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2016

Trauma

Theses/Dissertations

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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Primer On Perspectives And Practices Of Trauma, Trevor P. Haase Dec 2016

Primer On Perspectives And Practices Of Trauma, Trevor P. Haase

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

A large majority of the general population has endured at least one traumatic event in their lifetime and many will seek counseling services to process and resolve the impact from the traumatic experience. Counselors and mental health providers will likely encounter trauma survivors in a high frequency in the majority of therapeutic settings. Practicum and internship level counselors are often not prepared for navigating the complexities that arise working with trauma survivors. This paper outlines the various perspectives and practices of the works of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Narrative Therapy, and Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. These orientations were designed …

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Association Between Combat, Morally Injurious Experiences, Spiritual Injury, And Alcohol Use Among Active Duty Military Personnel And Veterans, Allison T. Robbins Oct 2016

Association Between Combat, Morally Injurious Experiences, Spiritual Injury, And Alcohol Use Among Active Duty Military Personnel And Veterans, Allison T. Robbins

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Literature has supported that, along with physical and psychological injuries, combat profoundly impacts veterans’ moral and spiritual belief systems and may contribute to negative health behaviors. Moral injury is a developing construct related to negative consequences associated with war-zone stressors that transgress military veterans’ deeply held values and belief systems. Additionally, spiritual injury addresses negative responses to an event that damages their relationship with God, self, and others, and alienates an individual from that which gives meaning to their lives. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between combat exposure, morally injurious experiences (MIEs), spiritual injury, …

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Investigating The Construct Of Psychopathy In Lebanese And American Adults, Marie-Anne Issa Sep 2016

Investigating The Construct Of Psychopathy In Lebanese And American Adults, Marie-Anne Issa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Psychopathy has been primarily investigated in forensic and psychiatric populations in North America. Cross-cultural studies, mainly conducted in Europe, have shown disparities in psychopathy scores and the measures’ psychometric properties, which raise the issue of cultural factors, such as individualism-collectivism, values, and different ways of emotional expression, and the impact of these cultural factors on the construct and its manifestation. Psychopathy has been rarely explored in Arab populations. This dissertation examines the construct of psychopathy among Lebanese adults, to assess its meaning, relevance, and utility among this population and compares the responses of Lebanese to American adults. The design of …

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Traumatic Stress, World Assumptions, And Law Enforcement Officers, Douglas William Green Sep 2016

Traumatic Stress, World Assumptions, And Law Enforcement Officers, Douglas William Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study examined the presence of traumatic stress reaction symptoms among active law enforcement officers, and the relationship between potentially traumatic work related experiences, officers’ cognitive views of the world, and the expression of those symptoms. The range of police roles and responsibilities arguably subjects officers to a greater variety of potentially traumatizing experiences than any other population, and the literature reflects that police officers express traumatic stress related symptoms at a greater rate than the general population. This study differs from previous work in that it utilizes snowball sampling to anonymously identify officers willing to participate without involving …

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Cross Validation Of The Caregiving Helplessness Questionnaire: Associations With Maternal History Of Maltreatment And Intimate Partner Violence, Maegan Calvert Aug 2016

Cross Validation Of The Caregiving Helplessness Questionnaire: Associations With Maternal History Of Maltreatment And Intimate Partner Violence, Maegan Calvert

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Disorganized caregiving has been associated with both maternal childhood history and current experiences of trauma. However, the methods by which disorganized caregiving has been studied have been time intensive and costly. The current study aimed to extend previous research with the Caregiving Helplessness Questionnaire (CHQ; George & Solomon, 2011), which is a self-report measure designed to assess aspects of disorganized caregiving such as caregiving helplessness, role reversal, and frightened/frightening caregiving experiences. Participants (N = 156) were a community sample of mothers of children ages 5 to 10 who were primarily white and who reported a range of traumatic experiences. It …

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Development Of The Early Childhood Traumatic Stress Screen, Sara Elisabeth Harris Jul 2016

Development Of The Early Childhood Traumatic Stress Screen, Sara Elisabeth Harris

Dissertations (1934 -)

The study aimed to develop a brief screening instrument to assess symptoms associated with potentially traumatic experiences (PTE) in very young children (under 6). Potential items for the Early Childhood Traumatic Stress Screen (ECTSS) were sampled from each of the major content areas implicated in trauma. The items underwent a principle component analysis, which produced a 34-item screening measure with four reliable factors and one sub-scale assessing response style. All subscales and the overall trauma composite score significantly correlated with pre-established measures of traumatic stress in very young children, and a receiver operating characteristics curve analysis identified a cut-score with …

