Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
open access
This study investigated whether suggestion and placebo effects can induce mystical experiences using the God Helmet, a placebo brain stimulation device. Seventy-nine participants wore the placebo...Show moreThis study investigated whether suggestion and placebo effects can induce mystical experiences using the God Helmet, a placebo brain stimulation device. Seventy-nine participants wore the placebo God Helmet for 45 minutes in sensory deprivation and were interviewed about their experience. A qualitative analysis showed that, although participants reported unusual experiences, these were distinct from their previous mystical experiences. Additionally, a permutation analysis revealed that participants rated the intensity of the God Helmet experience lower on average than their previous mystical experiences, suggesting that the God Helmet experiences are less intense. Nevertheless, the experiences induced by the God Helmet were reported as stronger than normal daydreaming and shared similarities with hypnagogic (falling asleep) states. In addition, a regression showed that individuals with more previous mystical experiences had more unusual experiences with the God Helmet and a higher Mysticism scale score, highlighting the importance of considering individual differences for understanding sensitivity to mystical-type experiences. Furthermore, as the God Helmet shows potential for inducing hypnagogic states within a 45-minute session, it has potential applications in sleep research and provides new avenues for investigating altered states of consciousness. However, as the God Helmet does not induce authentic mystical experiences with long-term positive effects, it is not an effective tool for investigating mystical experiences or applying them for therapeutic purposes.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
Observing emotions in others’ facial expressions is an important factor guiding social interaction. Observing others’ emotions elicits physiological arousal in the observer, which is reflected in...Show moreObserving emotions in others’ facial expressions is an important factor guiding social interaction. Observing others’ emotions elicits physiological arousal in the observer, which is reflected in increased pupil diameter (i.e., pupil dilation). The current study used pupil dilation as an index of physiological arousal to explore children’s responses to emotional facial expressions. More specifically, we investigated whether maternal symptoms of depression and/or anxiety were related to offspring’s pupil responses to negative (versus positive) facial displays irrespective of the child’s symptomology. A community sample of 87 mother- (M = 42.30, SD = 5.60, range = 27-57) child (M = 10.11, SD = 1.32, range = 7.2-12.9) dyads participated in the current study. Mothers and offspring reported on their depressive and anxiety symptoms via self-report questionnaires. Children’s pupil responses to angry, fearful, sad, and happy dynamic facial displays were measured during the dynamic emotions task using eye-tracking. Results revealed that maternal depressive symptoms were not related to child pupil responses to negative (versus positive) faces. Higher levels of maternal anxiety, however, were linked to stronger child pupil responses to fearful and sad faces than to happy faces. In turn, child pupil responses to angry (versus happy) faces did not statistically differ as a function of maternal anxiety. These findings persisted after accounting for the link between child anxiety symptoms and child pupil responses. Therefore, the way typically developing children react to negative versus positive emotional faces in later childhood appears to be related to maternal levels of anxiety, but not to maternal levels of depression. This points to the importance of exploring maternal anxiety symptoms as a potential risk factor for the development of negativity biases in offspring across the general population.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating and pervasive disorder involving persistent preoccupations with intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualized actions or behaviors...Show moreBackground: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating and pervasive disorder involving persistent preoccupations with intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualized actions or behaviors (compulsions). Investigating the mechanisms underlying the development, maintenance, and treatment outcome can increase our understanding of the heterogeneity of the OCD population. One factor that may affect OCD symptom severity is self-efficacy, which is the belief in one’s capacity to perform necessary behaviors for goal attainment. Another potential factor is experiential avoidance, the avoidance of negatively perceived inner experiences including thoughts, emotions, memories, or physical sensations. This cross-sectional study is embedded in the 3D (Doorbreek Dwang Digitaal) study, which is a randomized controlled trial investigating the treatment effects of treatment for OCD by comparing exposure as usual and a personalized online approach to this therapy. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between baseline levels of self-efficacy, experiential avoidance, and OCD symptom severity in patients with OCD. Methods: To this end, the baseline questionnaires of self-efficacy (the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for OCD; SEQ-OCD) and experiential avoidance (the Avoidance and Acceptance Questionnaire; AAQ-II), and a structured interview for OCD symptom severity (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale; Y-BOCS) were used. A multiple linear regression model tested the relationship between baseline scores on the SEQ-OCD, AAQ-II, and Y-BOCS of 40 participants diagnosed with OCD. Consecutively, a hierarchical and a k-means clustering analysis were performed, to form clusters of participants using the SEQ-OCD, AAQ-II, and Y-BOCS baseline scores. Results: Results showed that self-efficacy had a significant negative relationship with OCD symptom severity, as higher levels of self-efficacy were associated with a lower level of OCD symptom severity. However, this relationship was not significant anymore when experiential avoidance was added to the model. Experiential