Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mobile Mindfulness: There's An App For That!, Katelyn Haschke

Master's Theses

Previous research indicates that practicing mindfulness-based strategies over an extended period of time may positively impact individuals’ well-being, such as improved mood and cognitive performance (Chambers, Lo, & Allen, 2008; Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Kabat-Zinn, 2003; Mrazek, Franklin, Phillips, Baird, & Schooler, 2013). This research also indicates there may be immediate benefits to practicing mindfulness strategies; however, a majority of the existing literature on this topic has focused primarily on extended mindfulness-practices over several weeks with an in-person guide or trained researcher. The purpose of the current study was two-fold. First, how practicing one of two mindfulness-based strategies for a short period …

Reflections On Life: Replication And Extension, Karen Osowski

Master's Theses

This study used an experimental methodology to examine positive affect and gratitude as mediators of the beneficial impact of an intervention in which older adults savor "life lessons" they have learned in growing older on measures of psychological well-being (i.e., positive attitudes toward aging, life satisfaction, anxiety, state self-esteem, and state hope). In the following pages, I first review the background literature on gerontology and quality of life as well as describe, in detail, the original experiment (Smith & Bryant, 2018) that formed the foundation of the proposed research. Next, I describe several extensions of this earlier study that are …

Long Working Hours, Happiness, And Quality Of Democracy With The Case Studies Of Japan And Denmark, Yu Namie

Master's Theses

This thesis aims to reveal the hypothesis that long working hour reduce people’s happiness and undermine democracy. For achieving this goal, this study clarifies the relationship between long working hours, happiness, and political engagement. Moreover, in order to seek the way to increase social happiness, it tries to figure out how global free market economy relates the working hours. The research method mainly relies on the fieldwork in Japan and Denmark.

First, this study succeeded to reinforce the argument that long working hour negatively influenced people’s happiness. Also, if we define the quality of democracy as the society constituted with …

Going For The Goal: The Effect Of Subjective Temporal Distance On Goal Selection, Megan M. Blackley

Master's Theses

Goals are often classified into two types, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic goals are furnished when one finds an activity inherently interesting or pleasurable (Abuhamdeh & Csikszentmihalyi, 2009), whereas extrinsic goals are created when one seeks a reward from an external force (Gunnell, Crocker, Mack, Wilson, & Zumbo, 2014). The pursuit of intrinsic goals represents the purest form of autonomy, which is a staple of positive psychological well-being, and promotes greater task orientation (Nie, Chua, Yeung, Ryan, & Chan, 2014). The current study explores the effects of subjective temporal distance on the selection of intrinsic or extrinsic goal pursuit. Construal Level …

Development Of The Personal And Professional Self-Care Scale, Katherine Elizabeth Dorociak

Master's Theses

In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on the importance of self- care for psychologists and other mental health professionals. However, the research on self-care is limited because of the lack of an empirically based, psychometrically sound measure of this construct. Thus, the purpose of this project was to develop a measure of personal and professional self-care. The preliminary phase involved the development of a self-care definition and a two-factor framework that divided self-care into personal and professional activities. Based on this definition and framework, self-care items were generated for expert evaluation. After incorporating the expert feedback, 52 …

An Exploratory Investigation Of The Effects Of Dragon Boating On The Psychosocial Well-Being Of Female Cancer Survivors, Clara Therese Louise Vanherweg

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to prospectively examine the effects of dragon boat participation on the psychosocial well-being of female cancer survivors over time and compared with the population-based norms. Nine female cancer survivors belonging to the dragon boat team, SurvivOars, participated in the initial measurement process. The measurement packet was 21 page compilation of psychosocial questionnaires capturing demographics, quality of life, moods, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, self-esteem, self-efficacy, social support, physical activity levels, body image, and sedentary behaviors. After 8 weeks, 8 subjects completed the same follow-up questionnaire to assess changes in psychosocial variables over time. Scores were …