Digital Commons Network^™

Clients' Experience Of Effective Psychoanalytic-Psychodynamic Psychotherapy For Major Depression: An Empirical Phenomenological Study, Thomas Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although there is sufficient evidence that psychodynamic therapy for depression is effective, there is no research documenting the qualities of experience in effective psychodynamic therapy for depression. To address this lack, this study aimed to investigate clients' experiences of both the helpful processes and the therapeutic effects of psychodynamic therapy for depression.

Letters, emails, and flyers were distributed and advertisements placed through psychological associations at the local and state level, and letters were mailed to therapists in the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Solicitation procedures yielded four participants of whom three were female and one was male. Participants completed a research …

Transitions In The Mental Health Field's System Of Professions From Wwii Until The Present: The Case Of Dubville, Daniel Noam Warner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A case study of one mental health field in a medium-sized, steel-belt city over a 50 year period is presented. Through interviews and archive data, the narrative elucidates the transitions that occurred in regards to which professions are dominant, and which services count as mental health services, in different eras and under different science and governmental regimes. The dissertation focuses on four professional categories in particular: psychoanalytic psychiatrists, neurological psychiatrists, research psychologists, and clinical psychologists. It also focuses, primarily, on three institutions: a large psychiatric research hospital, a university psychology department, and a psychoanalytic institute. Through tracing the dynamics of …

A Phenomenological-Hermeneutic Analysis Of Experimental Infant Research, James L. Yu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project challenges the dualistic conceptions in infant research literature by reexamining a collection of infant research records from a phenomenological, non-dualistic perspective. Grounded in the recent convergences between phenomenology and cognitive sciences, this project utilizes a combined phenomenological-hermeneutic method. This model of analysis is applied to three major areas in infant research: physical knowledge, memory-based learning, and social behaviors. The primary pool of data is drawn from written research records from both primary and secondary sources. To reinterpret empirical findings the analysis includes a systematic reexamination of the ontological presuppositions of infant researchers/scholars, and a reflective, experience-near approach. The …

Are You A Boy Or A Girl - Show Me Your Real Id, James Mcgrath

Faculty Scholarship

Although many official documents and forms of identification contain a sex or gender identifier, gender, as a category on these documents, is not very helpful in confirming a person's identity. If the purpose of the inclusion of gender on official documents is to accurately identify an individual, technological advances have given us more accurate methods of ensuring a person's identity. Technologies such as fingerprinting, facial recognition and retinal scans are far superior methods of determining whether a person is who they claim to be. The use of gender or sex on identification cards does little to positively identify individuals, and …

A Brief Version Of The Family Background Questionnaire, Timothy P. Melchert, Augustine Kalemeera

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Although it is lengthy. the Family Background Questionnaire provides reliable behaviorally specific family history information. Results from reliability and validity analyses suggest that a brief version of this instrument that assesses parental responsiveness, child maltreatment, and parental substance abuse would provide a useful screening instrument for obtaining family history information.

Validity And Reliability Of The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Working Alliance Self-Efficacy Scales, Alan W. Burkard, Nathan Pruitt, Barbara R. Medler, Ann M. Stark-Booth

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, the authors report on the development and initial psychometric evaluation of the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Working Alliance Self-Efficacy Scales (LGB-WASES) with data collected from two studies and 534 counseling trainees. Exploratory factor analysis results yielded a 32-item scale with a three-factor model (a) Emotional Bond, (b) Establishing Tasks, and (c) Setting Goals. LGB-WASES scores were internally consistent and remained stable over a 3-week period. Construct validity evidence suggests the LGB-WASES scores were (a) positively related to general perceptions of counseling self-efficacy and multicultural counseling competency, (b) negatively related to attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, and …

Closing The Achievement Gap: A Social Justice Imperative For School Counseling, Alan W. Burkard, Michael J. Martinez, Casey A. Holtz

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Getting The Bug: Exploring Running Group Therapy For Youth With Affective Disorders, Jamie Lee Bell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Mental health problems in adolescents place them on a trajectory for ongoing difficulties into adulthood. Treating youth with affective disorders using conventional interventions such as medication and talk therapy can be problematic. Important questions have been raised about the efficacy and safety of medications and some youths’ willingness to engage in counseling. There is, therefore, a need for constant attention to innovative and youth focused treatment options.

