Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Background: Research has identified psychological factors as important predictors of highly prevelant persistent somatic symptoms (PSS). However, this research is generally not based on primary...Show moreBackground: Research has identified psychological factors as important predictors of highly prevelant persistent somatic symptoms (PSS). However, this research is generally not based on primary care data and general practitioners (GPs) experience difficulties identifying PSS in their patients. Awareness of the psychological risk factors noted in readily accessible electronic medical records (EMRs) might aid GPs with earlier discovery and treatment. Aim: The objective was to examine the predictive value of psychological registrations in primary care for PSS onset. Method: We employed a retrospective longitudinal cohort design. EMR data of Dutch primary care patients were allocated into different subsamples according to registrations of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), and a combination of these registrations (COMBI) with age and sex-matched non-PSS cohorts. Candidate predictors were registered psychological symptoms, mental health referrals, and psycho-pharmaceuticals registered prior to PSS onset. The relevance of each candidate predictor was determined via L1 regularization in a logistic Lasso regression. The resulting prediction models’ performance was assessed via area under the curve (AUC). Results: The AUC indicated a fair classification performance for IBS (AUC IBS = .77), and good classification performances for CFS, FM, and COMBI (AUC CFS = .82, AUC FM = .88, and AUC COMBI= .87). The IBS-, CFS-, FM-, and COMBI-models, retained a total of 27, 12, 22, and 15 predictors, respectively. The strongest predictor per model was registration of sexual dysfunction for IBS (OR = 4.0), concentration disorder for CFS (OR = 2.4), neurasthenia for FM (OR = 3.0), and concentration disorder for COMBI (OR = 3.8). Neither of these predictors was unique to one specific model. Each final model retained mental health referrals, psycho-pharmaceuticals, and certain psychological symptom registrations as valuable predictors. Based on shared predictors IBS and FM had the closest models while IBS and CFS models were the most dissimilar. Discussion: These findings indicate that several psychological registrations are valuable predictors for onset of IBS, CFS, and/or FM. Therefore, GPs should consider the according predictors when screening for PSS. Future research could examine the comparatively low classification performce for IBS and psychological factors outside of primary care across PSS subtypes.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a newly developed dynamic screener to assess first year secondary school students’ potential for learning. Participants included 52 children ...Show moreThis study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a newly developed dynamic screener to assess first year secondary school students’ potential for learning. Participants included 52 children (mean age = 13.14) from different Dutch educational tracks. The dynamic screener consists of the subtests reading, mathematics, working memory, planning, divergent thinking, and inductive reasoning. Each subtest employs a test-training-test design. Based on randomized blocking, half of the children received a graduated prompts training between pre-test and post-test, while the other half did not. On some, but not all, subtests training seems to lead to an increase in performance. Additionally, some constructs measured through the dynamic screener relate to current school performance. This pilot study provides preliminary support to the use of such an instrument to gain more insight into children’s learning potential and instructional needs. Directions for future research are discussed.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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The aim of the current study is to investigate the effectiveness of the Mindful with your baby training in a clinical setting and in a preventive setting. The training is an eight-week group-based...Show moreThe aim of the current study is to investigate the effectiveness of the Mindful with your baby training in a clinical setting and in a preventive setting. The training is an eight-week group-based program designed for mothers of babies who cope with parental stress. Mothers in the clinical setting (n = 39) and in the preventive setting (n = 19) completed questionnaires on mindfulness, mindful parenting, parental stress, and parent-child relationship problems at pre-test, post-test, and two-month follow-up. We used multilevel analyses to examine the treatment outcomes. Furthermore, we used multilevel models to explore whether improvements in general and interpersonal aspects of mindfulness (i.e. acting with awareness, listening with full attention) are associated with parent-child relationship problems. The analyses revealed a significant improvement in mindful parenting, and a decline in parental stress and parent-child relationship problems from pre- to post-test (medium to large effect sizes). At follow-up, the effects were maintained for parent-child relationship problems. No differences in effects between the settings were found for any given period. Regarding our exploratory analyses, an improvement in listening with full attention and acting with awareness was not associated with a decline in parent-child relationship problems between pre-test and follow-up. Overall, mothers in the current sample showed positive treatment outcomes after the training, without differences between the preventive and the clinical setting. We suggest that both, mothers who register themselves in a preventive settinag and mothers who are referred to mental health care because of parental stress, can benefit from the training. On the long term, these improvements may contribute to a secure attachment relationship and a safe family environment for the baby.