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Potential Research Topic- Michlynn Warren

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Potential Research Topic- Michlynn Warren

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My potential research topic is on the impact of social media on adolescent mental health. Social media has created a sigma that school aged students must follow to align with the social norms. The creation of social media has warped their understanding of "normal" for someone their age. This includes social cues, consumption or time viewing social media, eating habits, and the verbal cues as well. Social media has produced an ideological mind frame that children should appear in a certain manner.

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Potential Research Topic - Sarah Hutchins

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Potential Research Topic - Sarah Hutchins

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My potential research topic is going to be about academic advising and I am still narrowing down the focus, but am leaning toward differences in academic advising between traditional aged students and adult learners. Another topic I have been toying with is academic advising as teaching. Key words I would use are "academic advising", "higher education", "adult learners", "non-traditional students", "student success". I would use Google Scholar as a backup resources to an ERIC search or Academic Search Complete.

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As others have said, my topic idea isn’t fully ironed out; however, I would like to focus my research on the ability to create the right environment for specific counseling needs. Some environmental ideas floating around my head include what I can control in an office environment, a virtual environment, and what communal spaces we may be able to use during therapy. For in-office environments, I would look into the impact of using the sounds of nature faintly in the background during the session. This idea comes from an article about the Ecotherapy practice, describing ecotherapy as “an umbrella term for a gathering of nature-based techniques and practices that aim to establish this human-nature relationship, from which psychological healing may be derived” (Kamitsis and Simmonds, p. 1, 2017). The importance of being able to create an environment in my office or virtually is important to me because winter is a large part of the year for most people, and making a good well-rounded therapy session accessible no matter the weather is something I like to consider.

That being said, what interests me the most is bringing therapy outside of the office, laptop, or home when weather permits. For this part of the paper, I will include the ideas of Museum Therapy, Zoo and Animal Therapy, Ecotherapy, and Nature Therapy to name a few. This interests me because I’m curious if making therapy something to look forward to will help in attendance and overall effectiveness of the counseling experience. In my personal life, I have never been able to get out of depressive/anxious spiral without getting out of my current environment and becoming inspired elsewhere. Plus, with the cost of therapy, I firmly believe that we can offer our patients more than just a couch to sit on– there is a world to explore out there!

Here are a few links to the general articles I have found relating to this topic:

Nature Therapy and Preventative Medicine

Therapeutic environments as a catalyst for health, well-being and social equity

Architecture for...Therapeutic Spaces

Using Resources of Nature in the Counseling Room

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Jennifer's potential research topic: How grief alters the brain 

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Jennifer's potential research topic: How grief alters the brain 

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I am still smoothing out the specific details on what information I want to include in my research topic, but I am intrigued to learn more about grief. Grief is a topic that I am very passionate about, as I currently facilitate a grief group at the Center for Grieving Children. Additionally, I have recently read several articles that have discussed how grief can alter and rewire the brain. It certainly appears to be a topic that has been coming out with more and more research lately. I think I want to take my research one step further and choose a specific type of psychotherapy approach (such as EMDR, MIT or CBT) to see its effects on individuals coping with loss. I am slightly nervous that grief may be too broad of a topic, and would mostly like need to narrow down a demographic/general type of loss to research. For example, adolescents who have lost a parent, or a parent who has lost a child, etc. Key terms I would search are: grief, trauma, PTSD and whichever modality of therapy I choose to study from my previously stated list. Databases I plan to use are PsycINFO or PubMed. I am looking forward to hearing some feedback, thanks!

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The research topic that I have settled on is the role executive functioning skills plays in the academic success of students. I am currently a special education teacher and case manager of 8th grade students with about half of my students having multiple EF goals. I often feel as though I struggle to meet their minutes of direct instruction in these areas. I see on a daily basis what a negative impact these deficits have on their overall academic success. I have not yet decided fully the focus I want to take with this topic. I am considering the role a teacher and school interventions have in promoting EF skills, including the specific strategies that can be used. However, I am also interested to examine how EF skills can predict long-term academic outcomes such as high school graduation rates and college readiness. Key words: Executive functioning, academic achievement, school interventions, teacher strategies, long-term learning outcomes.

