Therapeutic alliance has been consistently demonstrated as a robust predictor of treatment outcomes, though the time in psychotherapy at which therapeutic alliance best predicts outcomes is unclear. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that racial and ethnic minority clients typically form weaker therapeutic alliances in treatment. The weaker development in therapeutic alliance among racial and ethnic minority clients may mediate discrepancies in treatment outcomes, including higher dropout rates. The purpose of this study was to explore this possibility by (1) investigating the temporal relationship between therapeutic alliance and treatment outcomes and (2) examining differences in therapeutic alliance ratings and treatment outcome, including unilateral termination, among racial and ethnic minority clients. The findings of this study may be integral to identifying and addressing psychotherapy treatment disparities that are tied to racial or ethnic minority status.

Habitual (i.e., average or typical) sleep duration and sleep efficiency vary widely by demographic characteristics, including age, gender, and racial/ethnic identity. Despite a wealth of studies on demographic patterns in habitual sleep, these results are often based on cross-sectional surveys, which ask participants to retrospectively recall their "typical" or "recent" sleep. Yet, sleep is a highly dynamic behavior and may fluctuate substantially from night-to-night. This intraindividual variability (IIV) in sleep/wake patterns can be captured a multitude of ways, most commonly by using formula-based calculations. Although there is growing attention on the importance of IIV in sleep, findings on demographic differences are still inconclusive, and there are no guidelines for typical values of IIV in sleep. The present study quantitatively synthesized 8 international data sets (N = 2847 participants, 29,832 total days of sleep data), focusing on examining age, gender, and racial/ethnic identity differences in IIV in sleep measured via sleep diaries, actigraphy, and electroencephalography. Sleep duration and sleep efficiency varied widely from night-to-night within people (duration: 64-119 minutes; efficiency: 5-8%). Different metrics of IIV were strongly correlated within and across sleep measurement types. Younger adults had more IIV in diary and actigraphy sleep duration. Gender differences in IIV in sleep …

Stereotypical beliefs about emotion have been shown to influence perceptions of competence. While emotional White women are often presumed to be generally less competent, emotional Black women receive variable competence ratings due to the intersecting stereotypes concerning both their race and gender. However, it is unclear how perceptions of competence fluctuate in response to anger, a stereotypically male emotion, in comparison to sadness, a stereotypically female emotion. The project at hand utilized participants' responses to a scenario of White and Black leaders engaging with subordinates in their workplace expressing either neutral, angry, or sad responses to an interaction. We aimed to identify if a Black woman leader's expression of anger garnered a more favorable response than a White woman leader's expression of anger in addition to whether both leader's expression of sadness would garner similarly low ratings of competence. Results reveal that perceptions of a woman leader's competence can be influenced by race alone with no significant influence from emotional expression. Specifically, a Black woman leader's competence can on average be rated lower than a White woman's competence regardless of emotional expression. This study provides further evidence that group stereotypes manifest differentially based on context.

The purpose of this study was to thoroughly review previous work and to create a new experimental paradigm combining recognition memory with value-based incentives and metacognitive confidence judgments, which may provide convergent evidence for the motivation-cognition interface. This paradigm involves a game-like task administering global and local motivational incentives. Furthermore, trial-level metacognitive confidence ratings were gathered to understand the relationship of metacognitive accuracy and value as a function of strategic control of attention and memory and incentive-based motivation. Paired samples t-tests and a repeated measures ANOVA were used to identify differences in recognition performance based on reward incentive, and Goodman-Kruskall gamma correlations between performance confidence estimates were used to measure metacognitive accuracy. The results showed the mean number of recognition hits (correctly remembering previously seen items) were indeed greater for high-value items compared to low-value items. I also report an unanticipated effect of block, such that the hit rate increased for low valued items from Block 1 to Block 2. Unfortunately, I did not find meaningful results for the metacognitive judgments. This study lays important groundwork for subsequent research incorporating physiological testing to provide a much-needed link between mind and brain with respect to motivation and cognition. Moreover, this study …

The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) has gained widespread favor since its publication. However, validation studies of its interpretive descriptors remained limited to date. As such, the primary goal of the current study aimed at validating the interpretive descriptors through the lens of empirical correlates using the PDSQ as the external criterion. It also served as a replication and extension to the 2018 study conducted by Rogers and colleagues. The final archival sample included 204 clients from the UNT Psychology Clinic who were administered PAI between May 2016 and December 2020. Overall, reliability and construct validity were strongly supported for PAI clinical scales. Further, the current study replicated large majority of the correlates identified by Rogers and colleagues, which boosted the confidence in reproducible interpretations based on empirical correlates. Importantly, investigation of item-level and gendered correlates provided crucial interpretive implications that were otherwise obscured. For example, item-level correlates refined interpretation by clarifying the nature of scale-level correlates, particularly those of moderate strength. On the other hand, notable gender differences were identified for certain scales, which led to drastic differences in patterns of gendered vs. non-gendered correlates. Finally, several important methodological considerations are proposed in hope to facilitate the empirical research concerning …