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Background: To alleviate side-effect burden in advanced breast cancer, it is necessary to identify at-risk personality types and effective interventions. Previous research indicates that patients’...Show moreBackground: To alleviate side-effect burden in advanced breast cancer, it is necessary to identify at-risk personality types and effective interventions. Previous research indicates that patients’ pessimism and trait anxiety may be risk factors for experiencing side-effects. To reduce their side-effect burden, optimizing patients’ side-effect expectations is suggested as a novel strategy. Doctor-patient communication strategies, such as expressing empathy (i.e. reassurance of nonabandonment) and explaining psychological mechanisms behind side-effects (i.e. a nocebo explanation), are most promising for optimizing patients’ expectations. In this experimental video-vignette study, we aimed to determine (1) whether clinician-expressed empathy and/or a nocebo explanation is effective in reducing expected side-effect burden, (2) whether generalized pessimism and trait anxiety relate to expected side-effect burden, and (3) whether there is an interaction between the effectiveness of these interventions and these personality characteristics. Methods: Using a two-by-two experimental video-vignette design, 159 cancer patients/survivors and healthy women watched one out of four videos with a nocebo explanation (present/absent) and empathy manipulation (present/absent). The effect of the interventions, the personality characteristics, and the interaction between these two were assessed using regression analyses. Differences between specific (e.g. hair loss) and nonspecific side-effects (e.g. fatigue) were investigated. Results: Clinician-expressed empathy, but not the nocebo explanation (p>.025), was successful in reducing expected side-effect occurrence (p=.008) and intensity (p=.003). Next, pessimistic patients expected side-effects to be more intense (p=.010), which was more profound in predicting the intensity of specific (p=.004), rather than nonspecific side-effects (p=.038). Moreover, results indicate an adverse effect of the nocebo explanation for pessimistic patients, as they expected nonspecific side-effects to be more intense after receiving this intervention (p=.014). Anxious patients expected a higher occurrence of nonspecific side-effects (p=.024), but not of specific side-effects (p=.435). No moderating role was found regarding patients’ anxiety and the effectiveness of the interventions. Conclusions: Short expressions of empathy by an oncologist can improve side-effect expectations. Generalized pessimism may cause patients to be vulnerable to expecting more intense side-effects, and to experiencing adverse effects from the nocebo explanation. Clinical follow-up studies need to investigate whether these results hold in clinical practice, and identify interventions for pessimistic cancer patients.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Video is often regarded as a complete, objective account of events, and therefore we rarely question its validity. However, our interpretation of video can be biased by many factors. Therefore, we...Show moreVideo is often regarded as a complete, objective account of events, and therefore we rarely question its validity. However, our interpretation of video can be biased by many factors. Therefore, we investigated whether we could reduce the overestimating of the objectivity of visual evidence used in police cases. To do that, we showed participants either camera footage of a possible crime, or a textual description of this video. Half of the participants were given a bias warning which asked them to explicitly generate an alternative explanation to their first impression of the evidence (‘consider-the-opposite’ strategy); the other half did not. We compared these four groups on how likely they thought it was that the suspects were guilty, their verdict (guilty/not guilty), and the confidence they had in their judgment. We expected that participants who saw the video would judge the probability of guilt of the suspects as higher than people who read the text, but found the opposite. This could be due to certain aspects of the evidence being more salient in visual or textual form. We explored this using qualitative analysis of participants’ first impressions and alternative explanations of the evidence. Contrary to our expectations, the bias warning did not effectively reduce this difference in guilt judgments between people who saw the video and people who read the text. We did not find that individual differences moderated the effectiveness of the warning, but differences in perspective taking and the perceived objectivity of video did predict the estimated likelihood of guilt. We also did not find that confidence in judgment differed between the four groups. We discuss implications of these findings and give recommendations for future research to further explore how we regard certain visual and textual elements in evidence, and how individual differences play a role in our interpretation of evidence.