AMY S. (FOLMER) WEITLAUF, M.S.

Transcription

1 Amy S. Weitlauf Page 1 CURRICULUM VITAE AMY S. (FOLMER) WEITLAUF, M.S. Department of Psychology and Human Development 0552 GPC 230 Appleton Place Nashville, TN (615) amy.s.weitlauf@vanderbilt.edu EDUCATION Ph.D. in Psychology, anticipated December 2011, Vanderbilt University M.S. in Psychology, May 2006, Vanderbilt University B.A. in Psychology with Special Honors, May 2003, The University of Texas at Austin B.A. in Plan II Honors Program with High Honors, May 2003, The University of Texas at Austin SUPERVISED CLINICAL EXPERIENCE Vanderbilt School to Adult Transitions Clinic, Practicum Trainee (08/2009-Present) Provide individual and group therapy to individuals age 17 and up with intellectual disabilities and a co-occurring mental health diagnosis. Lead a group aimed at improving social skills and promoting social interactions and plan to co-lead another group with a dialectical-behavioral focus. Conduct individual therapy from cognitive- and dialectical-behavioral perspectives. Collaborate with other mental/behavioral health professionals as well as clients, their caregivers, and vocational personnel to create comprehensive treatment plans. Administer and score measures of daily functioning. Supervisor: Bruce Davis, PhD, School to Adult Transitions Clinic Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN Luton Community Mental Health Center, Practicum Trainee (08/ /2009) Provided individual therapy to children ages 6-18 as well as parent training/consultation in a community mental health setting. Collaborated with other therapists and case managers to create systemic treatment plans. Also conducted intake interviews with children and their parents to acquire background information and make diagnoses for incoming clients. Trained to complete managed care paperwork. Supervisor: David Weatherford, PhD, Frank Luton Center, Centerstone, Nashville, TN TRIAD Social Skills Summer Camp, Camp Counselor 06/2008 Co-led a classroom of eight adolescents (ages 12-14) diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder as part of a camp developed by the Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD). Spent three weeks teaching a social skills curriculum, both in structured and in vivo formats. Worked with a team of professionals to implement behavior modification strategies and brainstorm creative ways to model appropriate social interactions. Supervisor: Zachary Warren, PhD, Parent Support and Education Program, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Nashville, TN

2 Amy S. Weitlauf Page 2 Williams Syndrome Music Camp, Camp Counselor 06/2006, 06/2007, 06/2008 Served as a counselor at Williams Syndrome Music Camp, a week-long overnight camp for adults aged with Williams Syndrome. Worked on life skills, social skills, and anxiety management. Led group discussions on challenges common to individuals with Williams Syndrome and taught coping strategies in both structured and in vivo formats. Supervisor: Elisabeth Dykens, PhD, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Nashville, TN Parent Support and Education Program, Practicum Trainee 08/ /2008 As part of a team of psychologists, conducted diagnostic and clinical intake interviews with parents of children aged 2-18 suspected of having an autism spectrum disorder. Observed and received training on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). Integrated testing results, provided immediate feedback to guardians, and wrote comprehensive assessment reports. Supervisor: Zachary Warren, PhD, Parent Support and Education Program, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Nashville, TN Developmental Assessment Clinic, Practicum Trainee 08/ /2007 Provided developmental assessments (cognitive, language, motor, diagnostic) to children aged 2-8 years with developmental concerns including autism spectrum disorders, anxiety disorders, learning disabilities, and genetic syndromes. Integrated testing results, provided feedback to guardians, and wrote reports. Supervisor: Linda Ashford, PhD, Center for Child Development, Vanderbilt Children s Hospital, Nashville, TN Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Follow-Up Clinic, Practicum Trainee 01/ /2007 Provided follow-up developmental assessments (Bayley-III and VMI) to children ages 2-5 years who were born prematurely and spent time in the NICU. Made referrals for necessary followup assessment and intervention. Provided feedback to parents. Supervisor: Linda Ashford, PhD, Center for Child Development, Vanderbilt Children s Hospital, Nashville, TN Down Syndrome Clinic, Practicum Trainee 08/ /2006 Met with children and young adults with Down Syndrome and their families. Conducted informal interviews about current adaptive behavior and provided suggestions for behavior management, extracurricular activities, and enhancing self-care skills. Made referrals for necessary followup intervention. Supervisor: Linda Ashford, PhD, Center for Child Development, Vanderbilt Children s Hospital, Nashville, TN Forensic Psychiatry, Pre-Practicum Trainee 01/ /2006 Assisted with neuropsychological evaluations in a variety of forensic cases involving such issues as child custody disputes, competency for continued employment, and worker's compensation claims. Aided in administration of such instruments as the WISC-IV, the Halstead-Reitan battery, and tests of malingering, as well as evaluative interviews. Supervisor: Jim Walker, PhD, Forensic Psychiatry, Psychiatric Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN Clinical Interviewer 10/ /2006 Administered and scored semi-structured clinical interview (Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia) to children and parents as part of a research project. Supervisor: Judy Garber, PhD, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

