Digital Commons Network^™

Sense Of Coherence: The Relationship To Personal Growth And Distressafter A Breakup, Kristin R. Gillen

Dissertations

Romantic relationship issues are among the most common presenting concerns in university counseling center settings (Benton, Robertson, Tseng, Newton, & Benton, 2003; McCarthy, Lambert, & Brack, 1997). Specifically, romantic relationship breakups have received attention in the literature, as these particular losses tend to generate a myriad of emotions for college students. While numerous studies have explored distress reported after a breakup, few studies have focused on the personal growth individuals could potentially gain after experiencing a breakup (Tashiro & Frazier, 2003). The current study explores both the distress as well as personal growth individuals endorsed subsequent to a breakup.

Since …

Understanding The Dimensions Of Spirituality In Caucasian Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual College Students, Michele L. Mcgrady

Dissertations

Spiritual development is a critical task for college students, but there is a paucity of information about how college students understand the construct of spirituality. Historically, organized religion has been oppressive to the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community. Furthermore, little is known about the spiritual understandings and spiritual experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual college students. This quantitative investigation sought to understand the underlying dimensions of spirituality for Caucasian LGB college students through the use of multidimensional scaling. Sixty Caucasian LGB college students were recruited through purposeful and snowball sampling. Findings indicate three dimensions of spirituality for this sample: …

Soviet Holocaust Survivors: An Ethnographic Study, Marina Shafran

Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to help understand the lives, worldview, and meaning making of Soviet Holocaust survivors currently residing in the United States. Ethnographic interviews were conducted to explore survivor's childhood, family life, religion, political views, work, and social life. These areas were examined during the following time periods: pre-WWII, during WWII, and post-WWII.

From the collected and analyzed data I was able to offer an insight into the experiences of five Soviet Holocaust survivors under the Soviet regime. I described the struggles that the survivors experienced during the Holocaust, the losses they had suffered, and the …

Social Justice Advocacy And Counselor Education: A Study Of Counselor Educators' And Counseling Interns' Perceptions Of Social Justice Advocacy Training, Darryl C. Steele

Dissertations

Social justice and advocacy have become increasingly important topics in counselor training. The 2001 Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) training standards require counselor education programs to provide studies in social justice and advocacy processes. Moreover, 2009 CACREP standards stipulate that accredited programs must provide advocacy training specific to each specialty area. The American Counseling Association (ACA) adopted advocacy competencies, in part, to guide this training (Goodman, 2009; Lewis, Arnold, House, & Toporek, 2003). Despite training standards and frameworks such as the ACA Advocacy Competencies to help prepare students for advocacy, few studies have explored …

School-Based Juvenile Probation And Police Partnerships For Truancy Reduction, Leanne F. Alarid, Barbara A. Sims, James Ruiz

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

Truancy places students at risk in primary and secondary education and is linked to conduct disorder, drug use, and delinquency. To prevent truancy and reduce risk, school-based proba-tion supervision has emerged within school districts in partnership with local law enforcement officers in an effort to enforce probation conditions for truant youths and prevent future delin-quency. This research uses key information interviews of knowledgeable stakeholders to examine the delivery of school-based probation supervision. Home visits and court hearings were perceived to be effective at reducing truancy and tardiness. This study affirms that strong lead-ership, information sharing, and involvement of parents were …

Identifying The Negative Stigma Associated With Having A Learning Disability, Kelsey Lisle

Honors Theses

Those with learning disabilities (LDs) can be characterized as a minority group, and like most groups of minorities they face a distinct stigma by the larger population. While there iscurrently a lack of research in understanding LD stigma, it has become increasingly important given the push for inclusive classrooms settings. In this study it was hypothesized that regardlessof a participants’ gender, when participants were given a hypothetical description of a person that included information indicating that the individual has a LD, the participants would rate that individual less favorably. Results were consistent with the hypothesis. Participants perceived the hypothetical LD …

Self-Perceived Attractiveness And Its Influence On The Halo Effect And The Similar-To Me Effect, Lauren Cotter

Honors Theses

The present research examined the influences of the halo effect and the similar-tome effect on physical and sexual attractiveness for hiring decisions. It was hypothesized that the halo effect would cause applicants rated highly in physical and sexual attractiveness to receive higher ratings of hireability than unattractive applicants.However, if the similar-to-me effect is influential for levels of attractiveness in hiring situations, participants who rated themselves as less attractive should favor unattractive applicants. The results did not show an interaction between participant self-ratings and ratings of hireability, indicating the similar-to-me effect does not apply to physical or sexual attractiveness. There was …