avoidance was not significantly related to OCD symptom severity or self-efficacy. With hierarchical and k-means clustering, two clusters were identified that significantly differed in levels of self-efficacy, OCD symptom severity, and experiential avoidance. One cluster showed significantly higher levels of OCD symptom severity and experiential avoidance and significantly lower levels of self-efficacy. This cluster also experienced more obsessions involving contamination, religion, symmetry/ordering, and more compulsions involving cleaning and counting. Conclusion: This study indicates that there is a relationship between self-efficacy and OCD symptom severity. Moreover, we found evidence of distinct groups of OCD patients with different levels of self-efficacy, OCD symptom severity, experiential avoidance, and different OCD symptom subtypes. This may indicate a differential role of self-efficacy and experiential avoidance across the different OCD symptom subtypes. Limitations of this study included the small sample size and the overrepresentation of females and the contamination obsession subtype. Future studies using larger sample sizes and a more diverse sample are required to further establish the precise mechanism of self-efficacy and symptom subtype in the development and maintenance of OCD.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
Atomoxetine is a prescription drug often used to restore executive (or cognitive) functioning in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other neuropsychiatric conditions....Show moreAtomoxetine is a prescription drug often used to restore executive (or cognitive) functioning in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other neuropsychiatric conditions. Moreover, this drug may potentially be ingested by healthy individuals who seek to improve their cognitive performance. However, the effect of atomoxetine on healthy brain functioning remains largely unclear. Network approaches have become useful for studying how the functional connectivity between brain regions may enhance or hinder executive functioning. Accordingly, to further examine the underlying mechanisms of action of atomoxetine, it is relevant to explore how this drug influences the functional connectivity of a large-scale brain network involved in the control of top-down processes: the executive control network (ECN). The aim of this study was thus to investigate the effect of atomoxetine (40 mg) on the functional connectivity of the ECN in healthy volunteers (n = 15). Network analyses were conducted on unpublished functional magnetic resonance (fMRI)-data collected by Chamberlain and colleagues (2009) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects, crossover design in which participants completed a goal-directed fMRI-task (i.e., the temporal discounting task), probing the ECN. Contrary to expectations, a paired-samples permutation test, corrected for multiple comparisons by means of a threshold free cluster enhancement, revealed that the functional connectivity of the participants’ ECN does not increase significantly after ingesting atomoxetine as compared to placebo (p > .05 corrected). Nevertheless, exploratory analyses indicated that, relative to placebo, atomoxetine significantly strengthens the functional connectivity of a frontoparietal network highly associated with cognition and language paradigms (t(14) = 7.61, p = .003). Together, these results suggest that, in healthy individuals, atomoxetine might not have enhancing effects on the processes supported by the ECN but (potentially) on those supported by a frontoparietal network. Atomoxetine might thus have beneficial effects in the cognitive performance of healthy individuals by facilitating certain processes associated with both cognition and language. Further research is however warranted to corroborate these findings in confirmatory studies and enhance the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of action of atomoxetine in healthy brain functioning.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
open access
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a highly heritable disorder that is more prevalent in males than females. Genetic mechanisms of the sexual differentiation could therefore contribute to the sex...Show moreAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a highly heritable disorder that is more prevalent in males than females. Genetic mechanisms of the sexual differentiation could therefore contribute to the sex differences in ASD. An unexplored pathway lies in the potential contribution of the direct effect of the X chromosome imbalance. Due to the X chromosome’s implications in brain structure, the imbalance in X chromosomes could contribute to recently discovered sex differences in brain structure variance. As males showed larger brain structure variance, they have generally larger brain structure deviations compared to females. If increasing brain structure deviations relate to increased ASD risk, this mechanism could explain why males show higher ASD prevalence compared to females. To assess an influence of the X chromosome imbalance on sex differences in brain structure variance, we assessed the sex difference in brain structure variance in brain regions with a high and low expression of the X chromosome. We then assessed whether larger brain structure deviations related to increased ASD symptoms. This was examined in a population of typically developing individuals aged 7 to 14. The X chromosome expression did not affect sex differences in brain structure variance. Therefore, our results did not support an effect of the X chromosome imbalance on sex differences in brain structure variance. Additionally, brain deviation showed no relationship with ASD symptoms. Our results do not support a contribution of sex differences in brain structure variance to sex differences in ASD. Our findings could suggest potential influences of other downstream effects of the chromosomal imbalance and the high heterogeneity of ASD.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