The onset of COVID-19 and cancellation of collegiate sports may have exacerbated student-athletes' psychological distress. Within a national sample of collegiate student-athletes (N = 5755; 66.7% women; 72.3% White), I determined how gender, race, and sport season related to rates of depression, stress, and counseling use. I used a cross-sectional methodology and collected data in April/May 2020. Overall, 26.5% (n = 1526) and 10.6% (n = 612) of the collegiate student-athletes endorsed clinical and high levels for depression and stress, respectively; 25.1% (n = 1443) and 69.7% (n = 4014) reported subclinical and moderate levels of depression and stress, respectively. Few student-athletes reported counseling use before (17.1%) or after (2.3%) the onset of COVID-19; those who reportedly used services endorsed higher levels of depression and stress than those who did not. Female student-athletes reported higher rates of depression, stress, and counseling use than male student-athletes. There were no race or sport season effects. Student-athletes who competed in spring sports endorsed higher levels of counseling use than student-athletes who participated in a fall season sport. Athletic departments must address their student-athletes' psychological distress by facilitating a higher use of mental health services.

This study aims to examine how individual athlete perceptions of motivational climate act as an antecedent and influence beliefs about teamwork behaviors. Specifically, how the positive and negative aspects of coach-created motivational climate are associated with: (a) understanding the team's purpose and the ability to plan to achieve the team's mission, (b) implementing designed plans for team success, (c) assessing team performances and environment, (d) creating alterations focused on increasing the probability for team success, and (e) preserving interpersonal relationships by resolving conflicts effectively. Participants consisted of female NCAA Division I collegiate athletes (N = 536; Mage = 20.13 years, SD = 1.36) from colleges/universities located in 22 of the 50 states. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three motivational climate clusters; low task/high ego, moderate task/moderate ego, and high task/low ego. The main effect for motivational climate and the overall model of teamwork and the individual component of their behavioral dimensions was significant. The DDA revealed a single significant function for each of the six (i.e., the overall model and individual overarching components of teamwork) MANOVAs conducted, which indicated the composite measures of teamwork behaviors discriminated between the different motivational climate clusters.

This study was conducted as part of a parent grantwhich examined the relationship between components of sleep and antibody responses to the flu vaccine in a population of 392 nurses working at two large hospitals. During/after sleep data was collected, nurses had blood drawn at four time points: immediately pre-vaccination, 1-, 6-, and 11-months post vaccine to obtain serum for detection of anti-influenza antibodies measured with an HI (hemagglutination inhibition) assay. Additionally, the inflammatory biomarkers IL6, IL1-β, TNF-α and CRP were measured at the pre-vaccine time point only to determine any correlation between the markers and antibody response. Data was analyzed using a hierarchical regression. In the first step, analyses assessed whether each change/average in cytokines over the one-month period had an impact on vaccine response for each of the four viral strains in the flu vaccine. In a second step, analyses assessed whether variables such as insomnia, stress, age, smoking, BMI, and race had any impact on vaccine response beyond the effects exerted through inflammation. The change in association (β) between the primary independent variable and primary dependent variable were examined in order to determine whether there are any suppression effects caused by baseline covariates on the relationship between …

Relatively few studies have explored the relationship between gender role conflict (GRC) and an individual's religious/spiritual identities. This study sought to add to the research on GRC by exploring the experiences of female and male GRC, and expand the understanding of the influence of religion/spirituality (R/S) variables on GRC. Participants (N = 359) were recruited from social media and undergraduate courses and completed an online survey that assessed GRC, a variety of R/S variables, and life satisfaction. Overall, there were some significant differences found between male and female experiences of GRC. In general, the R/S variables did not have a large impact on GRC. However, religious fundamentalism and extrinsic and quest religious orientations were related to specific subscales of GRC. Maintaining congruency between one's personal values and one's religious institution was related to lower levels of specific subscales of GRC. Additionally, GRC was related to lower levels of life satisfaction. Regarding the subscales of GRC, restrictive emotionality was the strongest predictor of lower life satisfaction. By furthering research on the interplay between GRC and R/S, clinicians will be more equipped to handle the repercussions of stereotypical roles within gender and religion, address negative attitudes and behaviors, and lead discussions about …