Psychology Commons^™

Understanding Perceptions Of Quality Among Early Childhood Education Stakeholders In Tanzania And Lesotho: A Multiple Qualitative Case Study, Dawn Davis, Debra Miller, Dorothy Mrema, Moikabi Matsoai, Ntsoaki Mapetla, Abbie Raikes, Anna Burton

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Recent global efforts around early childhood education (ECE) have led to increased investments and access, especially in low- and middle-income countries (UNESCO, 2019). As access grows, focus has shifted from enrollment to quality (Gove, 2017). This paper explores how ECE stakeholders in Tanzania and Lesotho define ECE quality. Findings show that stakeholders define quality in similar ways, highlighting the importance of trained teachers who implement specific teaching practices, strong partnerships with families and the community, critical infrastructure, and government support. However, review of the country contexts found that current conditions and support for these quality indicators were lacking.

“I Don’T See It That Way Anymore”: A Qualitative Study Of Significant Changes Of Mind, Austin C. Archer

The Qualitative Report

The specific aim of the study is to explore the cognitive and emotional phenomena which accompany profound changes of perspective that people have. I would like to understand the change in a person’s thinking and in what way the person experiences these changes, whether it is a change in belief or a worldview. I would also like to understand whether external factors such as that facilitate these profound changes. Using a phenomenological approach, I interviewed eight adult participants in depth regarding changes to their worldview. I examined three phases of change, namely pre-change phase, the change phase, and the post-change …

The Meaning Of “Phenomenology”: Qualitative And Philosophical Phenomenological Research Methods, Heath Williams

The Qualitative Report

I show some problems with recent discussions within qualitative research that centre around the “authenticity” of phenomenological research methods. I argue that attempts to restrict the scope of the term “phenomenology” via reference to the phenomenological philosophy of Husserl are misguided, because the meaning of the term “phenomenology” is only broadly restricted by etymology. My argument has two prongs: first, via a discussion of Husserl, I show that the canonical phenomenological tradition gives rise to many traits of contemporary qualitative phenomenological theory that are purportedly insufficiently genuine (such as characterisations of phenomenology as “what-its-likeness” and presuppositionless description). Second, I argue …

Teacher Perception On Integrating School Psychology In The Developing Nation Of Grenada, Carla Erica Maria St. Louis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractInternationally, formalized school psychology and related services strive to address the academic and mental health of students in schools. In developing nations, teachers are the primary professionals to address students’ needs in schools. Little research has focused on teachers’ perceptions of students’ needs, available services’ quality, and how formalized structures with qualified certified professionals can further address students’ needs. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems and Nastasi’s participatory culture-specific intervention model are the theoretical underpinnings of this qualitative study and focus group interviews were used to investigate special education needs (SEN) teachers’ perceptions. Data were collected using open ended questions and probes with …

Resilience In Cancer Patients, Lori A. Gardner

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

The phenomenon of resilience has long been identified as a key talking point within the realm of overall mental health, but the concept’s specific meaning, qualities, and sources remain somewhat elusive. For those with chronic health conditions, resilience is often identified as essential to coping effectively with significant disruptions to daily activities. The purpose of this study was to better understand the concept of resilience and to determine themes that underlie resilience, specifically within a cancer patient population. This goal was addressed by using a qualitative approach to elicit commonalities among the experiences of cancer patients representing varying types and …

Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Adults’ Experiences With Supportive Religious Groups, Rachel Grossman

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative research study was designed to explore lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) young adults’ views about how being a member of supportive and affirming religious places of worship and social groups influenced their self-acceptance, as well as their ability to integrate their religious and sexual minority identities. In this study, six in-person interviews were completed with participants who (a) were 18-24 years old; (b) identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual; (c) were members of supportive Jewish and Christian religious groups; and (d) identified as cisgender. The data from the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis to tell cohesive stories …

A Qualitative Study Of Differences Among Hearing Parents In Positive Experiences Raising A Deaf Child: An Emergent Model Informed By Positive Psychology​, Amy Szarkowski, Patrick J. Brice

JADARA

The current qualitative study explored the positive, internal, and growth-enhancing experiences hearing parents derived from raising a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. Based on characteristics of parents’ process and outcomes of the parenting experiences, three distinct parent patterns were identified. Reflective Positive Parents reflected deeply about their experiences, quickly and easily identified positive experiences, and were open to making adjustments to meet their child’s needs. Engaged Parents contemplated their experiences, yet decisions about how to best support their children in many remained unresolved; this group identified both positive and negative aspects of parenting and attempted to align …

Interrupting Intergenerational Silences Between Indo-Caribbean Women And Gender Non-Conforming People Through Participatory Oral History And Digital Archiving, Arita Balaram