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Daylight Saving Time (DST) is at its height of controversy in Europe and around the world, as many countries are considering abolishing it. However, little is known about how DST impacts...Show moreDaylight Saving Time (DST) is at its height of controversy in Europe and around the world, as many countries are considering abolishing it. However, little is known about how DST impacts individuals in naturalistic, cognitively-engaging tasks. By using smartphone touchscreen timestamp data from 336 participants in combination with a system identification and impulse response fitting approach, we measured changes in smartphone interactions for 15 days before and 15 days after spring and autumn DST transitions recorded from 2018 to 2021. Our aim was to explore the effect of DST smartphone interactions, including how long DST transitions impact individuals, whether individuals show similarities in their DST responses, and whether age and gender explain differences in DST responses. We found that most individuals were impacted by DST transitions, with a median recovery period of 26 days, almost twice as long as prior estimates. Additionally, hierarchical clustering revealed that some individuals show similarities in their responses to DST, in addition to large inter-individual differences. We also found that differences in the DST response are not explained by age or gender. We propose that large inter-individual differences in responses to DST might be explained by the ability for individuals to self-select their sleep-wake patterns independently of day-night cycles. Additionally, these large inter-individual differences could partly explain the controversy behind DST, as further investigation needs to be made into what causes individuals to respond differently to DST.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
open access
Previous research has shown that subjective cognitive performance can be enhanced, and that sense of agency can be lowered via verbal suggestion of brain stimulation. Mixed results have been found...Show morePrevious research has shown that subjective cognitive performance can be enhanced, and that sense of agency can be lowered via verbal suggestion of brain stimulation. Mixed results have been found on the effect of placebo stimulation on error-related negativity (ERN) amplitude, which is an implicit outcome measure. This EEG study focused on the role of verbal suggestion and associative learning in eliciting placebo effects in subjective performance, sense of agency, and ERN amplitude. Using a within-subject design, we recorded EEG while participants (n = 19) performed in a simple cognitive task. Participants were told that a sham brain stimulation device would either enhance (placebo condition) or impair (nocebo condition) their cognitive performance. Next, we used a conditioning phase in which we altered the task difficulty according to the experimental block in order to induce the association between task difficulty and proposed stimulation. After this conditioning phase, the task difficulty was equal across conditions. We found increased subjective performance in the nocebo condition, but not the placebo condition, compared to control. We found a lower sense of agency in the placebo condition, but not the nocebo condition, compared to control. Finally, we found no difference in ERN amplitude throughout conditions. These results are not in line with previous research. Our conditioning phase did not work as intended and therefor the results are difficult to interpret. In addition, based on the results of our post-test questionnaire, our verbal suggestion might have been too weak. Future research should try to replicate the earlier results and continue investigating possible (other) implicit outcome measures.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Previous research indicates that the way how video evidence is presented can affect how much intent viewers ascribe suspects. With this between-subjects online study, I investigated whether pausing...Show morePrevious research indicates that the way how video evidence is presented can affect how much intent viewers ascribe suspects. With this between-subjects online study, I investigated whether pausing video evidence leads viewers to ascribe greater premeditated intent to the suspect. Further, I assessed whether this effect may arise because viewers perceive that the suspect had more time to deliberate and/or because the pause makes the deliberation moment more readily available in memory. All participants (N = 169, Mage = 21.95) were shown video evidence of a crime. The video paused either immediately before the crime, far before the crime, or did not pause. Subsequently, they judged the intent of the suspect, and suggested a charge and sentence length that the suspect should serve in detention. Results indicated that pausing video evidence did not lead viewers to ascribe greater intent to the suspect nor to demand a more severe charge. Moreover, pausing video evidence did not lead viewers to perceive that the suspect had more time to deliberate about the crime. However, the pause made the moment of deliberation more readily available in memory. Further, participants who ascribed greater intent to the suspect also demanded longer imprisonment of the suspect. This study provided preliminary insights for policymaking on how to present evidence unbiased for factfinding in court and to ensure fairer legal processes.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
