Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Promoting Yourself, Promoting Your Research, Becka Rich, Michele Gibney

Library Academic Fest for Faculty

NSU librarians are offering this workshop for you to learn the ins and outs of promoting yourself and your research on SSRN, NSUWorks, SelectedWorks, and social networks like ResearchGate.

"I'Ll Just Do My Time": The Role Of Motivation In The Rejection Of The Dwi Court Model, Deborah A. Eckberg, David Squier Jones

The Qualitative Report

In the last decade, driving while intoxicated (DWI) courts based on the therapeutic court model have proliferated. Although the typical DWI court program allows offenders with multiple DWI offenses to avoid jail time and get their drivers’ licenses back sooner, not all offenders who are offered the opportunity to participate in DWI court choose to take advantage of it. Others try but drop out of the program early on. We conducted qualitative interviews with twelve people who were offered the opportunity to participate in an urban DWI court in a Midwestern county between 2007 and 2010, but who either chose …

A Review Of Anna De Fina And Alexandra Georgakopoulou's Analyzing Narrative: Discourse And Sociolinguistic Perspectives From A Natural Storytelling Environment, Robyn Jordan

The Qualitative Report

It was rather serendipitous, not that I broke my wrist, but that I chose to bring Anna De Fina and Alexandra Georgakopoulou's 2012 book, Analyzing Narrative: Discourse and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, to my physical therapy appointments. Three times a week for several weeks, I read left-handed with my right arm trapped in a device that radiated extreme heat or numbing cold. I encourage anyone with an interest in narrative analysis to read this book, especially, if possible, in the company of people with stories to tell (but minus the temperature variations). There are six chapters and I recommend that it be …

Succession Planning Activities At A Rural Public Health Department, Sandra L. Cole, Clifford P. Harbour

The Qualitative Report

This qualitative case study utilized interviews and evaluation of publicallyavailable documents to investigate the process of succession planning in a moderately-sized public health office located in a metropolitan community in a frontier-rural state. Following analysis of the data, the results were compared to literature findings. Four public health directors, the County Health Officer and the Board of Health chairperson participated in the private, face-to-face interviews. These individuals were asked to participate because they have the ability to direct staff leadership development activities. A formal succession planning program did not exist at this agency; however, on an informal basis, leadership development …

Conflict In Families And Nursing Home Placement: A Phenomenological Study, Stephen John Pidwysocky

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

In the limited qualitative research about families who have placed a family member in a nursing home, conflict is identified as a significant problem (Lashewicz & Keating, 2009; Lashewicz et al., 2007). Whether it is related to absence of filial responsibility on the part of adult children, (Ganong & Coleman, 2005; Piercy, 1998), adult child ambivalence (Bengtson et al., 2002; Lüscher & Pillemer, 1998), female and male gender caregiving roles (Spitze & Trent, 2006; Dayton-Ingersoll, 2003; Aronson, 1992), differences in levels of commitment on the part of adult children to assist older parents (Silverstein et al., 2008), adult children being …

"We Never Thought It Would Be Like This": Refugees' Experiences In Sicily, Michelle Reale

The Qualitative Report

The arrival of refugees by boat to Sicily is not, perhaps, significant in numbers, but from a humanitarian point of view it is a crisis in the truest sense of the word. Refugees that arrive in port cities are more susceptible to trafficking due to their extra vulnerability and impaired emotional and physical states. The three main preoccupations refugees are: the arduous and often deadly journey, their treatment upon arrival, and rebuilding their lives in a society that does not want them. They often wonder if what they encounter in Sicily is in some ways worse than the place they …

Experience Of Being An Insider And An Outsider During A Qualitative Study With Men Who Have Experienced Significant Weight Loss, Darren D. Moore

The Qualitative Report

The major question being answered in the study is, “What is the experience of being an insider/outsider in a study regarding men and significant weight loss?” The purpose of the paper is to explore the experience of being both an insider and an outsider, and specifically to discuss how researcher status and self-disclosure emerged and impacted the research process. The methodology used in the research study is narrative inquiry, specifically self-narrative. In the study, membership role status was found to be difficult to define, inherently complex, and arbitrary at times. Additional research on the topic of membership role status is …

Interpreting Online Discussions: Connecting Artifacts And Experiences In User Studies, Jörgen Skågeby

The Qualitative Report

This paper presents a methodological effort to connect the specifics of technologies to the details of social practices, in an attempt to deepen our understanding of evolving sociotechnical cultures. More specifically, this paper describes a methodological framework that makes use of online discussions as a vital source of data. The reason the paper focuses on online discussion is that the Internet has become a natural habitat for discussions of high-end technologies, be they physical products or online services. The framework combines interpretative research and attribute-consequence-value (ACV) chain theory – a theory commonly applied to market and consumer research – to …