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The Relationship Between Trauma-Related Shame, Disordered Behaviors, And Contextual Factors Of Sexual Trauma Beyond Trait-Shame And Sex-Guilt, Michele Laaksonen Jul 2016

The Relationship Between Trauma-Related Shame, Disordered Behaviors, And Contextual Factors Of Sexual Trauma Beyond Trait-Shame And Sex-Guilt, Michele Laaksonen

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Relatively little is known about the effect of contextual factors of sexual trauma (age at trauma, type of trauma, perpetrator gender, tactics, and relationship) and trauma-related shame and risk-taking motivations. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine this relationship among a sample of 360 undergraduate women with histories of sexual trauma, hypothesizing that trauma-related shame and motivations for participation in extreme sports, drinking games, and sex would differ based on the contextual factors of sexual trauma and the past experience of non-sexual trauma. Age was related to the linear combination of trauma-related shame and risk-taking motivations. Furthermore, contact, relationship, and …

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Lung Cancer-Related Emotional Growth : The Role Of Coping Styles And Prior Trauma., Moriah Horn May 2016

Lung Cancer-Related Emotional Growth : The Role Of Coping Styles And Prior Trauma., Moriah Horn

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The objective of this study was to explore the relationship of prior traumatic history, coping styles, and post-traumatic emotional growth in participants diagnosed with lung cancer. Participants (n = 40) completed baseline questionnaire packets as part of their initial entry into the ongoing study “Understanding the Prognostic Significance of Circadian Disruption in Lung Cancer.” Linear hierarchal regressions adjusted age at diagnosis, stage, and household income. Analyses revealed no relationship between traumatic history and post-traumatic emotional growth. However, lung cancer patients who endorsed active coping styles were significantly more likely to report post-traumatic emotional growth. Secondary analyses revealed this relationship appeared …

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Vocational Implications Of Cult Involvement, Melissa Dawn Jones Wilkins May 2016

Vocational Implications Of Cult Involvement, Melissa Dawn Jones Wilkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, the majority of studies published on cult membership have been quantitative and have focused primarily on theories and trends about cult membership. These studies have been insufficient in shedding light on the individual’s experience. Qualitative studies are necessary to explore the individual’s accounts of their experiences with past cult involvement and the impact these experiences have on employment. Because of the potential vocational impacts of cult involvement, it is valuable to explore the psychoSocial aspects of work. A qualitative methodology informed by phenomenology was utilized to investigate the unique experience of individuals obtaining employment after leaving a cult. Seven …

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The Relationship Between Childhood Trauma And Paranoid Personality Disorder Symptoms, Ayse Arikan Jan 2016

The Relationship Between Childhood Trauma And Paranoid Personality Disorder Symptoms, Ayse Arikan

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Recent literature consistently shows a relationship between childhood trauma (CT) and personality pathology. History of childhood abuse leads to severe loss of trust. This loss of trust in early years is a strong predictor of the majority of personality disorders and is related to several problems in adulthood such as insecure attachment and distrust in interpersonal relationships. Although distrust is the key diagnostic component of Paranoid PD (PPD), empirical research mostly focused on borderline personality disorder (BPD) yielding limited information about PPD regarding its development and potential risk factors. This study has two aims. First is to examine the …

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Influence Of Self-Stigma, Distress Disclosure, And Self-Compassion On Post-Traumatic Stress Reactions In Deployment Veterans, June Marie Ashley Jan 2016

Influence Of Self-Stigma, Distress Disclosure, And Self-Compassion On Post-Traumatic Stress Reactions In Deployment Veterans, June Marie Ashley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Military deployments can contribute to significant changes among the service members who experience them. Particularly regarding traumatic or highly stressful deployment experiences, the potential exists for posttraumatic stress reactions with both detrimental outcomes and beneficial influence. The present study explored this spectrum of reactions through the lenses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG). Given the well-researched presence of stigma within military culture toward psychological distress, consideration was given to how stigma may influence severity of PTSD and degree of PTG. Rather than focusing on public stigma, the present study explored the possible influence of internalized stigma, known …