3 Amy S. Weitlauf Page 3 RESEARCH EXPERIENCE Graduate Research Assistant, Vanderbilt University (Dr. David Cole) 08/ /2008 Acted as a session coordinator and clinical interviewer for a federally funded longitudinal study (NIMH grant number R01MH64650) examining depression diatheses in high and low risk children. Conducted diagnostic interviews with parents and children in fifth through eighth grade, many of whom came from inner-city, high poverty home environments. Rated symptom severity for depressive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and separation anxiety disorder. Also assessed suicidality and conducted brief interventions when necessary. Additionally, assisted with school data collection, data analyses, creating articles for publication, and supervising undergraduate honors students. Doctoral Qualifying Exam, Vanderbilt University (Dr. David Cole) 04/2009 Conducted a comprehensive review of the development of self-competence and self-concept using meta-analytic techniques, with a focus on Harter s Self-Perception Profile for Children and Marsh s family of Self Description Questionnaires. Discovered age- and sex-related differences in multiple competence domains and discussed the potential implications of these differences for the emergence of social comparison and depressive disorders. Master s Thesis, Vanderbilt University (Dr. David Cole) 08/ /2006 Designed and executed a study examining developmental differences in over 160 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th graders understanding of effort and ability. Coordinated the efforts of four undergraduates assisted with administering measures of mood, motivation, and understanding of effort/ability distinction, in addition to videotaped stimuli, an impossible puzzle task, and a Piagetian balance task, all within a 45-minute experimental session. Managed administrative tasks such as communicating with school administrators, scheduling participants and RAs, and assembling test kits, as well as overseeing and participating in data entry, coding, and analysis. Project Coordinator, University of Texas at Austin (Dr. Eric Stice) 05/ /2003 After college graduation, oversaw a federally funded research study investigating the relation between depressive and eating disorder symptomatology. Conducted structured psychiatric interviews (EDE-Q, KSADS-E) in person and over the phone, scheduled interviews with and tracked the locations of adult and adolescent participants, restructured filing systems and databases, managed funds, and coordinated mass-mailings. Additionally, in conjunction with a graduate student, cofacilitated a short-term CBT group focused on improving body image in college-aged females. Also supervised and trained undergraduate research assistants and assisted in interview training in addition to the customary duties of data entry, filing and copying. Undergraduate Honors Project, University of Texas at Austin (Dr. Eric Stice) 05/ /2003 While enrolled in a psychology honors program as an undergraduate, designed and executed a study testing predictive utility of measures of cognitive diatheses for short-term depression onset in a population with elevated negative affect. Ninety-one university students, selected based on their mid-range scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, voluntarily completed pre- and post-test

4 Amy S. Weitlauf Page 4 measures of negative attributional style, stressful life events, interpersonal deficits, dysfunctional attitudes, and coping style over a six-week period. CURRENT RESEARCH My primary research focus is on the cognitive etiology of depression. More specifically, I am interested in how and when cognitive precursors to depression originate across childhood and adolescence. Presently, my primary topic of investigation is how a child's understanding of attributional dimensions (internality, stability, and globality) influences the relation between stressful life events, attributional style, and increases in depressive symptoms. For example, because younger children conflate effort (an external, unstable attribution) with ability (an internal, stable attribution), they may fail to acknowledge that ability is a limiting factor and therefore experience less depressive affect after experiencing a stressful, ability-related event. In contrast, older children will recognize that ability limits how effort could change a negative situation subsequently experience increased risk for depressive cognitions. In my master s thesis, I mapped effort/ability understanding onto performance on a Piagetian balance scale task to more concretely link the effort/ability distinction (and depression vulnerability) to cognitive development. For my dissertation, I expanded upon these initial findings and measuring attributional style, life stress, cognitive developmental skills (such as working memory), and depressive symptoms to investigate more thoroughly the relation between a child's conception of attributional dimensions and potential depressogenic pathways. I also created and piloted a new measure of children s understanding of the relation of effort to task difficulty, innate ability, and luck. HONORS AND AWARDS Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Elected as Graduate Student Council Representative 2007 Julius Seeman Award for Academic, Personal, and Professional Achievement 2006 University Graduate Fellow, Vanderbilt University Peabody Graduate Honor Scholarship, Vanderbilt University Peabody Dean's Fellowship, Vanderbilt University Elected to Psi Chi 2002 Elected to Phi Beta Kappa 2001 PUBLICATIONS Weitlauf, A. S., and Cole, D. A. (in press). A Longitudinal Examination of the Development of Self- Competence: A Literature Review. Journal of Early Adolescence. Cole, D. A., Jacquez, F. M., Truss, A. E., Pineda, A. Q., Weitlauf, A. S., Tilghman-Osborne, C. E., Felton, J. W., & Maxwell, M. (2009). Gender Differences in the Longitudinal Structure of Cognitive Diatheses for Depression in Children and Adolescents. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65,

