Publications by authors named "Megan Robbins"

Women are widely assumed to be more talkative than men. Challenging this assumption, Mehl et al. (2007) provided empirical evidence that men and women do not differ significantly in their daily word use, speaking about 16,000 words per day (WPD) each.

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Porous, stacked two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (2D COFs) bearing semiconducting linkers can support directional charge transfer across adjacent layers of the COF. To better inform the current and possible future design rules for enhancing electron and hole transport in such materials, an understanding of how linker selection and functionalization affects interlayer electronic couplings is essential. We report electronic structure simulation and analysis of electronic couplings across adjacent linker units and to encapsulated species in functionalized electroactive 2D COFs.

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Ambient audio sampling methods such as the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) have become increasingly prominent in clinical and social sciences research. These methods record snippets of naturalistically assessed audio from participants' daily lives, enabling novel observational research about the daily social interactions, identities, environments, behaviors, and speech of populations of interest. In practice, these scientific opportunities are equaled by methodological challenges: researchers' own cultural backgrounds and identities can easily and unknowingly permeate the collection, coding, analysis, and interpretation of social data from daily life.

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Objective: When clients' lives are not reflected in therapy, they struggle to apply the skills learned in treatment to everyday situations. In this pilot study, we determined if using clients' real-world interactions in therapy could effectively target metacognitive capacity-yielding improved symptoms and social functioning-by tailoring treatment to focus on issues faced by clients in daily life.

Method: Using a randomized controlled trial design, schizophrenia subjects with metacognitive deficits completed 24 sessions of: (a) Standard Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (MERIT); or (b) Tailored MERIT.

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Objective: Social deficits are already exhibited by people at risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Technological advances have made passive detection of social deficits possible at granular levels.

Method: In this real-world study, we tested if schizotypy status (high/low) predicted two types of social behavior: (1) being around other people; and (2) actively socializing with others.

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This feasibility study employed a new approach to capturing pain disclosure in face-to-face and online interactions, using a newly developed tool. In Study 1, 13 rheumatoid arthritis and 52 breast cancer patients wore the Electronically Activated Recorder to acoustically sample participants' natural conversations. Study 2 obtained data from two publicly available online social networks: fibromyalgia (343,439 posts) and rheumatoid arthritis (12,430 posts).

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Amid the growing interest in studying language use in real life, this study, for the first time, examined age effects on real-life language use, as well as within-person variations across different interlocutors. We examined speech samples collected via the Electronically Activated Recorder (i.e.

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Objectives: This study examined word use as an indicator of interpersonal positive reframing in daily conversations of couples coping with breast cancer and as a predictor of stress.

Design: The Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) were used to examine naturally occurring word use conceptually linked to positive reframing (positive emotion, negative emotion, and cognitive processing words).

Sample: Fifty-two couples coping with breast cancer.

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Background: Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs) have shown poorer psychosocial outcomes compared to their counterparts (non-ACOAs). These poorer outcomes, however, are not consistently present between groups. Investigating psychological markers of such functioning can help to highlight nuances between ACOAs and non-ACOAs even when mean differences of psychosocial outcomes are not present.

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Objective: This study revealed the landscape of noncancer conversations, identifying topics and types of everyday conversation, and examined links to psychological adjustment among couples coping with breast cancer.

Methods: Fifty-two couples wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) over 1 weekend and self-reported psychological adjustment while patients were on treatment. The EAR sampled 50 s of ambient sound every 9 minutes to estimate the frequency of noncancer conversation and reveal topics and types of conversation.

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In schizophrenia-spectrum populations, analyzing the words people use has offered promise for unlocking information about affective states and social behaviors. The electronically activated recorder (EAR) is an application-based program that is combined with widely used smartphone technology to capture a person's real-world interactions via audio recordings. It improves on the ecological validity of current methodologies by providing objective and naturalistic samples of behavior.

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The Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) is a method for collecting periodic brief audio snippets of participants' daily lives using a portable recording device. The EAR can potentially intrude into people's privacy, alter their natural behavior, and introduce self-selection biases greater than in other types of social science methods. Previous research (Mehl and Holleran, 2007, hereafter M&H) has shown that participant non-compliance with, and perceived obtrusiveness of, an EAR protocol are both low.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study was conducted to evaluate the specific antidepressant effects of whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) compared to a sham condition for treating major depressive disorder, as previous trials lacked a placebo control.
  • This randomized, double-blind study took place over six weeks and involved medically healthy participants aged 18-65 who met the criteria for major depressive disorder, with 30 individuals completing the intervention and assessments.
  • Results indicated that immediately after the treatment, a higher percentage of participants in the WBH group felt they received effective treatment compared to those in the sham group, highlighting potential differences in perceived efficacy between the two interventions.
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Objective: Guided by the uncertainty navigation model, this study examined experiences of uncertainty associated with trying to conceive and identified predictors of this experience using a multi-method approach.

Method: 429 American adults from Amazon's Mechanical Turk who had a child under age three completed online questionnaires regarding their experiences trying to conceive, including recollections of psychological adjustment, use of coping strategies, and individual and situational variability. Then they provided open-ended reflections of their experience trying to conceive.

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This study explored the feasibility and potentials of a naturalistic observation approach to studying dyadic coping in everyday life. Specifically, it examined the natural context and content of the spontaneous cancer conversations of couples coping with cancer, and how they relate to patients' and spouses' psychological adjustment. Women with breast cancer (N = 56) and their spouses wore the electronically activated recorder (EAR), an unobtrusive observation method that periodically records snippets of ambient sounds, over one weekend to observe the couples' cancer conversations in their natural context.

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This Letter describes the development and SAR of a novel series of GlyT1 inhibitors derived from a scaffold hopping approach, in lieu of an HTS campaign, which provided intellectual property position. Members within this new [3.3.

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Background: This study examined how language reflective of emotional and social processes during a cancer-related discussion relates to patient, couple, and family adjustment after breast cancer. It investigated whether emotional expression or relational focus, manifested in language use, indicates healthy family coping following breast cancer.

Methods: Family members each completed measures of adjustment (Family Environment Scale, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, and patient Profile of Mood States) and engaged in a 15-min family discussion about how they have coped with breast cancer.

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This article introduces a novel observational ambulatory monitoring method called the electronically activated recorder (EAR). The EAR is a digital audio recorder that runs on a handheld computer and periodically and unobtrusively records snippets of ambient sounds from participants' momentary environments. In tracking moment-to-moment ambient sounds, it yields acoustic logs of people's days as they naturally unfold.

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Objective: The goal of this study was to explore the intra- and interpersonal consequences of swearing. Specifically, it investigated what implications swearing has for coping with and adjustment to illness.

Methods: The present project combined data from two pilot studies of 13 women with rheumatoid arthritis and 21 women with breast cancer.

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Objective: This study tested the degree to which naturalistically observed sighing in daily life is a behavioral indicator of depression and reported physical symptoms (i.e., experienced pain and flare days) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

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