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One of the topics I am interested in researching is functional communication training (FCT) strategies for non-speaking children with autism. I have used FCT with all of my non-speaking clients since starting in ABA and I've noticed from working with different BCBA's that everyone has their own preferred methods. I am interested in FCT because I think everyone should be empowered to advocate for themselves and appropriately communicate their wants and needs without having to rely on maladaptive behaviors to get their needs met. While FCT is important for all demographics, I am interested in the non-speaking population because of the different methods available, such as PECS, ASL, and AAC. I am curious as to which, if any, are most effective or preferred among teachers and learners as a first-step for children with limited functional communication skills.

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I am still not sure what exactly I want to research. I work as a Severe Special Education Teacher in a Sub Separate classroom and I work with kids of varying disabilities. I feel like I am leaning toward should children with developmental disabilities that have a behavior plan in place, with behavior support, get penalized/ written up when they engage in aggressive behaviors. It has been a huge hurdle of mine this school year as I have had multiple students of mine get written up for hitting another student when in distress. In the past this was not the case however they have changed that this year. I would love to research this more and be able to bring it into my everyday life with some solutions to both myself and the general education teachers. The key words: developmental disabilities, behavior support plans, general education, suspension, autism. I believe my data bases that will be most helpful will be PsychARTICLES, Academic Search Complete, and ERIC.

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I will  study  "Effectiveness of Assistive Technology in Special Education"

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For my project, I'm wanting to research how biophilia can impact the different faucets of one's educational career, such as mental health, motivation, academic success, school/life balance, peer relationships, and more. Can implementing biophilia in the classroom and at home improve the educational journey? I've always had a very strong interest in the role that nature plays in one's well being (last week's article was fascinating to me), so I think that this topic would be fun and I would learn a lot from it. I'm still in the early stages of mapping this topic out, so I'm hoping to get more a little bit more specific.

For collecting research, some databases I may use include Scopus, ScienceOpen, PsycINFO, Academic OneFile, Web of Science, and ERIC. Some of these databases are new to me, but seem like they would contain helpful and relevant articles. For my topic, some keywords could be biophilia, nature exposure, mental health, and academic success. I'm interested to see how my personal choice of keywords might change and develop as I get further into my research topic!

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I am still working on finalizing my topic for this project. I have two ideas that align with my professional goals and that I have personal experience with through my family. My first option is to look into parental involvement, such as through family-based therapy interventions, in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder in children. My second option is to look into the efficacy of behavioral interventions, such as parent management training, functional family therapy, multisystemic therapy, and more, for the treatment of conduct disorder in children. With both topics, I am most interested in the youth population (middle-school aged and younger).

I am currently being pulled more toward the topic involving conduct disorder, though I have found a couple really interesting articles regarding the role of parental involvement in treating OCD, so I am not quite ready to set that topic to the side yet. For both topics, I would utilize PsychInfo, APA PsychArticles, and Google Scholar to find relevant research. For the OCD topic, some keywords may include obsessive-compulsive disorder, parental involvement, youth, treatment outcomes, family accommodation reduction strategies (FAM), and family-based cognitive behavioral therapy (FB-CBT). For the conduct disorder topic, some keywords may include conduct disorder, behavioral intervention, youth, treatment outcomes, parent management training, functional family therapy, and multisystemic therapy.

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 Supriya: I intend to focus on Burnout for mental health workers

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 Supriya: I intend to focus on Burnout for mental health workers

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What is burnout? Burnout is a feeling you get when you’ve been working so hard for so long, and nothing seems to be getting any better. No one wants to feel like that or should have to feel like that constantly. I work in mental health, I know the feelings of being burnout, somedays it can be emotionally exhausting. I plan on focusing on managing burnout, work stressors, ways to prevent burnout, etc. I'm interested to see what kind of research has been done about this ? and the burnout rate for mental health workers?

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I’m still not sure what my topic should be, but I’m leaning towards looking deeper into the impact of extracurricular activities in high school on academic performance and maybe if they can lead to burnout in students. Since I’ve started teaching I’ve been blown away with how busy students are after school. Many are playing three school sports, at least one travel sport, working, and then have to complete school work and spend time with friends and family. This also starts when students are at least 9-10 years old. What happens when they get to high school? The ideas I’d start searching would be around student burnout, extracurricular impact on student development, and how students find a balance.

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Sarra's Potential Research Topic: The outcomes/effects of trauma mitigation strategies and therapies on populations of incarcerated individuals.

