Psychology Commons^™

Addressing The Mental Health Needs Of Women In Rural Communities: A Women’S Wellness Group, Andriana Hench

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

This paper explores the mental health needs of women in rural communities. Based on Myers and Sweeny’s Wellness Model (2008), as well as other relevant research, I have developed a group curriculum as a unique intervention to reach this specific population. This paper provides an overview of relevant literature and includes both a handbook for group facilitators and a participant workbook that compliments the facilitator handbook. This group curriculum is suggested for Clinical Mental Health Counselors and other mental health professionals to promote wellness among rural women.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy In College Counseling Centers: Practical Applications And Theoretical Considerations, Carla Chugani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Authors over the last two decades have discussed the myriad of challenges present in managing college students with severe mental health disorders. During the same time period, Marsha Linehan developed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) as an empirically sound intervention for individuals with suicidal and self-injurious behaviors and this treatment grew to be an evidence-based practice for a range of challenging clinical issues. I argue that one solution to continued increases in college students who present for treatment to their college counseling centers with difficult-to-treat mental health issues, including but not limited to, borderline personality disorder (BPD), is to implement DBT …

The Effects Of Mindfulness On Affect And Substance Use, Alicia D. Carter

Honors College Theses

Previous studies have explored the impact of mindfulness on Big 5 personality traits, personality disorders, suicidal ideation, and alcohol use; additionally, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been used to treat individuals suffering from depression and anxiety. However, the practical application of mindfulness has been complicated by contradictory findings in the literature and inconsistent conceptualizations of the construct. The current study sought to investigate potential relationships between types of mindfulness, facets of mindfulness, substance use, and affect. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires related to mindfulness, correlates of neuroticism (i.e., depression, anxiety, and subjective happiness), and drinking-related consequences. Correlational analyses revealed significant …

Mindful Mustangs: A Mindful Meditation App For Cal Poly Slo, Neha Jagannath

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This report discusses the creation and research behind a new mindfulness meditation application called Mindful Mustangs, which is created for the students of Cal Poly SLO. The goal of this mobile website is to use the various techniques used in mindful meditation to reduce the stress and anxiety that college students regularly face. With the onset of iOS and Android applications, similar health and behavioral applications are on the rise. The increase of these applications calls for a certain type of design and a robust analysis must be done to ensure the psychological health of the user. Mindfulness applications such …

Suicide Prevention Strategies In Tennessee Community Colleges: A Case Study, Sandra Perley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for college students; annually approximately 1,100 students in institutions of higher education die by suicide. However, most research related to college student suicide was conducted using the sample of 4-year institutions. Community colleges have seldom been included in the sample of suicide research studies. This qualitative case study research explored the student suicide prevention strategies in the 13 community colleges in the Tennessee Board of Regents higher education system. Data were collected from surveys, institutional web sites, and interviews with institutional personnel.

Approximately half of the institutions offer suicide prevention information to …

School Counselors Lived Experience Of A Rampage School Shooting, Carleton H. Brown

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Minimal research has been conducted to examine school counselors’ lived experiences of rampage school shootings. The purpose of this research is to increase school counselors’ knowledge and skills in responding effectively to such a crisis. A single-case qualitative dissertation study was completed at a rampage school shooting site, a middle school, and the immediate surrounding area in Bono, AR, located in the northeast part of Arkansas. School counselors’ decisions, perceived expertness, and lessons learned were investigated. Data collected included relevant research literature (including comparison research), archival records, direct observation, media reports, and interviews. Participants interviewed were individuals who lived through …

The Relationship Between Counselor Trainees’ Personal Therapy Experiences And Client Outcome, Bonnie L. Vanderwal

Dissertations

Research on mental health professionals’ use of personal psychotherapy indicates that a majority of practitioners have participated in their own personal therapy for both personal and professional reasons (Bike, Norcross, & Schatz, 2009; Norcross & Connor, 2005). Psychotherapists typically suggest that engaging in their own personal therapy has aided in their professional development and clinical effectiveness in their work with clients (Orlinsky, Norcross, Ronnestad, & Wiseman, 2005); however, researchers have been unable to conclude that such evidence exists (Clark, 1986; Greenberg & Staller, 1981; Macaskill, 1988; Macran & Shapiro, 1998; Orlinsky, Norcross et al., 2005). Studies often included psychotherapists already …