5 Amy S. Weitlauf Page 5 Folmer, A. S., Cole, D. A., Sigal, A. B., Benbow, L. D., Satterwhite, L. F., Swygert, K. E., and Ciesla, J. A. (2008). Age-related changes in children s understanding of effort and ability: Implications for attribution theory and motivation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 99, Cole, D. A., Ciesla, J. A., Dallaire, D. H., Jacquez, F. M., Pineda, A. Q., LaGrange, B., Truss, A. E., Folmer, A. S., Tilghman-Osborne, C., & Felton, J. (2008). Emergence of attributional style and its relation to depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, Dallaire, D.H., Cole, D. A., Smith, T.M., Ciesla, J.A., LaGrange, B., Jacquez, F.M., Pineda, A.Q., Truss, A.E., & Folmer, A.S. (2008). Predicting children s depressive symptoms from community and individual risk factors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37, LaGrange, B., Cole, D. A., Dallaire, D. H., Ciesla, J. A., Pineda, A. Q., Truss, A. E., & Folmer, A. (2008). Developmental changes in depressive cognitions: A longitudinal evaluation of the Cognitive Triad Inventory for Children. Psychological Assessment, 20, MANUSCRIPTS Reilly, L. C., Ciesla, J. A., Felton, J. W., Weitlauf, A. S., and Anderson, N. L. (under review). Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression: A Comparison of the Weakest Link, Keystone and Additive Models. CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Folmer, A. S., & Cole, D. A. (April, 2009). A Longitudinal Examination of the Development of Self- Competence. Presented at April 2009 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, Colorado. Folmer, A.S., Cole, D.A., Sigal, A.B., Swygert, K.E., Satterwhite, L.F., and Benbow, L.D. (March, 2007). Development of Children s Conceptions of Effort and Ability: Implications for Attributional Models of Depression. Presented at March 2007 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Atlanta, Georgia. Bruce, A. E., & Folmer, A. S. (June, 2006). Testing Three Cognitive Diatheses for Depression in Children. Canadian Psychological Association 2006 meeting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Also accepted at the 2005 annual meeting of the Society for Research in Psychopathology, which was canceled due to Hurricane Wilma.) TEACHING EXPERIENCE Teaching Assistant, PSY 310 Statistical Inference Fall 2009 Acted as a teaching assistant for a graduate-level introductory statistics course. Assisted with administration and scoring of assignments, laboratory activities involving the statistical programs SPSS and R, and exam administration.

6 Amy S. Weitlauf Page 6 GRADUATE COURSE WORK Assessment- Cognitive Assessment (included training on the Wechsler series as well as a variety of other child assessment tools), Personality Assessment (included training on the MMPI, Rorschach as well as a variety of other projective and non-projective assessment tools), Clinical Neuropsychology (included training on the Halstead-Reitan battery, the Booklet Categories Test, and a variety of other assessment tools) Psychotherapy- Theories of Psychotherapy (overview of various psychotherapy techniques), Interventions with Children (overview of therapeutic techniques for pediatric populations), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (seminar course on theory behind and application of cognitive therapeutic techniques) Psychopathology- Psychopathology (broad introduction to psychopathology), Professional Ethics, Developmental Psychopathology seminar (seminar examining current literature with a focus on childhood psychopathology), Anxiety Disorders (seminar broadly examining etiology, course, and treatment of anxiety disorders) Research Methods and Statistics- Quantitative Methods and Experimental Design, Statistical Inference, Measurement, Correlation and Regression, Research Methods in Clinical Psychology, Structural Equation Modeling Core Area Courses - Emotion and Appraisal, Social Psychology, Biological Bases of Behavior, Cognitive Development seminar