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study used participatory oral history and digital archiving to explore two interrelated questions: How do the stories that Indo-Caribbean women and gender non-conforming (GNC) people tell challenge dominant narratives of resistance to historical oppression which represent women and passive and non-confrontational, and fail to represent GNC people at all? How might oral history and digital archiving be used to work against the historical erasure of women and GNC people? In the first phase of the study, twelve Indo-Caribbean women and GNC people across generations participated in an oral history workshop where they were trained in oral history methods, co-created …

Doctoral-Level Students Experience Adopting Gatekeeping Roles And Responsibilities Within Counselor Education, Evan Smarinsky

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In counselor education and supervision, the term gatekeeping is used to describe the ongoing process of monitoring, evaluating, and remediating a student through their professional identity as a counselor. Gatekeeping is an ethical responsibility of counselor educators and supervisors, both faculty and doctoral-level students who supervise master’s-level students and is often identified as being one of their most difficult responsibilities. Doctoral-level supervisors play an important role in gatekeeping, although they are not involved in formal gatekeeping decisions and have not typically been the focus of research. Researchers have suggested there is a need to develop a better understanding of how …

Coping On The Fly: School Psychologists' Perceptions Of Cultural Competence, Jennifer Wynn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The goal of this qualitative ethnographic study is to explore how school psychologists demonstrate multicultural competence (MC) when testing students for K-12 special education. As the population of the United States (US) becomes increasingly diverse, mental health professionals are encouraged to become culturally competent. Cultural competence is the ability to work with culturally and linguistically diverse populations; and being aware of stereotypes, biases and microaggressions. Cultural competence is taught within some psychology preparation programs; however, courses are often limited. Although cross-cultural competencies have been explored in clinical and counseling psychology, they have yet to be explored in the field of …

Non-Traditional Church Involvement As A Life-Course Turning Point: Qualitative Interviews With Religious Offenders, William Hunter Holt

Dissertations

This research project conducted and then analyzed qualitative interviews from former and current addicts and criminal offenders who are voluntarily participating in the Christian faith at the same non-traditional, Protestant church. An abridged case study of this church is also provided for background and context. Life-course theory and grounded theory are utilized.

Both the offenders and this church were chosen in an attempt to better understand how the offenders’ involvement at this house of worship, along with their faith in general, have impacted them. Obtaining the perspectives of the offender is essential for three reasons. First, qualitative research conducted in …

How Does Autism Affect The Processing Of Child Sexual Abuse Trauma?, Jose Carbajal, Regina T. Praetorius

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Children in general are a vulnerable population, but children with neurodevelopmental disorders are even more vulnerable. This case study, which uses secondary qualitative data to focus on a survivor of sexual abuse who has autism, explores how a child with autism interprets and processes being sexually abused. We contrast how a child with autism experiences child sexual abuse with the experiences of children without autism; major differences emerged in terms of how a child with autism normalizes and interprets sexual abuse. The findings of this study indicate mental health professionals need more training regarding the complications autism adds to the …

A Grounded Theory Investigation Of The Subjective Responses From Partners In Couples Where Infidelity Has Occurred, Malika Bhowmik

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative study investigates the subjective responses elicited by partners in long-term committed couples where infidelity has taken place. Each of these couples attended a couple therapy session in the aftermath of their experience of an affair, and the transcriptions of these therapy sessions served as the data set for this investigation. In their seeking of help, most couples articulated a broad, comparable trajectory of the issues; their post-affair understanding of their pre-affair relationship including the state of their pre-affair sex, the origins of the unfaithful partner’s ability to stray from the primary relationship, the impact of the affair on …

“Isn’T Atheism A White Thing?”: Centering The Voices Of Atheists Of Color, Dena M. Abbott, Debra Mollen, Caitlin Mercier, Elyxcus J. Anaya, Victoria A. Rukus

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Despite a general shift toward secularity, very few people of color in the United States identify as atheist. Further, atheists of color are underrepresented in studies of atheists, and the experiences of atheists of color specifically have, to date, not been captured in the extant scholarship. Addressing this gap in the literature, we interviewed 17 self-identified adult atheists of color, predominantly from Christian backgrounds, residing in the United States, using a critical feminist phenomenological approach. Six broad themes emerged from the data: (a) atheist identity development, (b) experiences of discrimination, (c) isolation, (d) violations of cultural expectations, (e) strategic outness, …

Sex Trafficking: A Systematic Review Of Operational Definitions, Firdavs Khaydarov

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Objective: Trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation constitutes about 59% of detected victims of trafficking, which makes it the most prevalent form of human exploitation globally. In the existing literature, there is a lack of a precise and consistent conceptualization of this phenomenon, which poses a significant challenge in its study. The purpose of this inquiry is to fill in the gap in the existing literature by identifying and analyzing existing operational definitions of sex trafficking pertinent to psychological scholarly literature. Methods: Meta-ethnographic approach to qualitative research was utilized in this study. To identify pertinent literature, a systematic review …

