Psychology Commons^™

Attachment, Exploration, And Internalized Homonegativity, Gregory J. Gagnon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Internalized homonegativity (IH; a.k.a. internalized homophobia), has been implicated in health disparities between lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons (LGBs) and their heterosexual peers. Yet, little available research has explored factors that may increase or decrease IH.

Objective: This dissertation investigates relations between child and adult attachment and IH. It further examines the mediating and moderating roles of exploration and mentalization, respectively, in the attachment–IH relation.

Method: One hundred fifty cisgender LGB adults participated in two waves of an online survey. The first assessed recalled child–maternal and child–paternal attachment and current attachment to the romantic partner. The second, conducted two …

Therapist Mentalization And Patient Outcomes In The First Year Of Psychotherapy, Michael Palumbo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined associations between therapist mentalization and patient outcomes in the first year of psychotherapy. Mentalization is the implicit and explicit consideration of mental states—one’s own as well as others’—and how such states mediate a person’s experiences in the world. It is conceptualized as existing on a scale of increasing complexity. This study sought to extend developmental research that has illustrated the positive influence of a parent’s mentalization on a child’s emotional well-being. Specifically, it was proposed that psychotherapy cases with high levels of therapist mentalization would have better patient outcomes than those with low levels of therapist mentalization. …

The Intergenerational Transmission Of Mentalization: How Parental Reflective Function On The Parent Development Interview Relates To Child Mentalization On The Thematic Apperception Test, Kira Boesch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mentalization is defined as the metacognitive ability to think about one’s own and other’s thoughts and feelings, with the goal of comprehending behavior (Benbassat & Priel, 2012). Mentalization is associated with secure attachment, and is both directly and indirectly linked to multiple social and emotional outcomes. This study looked at the correlation between parent and child mentalization as a means of exploring the impact of parent reflectiveness on children’s’ mentalization capacities.

Methods: This study utilized archival data collected at The Psychological Center, a community mental health clinic at the City College of New York. The sample consisted of 15 parent-child …

Reflective Functioning In Patients With Panic Disorder With Or Without Agoraphobia: An Examination Of The Effects Of Comorbid Personality Disorders, Tempe Watts

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examined reflective functioning (RF) in patients who experience a combination of panic and personality disorders (PD). Despite broadly accepted beliefs that comorbid personality and Axis I disorders indicate poor prognosis, limited research has examined how these two axes interact within a panic disorder population. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders typifies personality disorders as fitting different clusters categorization: cluster A referring to "odd" personality disorders, including schizoid, schizotypal and paranoid PDs; cluster B referring to "dramatic" personality disorders, including borderline, narcissistic, histrionic and antisocial PDs; and cluster C referring to "anxious" personality disorders, including avoidant, dependent …