open access
The recent trend towards gamification could lead to an increase of the number of learning problems that need to be solved through reinforcement learning. It is therefore important that people learn...Show moreThe recent trend towards gamification could lead to an increase of the number of learning problems that need to be solved through reinforcement learning. It is therefore important that people learn how to solve reinforcement learning problems. Understanding which learning strategies people use, the processes behind them, and identifying sub-optimal learning strategies could prove very beneficial for teaching people the best reinforcement learning strategies. This study examines the processes behind reinforcement learning strategies through cognitive modeling. A reinforcement learning model was fitted on human behavior on a reinforcement learning problem. Some people were able to fully solve the problem and others were not. The temporal parameter trajectories of these two groups were compared to each other. The group that solved the problem showed expected results with a lot of learning and exploration at the start and less learning and more exploitation towards the end of the task. The other group started similarly but then started to learn less while exploration remained high. This could indicate that these people would benefit from short learning sessions after which they are able to focus on something else.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
Rules regulate society as they help to predict social interactions. Groups, however, do not always abide by rules. Instead, they break them when the conditions are right. Here we hypothesized that...Show moreRules regulate society as they help to predict social interactions. Groups, however, do not always abide by rules. Instead, they break them when the conditions are right. Here we hypothesized that rule abidance behavior is determined by a) an individual choosing another for mutual benefit based on their reputation and b) the social-environmental incentives like fairness and dishonesty. We had three participants building a reputation for their willingness to abide by or break rules. A fourth participant used that information to choose one to three participants, then played several rounds of a dictator game and a die-roll task. Participants were chosen more often when their reputation was in line with environmental incentives, where merely transitioning from one environment to another strengthened that effect. Regulators should therefore ensure the consistency and kinds of environmental incentives that individuals in power positions face across environments for controlling resulting rule abidance behavior.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Previous research investigating the factors that shape a person’s degree of intergroup prejudice has focused primarily on relatively high level ideological and personality traits. In a largely...Show morePrevious research investigating the factors that shape a person’s degree of intergroup prejudice has focused primarily on relatively high level ideological and personality traits. In a largely separate body of work, psychophysiological predispositions towards threat sensitivity have been linked to ideological constructs. The current work integrates these two bodies of work by introducing a novel approach to measure implicit threat sensitivity and (theoretically) linking it to intergroup prejudice. Specifically, it was investigated whether individual differences in cognitively assessed sensitivity to threatening information were associated with a greater degree of implicit bias and explicit prejudice towards a stereotypically threatening minority-group (i.e., Muslims). While results did not support a relationship between threat sensitivity and intergroup prejudice, exploratory data, as well as limitations and implications of the current work, encourage future research.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
Background: Theoretical models propose that parenting practices play a role in the development and maintenance of child depression. However, previous meta-analytic findings indicated that parenting...Show moreBackground: Theoretical models propose that parenting practices play a role in the development and maintenance of child depression. However, previous meta-analytic findings indicated that parenting accounted for only 5-11% of the variance in childhood depression, with varying effects for different types of parenting behaviors. Research Question: The current study aimed to investigate the association between observed negative/positive parenting behavior, childhood depression, and child gender, while controlling for the confounding effects of type of informant and assessment approach for childhood depression. Method: Two meta-analysis were