Culturally Relevant Parental Involvement: Perceptions Of Mexican Immigrant Mothers In Rural Wyoming, Sandra P. Sanderson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand Mexican immigrant mother's perceptions concerning parental involvement with their children's schools. It provides a perspective on cultural considerations relevant to the implementation of Epstein's model of parental involvement. Eight mothers, two documented and six undocumented, who had emigrated from Mexico and were living in rural Wyoming, were interviewed. The information provided by the participants included descriptions of practices the mothers considered meaningful when involved with their children's education. They shared their own experiences of their school attendance in Mexico and their own parents' involvement with their education. They also shared their understanding …

Community-Based Rehabilitation Supports For Social Inclusion And Work Participation Of Young Adults With Visual Impairment In Kenya: A Case Study, Philomena Jepkemboi Tanui

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Young adults with a visual impairment (VI) experience less interaction with the community that impacts the way they relate to the world as they transition to the larger society where they face significant barriers of adjustment, exclusion, and work participation. Young adults with VI contend with cultural stigma, inequality, poor self-esteem caused by marginalization, a low quality of life (QOL), and lack of Social support systems that exist beyond the home. The aim of this study was to understand the perceptions of young adults with VI in Elgeyo-Marakwet and Kisumu Counties of Kenya concerning the barriers to community inclusion and …

The College Experience: Exploring The Relationship Between Sleep, Executive Function, And Alcohol Use, Evelyn R. Conner

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Parental Divorce On Children's Confidence Levels In Young Adulthood, Lawrence Jackson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Divorce continues to be a life transition that affects a substantial amount of adults and children each year. In addition to the impact that divorce can have on adults involved, the impact of divorce is amplified greatly when there are children involved. Divorce can have long-term effects and may influence children’s relationship satisfaction, trust, commitment in intimate relationships, and optimism (Mustonen, Huurre, Haukkala, Kiviruusu, & Aro, 2011). The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between social support and confidence levels for those impacted by parental divorce. Social support includes guidance counseling, service support, or financial support (Kitson, …

Exploratory Study Of Counseling Professionals’ Attitudes Toward Distance Clinical Supervision, Brittani Fiore Munchel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many forms of distance clinical supervision (DCS) have been used in the last decade, but a sparse amount of research addressing (DCS) in counselor education exists to date. The author used random and snowball sampling to survey American Counseling Association members, with a analytic sample total of 96 participants. In the sample, 54.2% of participants were licensed counseling professionals and 39.6% were student or post-masters level interns. The average participant age was 43, ranging from 23 to 74 years. Participants had a mean of 8.1 years of experience. A total of 37.5% of participants had used DCS at some point …

Bhutanese Counselors' Experiences With Western Counseling: A Qualitative Study, Susan V. Lester

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Following centuries of independence from the rest of the world, the remote and fast-developing Kingdom of Bhutan has recently opened its doors to outside influence. Bhutan has invited the profession of counseling to aid in responding to growing mental health problems, social and family issues, and school and career guidance needs. This study employed the methods of phenomenology to investigate the experiences of Bhutanese counselors with Western counseling in order to understand the intersection of the culture of Bhutan with the culture of counseling. Eleven participants were interviewed and four themes were identified: Conceptualization of counseling, Bhutanese culture, Bhutanese counseling, …

Positive And Holistic Couple Relationship Development, The Soul Mates Model, And Select Pictograms Of Alchemy: A Visual Autoethnography, Luisa De La Lama

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To help contemporary couples successfully navigate the 21st Century’s individualistic, diverse, multicultural, global, postmodern relationship environment, individual, couple, and family counselors, marriage therapists, couple therapists, family psychologists, relationship coaches, marriage educators, counselor educators, and other helping professionals need to understand and promote the positive, strengths-based, holistic, and wellbeing development of couple relationships to help them succeed and flourish in the long- term.

This qualitative, narrative, visual autoethnography explores the researcher’s own experience of the culture of her 27-year long soul mate relationship with her partner through the lens of Positive and Holistic Couple Relationship Development Theory (PHRDT), its 7- phase …

Bibliotherapy As An Intervention For Aggressive Elementary Children, Kari Newman

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effect of bibliotherapy as an intervention for aggressive elementary children at a residential treatment center in the western United States. Bibliotherapy was provided for six children, three boys and three girls, ages 9 to 11, Caucasian and Hispanic, who took part in one of two groups. The study involved a multi-baseline design, beginning with a baseline phase, followed by two separate intervention phases comprised of eight sessions of bibliotherapy. Data gathered from almost daily observations along with pre- and post-intervention ratings of aggressive behaviors indicated that four of the six students demonstrated notable decreases in observed …

Prostate Cancer Screening Intention Among Black Men: A Multivariate Analysis, Crystal Renee Clarke