Since 2006, Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada has offered youth diagnosed primarily with depression and anxiety an opportunity to address their mental illness with the alternative treatment of running. The purpose …

Secondary Traumatic Stress: The Hidden Trauma In Child And Youth Counsellors, Michelle Linda Bloom

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The current research study was conducted to establish evidence based research identifying Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) in Child and Youth Counsellors (CYCs). 161 CYCs participated in an online survey responding to both demographic questions and Bride’s (1999) Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS). Data analysis included both descriptive and inferential testing. Scoring of the STSS revealed that 66.1% of the CYCs sampled experienced some level of STS. The overall mean score is 33.65 suggesting that CYCs experienced a mild level of STS. An independent group t-test indicated that CYC’s who were exposed to children and youth’s traumatic experience 1 to 3 …

Exploring The Nature Of Collaboration Between Organizations Assisting Persons Experiencing Poverty In The Region Of Waterloo, Ontario, Morgan E. Braganza

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The current study was designed to examine the experiences of organizations assisting individuals who are economically vulnerable in Waterloo Region through interorganizational collaboration. Several questions were explored in order to gain a deeper understanding of the definition of collaboration, for whom collaboration is useful, how often and with whom organizations collaborate, techniques used during collaboration, and whether collaboration should be increased and improved. Twenty Executive Directors from organizations most strongly involved in the assistance of those experiencing poverty were asked to participate in face-to-face interviews where they were asked questions based on the above mentioned questions. Qualitative analysis of the …

Including Spirituality: A Means To Cope With Cancer And Recommendations For Health Care Professionals, Lisa Green

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although psychosocial oncology is gaining in popularity as more research is conducted to support its inclusion in health care, there is still a lack of incorporation of spirituality in health care. The purpose of this study is to answer the following research questions: 1) How do participants use spirituality to aid in their healing? 2) How would participants like their health care professionals, specifically social workers, to incorporate spirituality into their formal care?

A qualitative, phenomenological methodology was selected for this investigation in an effort to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of people with cancer. Semi-structured interviews were …

Exploring The Experience Of University Students Coping With Acquired Or Traumatic Brain Injury, Halina Kay Lin Haag

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Mild to moderate brain injury (MBI) can be a complex condition resulting in diffuse impairments that require flexible and creative supportive interventions for university students living with MBI. This study sought to increase awareness and understanding of MBI, enrich the body of lived experience research, amplify the voices of the participants and create a catalyst for change. The participants’ lived experience of the role of the negative social perception of impairment within an organizational context and the individual’s internalization of this social construct into chronic shame are critically examined. The study utilizes a multimethod approach that is influenced by the …

Neural And Behavioral Responses To The Use Of Auditory Feedback In Vocal Control, Colin S. Haweo

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A large body of evidence suggests that the motor system maintains a forward model that predicts the sensory outcome of movements. When sensory feedback does not match the predicted consequences, a compensatory response corrects for the motor error and the forward model is updated to prevent future errors. Like other motor behaviours, vocalization relies on sensory feedback for the maintenance of forward models and to stabilize vocalizations.

Experiment 1 used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine sensory processing of short feedback perturbations during an ongoing utterance. In one session, participants produced a vowel at an FO of their own choosing. In …

Can Overeating Induce A Conditioned Taste Avoidance In Previously Restricted Rats?, Amanda Louise Hertel

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

While feeding is rewarding, the feeling of satiation has been theorized to be aversive under certain conditions. Using a food-restriction model of overeating developed in our laboratory the results presented here suggest that overeating, and the resulting experience of satiation, is capable of supporting a conditioned taste avoidance.

Rats had either ad lib (n=8) or restricted (n=24) food access (receiving 50% of the food eaten by ad lib fed rats) for 8 days. All rats were then given 24 hr access to a 0.1% saccharin solution, and two groups of food-restricted rats were given access to either 100% of the …

Exploring The Reintegration Process For Child Soldiers: A Case Study Of Young Women And Their Children In Northern Uganda, Allison N. Martin

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Child soldiering has occurred throughout history in the never-ending battle over land, resources and human rights. The earliest mention of minors in war comes from antiquity however it was not until the 1970s that the first international convention came into effect in an attempt to limit the participation of children in armed conflict (Wikipedia, 2009b). Unfortunately, children remain active in armed conflicts around the world as combatants, porters, spies, messengers, sex slaves and human shields. Human Rights Watch (2007) estimates that 200,000 to 300,000 children are currently serving in rebel and government forces in over 20 countries around the world. …

Internal And External Triggers For Action, Shannon Matkovich

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

When the self paced preparation of an action is interrupted by a stimulus prompting the same motor response there is an increase in the reaction time to the stimulus as compared to an external or simple reaction time (SRT) condition (Obhi & Haggard, 2004). Previous studies have suggested that this cost is not attributable to perceptual or attentional factors. Therefore, to investigate the source of this RT cost we varied the motor demands of movements in Experiments one and two. Results indicated that the level of motor programming demands did not influence the RT cost in these experiments. While RTs …

