Social Psychology Commons^™

Alleged Insanity: Frank Johnson Sr., Racial Injustice, And The Failure Of The Mental Health Care System In South Carolina, Jonathon P. Johnson

Senior Theses

This thesis is about Frank Johnson Sr. and the circumstances that led to his downfall as a farmer and father of six, to his tragic death in the isolation of a racially segregated mental institution 18 miles away from his home. Using his life and incarceration at the South Carolina State Park mental health facility, I argue that racial injustice contributed to his tragic death and the woefully inadequate treatment thousands of African Americans in South Carolina received during Jim Crow. Additionally, I argue that the tragic circumstances around my great grandfather’s institutionalization and death were part of an enduring …

Assessing U.S. Veterans' Work Role Functioning: Influences Of Posttraumatic Stress, Sense Of Coherence, And Vocational Identity, Lauren Kelly Osborne

Dissertations

Since beginning military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that now characterize the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) combat eras, unique stressors and conditions have faced service members. Advancements in military medicine have resulted in greater survival rates of combat veterans, but have also increased rates of chronic psychological distress (Schnurr, Lunney, Bovin, & Marx, 2009). Research regarding these concerns has increased as these service members are now returning home and re-entering civilian life and many studies show the detrimental effects on psychosocial functioning following combat including employment difficulties. As …

Cultural Moderation Of The Relationship Between Anticipated Life Role Salience And Career Decision-Making Difficulties, Emily Anne Schmidtman

Dissertations

The perceived importance of, and commitment to, work and family roles has significant implications for the career decision-making difficulty (CDMD) of undergraduate college students. Additionally, cultural variables have been shown to influence undergraduate students’ anticipated life role salience (LRS) as well as the amount of difficulty experienced in making a career decision. Given this information, the current study assessed the relationship between LRS and CDMD specifically in terms of differences that may occur within this relationship for different cultural groups. Using a sample of college students (total N = 246), an online survey was used to gather information about their …

Boundaries And Belonging: Asian America, Psychology, And Psychoanalysis, Natalie C. Hung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation addresses a vexing problem. In psychology and psychoanalysis, Asian Americans are more often understood as a collective Other than as individual Selves, more frequently an object of study than a subject. Through two overarching aims, my dissertation sheds light on neglected aspects of Asian American selves, the meanings of the invisibility surrounding them, and implications for clinical practice.

First, the project challenges extant psychological perspectives on Asian Americans, which often implicitly assume a wide gulf of difference between Asian American cultural values and the Western epistemologies of psychology and psychoanalysis. Through the examination of academic research, clinical literature, …

Queers In The Hands Of A Loving God: God Image, Strength Of Faith, And Campus Climate In Predicting Self-Stigma, Sage Liam Willis

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

There is a complex relationship between the intersections of religious or spiritual faith and sexuality when it comes to sexual minorities. Sexual minorities’ sexualities have historically been stigmatized within the many of the faith traditions that sexual minorities may have grown up in. Further, college/university is a time when intersecting identities are often explored. In order to investigate the relationship between sexual minority students’ internal working models of God (God image benevolence and God image acceptance) and internalized self-stigma as a function of both strength of faith and campus climate, I recruited 68 sexual minority students and recent students from …

Mental Health Practitioner Stigma, Attitude, And Belief: A Multidimensional Study On Marriage And Family Therapists, Clinical Social Workers, And Clinical Psychologists, Jessica Ann De La Rosa, Ruxandra Elena Tanase

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Existing stigma in the form of negative attitudes towards individuals with severe mental illness by mental health practitioners, has the potential to set barriers towards recovery. A survey of 72 mental health practitioners from three disciplines were surveyed, in an attempt to measure mental health practitioner attitudes towards individuals with severe mental illness, and how their attitudes impact their belief in client recovery. This was a quantitative study, based on two Likert Scale surveys and distributed both in paper form and using Survey Monkey. Participants were gathered through a snowball effect, and consisted of 42 social workers, 18 marriage and …

The Dark Triad And Hexaco Model Of Personality In Relational Aggression, Niki M. Knight

Master's Theses

Past research has linked relational aggression (RA) to many forms of psychological maladjustment among children and early adolescents. Although less is known about RA among emerging adults, there is a growing body of research demonstrating a number of adverse correlates. This literature has sparked an interest in examining the role of personality in RA. Most investigations to date have focused on the Five Factor Model; however, the six factor HEXACO model of personality (Ashton et al., 2004) may offer some advantages in studying RA. Moreover, the manipulative and often covert nature of RA among emerging adults has theoretical overlap with …