Yes, (Most) Men Know What Rape Is: A Mixed-Methods Investigation Into College Men’S Definitions Of Rape, Jaclyn A. Siegel, Raeann E. Anderson, Kristin E. Silver, Tara L. Mitchell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Sexual violence, including rape, is a pervasive problem on college campuses in the United States. Although men perpetrate the majority of sexual violence, men’s attitudes, experiences, and perspectives are not typically included in research on rape and sexual violence. We addressed this empirical gap through our mixed-methods analysis of 365 young men’s definitions of the term “rape.” Our analysis via consensual qualitative research revealed that men’s definitions fit into nine primary domains: lack of consent, taken advantage of, sex, sexual activity, unwanted, gender/sex-specific, harm to victim, relationship, and emotional response, as well as a miscellaneous domain. Further, using chi square …

The Allied Health Work Readiness Study: Identifying Personal Characteristics Signalling Work Readiness In Allied Health Students, Maxine O'Brien, Kelli Troy, Jayne Kirkpatrick

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Clinical placements associated with university degrees for the allied health professions aim to support the preparation of students for post graduate employment through the practical application of theoretical constructs. However, employers recognise that a range of generic skills and attributes outside of technical and academic achievement impact of work readiness. Allied health clinical educators within Darling Downs Health (DDH) sought to identify these generic characteristics, and their relative importance, with a view to further supporting the work readiness of students completing placements in the district. Method: The study utilised the knowledge and experience of allied health clinical educators, experienced …

The Use Of Mobile Social Technology As Transitional Objects Impact On Personality Functioning, Peter Gleiberman

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the impact unlimited connectivity and unlimited access to voice, text, and video communication as well as multimedia content consumption through mobile social technology has on personality integration. The increased use of mobile social technology has changed how the user engages social relationships. Through mobile social technology, the user places importance in an inanimate object for engagement of social relationships. A reliance on the inanimate object as a social relationship is thought to compromise the ability to internalize integrated object relations and develop stable personality organization. This theoretical research uses hermeneutic analysis of …

Adolescent Perspectives On Media Use: A Qualitative Study, April Fiacco

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study looks at adolescents’ engagement with media and explores their perceptions of how media plays a role in their lives. For the purpose of this study, media includes watching television shows, watching and reading the news, and involvement in various types of social media. The influence of parents and peers is also explored to examine adolescents’ views of whether parent and peer opinions affect the types of media with which the adolescent participants choose to engage. The study used a semi structured interview to collect data with participants from a Massachusetts public high school. The data were analyzed …

Public Perceptions And Knowledge Of Transplantation, Kimberly Smith

Honors Theses

Objective: Organ transplantation is currently the most preferred treatment method for end-stage organ disease. Despite this fact, the need for transplants is currently higher than the availability of organs, resulting in approximately 20 deaths each day. The objective of this study was to use qualitative research methods to better understand attitudes towards and public knowledge of organ transplantation. Method: Fourteen focus groups with 58 participants were conducted by a research team. Thematic analyses were conducted using a phenomenological framework. Results: Knowledge of the transplant process was found to play a critical role in one’s decision to donate an organ. Individuals …

The Impact Of Client's Gender And Culture On Service Providers Strategies In Diversion Programs, Stephany Betances

Student Theses

Despite the growing rate of adolescent girls in the criminal justice system, there has been little institutional support for empirically supported programs tailored for girls (Matthews & Hubbard, 2008). There is a similar substantial lack of culturally specific programming. Problematically, both constructs have been found to impact treatment (Bright & Jonson-Reid, 2010; Matthews & Hubbard, 2008). This qualitative study utilized grounded theory principals to investigate the impact of gender and culture on the therapeutic relationship for justice-involved youth in seven alternative-to-incarceration agencies in New York City. Elicited themes focused on both recommended strategies and continued challenges. Results indicated that while …

A Case Study Of Junior Elite Tennis Players' And Their Parent’S Self-Talk, Véronique Boudreault, Christiane Trottier, Martin D. Provencher

The Qualitative Report

Automatic self-talk of elite athletes provides valuable insight into their emotional experience and self-regulation strategies in competition. To date, there is a shortage of research examining elite junior athletes’ automatic self-talk in competition through a qualitative lens. Despite parents’ key role in the well-being and performance of their child, there is no study about junior elite athletes’ and their parents’ self-talk during a competition. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the content of elite junior tennis players’ automatic self-talk as well as the content of their parents’ self-talk regarding their emotions during important matches. In each of …

Contemporary Approaches To Qualitative Research: Andragogical Strategies For Teaching And Learning, Tiffany T. Young, Wayne A. Babchuk

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

This inquiry provides practical suggestions for teaching and learning qualitative research methodology. Important components of qualitative research design/implementation are identified and strategies to guide novice qualitative researchers are outlined.