Non-Biological Caregivers’ Experiences Of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (Fasd) Support Groups, Sharon Porty

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Caregivers of children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) are an extremely valuable resource, and supporting a stable and nurturing home environment may be the most achievable intervention to improve the child’s prognosis. Very little research has been done to explore effective interventions that focus on the FASD caregiver, rather than the child, for the purposes of preventing caregiver burnout and placement breakdown. The central purpose of this study is to explore non-biological parent caregivers’ experiences of FASD caregiver support groups in order to capture a better understanding of the value of this resource as one part of a continuum …

Exploring Newcomer Settlement And Integration Supports In Brantford, And Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk Counties: Community-Based Participatory Research, Bharati Sethi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Much of the literature on recent immigrants focuses on a needs analysis from a deficit model where primarily formal services and programs related to employment issues are analyzed from a post-positivist or interpretivist framework. Using a strength-based approach this study examined other settlement issues including employment that are vital to the long-term viability of newcomers and the host society such as access to education, training (language and/or vocational), health care, and social network. Using Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) philosophical framework and methodology, data were generated from various sources—quantitative and qualitative text in the survey questionnaire (service providers and newcomers), …

Voices Of Anorexia Uncovered: The Healing Journey Unveiled, Elisha Van Harte

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness. The current rate of anorexia nervosa is 1% in North America, representing approximately three million cases. Consequently, this illness has attracted a growing body of research and treatment. Current research in the field has focused primarily on the etiology of the illness. Furthermore, outcome studies are primarily quantitative in nature and have indicated that there is no treatment modality that consistently results in longitudinal recovery. What appears to be absent from the literature is the exploration of the recovery process from the perspective of those who have recovered. The …

Implementing Technology In The Classroom: Assessing Teachers’ Needs Through The Use Of A Just-In-Time Support System, Alissa N. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Given the importance of computer technology in classrooms today, it is crucial to identify the types of supports that will facilitate teachers’ effective implementation of technology. Ten teachers (four kindergarten, four grade one, and two grade one/two) received just-in-time support while introducing a reading software program in their class. An additional 12 teachers (four kindergarten, seven grade one, and one grade two) were exposed to the software, but did not receive just-in-time support. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses of instructional sessions were conducted in order to determine the kinds of support that teachers required throughout the intervention. Results provided an …

Event Syntax And Event Semantics As Constraints On Availability Of Discourse, Raymond B. Becker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The understanding of how temporal information constrains situation models is far from complete. In tehse two experiments participants read short stories, where the antecedent sentence was manipulated with respect to varying tense, grammatical and lexical verb aspect (Experiment 1), and then by varying grammatical and lexical verb aspect in conjunction with long and short duration events (Experiment 2). We used electrophysiological measures time-locked to the anaphoric referent to investigate how the brain responds to these temporal constraints. The purpose was to investigate teh possibility that these variables have an influence on the availability of discourse concepts in situation models. In …

Verhaltensdiagnostik Aus Der Perspektive Der Kognitiven Therapie Analyse Automatischer Gedanken Und Grundüberzeugungen (Behavioral Diagnostics From The View Of The Cognitive Therapy : Identification Of Automatic Thoughts And Attitudes)., Patrick Pössel, Martin Hautzinger

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Die Veränderung von mit psychischen Problemen verbundenen negativen automatischen Gedanken und Grundüberzeugungen ist zentraler Bestandteil jeder Kognitiven Verhaltenstherapie. Daher ist die Aufdeckung dieser dem Bewusstsein oft nur wenig zugänglichen kognitiven Prozessen von entscheidender Bedeutung für den Erfolg einer Psychotherapie. Im vorliegenden Artikel werden neben dem ABCDE-Protokoll, welches die Standardmethode zur Identifikation und Veränderung negativer automatischer Gedanken ist, unterschiedliche Methoden zur Exploration von Grundüberzeugungen (Beispielsituationen sammeln, Imaginationsmethode, Pfeil-abwärts-Technik) detailliert dargestellt. Hierbei wird das eher induktive Vorgehen zur Aufdeckung von Grundüberzeugungen von Albert Ellis mit den mehr deduktiven Strategien von Aaron Beck und den Weiterentwicklungen von Judith Beck verglichen.