Gathering The Requirements For A Mobile Device Tutorial For Older Adults, Michele A. Washington

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The United States, as well as other nations, is experiencing an increase in the older adult population. As a result of older adults living longer, mobile devices can be a major component in improving older adults' quality of life. However, older adults may encounter difficulties when using the mobile devices. This research examined the requirements in addressing the needs of older adults when using a mobile device. Specifically, the research focused on gathering the task and feature requirements for a mobile device tutorial for older adults. The approach was accomplished by the development of a mobile device questionnaire, which was …

Digital Forensics Tool Interface Visualization, Roberto A. Altiero

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Recent trends show digital devices utilized with increasing frequency in most crimes committed. Investigating crime involving these devices is labor-intensive for the practitioner applying digital forensics tools that present possible evidence with results displayed in tabular lists for manual review. This research investigates how enhanced digital forensics tool interface visualization techniques can be shown to improve the investigator's cognitive capacities to discover criminal evidence more efficiently. This paper presents visualization graphs and contrasts their properties with the outputs of The Sleuth Kit (TSK) digital forensic program. Exhibited is the textual-based interface proving the effectiveness of enhanced data presentation. Further demonstrated …

Engaging With Qualitative Data Analysis: The Metaphor Of "Looking At Data Like A Landscape To Be Explored", Marleny M. Bonnycastle

The Qualitative Report

“Looking at data like a landscape to be explored” is the metaphor used by Susanne Friese in her new book entitled Qualitative Data Analysis with ATLAS.ti (2014). In it, Friese successfully guides new and experienced researchers to use ATLAS.ti as a computer-assisted tool to engage in qualitative data analysis. The book transcends from being a dry reading to become a companion for those who are living the journey of using different sources of data, mapping them and then integrated them into their analysis.

Wearing The Label Of Mental Illness: Community-Based Participatory Action Research Of Mental Illness Stigma, Jean M. Theurer, Nicole Jean-Paul, Kristi Cheyney, Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, Bruce R. Stevens

The Qualitative Report

Stigma remains an impediment to seeking and receiving the requisite care for mental illness. To enhance a local National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) affiliate’s understanding of community members’ perceptions of mental illness and its associated stigma, a community-based participatory action research study was conducted. The study addressed the following research question: how do community members understand and experience the stigma associated with mental illness? Twenty-two participant-researchers wore mental illness labeled T-shirts around the local community, recorded their observations and reflections of this experience and recruited twenty-two community members for semi-structured interviews about mental illness stigma. Domain analysis of the …

Internationalization Of Counselor Education: Lived Experiences Of Us Counselors-In-Training Abroad, Cristen C. Wathen, David M. Kleist

The Qualitative Report

In response to globalization in the counseling profession and the incorporation of international immersion courses in counselor education programs, the purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of counselors-intraining participating internationally in a study abroad course. The research question was: What is the experience of a counselor-in-training who has participated in a study abroad trip as a part of their training program? Utilizing van Manen’s phenomenological methodology (1990), the researcher explored the experiences of four counselors-in-training participating in an international study abroad course. Overall emergent themes included experiencing new contexts, emotions, and new learning with an emphasis …

Innovations In Representing Specific States Of Consciousness, Barry Klein

The Qualitative Report Conference

On-going research has not produced a sufficiently precise and practical methodology which could yield a substantive evolution in qualitative research, but I have developed techniques, from world traditions as well as from transpersonal research, for calibrating specific states during and right after they are experienced. Benefits of this could lead to improved treatments for disorders as well as for self-improvement and cross-cultural communications.

21st Century Learning: Professional Development In Practice, Philip E. Bernhardt

The Qualitative Report

This study examined a school-based teacher professional development program as it was being conceptualized, designed, and put into practice. This article addresses four distinct, but interrelated components of the study. The first section presents a broad overview of literature situating 21st century learning. This examination specifically focuses on how this construct is conceptualized and defined by a variety of influential organizations as well as the various competencies often associated with this pedagogical perspective. The review concludes with a brief critique of this construct. The second section addresses the program areas under evaluation as well as the nature of the program …

Exploring The Lived-Experience Of Limerence: A Journey Toward Authenticity, Lynn Willmott, Evie Bentley

The Qualitative Report

Limerence is an acute onset, unexpected, obsessive attachment to one person, the Limerent Object, which is rarely reported in scientific literature. Presented here is an interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the livedexperience of six international Limerent respondents. The condition's unique and common journey is conceptualised in a Limerence Trajectory, which is characterized by generally sequential yet overlapping super-ordinate themes. The themes primarily regard experiences of ruminative thinking, free floating anxiety and depression temporarily fixated and the disintegration of the self. These themes are further linked to an inclination to reintegrate unresolved past life(s) experiences and to progress to a state …