Saving for retirement is a difficult task and individuals need to overcome many hurdles to succeed in it. When governments and companies try to help individuals, they will need to engage in choice...Show moreSaving for retirement is a difficult task and individuals need to overcome many hurdles to succeed in it. When governments and companies try to help individuals, they will need to engage in choice architecture, which means that they will exert some influence on the individuals’ decisions. Therefore, they might be held responsible for the outcomes of the individuals’ savings decisions. Evidence from two online experiments on Prolific (N = 1142) indicates that choice architecture which does not reach the desired outcome can result in a loss of trustworthiness. Further, this loss of trustworthiness depended on the exact choice architecture used. When the choice architecture did not reach the desired outcome, an individual who was presented with a suggestion perceived the trustworthiness of the CA as lower than an individual who was presented a simple free choice. Interestingly, using defaults seems to have no adverse impacts on perceived trustworthiness when the desired outcome was not reached. Finally, we discuss implications for policy and research.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
Background: Memory decline and altered functional connectivity in the default-mode network (DMN) have been widely reported in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Dance has been suggested to...Show moreBackground: Memory decline and altered functional connectivity in the default-mode network (DMN) have been widely reported in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Dance has been suggested to induce neuroplasticity and memory improvement, yet it remains unclear whether dance can serve as a tool to improve brain functioning and memory performance in PwMS. Objectives: (a) To examine differences in resting-state functional connectivity between PwMS and healthy controls (HC) at baseline, and (b) to investigate the short-term effects of an 8-week dance intervention on functional connectivity of the hippocampus within the DMN and its association with changes in memory functioning in PwMS. Methods: In total 19 PwMS and 38 matching HC took part in this study. Regarding PwMS (44.53 ± 8.52 years, 15:4 ratio of relapsing-remitting MS and secondary progressive MS, with 8.9 ± 8.8 disease duration in years), neuropsychological (Brief Repeatable Battery memory tests), psychological (Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychological Questionnaire; MSNQ among other questionnaires), and functional MRI data were collected pre-/post-intervention. Data of matching HC (44.68 ± 8.47 years) was adopted from the Amsterdam MS cohort. All PwMS completed an 8-week dance intervention with sessions being held twice a week for one hour each. Repeated measures tests of variances (ANOVAs) and one-tailed Pearson correlations were conducted. Results: Baseline hippocampal connectivity within the DMN was reduced in PwMS compared to HC (p= .036). Following the dance intervention, hippocampus-DMN connectivity remained stable (p= .252). While verbal learning memory improved (65.05 ± 8.38 total score, p= .001), visuospatial memory did not (p= .517). Additional analyses showed improved subjective cognitive functioning indicated by the MSNQ (24.84 ± 9.38 score, p= .035), but this was not associated with changes in objective cognitive functioning (r= -.331, p= .083) nor with changes in functional connectivity (r= -.355, p= .068). Conclusion: Participation in dance can improve verbal learning memory and self-perceived cognitive abilities in PwMS. Either the duration of the intervention was too short to induce a change in hippocampus-DMN connectivity or stable functional connectivity may be regarded as a sign of neuroprotection. Future studies with longer intervention duration and follow-up are needed to further elucidate the benefits of dancing on cognition and brain functioning in PwMS.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic strongly influenced adolescents’ opportunities for real-life interactions, especially with their peers. These interactions are crucial for the development of...Show moreThe Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic strongly influenced adolescents’ opportunities for real-life interactions, especially with their peers. These interactions are crucial for the development of prosocial behavior, and its predictors, such as empathic concern, perspective-taking, and opportunities for prosocial actions. We investigated the development of prosocial behavior, empathic concern, perspective-taking, and opportunities for prosocial actions in adolescents aged 15-18 years old before the pandemic (T1/T2 for the pre-pandemic group) and in those aged 15-18 years old during the pandemic (T2/T3 for the peri-pandemic group). Both groups participated in a charity dictator game a during two measurement instances. Adolescents in the pre-pandemic group showed more empathic concern, and prosocial behavior over time (T1/T2), while their perspective-taking skills remained stable, and their opportunities for prosocial behavior decreased. Adolescents in the peri-pandemic group showed more perspective-taking skills and opportunities for prosocial actions over time (T2/T3), while their empathic concern and prosocial behavior remained stable. These different developmental trajectories may point toward the importance of real-life interactions for empathic concern and prosocial behavior and the role of crisis situations in fostering perspective-taking skills. Adolescents may have sought out more opportunities for prosocial actions during the pandemic to fulfill their need to contribute to society and to belong. Moreover, gender affected the results, with girls showing more empathic concern across groups, and more prosocial behavior in the pre-pandemic group. This may be due to gender intensification and reinforcement for gender-conforming behavior. Future research should investigate the extent to which empathic concern, perspective-taking, and prosocial behavior are malleable by different circumstances and whether gender roles explicitly influence adolescents’ prosocial behavior.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
under embargo until 2025-01-31
2025-01-31T00:00:00Z