conducted for the negative parenting – childhood depression and positive parenting – childhood depression association, while including moderating and confounding variables. The current study included thirty articles in total, with nineteen examining negative parenting behaviors and twenty-three examining positive parenting behaviors. Results: Observed negative parenting behavior was positively and observed positive parenting behavior was negatively related to childhood depression, with overall small effect sizes. Type of parenting behavior, child gender, and assessment approach for childhood depression did not moderate the associations. Type of informant for childhood depression explained some variance in the positive parenting – childhood depression association. Conclusions: Parenting interventions for childhood depression might aim to improve a broader range of parental behaviors. Future research is advised to compare actual to perceived parenting behaviors and investigate the direction of the parenting – childhood depression association, while adopting a multiple levels of analysis perspective. This could possibly contribute towards developing most effective personalized interventions for childhood depression, while lowering the high burden of depression.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Having an extra sex chromosome is known as sex chromosome trisomy (SCT). This may result in 47,XXY, 47,XXX, or 47,XYY. Previous research suggested that social attention to the eyes is reduced in ...Show moreHaving an extra sex chromosome is known as sex chromosome trisomy (SCT). This may result in 47,XXY, 47,XXX, or 47,XYY. Previous research suggested that social attention to the eyes is reduced in (young) adults with SCT and that individuals with SCT have more autistic characteristics compared to typically developing (TD) controls. It was unknown whether the group differences were also present in early childhood. The current study aimed to explore social attention, autistic traits, and their relation in three subgroups of children with SCT (47,XXY, 47,XXX, and 47,XYY; N = 70), aged 3 to 7 years, in comparison to TD peers (N = 62). Social attention to the eyes was measured using three eye-tracking video paradigms: A single-face condition, a multiple-face condition and a social interaction condition. Autistic traits were measured using the Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition. Results showed a difference in social attention between children with SCT and TD children during the social interaction condition. There was no difference in social attention between the SCT subgroups. The SCT group showed more autistic traits than the TD group and the 47,XXX subgroup had more autistic traits than the 47,XXY subgroup. There was a significant relation between social attention during the single-face condition and autistic traits in the 47,XYY subgroup only. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the importance of monitoring socio-cognitive challenges related to SCT in early childhood.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Social anxiety in non-western children and adolescents has not been well studied in the Netherlands, so the purpose of this study was to investigate social anxiety in this group. This study tested...Show moreSocial anxiety in non-western children and adolescents has not been well studied in the Netherlands, so the purpose of this study was to investigate social anxiety in this group. This study tested whether a high score on perceived discrimination is associated with a high score on social anxiety, whether there are gender differences in the non-western group in social anxiety and whether loneliness strengthens the relationship between perceived discrimination and social anxiety. Three classes from three different schools participated, there was a total of 22 participants. To test the hypotheses, the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC-A), Adolescent Discrimination Distress Index (ADDI) and the Asher Loneliness Scale (ALS) have been used as measurements. The results show that there was only a significant difference in gender in social anxiety, girls scored higher in social anxiety than boys. However, this should be interpreted carefully. The other hypotheses were all not significant. Due to the sample size the reliability and validity of this study was not great, so the results are not a good reflection. It is advised to perform this study in a bigger sample size since this is an important matter to the non-western community.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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The optimal strategy in a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task is to focus on one semantic subcategory at a time and adaptively switch from one subcategory to another. This task has therefore been...Show moreThe optimal strategy in a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task is to focus on one semantic subcategory at a time and adaptively switch from one subcategory to another. This task has therefore been used as a measure of self-directed executive functioning. Previous studies have found that SVF performance improves through childhood and adolescence. This developmentalimprovement has been observed both in the total number of words produced during the task and in switching between subcategories. The present