A Journey Into The Lived Experience: A Review Of Janet Salmon's Qualitative Online Interviews Strategies, Design, And Skills, Fatima A. Cotton

The Qualitative Report

In Janet Salmons Qualitative Online Interviews (2014) she provides researchers with the tools to be innovative in their research interviews. Researchers will have the skills to conduct a qualitative research study using technology. For the purpose of this book she changes the term online research to information and communications technologies (ICTs). Salmons’ uses an EInterview Research Framework, which includes eight categories of questions and designs.

Effects Of Foster Care Placements On The Mental Health Of Abused Children In Florida, Sarah M. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

INTRODUCTION: As evidenced in the literature, when maltreated children are admitted into state care, they are frequently not afforded sufficient mental health treatment. Concomitantly, foster parents are often not given proper training in providing complex care for these children. As such, the current study aimed to examine the role that foster care has in the development of psychopathology in maltreated children and their caregivers. METHODS: Participants included 234 maltreated youths (ages 7 to 17) presenting for treatment at a community mental health center specializing in childhood trauma. Children and adolescents currently residing in foster care as well as in their …

Applying Attachment Theory And The Wounded Healer Hypothesis To Clinical Psychology And Mental Health Counseling Graduate Students, Alison Levine

Theses and Dissertations

The personal characteristics of the therapist are strongly associated with therapeutic alliance and treatment outcome. Since treatment techniques are often shown to be equally effective, differential outcomes may be attributed to the therapist's early experiences and personality features. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of childhood relational trauma in predicting specific components of mentalizing skills (i.e., affect consciousness, psychological mindedness, mindfulness, cognitive empathy and theory of mind) among therapists. Participants were 121 clinical psychology doctoral and master's in mental health counseling students (20 males, 101 females) aged 22 to 53 years old (M = 27.26, SD …

Cardiovascular Reactivity In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder And Depression, Lydia R. Malcolm

Theses and Dissertations

Exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress has been implicated in the increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet mixed results have been reported. The CVR research may have been confounded by underrepresentation of women, few studies using sophisticated cardiovascular measurement, and a lack of analyses of PTSD symptom clusters. The purpose of the present study was to examine if young civilian women (M ± SD = 29.89±7.33) with PTSD (n=17) demonstrate greater CVR than women with depression (n=12) or no mental illness controls (n=18), and to explore the relationships between CVR and PTSD …

Factors Predicting Return To Play In Sports-Related Concussion: An Empirical Evaluation, Douglas R. Polster

Theses and Dissertations

Sports-related concussion and its subsequent management have become a top priority within the sports medicine research spectrum. In order to properly understand the complex nature of concussion management, multiple aspects of the injury were explored including the psychobiological nature of the injury, risk for further injury, diagnostic concerns, and return to play decision making. While much research has been dedicated to these areas, one in particular, return to play, is the focus of this current research study. To date, there has not been a method for accurately predicting return to play time after an athlete has sustained sports-related concussion. In …

Examing Positive Psychological Constructs In The Context Of 12-Step Recovery, Danielle Bietra

Theses and Dissertations

Twelve step organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are free, community-based fellowships. Such organizations are the most widely sought recovery management options, surpassing professional treatment. The emerging evidence base suggests that involvement in such organizations is associated with positive substance-related outcomes (e.g., abstinence). Relatively speaking, however, far less is known about whether or not involvement is associated with other meaningful psychosocial constructs. The current study examined gratitude, meaning in life, life satisfaction, personal growth, and various other recovery and psychosocial constructs in a sample of self-identified NA members (N = 128) from 26 U.S. states, ranging in age …

Exploring The Item Difficulty And Other Psychometric Properties Of The Core Perceptual, Verbal, And Working Memory Subtests Of The Wais-Iv Using Item Response Theory, Sara Ann Schleicher-Dilks

Theses and Dissertations

The ceiling and basal rules of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV; Wechsler, 2008) only function as intended if subtest items proceed in order of difficulty. While many aspects of the WAIS-IV have been researched, there is no literature about subtest item difficulty and precise item difficulty values are not available. The WAIS-IV was developed within the framework of Classical Test Theory (CTT) and item difficulty was most often determined using p-values. One limitation of this method is that item difficulty values are sample dependent. Both standard error of measurement, an important indicator of reliability, and p-values …

Factor Structure Of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Among Torture Survivors, Ginger V. Armas

