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"Getting Better" After Torture From The Perspective Of The Survivor, Brian Louis Isakson

Psychology Dissertations

The traditional model of Western mental health treatment for survivors of torture has focused mainly on posttraumatic stress disorder and related conditions. This model is symptoms-focused in which the goal is to reduce pathology. In this model, the mental health professional is the expert and the survivors learn from the professionals. Using grounded theory methodology, the current study seeks to expand the understanding for treatment of torture survivors by investigating, from the perspective of the torture survivors, the process of “getting better” after torture. By asking the survivors to explain this process, this study broadens the focus of areas of …

Popular Self-Help Books For Anxiety, Depression, And Trauma: How Scientifically Grounded And Useful Are They?, Richard Redding, Evan Forman, Brandon Gaudiano, James Herbert

Richard E. Redding

Self-help books for psychological disorders have become increasingly popular, yet there is surprisingly little research on their scientific status or overall utility. The authors identified 50 top-selling self-help books for anxiety, depressive, and trauma-related disorders. Using a scale derived from the literature on bibliotherapy, expert psychologists rated each book on overall usefulness, grounding in psychological science, the extent to which it offers reasonable expectations, the extent to which it offers specific guidance for implementing the self-help techniques and for monitoring treatment progress, and whether it offers potentially harmful advice. The results revealed strong intercorrelations among the scales, such that books …

Religiosity And Successful Aging, Jessica L. York

ETD Archive

There has been an increasing amount of elderly individuals who have avoided the crippling health and physical problems that appear to vex so much of the older adult population. These successful agers have also learned to cope more effectively with both the normative and traumatic stressors they encounter over time. Successful aging has been defined in numerous ways and studied in a variety of contexts. This study set to define successful aging in terms of anxiety, depression, and subjective well-being, while also examining the relationship of successful aging with religiosity. The fundamental goal of this study was to examine the …

Failed Men: The Postwar Crisis Of Masculinity In France 1918-1930, Brandon Moblo

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Masculinity has been viewed by scholars as a concept which was concerned with becoming as opposed to being. One could not achieve the state of being a man and become complacent. One needed to continuously prove one’s masculinity to oneself, other men, and women.

With its emphasis on the core values of masculinity such as strength, duty and above all, courage, the First World War was seen in France as the ultimate test of manhood. However, confronted with the horrors of modern industrial warfare, men were put into a situation where they were bound to fail that test. This led …

Effects Of Contextual And Individual Difference Factors On Perceptions Of Victims, Melody Dawn Combs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Victim blame can have detrimental effects on victims' coping with traumatic events. The current study examined contextual (i.e., victim-observer ingroup membership and safety of the environment) and individual difference (i.e., world beliefs, trauma exposure, and cognitive semantic associations) factors in relation to victim blame. Ingroup membership predicted greater character praise in females, while outgroup membership predicted greater praise in males. Victim praise was also greater when the environment was safe versus dangerous. Stronger beliefs about the manageability of the world marginally predicted greater victim blame, while stronger benevolent world beliefs predicted less victim blame and less character derogation. Further, the …

The Effects Of Community Violence Exposure On Children Affected By Hurricane Katrina, Audrey Baumeister

LSU Master's Theses

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most disastrous natural occurrences to ever hit the United States. It is known that increased adjustment difficulties have been found among children following a disaster. Further, community violence exposure has been linked to several areas of negative psychological functioning including PTSD, depression, and anxiety. This study examines the predictive value of level of exposure to the hurricane, level of community violence exposure, and gender, in examining PTSD symptomatology following Hurricane Katrina. Participants were 230 mother-child dyads recruited from various public and private elementary and middle schools within Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish, and East Baton …