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Trauma As Evangelical Anti-Abortion Strategy: A Qualitative Study Of Post Abortion Groups And The Personhood Amendment In Mississippi, Jonelle Henry Husain

Theses and Dissertations

Post-abortion support groups are a new sub-movement or strategy of the broader anti-abortion movement that provide support to women who understand their prior abortions as problematic. These groups construct abortion as a form of trauma that causes post-abortion syndrome (PAS), a broad array of negative mental health and behavioral problems similar to post-traumatic stress disorder. Although these claims are not substantiated by empirical evidence, claims that abortion causes PAS are increasingly featured in the public domain to bolster national anti-abortion claims that abortion represents a public health issue. A majority of PAS support groups are offered by crisis pregnancy centers …

Exploring Coping Mediators Between Heterosexist Oppression And Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms Among Gay, Lesbian, And Bisexual Persons, Kyle M. Bandermann

Doctoral Dissertations

Recently, scholars have begun to advocate that categories of traumatic events be expanded to include experiences that do not meet the traditional diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as oppression. Our study builds on this work by examining experiences with two kinds of heterosexist oppression, one that meets the traditional diagnostic criteria for PTSD (i.e., sexual orientation-based hate crime victimization) and one that does not (i.e., heterosexist discrimination), as predictors of PTSD symptoms in a sample of 427 gay, lesbian and bisexual persons who responded to an online survey. In addition, we examined the mediating roles of coping …

Posttraumatic Outcome Of Intimate Partner Violence: An Examination Of Risk Factors, Joye L. Henrie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Not all individuals who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization experience clinically significant negative outcomes following IPV exposure. For those that do experience negative outcomes, researchers need to identify the mechanisms through which they develop and the manner in which negative symptoms may develop differentially across individuals. This paper provides a review of risk factors associated with negative outcomes following IPV victimization. Accumulated lifetime maltreatment experiences and maladaptive cognitions are both proffered as potential risk factors for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) outcomes following IPV exposure. A community sample (N = 244) of adult females was recruited to assist in elucidating …

Exploring The Inner Experience Of Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Stacy Reger

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Military veterans have returned from combat changed by exposure to trauma for as long as history has been recorded. The field of psychology contains a vast literature describing and attempting to understand Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its detrimental effects on the lives of individuals with the disorder. Despite the volume of study dedicated to PTSD in the literature, in-depth accounts of the lived experience of individuals with PTSD are rare. The current study utilized Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES), a method based on apprehending high-fidelity accounts of momentary inner experience, to explore the inner experience of eight Operation Iraqi Freedom …

Manifestations Of Traumatic Stress Among Adolescent Girls In Post-Conflict Northern Uganda, Tiamo Katsonga-Phiri

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This study examines manifestations of mental health concerns in response to Gender Based Violence (GBV) specifically rape in a Non-western post-conflict setting. The population is a sample of girls aged 13-18 years residing in an Internally Displaced Person’s camp in Northern Uganda. Through semi-structured interviews, the girls shared their experiences of Gender Based Violence. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, 30 transcripts were analyzed to explore what these girls’ experiences have been with regard to rape, mental health and cultural and contextual stressors. Findings show that the girls described experiencing symptoms similar to those outlined in the DSM. Additionally, the girls described …

How Does Social Support Influence Distress In Trauma Victims? An Exploration Of Potential Pathways Using The Trauma Film Paradigm, Matt Jacob Woodward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of the present study was to examine ways in which social support might influence trauma symptoms through a variation in the trauma film paradigm. Sixty-seven undergraduate female students in romantic relationships were randomized to watch a stressful film clip depicting a sexual assault either in the presence of their romantic partner (PP) or in the absence of their romantic partner (PA). Analyses showed that the PA and PP condition did not differ in affect or anxiety experienced before, during, or after the film clip. However, the PP condition experienced significantly more intrusive memories of the film than the …

Showing The Unsayable: Trauma And Juxtaposition In Persepolis And A Child's Life And Other Stories, Lauranne Poharec

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis focuses on two comic books by women that interweave personal trauma with the trauma of historical events: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which explores coming of age against the background of memory of the Iranian Revolution, and A Childs Life and Other Stories by Phoebe Gloeckner, which explores parent-child incest and coming of age in the wake of the American sexual revolution. It argues that Satrapi and Gloeckner, two women comic artists, push the limits of the comics medium and of memoir by using juxtaposition — of alternative illustration styles, of what is seen and what is not seen, …

The Burden Of Western History: Kansas, Collective Memory, And The Reunification Of The American Empire, 1854-1913, Matthew Gordon Stewart