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Sarra's Potential Research Topic: The outcomes/effects of trauma mitigation strategies and therapies on populations of incarcerated individuals.

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Considering that the prevalence of PTSD is substantially overrepresented within incarcerated populations, why is it these individuals are not offered trauma mitigation therapy while in detention? The answer has always been that our jails and prisons are an inappropriate environment in which to address underlying trauma despite evidence linking trauma directly to: circumstances surrounding their crimes, and higher than average rates of recidivism. I would like to examine a collection of studies related to this topic and see if the prevailing wisdom has been refuted or substantiated. As studies on this population are difficult to conduct I was concerned there would be no research on this topic, but within a few minutes of poking around I found dozens of studies on this very topic. Turns out I'm not the only one asking this question. Key Search Terms: Trauma, PTSD, Inmate Populations, Incarcerated Individuals, DBT, EMDR, Seeking Safety. Databases include PsycINFO, Scopus, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Gender Watch, Nexis Uni and others.

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Gleivy's Potential Research Topic: The Effects of administration pressure on school Psychologists

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Gleivy's Potential Research Topic: The Effects of administration pressure on school Psychologists

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For my topic, I was looking at the effects of administration pressure on school psychologists. While reading about this topic, many school psychologists said their jobs became unsatisfactory because of the pressure. These pressures can lead school psychologists to make unethical decisions about their students. Many school psychologists that don't give in to the pressure, end up getting fired or transferred to another district. These outcomes make many leave the profession which leads to a high demand for school psychologists. I want to dig more into why this is happening and why school psychologists are being punished for doing their jobs ethically. I'd also like to know what can school psychologists do to set boundaries. Key words that I'll use to search are school psychologist, administration pressure, and ethics.

I'll look for some more information on academic search complete and psycINFO.

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I intend to focus on movement and dance therapies and their (potential) effects on mental health, specifically the nervous system and regulation. I am interested to see what kind of research has been done about various somatic & movement modalities, especially with regard to nervous system regulation. These topics are relevant to my future psychotherapy practice.

Some key words may include: Dance therapy, Movement therapy, mental health, and nervous system regulation. I’ll start with Academic Search Complete, psycINFO, and psycARTICLES.

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Starr's potential research topic: The impact that childhood attachment has on relationships in adulthood.

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Starr's potential research topic: The impact that childhood attachment has on relationships in adulthood.

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This topic is the one on my list that I feel most passionate about especially after this last year in my program. I am concerned that it might yield limited trustworthy research due to it's very narrowed topic. I have spent a lot of time during my undergraduate studies evaluating human development and family studies, so I know that there are some reputable sources anyhow. Key search terms will include: Bronfenbrenner, Childhood Development, Attachment Styles early/late, Healthy Relationships, Trust + Relationships. I believe my databases will be PsycARTICLES, ERIC, and Academic Search Complete.

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Starr's potential research topic: The impact that childhood attachment has on relationships in adulthood.

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Starr's potential research topic: The impact that childhood attachment has on relationships in adulthood.

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This topic is the one on my list that I feel most passionate about especially after this last year in my program. I am concerned that it might yield limited trustworthy research due to it's very narrowed topic. I have spent a lot of time during my undergraduate studies evaluating human development and family studies, so I know that there are some reputable sources anyhow. Key search terms will include: Bronfenbrenner, Childhood Development, Attachment Styles - early / late, Healthy Relationships, Trust + Relationships. I believe my data bases will be PsycARTICLES, ERIC, and Academic Search Complete.

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Theresa's potential research problem: use of dialectical behavior therapy to treat borderline personality disorder  

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Theresa's potential research problem: use of dialectical behavior therapy to treat borderline personality disorder  

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After sifting through a long list of potential research topics and narrowing them down a great deal, I think the topic that I would most like to research is the use of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to treat borderline personality disorder in counseling and therapeutic settings. At first, I was worried that this topic might be too specific, but after using a variety of different databases to search for research articles, I realized that there is more than enough information available on this topic. Key search terms will include dialectical behavior therapy, DBT, borderline personality disorder, borderline, BPD, therapy, mental health, and counseling. Most useful databases might include PsycINFO, ASSIA, PsycARTICLES, and possibly Academic Search Complete.