Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Theses/Dissertations

2014

Clinical psychology

Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Disclosure And Perceptions Of Social Support In Male Victims Of Child Sexual Abuse, Abigail Leslie Aug 2014

Disclosure And Perceptions Of Social Support In Male Victims Of Child Sexual Abuse, Abigail Leslie

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Child sexual abuse of males is a serious issue that is largely hidden in the United States because many victims never disclose the abuse. The literature review highlights the prevalence and severity of child sexual abuse of males and the negative effects non-disclosure has on the psychological well-being of the victim. The need to study factors affecting whether or not a male victim discloses is stressed, and social support is proposed to be an influencing factor. This study explored the impact of social support on disclosure status for male victims of child sexual abuse in parts of West Virginia and …


Assessment Of Hopelessness In Older Adults: The Development And Initial Validation Of The Hopelessness Inventory For Later Life (Hill), Jeffrey J. Gregg Aug 2014

Assessment Of Hopelessness In Older Adults: The Development And Initial Validation Of The Hopelessness Inventory For Later Life (Hill), Jeffrey J. Gregg

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Hopelessness has garnered a wealth of empirical support as an important construct in psychological assessment and treatment. It is more than a symptom of major depression; rather, hopelessness has been shown to be a strong risk factor for physical illness, suicidal behavior, and mortality. In fact, hopelessness has been found to be an independent risk factor for these negative outcomes controlling for overall depressive symptoms. Hopelessness is an especially important construct for assessment in later life, as older adults are at an elevated risk of suicide worldwide. Studies have generally supported the use of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS; Beck …


Supervisee Experiences Of Impression Management, The Supervisory Working Alliance, And Counseling Self-Efficacy, Jennifer M. Haist Aug 2014

Supervisee Experiences Of Impression Management, The Supervisory Working Alliance, And Counseling Self-Efficacy, Jennifer M. Haist

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Supervision plays a vital role in fostering competent, ethical and effective counseling psychologists. However, studies have shown that supervisees act in ways that counteract the benefits of supervision. Trainees manage supervisor impressions to the detriment of their professional growth; they withhold information that would help supervisors promote learning, clarify misunderstandings, gain insight into supervisee weaknesses and strengths, and provide feedback that would enhance supervisee competence. Supervisee nondisclosure is a particularly prevalent impression management behavior documented in the supervision literature (Hill, Thompson, & Corbett, 1992; Ladany et al., 1996). It and other forms of impression management may be particularly related to …


Age-Related Differences In The Experience Of Health Anxiety And Use Of Coping Strategies, Lindsay A. Gerolimatos Aug 2014

Age-Related Differences In The Experience Of Health Anxiety And Use Of Coping Strategies, Lindsay A. Gerolimatos

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The experience of heath anxiety among older and young adults is poorly understood. Most studies (e.g., Abramowitz & Moore, 2007; Gramling et al., 1996) have examined cognitions and behaviors associated with health anxiety, with little to no studies examining emotions and physiological arousal. The present study induced health anxiety in a laboratory setting with 36 older and 36 young adults by providing false health-related feedback. Outcome variables included physiological arousal (heart rate, blood pressure), self-reported arousal (distress, fear of body sensations), and self-reported emotions recorded across three periods: baseline, induction, and recovery. Repeated measures MANCOVAs were conducted with baseline measures …


Psychosocial Predictors Of Breast Awareness Behaviors, Carol Goulet Aug 2014

Psychosocial Predictors Of Breast Awareness Behaviors, Carol Goulet

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Whether women should practice breast self-examination (BSE) has been debated for decades. Current guidelines promote understanding how one's breasts normally look and feel through the practice of BSE or informal self-examination practices (referred to as breast awareness). This study investigated how modern women practice breast awareness behaviors, and how personal, theoretical, and psychosocial constructs influence engagement in these behaviors. Data from 626 women without a history of breast cancer were used to investigate associations between psychosocial variables (e.g., anxiety, body dissatisfaction, cancer fatalism; religious beliefs and participation) and breast awareness behaviors (BSE frequency and proficiency, frequency of checking for lumps, …


The Evaluation Of Emotion Regulation In Caregivers Referred To A Parent-Training Program, Nancy M. Wallace Aug 2014

The Evaluation Of Emotion Regulation In Caregivers Referred To A Parent-Training Program, Nancy M. Wallace

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In recent years, emotion regulation has become a topic of particular interest to both clinicians and researchers and has been shown to play a significant role in a variety of behavioral and psychological difficulties in both adults and children (Gratz & Tull, in press). However, parents of children referred for parent training may experience significant difficulty regulating their emotions as they attempt to cope with and control their children's misbehavior. The present study explored the role of caregiver emotion regulation in parent training by attempting to understand if (1) parents and children who are referred for parent training have difficulty …