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation, "The Burden of Western History: Kansas, Collective Memory, and the Reunification of the American Empire, 1854-1913," is a widely-ramifying study of the politics of collective memory in Kansas, where the Civil War can be said to have begun in 1854, where it unfolded in especially bloody and traumatic fashion, and continued to be fought in the domain of collective memory into the 20th century. The struggle over collective memory in Kansas is a story that disrupts the conventional narrative of Civil War memory as an ideological victory for the South and foregrounds the interrelated significance of several attempted …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Trauma Informed Practices For Oakland Unite Service Providers, Maereg D. Haile

Master's Projects and Capstones

Oakland, California - a home to almost 400,000 residents - is the top five most violent cities of the nation. There are lots of factors that greatly contribute to violence including: Poverty, housing/homelessness, unemployment, food insecurity, educational attainment, substance abuse. These factors feed to greater healthy disparities and increased trauma in low-income communities – specifically in east and west Oakland. Measure Y, now called Oakland Unite, is the current violence prevention effort that is set for reauthorization in November 2014. In order for these efforts to continue, Oakland Unite has started looking at comprehensive violence prevention initiatives that includes mental …

At Risk For Ptsd: The Public Health Implications Of Trauma, Madeline Peyton

Master's Projects and Capstones

The fieldwork experience is the summation of six semesters of graduate level public health training. At commencement, students are to be proficient in basic data analysis and epidemiological principles, in how environmental risks impact health, and demonstrate strong program planning, evaluation and leadership skills. Throughout, students are encouraged to focus their academic work on an area of public health that interest them and on a problem that they hope to impact in their professional work. I continued in an area I began as an undergraduate student of medical anthropology and explored the systems that interact to influence mental health of …

Introduction Of A Mobile Device Based Tertiary Survey Application Reduces Missed Injuries: A Multi-Center Prospective Study, Bradley S. Moffat

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Missed injuries in trauma patients are a significant source of preventable morbidity. The tertiary survey is a head-to-toe physical exam performed within 24 hours of admission to identify any injuries which may have been missed during initial assessment and resuscitation. The Physician Assist Trauma Software (PATS) is an electronic program designed to guide users through a thorough tertiary survey and document the results. This thesis project was designed to study the impact of implementing this novel mobile device based electronic tertiary survey program on missed injuries. The first phase of this study involved quantifying and characterizing the missed injury rate …

The Relationships Among The Experiences Of Racial Microaggressions In Supervision, Traumatic Experiences, And The Supervisory Working Alliance In Professional Counselors And Counselors-In-Training, Caroline O'Hara

Counseling and Psychological Services Dissertations

Supervision of counseling services is a crucial component to professional counselor development (Bernard & Goodyear, 2009). A common and pervasive threat to cross-cultural interpersonal relationships, such as supervision, is the presence of racial microaggressions (Constantine & Sue, 2007). According to Carter (2007) and Helms, Nicholas, and Green (2012), microaggressions are so damaging, that they may even trigger traumatic responses in recipients. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among racial microaggressions in supervision, the supervisory working alliance, and traumatic symptomatology in supervisees. This study collected survey data from 86 participants who self-identified as racial, ethnic, or cultural …

Comparative Analysis Of Insurance Use Among Dental And Trauma Patients Presenting For Care In Grady Memorial Hospital’S Emergency Department, Lauren Conboy

Public Health Theses

INTRODUCTION: Oral health is a worldwide concern that affects people of every age, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. Having good oral health is vital to overall health and well-being. Dental caries and periodontal diseases are preventable, but disparities exist in access to preventive care. Proper oral hygiene includes brushing with fluoride toothpaste, flossing, and regular dental visits. Adults without dental insurance may have financial obstacles to proper oral hygiene. Due to lack of dental care, adults without dental insurance may seek acute dental treatment in inappropriate settings, such as an emergency department.

AIM: The purpose of this study was to examine …

Pleasure As Pathology: Trauma And Perversion In The Fiction Of David Foster Wallace, Erik Cofer

English Theses

Scholarship on David Foster Wallace understandably tends to focus on addiction in his novel Infinite Jest, as well as on his stated desire for a literary movement that transcends the recursive, ironic loop of the postmodern. This essay, however, explores issues of trauma and perversion in Wallace's fiction – primarily beginning with Infinite Jest, chronologically speaking – demonstrating Wallace's concern with the freedom of choice. A palpable friction exists between conservatism and sexual taboos, and this friction characterizes much, if not most, of Wallace's fictional oeuvre. A principally psychoanalytic reading of the sexual elements at play in Infinite …

