self-reported weekly walking minutes and decreased daily hours spent sitting; however, Fitbit-recorded exercise behavior changed only minimally. There were also improvements in secondary outcomes including autonomous motivation and hip circumference. CRF improved only minimally, and findings were relatively unchanged with outliers removed from the full sample. Conclusions This open trial demonstrates modest improvements in key parameters of exercise behavior and physical health from participating in PACE-Life. Future research should assess the efficacy of this intervention in a randomized controlled trial

Character strengths of individuals with first episode psychosis in Individual Resiliency Training

Positive psychology interventions that integrate a person's strengths into treatment result in improvements in life satisfaction and well-being. Character strengths classified within six core virtues (wisdom/knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence) have been the subject of substantial research. Though a number of studies have been conducted in the general population, little is known about the character strengths of individuals with first episode psychosis (FEP). Moreover, positive psychology principles, in particular a focus on personal strengths, have been increasingly integrated into FEP treatment and was a core component of Individual Resiliency Training (IRT), the individual therapy component of NAVIGATE tested in the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode Early Treatment Program. As such, the present study offers an examination of character strengths among 105 FEP clients in specialized early intervention treatment. The present study included two primary aims: 1) to conduct a descriptive analysis of character strengths of FEP individuals and 2) to examine exploratory associations between character strengths and changes in symptomatic and recovery variables over six months. Results revealed that the most commonly identified strengths were: Honesty, Authenticity, and Genuineness (40.95%), Kindness and generosity (37.14%), Fairness, equity, and justice (29.52%), Gratitude (29.52%), and Humor and playfulness (29.52%). Three virtues (Humanity, Justice, and Transcendence) were significantly associated with improvements in symptoms, psychological well-being, and interpersonal relations over six months. Overall, the present study offers a glimpse into how persons with FEP view their strengths and how certain clusters of strengths are related to important outcomes