online study tested the hypothesis that the agerelated improvement in SVF performance is partly driven by an improved ability to select between competing word representations. The study included three age groups: 8–10-year-olds (n=26), 12–14-year-olds (n=17), and young adults (n=31). The semantic blocking effect in the blocked cycling naming task was used as a measure of selection abilities. Measures of vocabulary and general processing speed were included as control variables. Age-related differences in SVF performance were only partly replicated: there were signs of age-related differences in the total word count but not in switching. The semantic blocking effect was replicated across age groups. However, there were no signs of age-related differences in the magnitude of this effect, suggesting that word selection abilities did not differ between age groups. Moreover, the magnitude of the semantic blocking effect did not predict SVF performance. Thus, although further research is needed, the present study does not support the hypothesis that the age-related improvement in SVF would be driven by an improvement in selection abilities.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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BACKGROUND: Childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) has been identified as a considerable threat to adaptive child development. Emotion regulation is commonly impaired in victims of CEM, which can...Show moreBACKGROUND: Childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) has been identified as a considerable threat to adaptive child development. Emotion regulation is commonly impaired in victims of CEM, which can adversely impact broader socio-emotional functioning, such as the quality of child-parent interactions in adolescence. The current study examines to what extent maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (i.e., catastrophizing and rumination) mediate the association between experienced CEM and the quality of child-parent interactions as perceived by the adolescent. METHOD: The healthy control group of the larger RE-PAIR study (‘Unravelling the Impact of Emotional Maltreatment on the Developing Brain’) was included, incorporating adolescents (N = 80, age 11 to17) and their parents (N (Mothers) = 80, N (Fathers) = 76). Adolescent participants performed a reminiscence task with each parent and consecutively filled in a questionnaire to assess perceived parental interaction and communication behaviors during the task. CEM and emotion regulation were assessed through online versions of a Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and a Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. RESULTS: Two underlying factors were formulated after performing Principal Component Analyses (PCAs) on the perceived behavior per parent, namely ‘perceived general satisfaction with the interaction’ and ‘perceived criticism’. CEM did not predict either formulated outcome, for parents together and mothers separately. However, CEM had a negative effect on perceived general satisfaction, (F(1,64) = 6.175, b = -.502, p = .016) and a positive effect on perceived criticism, (F(1,64) = 6.612, b = .127, p = .012) by the adolescent during the interaction with their father. No mediation effects were found for either catastrophizing or rumination. DISCUSSION: Suggestions for future research include comparisons between different childhood maltreatment and to assess emotion dysregulation on multiple levels of functioning.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Using a wide variety of clinical questionnaires might hamper the communication between clinicians and researchers in Routine outcome monitoring (ROM). Linking test scores to T scores as a common...Show moreUsing a wide variety of clinical questionnaires might hamper the communication between clinicians and researchers in Routine outcome monitoring (ROM). Linking test scores to T scores as a common metric might be a solution. Item response theory (IRT) is the preferred way to estimate T-scores. However, required software and a large dataset is needed for that. In this thesis, two methods were used to arrive at a common metric for often used questionnaires and their subversions: the BSI, BSI-18, the DASS-42 and the DASS-21. As one method, we used an IRT approach to estimate theta-based T-scores, leading to crosswalk tables. For the second approach, conversion formulas were estimated for raw scores to calculated T-scores based on the best-fitting regression equation between the raw scores and the previously estimated theta-based T-scores. Crosswalk tables and conversion formulas are both alternative ways to link individual scores to a common metric. It was investigated if conversion formulas are valid by comparing calculated T-scores with theta-based T-scores. The agreement between calculated T-scores and theta-based T-scores were high for all questionnaires except the DASS-42. The agreement was also lower at the extreme ends of the questionnaires (T= < 50 and T= >75). All in all, conversion formulas seem to be a good alternative for estimating a common metric. Offering different options to calculate common metrics can help in improving the communication between professionals in the clinical field. Increased involvement and better communication in ROM is able to increase the quality of mental health care.Show less