A Gay Savior: Reducing Anti-Gay Feelings With Gay Male Kindness Following Ostracism, Kenneth Michniewicz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social scientists have extensively examined ways of reducing negative feelings toward minority groups. However, no research has examined the ability for passive ostracism, the implicit exclusion of an individual by one's peers, to reduce such negative feelings despite evidence that such exclusion can yield similar positive benefits. The present study sought to address this deficit in the literature by exploring whether or not implicit ostracism by one's peers can cause a kind gesture by a stigmatized minority group member (gay men) to improve general perceptions of the associated group. A sample of 211 undergraduate students from the University of South …

The Investment Model Of Commitment Processes, Caryl E. Rusbult, Christopher Agnew, Ximena Arriaga

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications

The investment model of commitment processes is rooted in interdependence theory and emerged from the broader scientific zeitgeist of the 1960s and 1970s that sought to understand seemingly irrational persistence in social behavior. The investment model was developed originally to move social psychology beyond focusing only on positive affect in predicting persistence in a close interpersonal relationship. As originally tested, the investment model holds that commitment to a target is influenced by three independent factors: satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size. Commitment, in turn, is posited to mediate the effects of these three bases of dependence on behavior, …

Effects Of A Group Counseling Career Intervention On The Hopefulness And Future Orientation Of At-Risk Middle School Students, Amy Kathryn Macey

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a small group counseling career intervention on levels of total hope, willpower (agency), waypower (pathways), and future orientation of at-risk middle school students attending an urban middle school in Southeast Michigan. This true experimental, randomized, pretest-posttest control group design compared the statistical outcomes of a small group counseling career intervention with a control group. Forty-four middle school students in the eighth grade (18 males and 26 females) were randomly selected and participated in the research study. Twenty-two students were randomly assigned to an experimental group and twenty-two students were …

Finding The Heart Of Medical Family Therapy: A Content Analysis Of Medical Family Therapy Casebook Articles, Richard Bischoff, Paul R. Springer, Daniel S. Felix, Cody S. Hollist

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

In an effort to identify the essential ingredients of medical family therapy, a content analysis of 15 peer-reviewed case studies in medical family therapy was conducted. The case studies were published from 1996 to 2007 in Families, Systems, & Health. Through a qualitative content analysis, three main themes emerged that describe the essence of the practice of medical family therapy: (1) The patient’s multisystemic experience of disease, (2) treatment is about caring, not just caregiving, and (3) elevating the patient as collaborator in the care team.

From The Editor, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill

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

This is an exciting time for Gifted Children as we transition to an online, peer-reviewed format for the journal. This move will simultaneously improve our submission process and increase the visibility of research being conducted by members and colleagues of the Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent SIG. In addition, Gifted Children will continue to provide book reviews and tools for researchers, as well as practitioner pieces. This issue, the first issue of Volume 5, marks the beginning of this transition; it is the first issue to be initially published online using Digital Commons software. The second issue of Volume …

Preschoolers’ Social Behavior And Context Coding System, Soo-Young Hong

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

Coding Guidelines

1. Observe during free play, small groups, routines/transitions, and outdoor play on two different days per child. Do not observe during large group activity.

2. Observe the target child’s behavior for 20 seconds and code for 30 seconds.

3. Context: a.) Coded as mutually exclusive subcategories.

4. Nature of Activity: a.) Coded as mutually exclusive subcategories. b.) If ‘Daily routines/transitions’ was coded, the Type of Activity should be coded as one of the four types relevant to daily routines/transitions (i.e., Personal care, Meal and snack, Clean up, or Transition activity).

5. Type of Activity: a.) The types of …

Reality Television And Its Impact On Women's Body Image, Ayarza Manwaring

Online Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found that both print media and television may affect the body image of young women. Tiggerman and Pickering (1996) found that it was not just the amount of television viewed, but the viewing of appearance focused shows that affected body image. Schooler, Ward, Merriwether and Caruthers (2004) came to the conclusion that women's viewing of shows with predominantly white casts lead to greater body dissatisfaction. To date, no investigations have looked at a new and popular genre, categorized as, `reality television'. The purpose of this study was examine the effects of viewing this new genre and its …

Mental Health Services In Appalachia, Miranda Renee Waters

Online Theses and Dissertations

People from rural areas of the country, such as the Appalachian region of Kentucky, continue to struggle with inadequate mental health services. Past research has identified several barriers for mental health services in rural communities such as lack of mental health providers, lack of transportation, and lack of education. The purpose of this study was to examine the severity of a psychological problem and how it could influence Appalachian and non-Appalachians' preference for type of help. It was hypothesized that people from the Appalachian region would recommend seeing a mental health professional when a problem had reached its highest severity. …

The Psychological Foundations Of Behavioral Law And Economics, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Over the past decade, psychological research has enjoyed a rapidly expanding influence on legal scholarship. This expansion has established a new field—“Behavioral Law and Economics” (BLE). BLE’s principal insight is that human behavior commonly deviates from the predictions of rational choice theory in the marketplace, the election booth, and the courtroom. Because these deviations are predictable, and often harmful, legal rules can be crafted to reduce their undesirable influence. Ironically, BLE seldom recognizes that its intellectual origins lie with psychology more so than economics. This failure leaves BLE open to criticisms that can be answered only by embracing the underlying …

Identifying Factors That Increase The Likelihood For Alcohol-Induced Blackouts In The Prepartying Context, Joseph W. Labrie, Justin F. Hummer, Shannon Kenney, Andrew Lac, Eric Pedersen

Heads Up!