We Eat This Gold, Christopher Drew

Theses and Dissertations

We Eat This Gold is a novel set in a small coal mining community in southwestern Indiana. Centered around a son's return to his father's house after a failed music career in Nashville, the novel explores the subtle social structures of rural America, the slow decline of modern coal communities, and the often oversimplified beliefs, worries, and biases found in small towns. It also seeks to provide a realistic portrayal of the inner workings and broader culture of an active underground coal mine, as well as explore the ramifications, both economic and psychological, of serious workplace injuries sustained in such …

Processing Trauma: Reading Art In 9/11 Novels, Karen Kruse Heinemann

Theses

While the negative effects of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 are still permeating throughout the United States, a few novelists have taken on the extreme task of writing about this historic event. Richard Gray describes the failure of language after the attack took place, yet novelists wanted to write about this tragedy anyway. Reading trauma in 9/11 is inevitable as it is important. In looking at three novels that deal with the events during and the aftermath of 9/11, I hope to consider the way art is used in these texts. In doing so, my thesis will look …

Violence And History In South Asian Partition Literature, Devi Prasad Sharma Gautam

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation I examine literary texts of Saadat Hasan Manto, Khushwant Singh, Chaman Nahal, Bhisham Sahni, Bapsi Sidhwa, and Amitav Ghosh in order to explore the historical sense of South Asian Partition writing that exhibits less and less the pain of diaspora, and opens up more and more to a cosmopolitan mode of living. I argue that in a first phase of response to Partition, writers concentrated on the depiction of overwhelming violence; in the next phase, they gave space to reconstruction as well as loss; and in the third phase, represented here by Ghosh, they have concentrated on …

Brief Psychological Intervention For Acute Posttraumatic Stress: Individual And Trauma Factors Affecting Recovery In Low-Ses Minorities., Lindsay M. Bira

Open Access Dissertations

Low-SES minorities in urban areas experience higher rates of trauma and greater need for treatment than the general population. Individual and trauma factors may determine who benefits most from treatment. Brief intervention and group format may be particularly helpful to fully utilize minimal resources and maximize treatment gain. This study is part of a larger NIH-funded study. We worked in an underserved area with recently traumatized individuals to compare Psychological First Aid (PFA: group format, control), Stress Management Therapy (SMT: group format, trauma-writing component)and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR: individual format) to determine the impact of the interventions and …

The Relationship Between Trauma, Internalized Hiv Stigma, Social Support, And Sexual Risk Behavior Among Hiv-Positive Men Who Have Sex With Men Who Seek Sex Partners Online, Kaylee E. Burnham

Master's Theses

Men who have sex with men (MSM) remain the highest risk group for HIV infection. One reason suggested for the increase in incidence in recent years, despite knowledge about HIV prevention, is the use of the Internet to meet potential sex partners. Meeting sex partners online has been associated with greater sexual risk behavior. To date, few studies have investigated psychosocial predictors of sexual risk behavior among men seeking sex partners online. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationships between trauma symptoms, internalized HIV stigma, and social support on sexual risk behavior among MSM who seek …

The Effects Of Trauma On Brain Development In Infancy, Sasha Kellogg

Honors Theses

This thesis explains how trauma, which can be defined for this study as traumatic experiences, affects brain development in infants. For the purpose of this report, infants are defined as being fifteen months or younger. As gathered from the book and articles researched, typical infant brain development, including the eight processes of neurodevelopment and the four main parts of the brain, will be explained in this report, along with how the brain grows and matures. This thesis shows how maturation of the brain in infancy is dependent upon the bonds and connections infants form with others and explains how trauma …

Trauma Of A Perpetrator: Reimagining Perpetrators In Edwidge Danticat's The Dew Breaker, Marinda Quist

Theses and Dissertations

This article studies the possibility of perpetrator trauma in Edwidge Danticat's The Dew Breaker. The article gives a brief historical background of the political violence in Haiti that occurred under the Duvalier dictatorship and focuses specifically on the role of Tonton Macoutes, the violent enforcers of much of Duvalier's oppression. Drawing on trauma theory, the article argues that perpetrators have been very little studied within trauma studies because of the possible moral implications of giving research time to individuals who have often chosen their own path of violence. Along with theorists such as Kali Tal and Dominick LaCapra, this article …

The Journey Back: Revisiting Childhood Trauma, Ruth Lipman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the adult's endeavor to revisit childhood trauma in four sets of literary texts that are not typically studied together. These works, all published after 1968, address the central problem of revisiting childhood trauma in order to open a potential for mourning and sometimes for healing. I explore connections between individual/family trauma and collective/historical trauma. I argue that the use of objects and/or photographs is integral to the process of touching and representing the buried, embodied wounds of childhood, propelling the journeys and conveying the experience to the reader. Each pairing of literary works concerns a different kind …