Theses and Dissertations

The central aim of the current study is to examine structural models of posttraumatic stress symptoms, as measured by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-Revised (HTQ-R; Mollica et al., 1992; Mollica, McDonald, Massagli, & Silove, 2004). Participants were international torture survivors who sought psychological treatment from a torture rehabilitation center in the United States. It was hypothesized that the factor structure of posttraumatic stress reactions among this heterogeneous sample of torture survivors would be consistent with the aroused intrusion model (Rasmussen, Smith, & Keller, 2007) rather than the dysphoria model (Simms, Watson, & Doebbelling, 2002). In order to evaluate model superiority, confirmatory …

Mindfulness In Parenting Questionnaire (Mipq): Development And Validation Of A Measure Of Mindful Parenting, Stacey Mccaffrey

Theses and Dissertations

Mindful parenting has been defined as “paying attention to your child and your parenting in a particular way: intentionally, here and now, and non-judgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn & Kabat-Zinn, 1997). Although it is hypothesized that increasing mindful parenting improves parent and child functioning, the development of a measure of mindful parenting is needed to support this assumption. The aim of the present study was to develop and psychometrically evaluate a measure of mindful parenting (the Mindfulness In Parenting Questionnaire: MIPQ) for use with mothers and fathers of both children and adolescents, ranging in age from 2- to 16-years-old. The current study contained …

Clergy Sexual Abuse, Robert P. Allred

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual abuse perpetrated by trusted members of the clergy presents unique challenges to clinicians and yet the current literature on the effects of clergy sexual abuse is sparse. The vast majority of current research on clergy sexual abuse is based on the perspective of the perpetrators and not the survivors. Some literature suggests that clergy sexual abuse is equivalent to incest due to the level of betrayal trauma associated with each form of abuse. The current study seeks to examine the effects of clergy perpetrated sexual abuse on survivors and examine those effects in the context of the general literature …

The Effects Of Ongoing Assessment During A Psychoeducational Evaluation, Joseph Elliot

Theses and Dissertations

Statistically significant reductions in scores from initial pretreatment testing to subsequent pretreatment testing in self-report measures are a widespread phenomenon (Arrindell, 2001). If valid, these reductions reflect improvement in psychological functioning absent any formal treatment (Arrindell, 2001). Many explanations for these reductions in scores have been offered (Arrindell, 2001) including assessment reactivity (Epstein et al., 2005), social desirability (Henderson, Byrne, & Duncan-Jones, 1981); and mechanical responding (Bromet, Dunn, Connell, Dew, & Schulberg, 1986; Durham et al., 2002). However, relatively few studies have examined this phenomenon empirically. Even fewer studies have examined pretreatment improvements in parent ratings. The present study sought …

Age Related Decline In Memory: Examining The Mediation Effect Of Processing, Executive Functioning And Intelligence In Normal Adults, Jada J. Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple mediation analyses that collectively examine the prominent theories of cognitive aging (i.e., Common Cause, Processing, and Executive Decline Hypotheses) along with other cognitive domains that are sensitive to aging are rare. Moreover, having identified that cognition begins to decline as early as 30 years old, few studies have examined the mechanisms that underlie memory change among younger aging individuals. As a result, it is unclear whether relevant mediating variables have been excluded from early research on age-related memory decline, or to what extent rehabilitative strategies are applicable as early interventions for maintaining cognitive functioning into late life.

The present …

Family Therapist Connecting And Building Relationships With Substance Abusers In The Seminole Tribe Of Florida: An Ethnographic Study, Sunny Nelli Khachatryan

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine the process of a family therapist entering and then navigating the cultural system of working with substance abusing Seminole tribal clients. The study also utilized two tribal members sharing their opinions about how Seminoles view therapy. As noted in the interview questions and responses, the research presented guidelines for family therapists to follow when working with tribal members. Because there has been no study conducted with family therapists providing clinical services to tribal members, this study introduced tools for clinicians to keep in mind and utilize when working with tribal clients. …

A Phenomenological Exploration Of Marriage And Family Therapists And Their Experiences With Mindfulness As A Means Of Self-Care To Sustain Productive Professional Practices, Isaac Farin

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

This research study was designed to record and consider lived experiences from marriage and family therapists (MFTs) who have experience with mindfulness as a form of selfcare in sustaining productive professional practices. The primary focus of this project was to understand, through interviews, reports from marriage and family therapists about how they utilize such mindfulness as a form of self-care for their professional practice. This research study has sought insight into whether mindfulness self-care could be helpful in maintaining effective resiliency in professional practice. I used a phenomenological approach, specifically Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) interviewing, to gather reports from participants …