The present study examined risk factors related to “blacking out” (e.g., temporary periods of memory loss during drinking) during preparty drinking events (i.e., pregaming, predrinking). Participants were students from two universities on the West Coast who reported past month prepartying (N = 2,546) in online surveys administered in the fall of 2008. Among these students, 25% (n = 636) reported blacking out during at least one occasion in which they prepartied in the past month. A logistic regression model underscored that Greek student affiliation, family history of alcohol abuse, frequency of prepartying, and both playing drinking games and …

Predicting Conflict In Group Psychotherapy: A Model Integrating Interpersonal And Group-As-A-Whole Theories, Kyle G. Barry

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Literature on group dynamics has typically focused on six content areas; (1) cohesion and group identification, (2) attributions and perceptions in group, (3) leadership and performance in groups, (4) power and relationships among group members, (5) knowledge and cognitive process in groups, (6) group psychotherapy (Kivlighan and Miles, 2007). While this literature base has built sophisticated theories, these theories tend to be disconnected and lack applicability to clinical practice. This dissertation will integrate interpersonal and group-as-a-whole theories in order to predict the probable dynamic interactions that theoretically occur as individuals move through conflict within group psychotherapy. Recommended interventions are included …

The Power To Promote Justice Program: A Train-The-Trainer Model For The Development Of Culturally Competent Teaching Practices Among Secondary Educators, Patrece Gabrielle Hairston

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

As the United States population becomes increasingly diverse, the need for multicultural training is greater than ever. Due to this tremendous shift in societal demographics, today's classrooms require teachers to educate students varying in culture, language, abilities, and many other characteristics. The Power to Promote Justice program is intended to provide educators with in-depth training in multicultural education. There is evidence to suggest that many teacher education programs provide minimal training in this area, leaving teachers ill equipped to manage the difficulties associated with working with diverse populations. The Power to Promote Justice Program is a five-session train-the-trainer program that …

School-Based Extracurricular Activity Involvement And Adolescent Self-Esteem: A Growth-Curve Analysis, Lisa A. Kort-Butler, Kellie J. Hagewen

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Research on adolescent self-esteem indicates that adolescence is a time in which individuals experience important changes in their physical, cognitive, and social identities. Prior research suggests that there is a positive relationship between an adolescent’s participation in structured extracurricular activities and well-being in a variety of domains, and some research indicates that these relationships may be dependent on the type of activities in which adolescents participate. Building on previous research, a growth-curve analysis was utilized to examine self-esteem trajectories from adolescence (age 14) to young adulthood (age 26). Using 3 waves of data from National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health …

Effects Of Sexual Assault Education On College Students' Rape-Supportive Attitudes, Jessica Ann Ueland

Honors Program Theses

Few studies have measured the effectiveness of sexual assault programming is in decreasing acceptance of rape myths. This study examined two research questions. First, would students in a class that included a sexual assault education component be more likely to demonstrate a change in degree of rape myth acceptance than students who were not in a class that included sexual assault education? Second, within the treatment group, would males demonstrate a larger change in rape myth acceptance than females? At the end of the course, the treatment group showed a significant decrease in rape myth acceptance; there was not a …

A Study Of Positive Emotions And Turnover Intentions Among Hong Kong Police Officers : The Mediating Role Of Psychological Capital And Work Well-Being, Chun Lok Lui

Lingnan Theses

With reference to Fredrickson‘s (2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, the current study investigated the mechanism of how positive emotions contribute to desirable outcomes to the organization through psychological capital (PsyCap), which is a positive, state-like, and performance-related resource comprising self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. To date, only few studies have been done particularly on the relationships between PsyCap and positive emotions among Chinese employees. Studies on PsyCap of police force are even rarer. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the underlying mechanism relating positive emotions and work outcomes, specifically to examine the separate roles of positive …