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Scrupulosity, Trauma And Disgust, Oh My! Assessing The Potential Relation Between Religiosity, Trauma Symptoms And Disgust, Brooklee Lightsey Tynes Jan 2016

Scrupulosity, Trauma And Disgust, Oh My! Assessing The Potential Relation Between Religiosity, Trauma Symptoms And Disgust, Brooklee Lightsey Tynes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lifetime prevalence rates for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are estimated to be 6% in the general population. In the United States alone, an estimated 5.2 million adults will experience PTSD within the year (National Comorbidity Survey, 2005). However, a much larger number of the population will experience some form of trauma over the course of their lifetime. Research has demonstrated that the development of PTSD may be attributed to some factors (e.g., temperamental vulnerabilities, social ecological factors), which may predispose individuals to the development of the disorder. The purpose of this study was to test the association of moral disgust …

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Testing A Brief Directive Intervention To Reduce Symptoms Associated With Trauma, Fernando Trivelli Alessandri Jan 2016

Testing A Brief Directive Intervention To Reduce Symptoms Associated With Trauma, Fernando Trivelli Alessandri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the relative efficacy of a brief directive protocol (DP) aimed at reducing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and an expressive writing protocol (EW), which has more than a 30-year history (Pennebaker & Chung, 2011) of research showing mostly positive effects. The DP included components with research support from studies of expressive writing, prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy, and mindfulness-based therapies. Participants were primarily undergraduate students at a large public university in the southern United States who endorsed at least one traumatic experience and who manifested a minimal level of PTSD symptoms. The …

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Compassion Fatigue And Crisis Workers' Attitude To Work, Maria Adneza Loolo Jan 2016

Compassion Fatigue And Crisis Workers' Attitude To Work, Maria Adneza Loolo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Past research has revealed that mental health practitioners experience challenging reactions in the course of their professional interactions with traumatized clients in the clinical work setting. The demands of caring, without commensurate replenishment, deplete the practitioners' empathy and produces forms of apathy and indifference towards the suffering of others, known as compassion fatigue. This quantitative, exploratory, cross sectional study examined the predictive relationships between compassion fatigue and work attitudes in primary care physicians located in West Africa. The etiological model of compassion fatigue and constructivist self-development theory (CSDT) formed the conceptual framework for examining clinician responses to trauma-related experiences in …

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From Entrenched To Empowered : The Factors Promoting Resiliency And Healing For Lgbtqia Identified Adult Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Assault, Hal Brown Jan 2016

From Entrenched To Empowered : The Factors Promoting Resiliency And Healing For Lgbtqia Identified Adult Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Assault, Hal Brown

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

The objective of this study was to examine the experiences of adults, who as a result of their incidents of childhood sexual abuse were predisposed to present with a variety of negative outcomes, in pursuit of identifiable interventions, practices, and supportive factors effective in mitigating the negative outcomes and promoting survivor resiliency. The bulk of the previous studies of the critical elements for survivor resiliency had been conducted in religious communities. Ensuring a sample composed of individuals with access to an identity-based community, noting that community and connectedness had frequently been considered significant, this study was limited to LGBTQIA identified …

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Identifying The Trauma Recovery Needs Of Maltreated Children: An Examination Of Child Welfare Workers' Effectiveness In Screening For Traumatic Stress, Adrienne Whitt-Woosley Jan 2016

Identifying The Trauma Recovery Needs Of Maltreated Children: An Examination Of Child Welfare Workers' Effectiveness In Screening For Traumatic Stress, Adrienne Whitt-Woosley

Theses and Dissertations--Social Work

Children in the child welfare system comprise a group characterized by their exposure to trauma via experiences of maltreatment, under circumstances presenting multiple risk factors for traumatic stress. High rates of posttraumatic stress have been observed in this population. However, there is currently no standard for the universal screening of children in child welfare for trauma exposure and traumatic stress. The purpose of this study was to analyze the trauma experiences of a sample of maltreated children and examine whether child welfare workers are effective screeners of traumatic stress symptoms with children from their caseloads. Method: A sample of children …

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16pf® Traits As Predictors Of Emergency Medical Service Worker Tenure, Beverly J. Paschal Jan 2016

16pf® Traits As Predictors Of Emergency Medical Service Worker Tenure, Beverly J. Paschal

