Archived

This content is available here for research, reference, and/or recordkeeping.

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1927-4226

Date Available

4-7-2026

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Psychology

Faculty

Lauren Whitehurst

Faculty

Shannon Sauer-Zavala

Faculty

Michael Bardo

Abstract

Rhythms are central to nearly every core physiological and psychological process and have profound influences on overall health and well-being, particularly in the context of mood disorders. This dissertation emphasizes a rhythm-centered framework for understanding transdiagnostic psychopathology, proposing that the temporal organization of psychosocial stress, sleep, and mood provides crucial information for the development and treatment of mood disorder symptomology. Current literature relies primarily on mean symptom levels, overlooking day-to-day patterns in psychosocial experiences. To address this key methodological gap, three studies are examined. Study 1 develops and validates the Psychosocial Stress Regularity Measure (PSRM), a brief single-item measure of day-to-day psychosocial stress regularity. Results indicate that individuals with low stress regularity (i.e., high daily variability in psychosocial stress experiences) were 75.2% more likely to report clinically significant depressive symptoms. Study 2 integrates the PSRM with actigraphy and polysomnography to examine the relationship between psychosocial stress and sleep architecture and sleep/wake regularity. Study findings suggest that the association between psychosocial stress and sleep architecture may be conditional on both absolute stress levels and the consistency of individual stress experiences, rather than stress intensity alone. Study 3 implements the PSRM in a single-blind neurophysiological vagal stimulation intervention experiment to evaluate whether individual differences in psychosocial stress regularity can moderate intervention response. Results revealed that psychosocial stress regularity moderated the relationship between stimulation condition and depressive symptoms such that participants with lower stress regularity exhibited higher depressive symptoms under active versus sham stimulation. Across studies, this dissertation demonstrates that daily rhythms in psychosocial stress are measurable, meaningfully coupled with sleep and mood rhythms, and informative for understanding vulnerability to psychopathology and response to intervention, highlighting temporal organization of stress rhythms a promising target for future assessments and interventions in mood disorders.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2026.43

Archival?

Archival

Download

Share

COinS