Rendering The Unthinkable: (Un)Knowable Animality, Compulsory Recovery, And Heterosexualized Trauma In The Hunger Games, Jennifer Polish

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dystopian fiction is expected to reflect deeply on the interactions between identities, bodies, and state control. Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games Trilogy is no exception. The disturbing trilogy situated animality, disability, and trauma (both of non-humans and of humans) as being firmly controlled by the power of the state (the Capitol). Through its portrayal of hunting and genetic manipulation, the trilogy constructed a state-created animality which refused definitive labeling and insisted upon facing animal subjectivity while simultaneously disregarding the needs and desires of those considered to be non-human. Similarly, the state held sway over both the creation and elimination of …

A Parent At War And The "Invisible Wounds" They Carry Home: Ptsd In Military Veterans And A Review Of Psychosocial Family System Challenges, Melina Sofia Calle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom have created a new generation of military veterans and military families, many of which must manage and cope with psychosocial challenges such as posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse induced by the psychological trauma(s) faced during war. Risk factors, buffering factors, and war zone stressors influencing the development of PTSD following military-related trauma will be reviewed. As many of these affected veterans return to living with spouses and children, these psychosocial issues show to bring forth tension, stress, and friction to the family system. This thesis explores the literature of family system …

How Silently Sheela-Na-Gig Speaks: Memory, Mythos, And The Female Body, Amber C. Snider

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How and why do we destroy female agency, still today? Focusing on some of the mythical foundations and formations found in ancient Celtic and Greek imaginings, the "bodily" aspects in particular, this thesis traces the ways in which some of the modern women intellectuals receive or reject the typical feminist or female elements found in mythologies; the elided nature of the female trinity and the life giver-destroyer circularity inherent in goddesses and archetypes, for instance, appears to mirror our cultural impulse to destroy the female body. It is then not enough to create a new mythology by and for women--we …

Rummaging Through The Wreckage: Geographies Of Trauma, Memory, And Loss At The National September 11th Memorial & Museum At The World Trade Center, Jacquelyn Micieli-Voutsinas

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation traces the emergence of 9/11 memory as it is shaped in relation to the event's memorialization at nationally-dedicated landscapes of memory. Focusing on the National September 11th Memorial & Museum, The National Flight 93 Memorial, and the National Pentagon 9/11 Memorial, my research examines how cultural memory is mediated through the establishment of `places of memory' within the built-environment. Here, I argue, the preservation of place acts as a repository of national memory by safeguarding the history of 9/11 for future generations. Contextualizing these landscapes of memory within the global war on terrorism, my analytical framework engages the …

Development And Standardization Of Post-Traumatic Stress And Suicide Potential Inventories For A Corrections Population, Rosaire Patrick Daigle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is found in 8.7% of the general population in the United States. Inexplicably, PTSD is virtually ignored in the United States penal system despite the high comorbidity of suicidal ideation associated with the disorder. Furthermore, the reading level of current instruments utilized to measure PTSD and suicidal ideation in the penal system may be inappropriate since over 14% of inmates enter prison after having only completed at most only 6 years of formal schooling. The purpose of this dissertation is to address this deficit by developing scales with an appropriate measure of PTSD and suicide potential …

Predicting Successful Drug Court Graduation: Exploring Demographic And Psychosocial Factors Among Medication-Assisted Drug Court Treatment Clients, Autumn Michelle Frei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of psychosocial factors on drug court graduation among a medication assisted treatment drug court population. The extant research identifies drug courts as effective in reducing recidivism and relapse rates; however meta-analyses of the drug court literature reveal that there is little explanation as to why drug courts are effectual and especially for whom. This study examined trauma, mental health, and social support to determine predictive psychosocial factors of drug court participants while controlling for certain demographics. The analyses showed that social support was predictive, but failed to identify trauma or …

Constructing, Deconstructing, And Reconstructing Narrative In The Wake Of Trauma With The Fiction Of Charles Brockden Brown And Paul Auster, Timothy D. Han

Master’s Theses

Through the use of a common language, a common history, and widespread communication of current events, the American collective psyche creates for itself a founding mythology, an almost all-encompassing cultural narrative that subsumes every major plot point in the country's history, interpreting new events and reinterpreting old ones. The United States' founding mythology creates a basic interpretive framework with which American citizens can begin creating their own identities while retaining a sense of community. However, because the founding mythology of a community as large as a nation must represent a large number of people, it cannot be terribly complex, as …