Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Personality In Moving Encounters With Sacred Art, Jacob Lang, Despina Stamatopoulou, Gerald C. Cupchik

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

In Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, the material world is understood to contain access points to the transcendent. An icon may move the awestruck believer to emotional engagement and reflection on moral and religious themes. Personality dispositions potentiating the experience of being moved in religious aesthetic contexts have not been thoroughly studied. The present article describes the development and testing of a cross-sectional study into potential belief and personality-related predictors of being moved by sacred art in a lab environment evocative of a holy site. Ninety (90) Christians in Canada and Greece completed personality measures and viewed and rated …

Exploring The Definition Of Resilience: A Convergent Parallel Mixed Methods Study In Adults Over The Age Of 65, Sara J. Blessington

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

The definition of a word helps us understand its context and how it is meant to be used in daily life or research. When a word lacks a universal definition, it is hard to know how to use it. “Resilience” is that type of word. The resilience community in psychological research does not have a concrete, universal definition for this word. It takes on whatever characteristics are useful to the investigator. This study began with seeking a universal definition for the domain known as resilience. This study used a convergent parallel design with adults aged 60 and older living independently …

Black Marriage, Attachment And Connecting In Relationships: An Observational Multi-Method Study Investigating The Effects Of The Getting The Love You Want Workshop On Black Couples’ In-Session Attachment, Interactions, Marital Satisfaction And Communication, Paula Smith

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

The focus of this dissertation is examining the impact of Imago Relationship Therapy (IRT), more specifically the “Getting the Love You Want” workshop (GTLYW), on five Black/African American couples’ attachment, interactions, marital satisfaction and communication. This study examines Black couples’ lived experiences through a modified version of a quantitative measure, called the Patient Attachment Client System (PACS), the Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire-Revised (MSQ-R), semi-structured questionnaires to measure qualitative data as well as direct observation of participants’ interactions. PACS analyzes how patients’ in-session discourse enables them to share present experiences and link these processes with their attachment structure. In this view, attachment …

A Swedish Translation And Validation Of The Mother-To-Infant Bonding Scale, Evalotte Mörelius, Anna Elander, Emmy Saghamre

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© Author(s) 2020. Aim: This study aimed to test initial validity, reliability, and feasibility of the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale in a sample of Swedish mothers. Methods: A translation was performed through 11 steps using a forward–backward bilingual technique. For criterion validity, the Swedish translation of the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale (S-MIBS) was compared with the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire, sub-scale 1 (PBQ1) and 2 (PBQ2) and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in a sample of 63 Swedish mothers. Internal consistency was calculated with Cronbach’s alpha. For feasibility testing, the mothers were asked to grade their experience of S-MIBS and PBQ on a …

Divine Narcissism: Raising A Secure Middle-Aged Adult, Rachel Sachs Riverwood

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Utilizing an arts-based feminist autoethnographic stance and method, this dissertation is an evocative exploration of the process and experience of attempting to develop a cohesive identity and build a secure attachment to the self. The author uses countercultural methods—prioritizing and centralizing her experience and uncovering and acting in defiance of oppressive norms—to identify and experience their impact on her identity and intra- and inter- personal relationships. Various tensions are explored, including the suppression of self and desire, self-objectification, fearful-avoidant attachment, and shame; and their influence on engaging in emotional and sexual intimacy is examined. Critique on the role of female …

“They Let Me Loose, Will You Hold Me Tight?” Adult Adoptees And Their Romantic Partners' Experience Of Attachment After Participating In The Hmt Program, Bethany Baker

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Adult adoptees may be blocked from feeling securely attached to their romantic partners and they may not even know it or what to do about it. The literature shows adult adoptees being overrepresented in insecure attachment styles, and not enough attention has been paid to the effect this has had on adoptees in their romantic relationships. In fact, no known study, to date, has provided an attachment-based psychoeducational approach for this marginalized population. The purpose of this introductory qualitative study was to explore the experiences and meaning-making of attachment, specifically related to adoption, for the adult adoptee and their romantic …

Examining The Effect Of Parental Attachment, Emotional Maturity, Spiritual Maturity, And View Of Suffering On Sense Of Coherence, Alyssa M. Gavulic

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Suffering and loss are inevitable parts of the human experience. Nonetheless, the ability to find meaning in various forms of suffering has been shown to impact individual responses to diverse experiences of pain, distress, and loss. Despite the ubiquitous nature of human suffering, perceptions of the cause, purpose, impact, and outcome of experiences of suffering can vary greatly among individuals. Consequently, this inquiry-oriented, descriptive dissertation research examines how emotional maturity, spiritual maturity, and views of suffering mediate the relationship between parental attachment and sense of coherence. This study employs a correlational research design that examines the scores on a variety …

Associations Of Hiv Risk Behaviors Among Older Latinas And Their Adult Daughters, Gira J. Ravelo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the associations between adult Latina daughters’ HIV risk behaviors and that of their older Latina mothers’ HIV risk behaviors. The central hypothesis of the study is that adult Latina daughters’ influence their older mothers’ behaviors and that such behaviors interact with the level of their attachment.