Examining Factors Associated With Faking-Good Responding On The Child Abuse Potential Inventory, Amanda H. Costello May 2014

Examining Factors Associated With Faking-Good Responding On The Child Abuse Potential Inventory, Amanda H. Costello

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Child maltreatment (e.g., physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect) remains a serious public health issue which affects an estimated 19% of victims in the United States (Fang, Brown, Florence, & Mercy, 2013; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010), and therefore, it remains important to continue to engage in quality control of the assessment, prevention, and treatment services for parents and children who have been involved in child maltreatment. Parenting capacity assessments (PCAs) are typically ordered in these cases to offer diagnostic impressions of and treatment recommendations for the referred parent (Budd, Connell, & Clark, 2011). The …


Psychological Measures To Predict Serious Prison Violence, Allison M. Schenk May 2014

Psychological Measures To Predict Serious Prison Violence, Allison M. Schenk

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

With 2.2 million adults incarcerated throughout the United States (Glaze & Herberman, 2013), prisons are crowded, volatile environments susceptible to violence. Prior research has identified demographic and criminal variables that consistently predict prison violence. The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of psychological variables to predict prison violence among 180 inmates from a state prison in West Virginia. The psychological variables studied included history of mental illness and results from psychological assessments (Beta-III, MMPI-2-RF, TCU Drug Screen II). Using a logistic regression analysis, history of mental illness and the MMPI-2-RF scale of Psychoticism accurately predicted violent inmates …


Military Versus Civilian Murder-Suicide Psychological Profiles, Christina Patton May 2014

Military Versus Civilian Murder-Suicide Psychological Profiles, Christina Patton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Previous studies have implicated dramatic differences between military members and civilians with regard to violent behavior, including suicide, domestic violence, and harm to others, but none have examined military murder-suicide. This study compared military and civilian murder-suicide perpetrators on a number of demographic, psychological, and contextual factors. Military murder-suicide perpetrators were more likely to be older, suffer physical health disparities, be currently or formerly married, and less likely to abuse substances. They were also more likely than civilians to complete a murder-suicide due to a motive of depression, rather than one of jealousy or anger related to relationship dissolution. Logistic …


Exploring The Components Of Prenatal Anxiety, Suzan Walsh Clemens May 2014

Exploring The Components Of Prenatal Anxiety, Suzan Walsh Clemens

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Anxiety and fear often are associated with pregnancy, and its short- and long-term biological, psychological, and social lifestyle changes that affect both the mother and the child. The primary aim of this study was to differentiate components of prenatal anxiety and fear, to facilitate operational classifications of those components. A better understanding of prenatal anxiety and fear can inform the creation of future measures and facilitate referrals for high levels of such distress. An exploratory descriptive research design was used to examine potential components of prenatal anxiety and fear (i.e., anxiety sensitivity, fear of pain, depression, and childbirth-related self-efficacy). The …


Evaluation Of Emotion Regulation And Associated Characteristics In Foster Children Using The Dyadic Parent-Child Coding System And Caregiver-Report Measures, Meredith A. Norman May 2014

Evaluation Of Emotion Regulation And Associated Characteristics In Foster Children Using The Dyadic Parent-Child Coding System And Caregiver-Report Measures, Meredith A. Norman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The main purposes of this study were to: (a) explore the validity of a relatively new behavioral observation coding system in young children referred for treatment of disruptive behavior, (b) explore which specific foster parent behaviors are most associated with child emotion regulation, and (c) explore whether internalizing or externalizing foster child behavior problems are most associated with child emotion regulation. The sample consisted of 40 foster parent-child dyads who participated in a larger study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Assessments included behavioral observation of child emotion regulation using the Global Dysregulation Scale and a calculation of the …


Effectiveness Of Community-Delivered Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Compared To Treatment As Usual, Jocelyn Stokes Jan 2014

Effectiveness Of Community-Delivered Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Compared To Treatment As Usual, Jocelyn Stokes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a "probably efficacious" treatment for children with disruptive behavior disorders (Eyberg, Nelson, & Boggs, 2008). However, many of the characteristics of the efficacy studies (e.g., therapy conducted in university-based clinics, graduate student therapists, supervision and feedback on integrity to the model, recruited families, homogeneous samples) supporting PCIT may limit the generalization of the results to the community setting where most families receive treatment (e.g., Weisz, Jensen-Doss, & Hawley, 2006). Few studies of PCIT have examined the effectiveness of PCIT implemented by community therapists, and these studies have many methodological limitations including no reliability of observational …