Madness In The Media: Understanding How People With Lived Experience Interpret Newspaper Headlines, Da Qing Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There is research on media representations of mental health that suggests there is a tendency to portray mental health as problematic and those who are affected by mental illness as dangerous. It is evident there has been an increase in anti-stigma media campaigns. However, the effects of these efforts on beliefs held by members of the public has been mixed. What is most surprising from the literature is a lack of research about how people who have personal experience with mental illness interpret media messages. Individuals with and without lived experience participated in a structured conceptualization process known as concept …

The Experiences Of Siblings Of Individuals With Disabilities: A Holistic View, Ashley Mc Adams

Educational Studies Dissertations

The research on siblings of individuals with disabilities has rarely addressed the perceived benefits of having a sibling with a disability. The existing research on the experience of siblings of persons with disabilities is also limited to European American families (Sage & Jegatheesan, 2010). With families from different cultures, I sought to capture the experiences of brothers and sisters who have siblings with disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships of siblings with disabilities and typical developing siblings, and present a holistic picture from the perspective of the typical developing siblings. These gaps in the literature …

The Effects Of A Trauma-Informed Care Training Program On Mental Health Professionals Knowledge, Skills, And Attitudes With The Smi, Angelina Pelletier

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Trauma has been found to be highly prevalent among individuals diagnosed with SMIs. Mental health professionals have been reported to misdiagnose or avoid addressing trauma in this population. There is a need to provide information about trauma and to foster awareness among mental health professionals who are treating individuals diagnosed with SMIs. With a TIC approach, operating from a recovery-oriented philosophy, there have been interventions created to address trauma and SMIs with the aim of developing awareness about trauma and the impact it may have on someone’s life. With these factors in mind, mental health professionals should be competent in …

Exploring The Relationship Between Ego Development And Mental Health, Heather R. Bonnett

ETD Archive

The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between ego identity in adults (ego development), symptoms of psychological distress, and self-esteem. Ego identity was operationalized using Loevinger’s (1976) stage theory of ego development, further modified by Cook-Greuter (1994; 2010). The test used to measure ego development was the Sentence Completion Test Integral (SCTi). Symptoms of mental disorders or psychological distress were measured using Derogatis’ (1994) Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-Revised). Self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES). It has been thought there would be noticeable differences in the relationship between ego development and the types …

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 …

The Effects Of Alcohol-Related Stimuli Priming On The Expression Of Relational Aggression, Connor W. Ondriezek

Honors College Theses

The semantic network model of memory states that concepts closely related (e.g., pencil-paper) are stored together in memory (Posner & Snyder, 1975). When one concept is activated, other related concepts becoming more accessible, which increases the likelihood that related concepts will influence behavior. Past research has established a link between aggressive behaviors after exposure to alcohol-related words (Bartholow, Grosvenor, Pedersen, Truong, & Vasquez, 2014). Previous research has also shown that alcohol outcome expectancies contribute to problematic drinking behavior (Fromme, Stroot, & Kaplan, 1993). In the present study, alcohol outcome expectancies of each participant were assessed by the CEOA questionnaire. Then, …

Slam Poetry: An Online Intervention For Treating Depression, Spencer J. Ruchti, Mercedes Becker, Cara Mckee, Austin Herron, Alex Swalling

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Given that depression is the “leading cause of disability worldwide,” and that less than 50% of people suffering from depression receive treatment, this study aims to provide support for a globally accessible depression treatment (WHO, 2012). The study conducted implemented an internet-based treatment for depression in which users were provided an opportunity to watch slam poetry videos related to mental health issues and write free responses regarding the content of the videos and their subjective experience of depression. Numerous studies provide support for the effectiveness of expressive writing, online mental health interventions, and slam poetry in particular for reducing symptoms …

Self-Expansion And Romantic Partner Request For Friendship Termination, Emily C. Wages

Scripps Senior Theses

According to self-expansion theory, there is an innate drive to gain new resources, identities, and perspectives, which causes people to seek and maintain interpersonal relationships. However, an individual’s relationship partners may come into conflict with each other. In the current research, 656 adults in established monogamous romantic relationships completed an online questionnaire about romantic partners asking them to give up a friendship. The researcher explored the prevalence of this friendship interference phenomenon and its relationship to sources of self-expansion. The amount of self-expansion provided by a friendship was manipulated through vignettes. Additional measures assessed the relationship between amount of self-expansion …

A Qualitative Study On Female Opinions Of Female Bullying And Relational Aggression, Cindy Lee Stevenson Mcclure

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to the American Psychological Association, 160,000 children miss school each day because of a fear of bullying. Existing research indicates that the typical male style of bullying is distinctly different from the typical female style of bullying, which is referred to as relational aggression. This kind of aggression can cause damage to girls in the form of low self-esteem, eating disorders, and suicide. Research on female bullying has increased in the last five years, yet there is minimal research on relational aggression from the female perspective. The purpose of this qualitative study was to expand on the existing bullying …