Older Latinas are a vulnerable population that face cultural risk factors, health care provider bias, and engage in low rates of HIV testing. The primary mode of HIV infection for Latinas is through heterosexual contact. Yet, traditional gender norms such as marianismo belief place pressure on Latina women to be submissive …

Attachment As Affirmation To Inhibit Health Risk Information Avoidance, Elizabeth C. Mccrary

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Previous research on information avoidance has revealed that people choose to avoid negative health information, but that this effect is interrupted by self-affirmation (Howell & Shepperd, 2013). The current study aimed to contribute to the field’s understanding of the conditions under which self-affirmation reduces information avoidance by using a unique affirmation: secure attachment figures. I hypothesized that activating a secure attachment would serve as the affirmation necessary for participants to choose to view their risk information for a fictitious enzyme deficiency. However, when given a choice, participants in both the experimental and control conditions chose to view this information. At …

Attune With Baby: An Innovative Attunement Program For Parents And Families With Integrated Evaluation, Sara Beth Lohre

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Infants speak in their own language; sounds, screeches, cries, and howls that help them to communicate their caregiving needs. Unaware, parents may develop a checklist of caregiving approaches to the baby. The infant tells the adult directly what they need, and waits for the parent to respond. Infant talk may change from soft and quiet to loud and aggressive; coos and cries become crying and screams as the infant’s caregiver—communicating the intensity of emotion, urgency of their request, or their frustration with varied and sometimes inadequate, failed, or missing caregiving patterns the infant has no choice but to accept. When …

A Narrative Study Of Emotions Associated With Negative Childhood Experiences Reported In The Adult Attachment Interview, Lynne Hartman

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Attachment patterns, which tend to be stable over time, are passed from one generation to the next. Secure attachment has been linked to adaptive social functioning and has been identified as a protective factor against mental illness. The parents’ state of mind with regard to attachment—as measured with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) (Main, Goldwyn, & Hesse, 2002)—predicts the attachment classification for the infant in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). Earned-secure individuals have overcome negative childhood experiences to achieve a secure state of mind in adulthood. Earned security, like continuous security, strongly predicts infant security …

The Impact Of Technology On Adolescent Identity Development, Christina Frederick, Amy Bradshaw Hoppock, Devin Liskey, Daniel Brown

Publications

This paper explores how technology use in adolescence facilitates adult identity achievement and presents evidence that technological objects, such as smartphones have become adolescent transitional objects. Early and late adolescents were surveyed about technology use and feelings associated with technology. Among older adolescents, anxiety level was related to smart phone use, such that higher anxiety was associated with greater smart phone use. The feelings and behaviors associated with use of the preferred device are consistent with feelings and behaviors associated with use of a transitional object. In contrast, younger adolescents did not appear to use technology as a transitional object. …

Parenting And Attachment Among Low-Income African-American And Caucasian Preschoolers, Casey A. Dexter, Kristyn Wong, Ann M. Stacks, Marjorie Beeghly, Douglas Barnett

Psychology Faculty Research Publications

Despite a plethora of research on parenting and infant attachment, much less is known about the contributions of parenting to preschool attachment, particularly within different racial groups. This study seeks to build on the extant literature by evaluating whether similar associations between parenting and attachment can be observed in African American and Caucasian families, and whether race moderates them. Seventy-four primary caregivers and their preschool children (51% African American, 49% Caucasian, 46% male) from similar urban, low income backgrounds participated in two visits four weeks apart when children were between four and five years of age. Attachment was scored from …

Pregnancy Loss And Distress Among U.S. Women, Karina M. Shreffler, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Although pregnancy loss—especially miscarriage— is a relatively common experience among reproductive-aged women, much of our understanding about the experience has come from small clinic-based or other nonrepresentative samples. We compared fertility-specific distress among a national sample of 1,284 women who have ever experienced a stillbirth or miscarriage. We found that commitment/attachment to pregnancy that ended in loss as well as current childbearing contexts and attitudes were associated with distress following pregnancy loss. Practitioners working with women or couples who have experienced pregnancy loss should be aware of the importance of characteristics associated with higher distress, such as whether the pregnancy …

Attachment: The Antidote To Trauma, Joshua Straub

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Trauma and loss in life are inevitable. And all too often the traumatic experience itself can be enough to paralyze the mental, emotional, and spiritual state of any given person. Unable to interpret the traumatic experience, many instead are left defined by it. Helping clients discern the objective experience and their subjective reactions to it will help free them from the emotions and beliefs that subsequently control their lives. Based on the most relevant attachment theory research and clinical techniques, this workshop teaches the attentional strategies necessary to helping clients overcome trauma.