Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Venture Behavioral Health Southwestern Michigan Treatment Of Depression Collaborative Study: The Effectiveness Of Behavioral Activation Group Therapy: An Initial Investigation, Jeffrey F. Porter

Dissertations

A recent empirical study (Jacobson et al., 1996) suggested that the Behavioral Activation (BA) component of Beck’s Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CT) for depression (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979) may be as effective a treatment for clinical depression as the full CT treatment. BA involves intervention choices that are fewer in number and more straightforward than those contained in CT, making BA a more efficient treatment than CT. The purpose of this study was to extend the research on BA by administering it as a group therapy and to evaluate this treatment in a natural setting. This was achieved by classifying …

Journey To Self: The Experience Of Inner Life Of Helping Professionals, Candace W. Ross

Dissertations

Based on the assumptions that self-awareness is an important factor in healthy and effective functioning of helping professionals (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 1998) and that the self of the therapist is an important tool in effective therapy (Baldwin, 2000), this phenomenological study was conducted to explore the experience of inner life of helping professionals. Three women and two men, either licensed counselors or psychologists who were working in therapeutic settings, agreed to participate in a two-part interview. In the first interview, the participants described their experience of inner life, including what facilitated or hindered their experience, how inner life informed …

Membership At Risk: Representation Of Disability In Popular Counselor Education Textbooks, Nancy A. Rosenau

Dissertations

Representations of disability in American culture are saturated with negative images and meanings. Pervasive negativity threatens full societal membership and its related benefits of a sense of belonging, connectedness, and inclusion, and a source of identity, social networks and empowerment for people with disabilities.

Disability pride is a resistant movement that seeks to denaturalize assumptions about the negative experience of disability. The multicultural turn in counseling recognizes that competent practice requires awareness of diverse groups in society. Disability as the largest minority group in the U.S. requires counselor awareness. This study examined the representation of disability in a sample of …

Emotional Expressiveness And Problematic Behaviors Among Male Juvenile Sexual Offenders, General Offenders, And Nonoffenders, Carin M. Ness

Dissertations

This analytic variable study examined the potential differences that exist among male juvenile sexual offenders (JSOs), general offenders (GOs), and nonoffenders (NOs) on the emotional expressiveness variables of alexithymia and affective orientation, and three problematic behavior variables including self-defeating behavior, risk taking, and reckless behavior. It was hypothesized that JSOs and GOs would be statistically significantly different than NOs on all variables but not different from each other.

Hypotheses were tested by a MANOVA. When statistical significance was indicated, ANOVAs were computed to identify the specific groups and measures, which were statistically significant The significance level for all analyses was …

Counselor-Client Value Similarity And Dissimilarity, The Working Alliance, And Counseling Outcome, Lynn Nylund Lupini

Dissertations

Previous research in client-counselor value similarity and outcome studies has produced contradictory results. In the present study, an expanded model of Vervaeke, Vertommen, and Storms’ (1997) value similarity construct was used to measure the degree of similarity and dissimilarity of values within the counseling dyad. The first purpose of the present study was to investigate the interrelationships among the client-counselor value similarity and dissimilarity, the working alliance and counseling outcome. The second purpose was to determine if the working alliance was a mediating factor between value (dis)similarity and counseling outcome, thus, providing insight into the previous contradictory results within the …

A Preliminary Investigation Of The Acceptability And Effectiveness Of Computer-Based Adjunctive Parent Training For Child Noncompliance, Dwayne M. Munneke

Dissertations

Noncompliance with parent requests is a commonly reported behavior problem for clinic-based child referrals. Parent skills training has been empirically demonstrated as an effective treatment for helping parents increase positive child behaviors and decrease negative behaviors. Unfortunately, many therapists and agencies are unable to implement parent-training programs due to limited therapist training, limited economic resources, or long waiting lists.

Adjunctive, computer-based, treatment programs have become increasingly popular in both research and clinical settings for facilitating psychological assessment and intervention. This project involved the development and preliminary investigation of the effectiveness and acceptability of a computer-based program designed to supplement therapist-delivered …

The Supplemental Effects Of Feedback On Productivity Under Individual Incentives, Barbara R. Bucklin

Dissertations

This study examined the effects of an individual incentive system with and without feedback in order to determine if feedback supplements the effects of incentives. Participants were seven college students who performed a computerized work task called SYNWORK. SYNWORK presented four sub-tasks concurrently: memory, arithmetic, visual monitoring and auditory monitoring. Participants earned points for correct responses. Dependent variables were the total number of points earned, percent correct, and time-on-task. An ABAC within-subject reversal design was used with A = individual monetary incentives without feedback, B = individual monetary incentives with end-of-session feedback, and C = hourly pay with end-of session …

Affective Responses To Television Newscasts: Have You Heard The News?, Jessica Purtan Harrell

Dissertations

This study examined the impact o f television news viewing on affective responses in viewers. Participants watched a 10-minute newscast that contained only negative, only positive, or both negative and positive news stories at either 8:00 a.m. or 6:00 p.m. Negative news viewers showed elevations in anxiety and negative affect, while positive news viewers showed decreases in anxiety and negative affect. Watching a combined newscast resulted in no mood changes. Affective changes caused by watching the news were not maintained 3 hours after viewing, and morning versus evening viewing had no impact on mood responses to that news. While news …

Research Into The Relationships Among Multicultural Training, Racial And Gender Identity Attitudes And Multicultural Competencies For Counselors, Debbie Koettzow

Dissertations

This study explored the relationships among multicultural training, racial identity attitudes, gender identity attitudes, and multicultural competencies in counseling trainees. Two principal research hypotheses were generated. The first generally stated hypothesis was that racial identity and gender identity represent parallel processes for those whose racial and gender identities share a cultural status (minority-minority or majority-majority) and are independent processes for those whose identities do not share a cultural status (minority-majority). The second generally stated hypothesis was that multicultural training predicts racial identity attitudes, gender identity attitudes, and multicultural competencies, and that both racial and gender identity attitudes predict multicultural competencies. …

The Experience Of Interpersonal Forgiveness: An Empirical-Phenomenological Investigation, Halimatun Halaliah Mokhtar

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the lived experience of interpersonal forgiveness of individuals (known as co-researchers) by employing the empirical-phenomenological method. This study aimed at identifying, understanding, and describing the general psychological meaning (Tesch, 1990) or the essences/structures (Moustakas, 1994) of the experience of the phenomenon through the protocols of these individuals. It was also a goal of this study to develop a psychological theory of interpersonal forgiveness.

A two-interview structure was conducted with eight individuals (three males and five females) who had forgiven their significant offending others. The first interview focused on the meaning and …

A Comparison Of Cognitive Restructuring And Systematic Desensitization Techniques For Anger Reduction With An Inmate Population, Lori Ann Diaz

Dissertations

This was a dismantling study comparing the effectiveness of the Cognitive Restructuring (CR) and the Systematic Desensitization (SD) components of Deffenbacher et al.’s (1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994) treatment of anger. This study utilized an inmate population in a rural county jail. Each group completed a battery of measures (State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory [Spielberger, 1996]; Anger Symptom, and Anger Situation [Hazaleus & Deffenbacher, 1986]) at baseline (5 weeks prior to treatment), pretreatment, and posttreatment. Subjects completed an Anger Log weekly and a Satisfaction measure following treatment. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV: Patient Questionnaire was completed during the baseline period …