The Hiv Seers Project: A Qualitative Analysis Of Program Facilitators’ Experience, Tiffany Chenneville, Kemesha Gabbidon, Hunter Drake

Psychology Faculty Publications

HIV-related stigma creates barriers to HIV testing, medication adherence, and retention in care. Guided by the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR) and in collaboration with community health workers (CHWs), the Stigma-reduction through Education, Empowerment, and Research (SEERs) project was developed with and for youth living in Nakuru, Kenya to reduce HIV-related stigma. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of the CHWs serving as SEERs facilitators. To evaluate SEERs, 37 facilitators completed open-ended survey questions to gather their experiences and recommendations for future program implementation and sustainability. Participants’ mean age was 30.58 (standard deviation = …

Health Equity Through Spatial Justice: A Critical Phenomenology Of Urban Trail Makers, Arvin Simon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has increasingly demonstrated that race, class and place are powerful predictors of health and social justice. This study was conducted to identify the lived experiences of individuals who were hired and trained as part of a green job program that created trails within a city park in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington Community. This program has historically hired individuals who were formerly incarcerated, many of whom identify as African American. We explored the personal and social experiences of working in nature to better appreciate the intersections of race, class and environment in an urban community. This current study is based on …

A Sociopolitical View Of Mental Health: An Exploration Of The Lived Experiences Of Policymakers Regarding Their Perspectives Surrounding Mental Health Policy Construction, Katie C. Fetzer

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A substantial gap exists between those who are considered experts on mental health (e.g., academics, mental health professionals) and those in charge of constructing mental health policies (e.g., legislators, Senators). This gap is in areas of both knowledge and professional relations. Mental health professionals are not adequately trained to engage in policy advocacy and reform efforts and have little to no policy advocacy training (Smith, Reynolds, & Rovnak, 2009). Policymakers lack necessary knowledge related to mental health for effective mental health policy construction (Corrigan, Druss, & Perlick, 2014; Lee, Smith, & Henry, 2013). As a result of this gap, mental …

A Qualitative Study Of The Motivations And Affiliation Dynamics Involved With A Firefighting Career, Michael W. Firmin, Kristin Dewitt, Heidi Gibbs Ellis, Lauren A. Smith, Nicole M. Tiffan

Psychology Faculty Publications

We explored the experiences of full-time firefighters in the present phenomenological qualitative study, having conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 male full-time firefighters. Their personal constructs of motivation and affiliation were explored and, within the constructs of motivation, three themes emerged. First, firefighters were motivated by a love of the excitement firefighting provides. Second, firefighters reported that the work schedule, which allows them more time at home, was a motivation. Third (and most emphasized by the firefighters) was an altruistic motivation to help others. Under the construct of affiliation, the firefighters reported a strong sense of brotherhood with their shift-partners, and …

A Participatory Action Research Using Photovoice To Explore Well-Being In Young Adults With Autism, Gary Yu Hin Lam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Young adults with autism transitioning from school to adulthood are commonly described as exhibiting poor outcomes. Although there has been research efforts measuring quality of life and life satisfaction in individuals with autism, these conceptualizations of well-being are still predominantly deficit-focused and based on normalizing ideals of the dominant culture. Only by incorporating individuals with autism’s perspectives and involving their meaningful participation in research can we better understand and promote well-being among individuals with autism. The present study aims to explore young adults with autism’s ideas about well-being. I conducted a Photovoice project using a participatory action research approach with …

The College Application Essay Mediating Inequality Along The Path To Higher Education, Ralitsa S. Todorova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines inequality and access in the college admissions process and, in particular, via the college application essay. With a research design and analysis sampling documents from multiple stakeholders in the college admissions process, this research considers how students with diverse histories of preparation for higher education interact with actors relevant to the admissions process in their college admissions essays. This research project ultimately asks how the college essay process (its importance, the preparation, and ultimate writing) mediates inequality in admission to higher education. Essays were collected from students at one large public university and one small private liberal …

Color Between The Lines: Navigating Mixed Race Identity, Kelly O'Halloran

College Honors Program

Through the qualitative work of narrative psychology, this thesis explores experiences of mixed race individuals who have one white parent, one minority parent, and who grew up in a predominantly white community. The data were drawn from the author’s own first-hand experiences as well as in-depth interviews from three Holy Cross students about their mixed race identities. On the basis of these data, three forms of self-identity were found to be especially salient: the unaware self, the unique self, and the liminal self. The unaware self can be understood as not knowing how one appears to others. The unique self …