The modification of …

Stakeholder Participation In New Governance: Lessons From Chicago, Lisa T. Alexander

Faculty Scholarship

The efficacy of the public-private partnership as a tool for social reform is the subject of continued scholarly and public debate. New governance theory, an increasingly popular form of jurisprudence, constructs an optimistic vision of stakeholder collaboration in public-private partnerships that justifies the use of the public-private partnership in regulatory reform. New governance scholars contend that recent governance trends such as devolution, deregulation, decentralization, and privatization create opportunities for previously marginalized stakeholders to more fully participate in public problem-solving. New governance scholars expect that both public and private stakeholders, with differing interests, skills and objectives, will effectively collaborate to solve …

Assessing Tangible Support Efforts In English Canadian Christian Church Communities, Dana M. Friesen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis was inspired by one family’s need for support and how it came to be expressed and negotiated within their faith community. The purpose of this study was to survey English-speaking, Christian congregations across Canada in order to discover the range of tangible social supports available to congregants. Tangible supports were defined as practical (i.e. acts of service), material, and social/emotional support. An important component in this study was to identify strengths and gaps in the development and mobilization of congregational supports, as expressed by church leaders. Another important aspect included the exploration of church leaders’ and their congregations’ …

The Sexual Health Education Experiences And Needs Of Immigrant Women In Kitchener-Waterloo, Stefani Burosch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In Canada, the sexual health education needs of individuals beyond their adolescent years are often overlooked. For immigrant women, silences around issues of adult sexual health are compounded by the perception of mystery and taboos surrounding minority women and sexuality. In exploring the experiences and needs of adult immigrant women related to sexuality and sexual health education in Kitchener-Waterloo—two mid-size cities located within the Waterloo Region in southern Ontario—this study sought to create space for dialogue and to bridge the perceived cultural divide on issues of sexual health that often arises between individuals from different cultural backgrounds.

Using a qualitative …

Population Density, Circulating Testosterone And Dawn Chorus Behaviour In White-Throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia Albicollis), Simon Richard Hall

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

An integrative approach to biological research has facilitated the study not only of specific phenomena, but of the connections between these phenomena. A particularly striking example is that of the relationships between testosterone, social behavior, and social context. Increased levels of testosterone increase the frequency of aggressive behaviors and reduce the quality of parental care in many songbird species, and these changes in behavior can affect the surrounding social environment. Different social contexts, population density as a readily studied example, affect the cues that control the release of testosterone into the bloodstream. The distinct tan-stripe and white-stripe phenotypic morphs of …

Moral Emotion Expectancies And Moral Behavior In Adolescence, Megan E. Johnston

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the present research we extended previous studies examining moral emotion expectancies in childhood to investigate the relationship between moral emotion expectancies and moral behavior in adolescence. A secondary goal was to explore the relationships among moral emotion expectancies, the moral self, and moral action. Two hundred and thirty-five adolescents in grades 7, 9, 11, and first year university completed a structured interview assessing moral emotion expectancies in various situations in which a moral norm is either regarded or disregarded. Participants distributed up to 10 plastic chips on nine emotional expressions to indicate how they expected to feel in each …

Personal Growth In Couples Caring For A Child With A Life-Threatening Illness, Kimberly Kennedy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Little is known about the potential for positive outcomes in couples who have a child with a life-threatening illness. The current study was a secondary analysis of demographics and personal growth data of 34 couples actively caring for children with various life-threatening conditions. There were three overarching goals in this research: (a) to examine differences in Posttraumatic Growth Inventory scores (PTGI) of mothers and fathers, (b) to examine the relationship between demographic variables and PTGI scores of mothers and fathers, and (c) to measure level of congruency in couple-dyad scores and test if partners’ growth scores are predictive of one …

Effects Of Context On Target Localization, Cheryl M. Lavell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the presence of non-target objects can influence the planning of a movement towards a remembered target location. One specific aim was to examine how the temporal effects of the task could affect movement planning. The final aim of this thesis was to examine whether or not the mere presence of extrinsic cues can suppress the encoding of intrinsic cues.

It was found that when non-target objects are presented simultaneously with the target, interference occurs; however, if the non-target objects are presented at least 250 ms in advance of the targets performance …

Piecing Together The Puzzle Of Autism: Aspects Of Its Effects On Children With The Condition And Their Caregivers, Roula Markoulakis

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As one of the most prevalent developmental disorders, extensive research exists concerning Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, gaps are still evident in a number of areas. Information pertaining to any costs and benefits associated with the experience of caring for a child with autism is inadequate. In Study 1, the lived experiences of married female primary caregivers of children with autism were explored, specifically by examining the costs and benefits of caregiving and its influence on the women’s situations. Furthermore, motor control deficits are apparent in many children with high functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger syndrome (AS), but need to …