Dissociation is a complex trans-diagnostic phenomenon, which ranges from normative to pathological. There are multiple ways of measuring and categorising dissociation, and different theories as to...Show moreDissociation is a complex trans-diagnostic phenomenon, which ranges from normative to pathological. There are multiple ways of measuring and categorising dissociation, and different theories as to the aetiology and function of dissociation in psychological disorders. People with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) experience more dissociation than healthy controls and other personality disorders, and dissociation is associated with other key features of BPD. Despite this, dissociation in BPD is poorly understood. It is unclear which types of dissociation manifest in BPD, in which situations, and the function that dissociation achieves. The aim of this study was to investigate the form and function of dissociation in BPD, by identifying themes across personal narratives. A thematic analysis was performed on narratives of dissociative experiences assessed within a script-driven imagery approach. The predominant forms of dissociation were depersonalisation and derealisation. Dissociation occurred in interpersonal and threatening situations, tended to follow negative affect, and was accompanied by physical reactions consistent with sympathetic nervous system activation. Dissociation functioned as psychological escape from internal experiences or external situations. These themes are discussed within the context of prominent theories of BPD and dissociation. These findings are in line with the idea that dissociation in BPD acts as a protective mechanism against high sensitivity and reactivity to affective and interpersonal experiences in the place of normative regulation skills. This paper concludes that dissociation in BPD offers psychological escape from intolerable experiences, and is related to a low threshold for threat perception and threat response mobilisation.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
Prediction-based learning is an effective teaching method for building factual knowledge, i.e., semantic learning. Its effectiveness likely depends on its potential to elicit surprise in learners....Show morePrediction-based learning is an effective teaching method for building factual knowledge, i.e., semantic learning. Its effectiveness likely depends on its potential to elicit surprise in learners. Only a few studies tested this hypothesis using a prediction-based learning framework comparable to semantic learning in the classroom. Most of these studies used physiological measures of surprise. However, the link between prediction-based semantic learning and learners' metacognitive surprise remains to be investigated. Using mixed models, we tested and explored to what degree participants' (N = 41; Mage = 21.9 years, SD = 1.5, 73% female) metacognitive surprise about the learning material (numerical trivia facts) explained how well participants learned (continuous metric) and recalled (binary metric) this material during a numerical-fact learning task designed to resemble classroomlike prediction-based learning. In line with our hypothesis, preregistered analyses showed that the more surprising participants found a fact, the more they learned from it. Extending previous work, we found that this link remained when controlling for a) between-fact differences in learning potential and b) facts already known to the participants and when c) participants failed to recall a fact correctly. Further extending previous work, our exploratory analyses suggested that learning also improved when participants perceived the facts as nonsurprising. So, the link between metacognitive surprise and learning may be u-shaped rather than linear. Altogether, these findings hint that learners'surprise about the learning material is one of the factors explaining to what degree learners learn from their prediction mistakes to update their factual knowledge. We forgo conclusions about the link between metacognitive surprise and recall accuracy since the confirmatory and exploratory results were ambiguous and negligibly small.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
under embargo until 2024-12-22
2024-12-22T00:00:00Z
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a disorder characterized by impairments in interpersonal functioning such as experiencing difficulties in forming and maintaining relationships. These impairments...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) is a disorder characterized by impairments in interpersonal functioning such as experiencing difficulties in forming and maintaining relationships. These impairments have negative intrapersonal consequences for individuals with SAD on different levels such as the physiological, behavioral, and psychological level. A newer perspective on SAD has suggested that it also negatively impacts the interaction partner (i.e. interpersonal consequences of the disorder). According to this perspective, certain verbal and nonverbal behaviors and thought or feeling content of the healthy interaction partner are affected while interacting with an individual who have SAD. The current study investigated the intra- and interpersonal consequences of SAD on the physiological, behavioral, and psychological level during initial interactions. Participants played a dyadic trust game (23 same-gender dyads) while their electrodermal activity (EDA) was continuously measured and filled in self-report measures during and after the game. The dyads consisted either of one participant scoring high on social anxiety (SA) and one low on SA (i.e. SA dyads) or two participants scoring low on SA (i.e. control dyads). EDA was used as the measure on the physiological level, participants’ trust ratings were the measure on the behavioral level, and the discrepancy between self and partner reports on positive/negative personal attributes to explore cognitive biases was the measure on the psychological level. We expected to observe higher EDA synchrony, lower trust ratings, and higher discrepancy between self and partner reports in SA dyads compared to control dyads. Results showed no difference between dyads on all levels indicating that we were not able to observe the predicted effect of finding intra- and interpersonal consequences of SAD in SA dyads. The most important implication of the current study is that, it included three different levels of SAD, in contrast to earlier studies that mainly focused on one level. This provides a useful example for how future studies might be designed and conducted.Show less