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of death among Black men, and widespread lack of screening contributes to the mortality burden. The purpose of this present study was to evaluate the effect of relationship intimacy with individual intent to screen using the digital rectal examination (DRE) among Black men. The human ecological theory of human development was a good fit for this present study, as individual health status and population health disparities are embedded in larger historical, geographic, socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts. The ecological framework allows researchers to attempt to identify the influences of all these factors. …

Examining The Relationship Between Bicultural Stress, Mental Well-Being, Perceived Social Support, And Education Among People Of African Descent, Zemed Beraki Berhe

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Studies investigating the bicultural experiences of people of African descent are significantly underrepresented in the literature. The primary purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between experiences of bicultural stress and mental well-being. In investigating this relationship, perceived social support and education were examined as protective factors, and its relationship to bicultural stress for this population. With the ultimate goal of this information contributing to the understanding of bicultural processes within this population and the relationship to mental health outcomes. A non-experimental (non-randomized) research design was utilized to examine the study research questions and hypotheses. The participants …

Construct Validation Of The Psychosocial Costs Of Racism To Whites Scale For Ashkenazic Jews In The United States, Emile Tobias Berk

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study is a construct validation of the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (Spanierman & Heppner, 2004) with Orthodox and non-Orthodox Ashkenazic (of European descent) American Jews. While Jewish-American biculturalism has been explored at length, there is a dearth of psychological research on Jewish-White biculturalism (Langman, 1999). Furthermore, the literature has yet to explore the impact of Jewish religious diversity on Ashkenazic-American self-perception as racially White beneficiaries of unearned privilege.

The Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW) measures three dimensions of White racial attitudes: White Empathic Reactions Towards Racism, White Guilt, and White Fear of Others. …

One-Session Mindfulness Meditation: The Effects Of Stress Anticipation, Christina Dorothy Colgary

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The current study concerns three main questions that are related to mindfulness meditation: the benefits of a brief preventative one-session mindfulness meditation, the effects of mindfulness meditation compared to a concentrative meditation, and correlations between rumination and stress when facing anticipated and unanticipated stressors. Type of meditation and whether or not participants could anticipate an upcoming stressor were varied in four conditions. Participants completed one 20-minute session of either mindfulness meditation or guided imagery meditation and were informed of a speech preparation task either before or after completing the meditation. Both one-session of mindfulness meditation and guided imagery meditation were …

Ethical Decision Making Of Counseling Mental Health Practitioners Working With Clients Right-To-Die Issues, Amanda E. Johns

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose this study was to explore the relationship between counseling mental health practitioners’ attitudes toward euthanasia and their ethical decision making levels when confronted with clients facing end-of-life concerns. A review of literature indicated a series of complex ethical, moral, and societal issues surrounding clients’ right-to-die issues. Because of the lack of research in the counseling field and the growing prevalence of right-to-die issues with clients who have a diagnosis of a terminal illness, more research in the counseling field is needed (Hadjistavropoulos, 1996; Winograd, 2012). Participants for the present study were recruited from six state divisions of the …

The Shared Experiences Of Counselors Who Practice In Natural Environments, Bonnie King

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to gain a deep understanding of the shared experiences of therapists who provide counseling in non-traditional, natural environment settings. Eight participants shared their experiences about counseling in nature. The primary research question for this study was: What are the shared experiences of counselors who provide nature-based counseling? A review of the literature of nature-based counseling provided benefits to spending time in nature, descriptions of various types of nature-based counseling, and ethical and legal issues that affect nature-based counselors.

Semi-structured interviews comprised of open-ended questions were used to collect data by phone and …

An Examination Of High-Achieving College Students: Career Indecision And Career Thoughts, Justina Anne Farley

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the relationships among high academic achievement as measured by ACT scores and participation in honors and/or gifted programming, high levels of self-reported interests and skills, and dysfunctional career thoughts. Participants were 143 first and second-year undergraduate students from two southeastern US universities. Along with demographics, data was collected from the Self-Directed Search (SDS) and Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI). Results suggested a positive relationship between high academic achievement and a greater number of career options to consider pursuing. Specifically, those enrolled in gifted and/or honors programs reported significantly more interests and competencies in a number of domains based …

An Investigation Of Key Personality Traits Of Managers And Executives, Kanwarjit Pahwa

Doctoral Dissertations

The current study examined the key personality traits of executives and managers, and its relationship with their career satisfaction. Executives and managers consists of the top management and their personality has important implications for the performance and development of an organization. The present study attempted to understand the commonalities and differences between the broad and narrow personality traits of executives and managers. Archival data on personality traits and career satisfaction of executives and managers working in different industries around the United States was extracted from eCareerfit.com. Data was analyzed using Independent t-test, Pearson correlation and Fisher’s Z test. The overall …