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States is experiencing a severe shortage of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) paramedics. The job outlook for paramedics (EMT-P) for the years 2012-2022 is predicted to increase by 23%-33%, which is much faster than the 4% average increase of other first-response professions. The average tenure of paramedics is less than 4 years. There is a significant gap in the literature concerning paramedic personality traits and tenure. The primary objective of the current study is to provide empirical data on the personality traits possessed by long-term paramedics (5+ years), and compare them to those with shorter tenure (< 5 years). Using Allport's Trait Theory, I predicted that personality would affect paramedic longevity. The 6 personality traits tested were warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, liveliness, social boldness and openness to change. A socio-demographic questionnaire, determined the length of their EMS career, while the 16PF® Assessment, tested their personality traits. Using t tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, and a set of regression analyses, data were examined to determine if length of career and personality traits predicted paramedic tenure. The research sample consisted of long term paramedics and former paramedics. The results showed that of the 6 personality traits, only warmth was a significant predictor of paramedic tenure. A logistic regression showed for every additional point in warmth, the odds of leaving EMS prior to 5 years increased by a factor of 2.77. This study provides support for positive social change by helping EMS to learn how to increase recruitment and tenure. It also helps by advising EMS agencies to attend to the mental and emotional health of their paramedics by being aware of the level of their warmth personality trait.

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Identifying Risk For Atypical Parenting Behavior Using Prenatal Profiles Of Interpersonal Trauma Experiences And Ptsd Symptoms, Katherine L. Guyon-Harris Jan 2016

Identifying Risk For Atypical Parenting Behavior Using Prenatal Profiles Of Interpersonal Trauma Experiences And Ptsd Symptoms, Katherine L. Guyon-Harris

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Experiences of interpersonal trauma and symptoms of PTSD greatly impact the ability to form and maintain meaningful relationships, which is especially problematic during the perinatal period due to the formation of the mother-child relationship. Interpersonal trauma and symptoms of PTSD present considerable risk for the emergence of a concerning class of “atypical” maternal behaviors (e.g., contradictory communication, sexualized/role reversed behavior, and severe withdrawal) that have serious implications for child social-emotional development. However, past research has focused primarily on how maternal experiences of childhood maltreatment and, to a lesser extent, PTSD symptom severity, predict atypical parenting behaviors. The present study aimed …

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Saving Our Heroes: A Longitudinal Study Of Mental Disorders Within The Fire Service, Bailee Pelham Jan 2016

Saving Our Heroes: A Longitudinal Study Of Mental Disorders Within The Fire Service, Bailee Pelham

Scripps Senior Theses

Previous research on the mental health of firefighters has shown that they are at a greater risk than the majority of the population to develop various mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse, suicidal ideation, and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, very little research has been done on the repetitive cumulative exposure to trauma that is associated with their career, which may lead to elevated levels of mental disorders that may not be detected in one testing. In this study, a series of assessments will be given to a sample of urban firefighters every year for the entirety of their …

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Longitudinal Examination Of Family Violence, Posttraumatic Stress, Social Skills, And Aggression : An Exploratory Analysis, Shawn Wilson Jan 2016

Longitudinal Examination Of Family Violence, Posttraumatic Stress, Social Skills, And Aggression : An Exploratory Analysis, Shawn Wilson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Aggression in adolescence is associated with many negative outcomes both during adolescence and later in adulthood. In order to properly prevent and treat aggression, it is important to understand what factors are associated with the development of aggression. This study examined how exposure to family violence, posttraumatic stress, and social skills were related to both parent- and adolescent-rated aggressive behavior. This study was comprised of two components. First, a series of mediation models were examined using structural equation modeling. Second, exploratory analyses of the moderating effects of adolescent race and gender were conducted using multiple regression. The sample consisted of …

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How Therapists Use And Choose Mindfulness To Treat Trauma, Jessica M. King Jan 2016

How Therapists Use And Choose Mindfulness To Treat Trauma, Jessica M. King

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

This qualitative study used the phenomenological method to examine how therapists use mindfulness therapies and interventions to address trauma-salient issues with their clients. Specifically, it explored therapists’ use of and choices about mindfulness-based treatments when addressing post-traumatic stress symptoms, and trauma-relevant emotion dysregulation and attachment injury. Informants were associate and fully-licensed local therapists, recruited using convenience sampling and snowball sampling by word-of-mouth referrals. Data was collected by semi-structured interviewing. Interview data was analyzed with Moustakas’ (1994) recommended procedures for analysis of phenomenological data. Results, Discussion, Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research are described at the end.

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