Studying Rape Through A Theorectical Lens: The Development Of A Serial Rape Model Using Fbi Data, Brooke Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The current study assessed whether there is an empirical foundation for different theories of rape including the feminist, evolutionary, social disorganization, psychopathy, and rapist type theories. Using a data set from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on serial rapists collected in the early 1990's, the study included two phases. The first phase assessed whether FBI data supported the previously mentioned theories of rape by analyzing associations between individual variables that are thought to support each theory. Support was demonstrated for the evolutionary and psychopathy theories. Using MPlus statistical software to accommodate the multi-level nature of the data, the second …

The Meaning Making That Leads To Social Entrepreneurial Action, Kathleen Roberts

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation is an exploratory study of the meaning making that leads to social entrepreneurial action; specifically, action that has either moved beyond the local or at the local level has impacted several different systems. Recent leadership research suggests that to meet today's complex challenges and create sustainable change, leadership must possess bigger minds, meaning advanced and mature ways of understanding the world (Cook-Greuter, 1999; Torbert, 1999). By challenging and changing established equilibriums with new structures, new systems, and new relationships, social entrepreneurs reflect a capacity to understand the world in complex ways. Through the lens of constructive-developmental theory (Kegan, …

A Conceptualization Of Treatment Stigma In Returning Veterans, Jason B. Flick

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The dissertation project combines three theoretical models that inform conceptualizations of the origins, manifestations, and consequences of stigma: the Social Psychological model (SPM), the Sociological model (SM), and the Cognitive-behavioral model (CBM). These models merge into a single, integrative lens, through which stigma can be examined on both cultural and individual levels. This lens is then applied to the cultural and individual manifestations of the stigma of seeking psychological treatment experienced by veterans who have served in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Through this lens, an understanding of the inception, maintenance, and effects of this treatment …

First Elderly Client In Therapy: Factors That Influence Student Interest In Geropsychology, Cristina E. M. Filippelli

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In the coming decades, the elderly population in United States (U.S) is expected to grow significantly (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1996). Consequently, the number of older individuals seeking mental health services will be greater than at any other time in the history of the U.S. The field of clinical psychology, however, is unable to meet the mental health needs of the current elderly population, and this gap is expected to widen in coming years. There is an ongoing discussion within the field of professional psychology as to how to train more clinicians to work with the elderly population (Gatz …

A Concept Mapping Needs Assessment Of Young Families With Parental Cancer, Richard P. Durant

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this research is to investigate the support needs of young families living with and beyond a parental diagnosis of cancer. The sample includes 56 participants comprised of 31 professional stakeholders and 25 patient stakeholders affiliated with the Charles R. Wood Cancer Center. It was hypothesized there would be differences in how the groups of stakeholders rated needs in terms of importance, satisfaction, and utilization. Differences in ratings are thought to be barriers to effective program development. While not a formal research hypothesis, it was anticipated other program development barriers germane to naturalistic clinical settings would emerge from …

The Moderating Effects Of Organized Activities On The Relations Between Body Mass And Social Adjustment In Adolescents, Christopher T. Stanley, Amy M. Bohnert

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Overweight and obese children and adolescents often experience social adjusment difficulties, including higher rates of peer victimization and loneliness. Our primary goal was to examine the moderating influences of various aspects of organized activity involvement (i.e., intensity, duration, amount of physical activity, perceived importance, liking, and quality of adult- and peer relationships) on body mass index (BMI) and social adjustment relations. Results suggested that activity involvement moderated BMI-adjustment relations in certain instances. Specifically, fewer hours and less physical activity was associated with less loneliness among heavier adolescents. This study affirms the need for further research to address the impact that …

Differences Across Racial Groups In Caregiver Ratings Of Symptoms In Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Cindy Terlonge Graham

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A great deal of attention from local, federal, and international communities has been focused on autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). As the prevalence of these disorders rise, researchers continue to investigate various unanswered questions. The goal of this study was to examine the differences across racial/ethnic groups in caregiver ratings of symptoms of children diagnosed with ASDs. Results from such research will help determine whether cultural background can influence the recognition of behaviors indicative of an ASD. Culturally-sensitive clinical practice stemming from the significant findings of this research project can help to reduce the age at which minority children are diagnosed. …

Developing A Measure Of Virtual Community Citizenship Behavior, Luman Yong, Daniel Sachau, Andrea L. Lassiter

Psychology Department Publications

This study examines the kinds of behaviors that constitute virtual community citizenship behaviors (VCCB) and tests three factors that may influence community members’ willingness to engage in VCCB. More specifically, the authors propose a multi-dimensional VCCB construct (altruism, civic virtue, consciousness, courtesy, and sportsmanship) and three antecedents of VCCB (affective commitment, structural embeddedness and membership tenure). Four dimensions including altruism, civic virtue, courtesy and loyalty emerged as a result of behavioral examples collection from SMEs using critical incident technique and a VCCB survey with 19 Likert type items reflecting the behavioral examples within each dimension was created. Data was collected …