Mental Health Clinical Managers And Their Multicultural Leadership Practices, Christie Marie Melonson

Theses & Dissertations

There is a general recognition that the United States has historically failed to provide adequate mental health services to ethnic minorities. The American Counseling Association has mandated multicultural competence of counseling professionals in today’s context of dramatic demographic change. Despite numerous studies on practitioners, organizations, models, and interventions geared toward minorities, disparities in access, usage, and outcomes in still exist. Simultaneously, counseling fields have emphasized leadership development as a key factor in improving services, yet training or research on leadership remains scarce. In response to these conditions, this basic interpretive qualitative study focused on exploring clinical managers’ perceptions of their …

The Effects Of Hope, Rumination, Resilience, And Unit Support On Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity In Veterans, Laura Elizabeth Blackburn

Doctoral Dissertations

The current study investigated potential protective resources: hope, rumination, resilience and unit support as they related to PTSD symptom severity among service members who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and experienced combat (N = 191). We also investigated each variable for possible interactions with combat exposure. Correlational analyses and hierarchical linear regression were used to analyze the data. Hope, resilience and unit support were all negatively correlated with PTSD symptom severity and combat exposure. Deliberate rumination and intrusive rumination were positively correlated with PTSD symptom severity. In the regression, significant predictors were rank, combat exposure, resilience and intrusive rumination, …

Pedagogical Approaches To Multicultural Education Within Teacher Preparation Programs, Mark Steven Barajas

Dissertations

Despite national standards established in 1979, U.S. teacher preparation programs have struggled to incorporate comprehensive, multicultural teacher education into existing curriculum (Sleeter, 2008). The weakness of multicultural training in most teacher preparation programs is theorized as a major contributor to the persistent achievement gap between students of color and White students (Ferguson, 2003). Furthermore, literature indicates White teachers frequently hold lower expectations for racial and ethnic minority students compared to White students and these lowered expectations often manifest as lower academic achievement (McKown & Weinstein, 2007).

This study provides empirical data regarding multicultural education within teacher preparation programs. Individual course …

Impact Of Athletic Identity And Emotional Competence On Athletes’ Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help, Garett V. Weatherhead

Dissertations

Athletes have been found to have more negative attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help than non-athletes (Watson, 2005) despite experiencing comparable amounts of mental illness (Markser, 2011). The purpose of the present study was to examine factors that are associated with athletes’ help-seeking attitudes, including athletic identity and emotional competence. A sample of 144 college student-athletes from a small, private Midwestern college in the United States participated in the study. The athletes competed at the NCAA Division III level. Participants were asked to complete the following measures: Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993), Attitudes Toward Seeking …

Coping, Hardiness, And Parental Stress In Parents Of Children Diagnosed With Cancer, Kathryn Lynch Bigalke

Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated a significant increase in stress for parents with a child in active cancer treatment. As the number of children diagnosed with cancer continues to rise, there has been a call to identify factors that may contribute to positive outcomes in these families (e.g., Sloper, 2000; Streisand, Kazak, & Tercyak, 2003). Certain effective coping strategies, particularly related to more problem-focused forms of coping and hardiness, appear to be negatively related to parental stress. However, little is known about how these strategies may impact parental stress in families of children in active cancer treatment. The current study assessed …

Predictors Of Binge Eating In College Women, Emily E. Prather

Dissertations

Binge eating has received increased attention in the psychological literature, as the health consequences are becoming increasingly well known. The prevalence of subclinical binge eating (i.e., binge eating that is not associated with a diagnosable eating disorder) is elevated among college women, some of whom will go on to develop more serious problems. Thus, improved understanding of subclinical binge eating in this population can help to inform prevention and intervention strategies.

In a sample of 472 college women this study evaluated the relationships among four theoretically relevant factors hypothesized to predict binge eating: trait anger, anger suppression, impulsivity, and emotion …

The Relationship Between Sleep And Nutrition In Message Framing Among College Students, Abbey G. White

Doctoral Dissertations

The college years are often depicted as a time of immense change, specifically in relation to college students' level of nutrition and sleep quality. However, these health concerns not only impact college students' health but also their academic performance, mood, and as a result their future. The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether technologically enhanced health messages are more effective than the traditional text format for creating healthy behavioral changes amongst college students. Secondly, the study provides the opportunity to examine previous research involving message framing, specifically, regulatory focus theory and self-efficacy, in order to provide further …