Counseling Commons^™

Integrating Spirituality Into Mental Health Counseling, Mary Jane Madsen

Graduate Research Papers

This paper represents an attempt to bring together information from the existing literature that, when combined, could form a basic framework of thought and application for counselors who wish to integrate spirituality into mental health counseling. As mental health counseling students or more seasoned professionals consider this information, they may choose to take practical ideas into their work with clients, or at least become more involved in further reading and research on the topic. The paper concludes with a presentation of ethical issues that specifically relate to the integration of spirituality into the traditional mental health counseling paradigm.

Self-Mutilation : Using Pain To Cope, Wendy S. Cook

Graduate Research Papers

Self-mutilation is a serious mental and physical health problem that is often under-reported and misdiagnosed. The mutilation is a reaction to negative internal feelings, such as despair, anxiety, anger, or cognitive constriction. The goal of the self-mutilation is relief from emotional pain by using physical pain. The self-mutilator has low self-esteem, bouts of depression, difficulty forming intimate relationships, and usually suffered some type of trauma such as physical or sexual abuse. Pharmacological treatment for the self-mutilator has been experimental but has not been well researched. However, research seemed to indicate that individual and group therapy, specifically cognitive-behavioral therapy, is helpful …

The Effects Of A Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Intervention On Irrational Beliefs And Burnout Among Middle School Teachers In The State Of Iowa, Shirley Anderson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) bibliotherapy intervention on the level of burnout and irrational beliefs. This study specifically examined the impact of a REBT bibliotherapy intervention on middle school teachers' irrational beliefs and level of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment, using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (Maslach, Jackson, & Schwab, 1986) and the Irrational Beliefs Test (Jones, 1968).

The subjects in this study consisted of 167 middle school teachers in the State of Iowa. These teachers taught sixth, seventh, or eighth grade or a combination of these …

Cognitive Components Of Social Anxiety: A Comparison Of Elderly And Young Adults, Jeffrey Alan Mcneil

Dissertations

The present study investigated the underlying cognitive elements of social anxiety in elderly and young adult samples. The young adult participants in this study were 99 undergraduate students from a Midwestern university, recruited through scheduled undergraduate classes from both the Communication and Education Departments. Fifty elderly participants from two independent living senior residence centers were recruited through organizational meetings and contacts coordinated through the housing director or the wellness director. One senior residential center was located in the Midwest, while the other was in the Southeast. The study employed well recognized self-report cognitive measures to assess social anxiety: the Fear …

The Relationship Between Multicultural Counseling Competencies And Attitudes Toward African Americans Among White Female Graduate Students, Dianne T. Robinson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between multicultural counseling competencies and attitudes toward African Americans among White female graduate students in counseling psychology. Participants were 67 White female students enrolled in either the master’s or doctoral level counseling psychology programs in a large Midwestern university. Subjects were administered four instruments. Participants’ self-perceived competencies in multicultural counseling were measured by the Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI, Sodowsky, Taffe, Gutkin, & Wise, 1994) and racial attitudes were measured by the Attitudes Toward Blacks Scale (ATB, Brigham, 1993). Demographic information as well as subjects’ level of participation in several activities …

Majority And Minority Supervisees' Perceptions Of Clinical Supervision, Vivian Barnette

Dissertations

Perceptions of clinical supervision of 175 majority and minority counseling psychology doctoral students selected from a national pool was the study’s focal point. Instruments used were the Revised Relational Inventory (RRI; Barrett- Lennard, 1962; Schacht, Howe, & Berman, 1988) and the Supervision Perception Form-Trainee (SPF-T) developed by Heppner and Roehlke (1984). Participants were instructed to based their ratings on their last supervision experience. Data were collected and scored on the five subscales o f the RRI (Congruence, Empathetic Understanding, Regard, Unconditionality, and Willingness to be Known) and the two subscales of the SPF-T (Willingness to Learn and Supervisory Impact).

A …

Perceptions Of The Division Of Labor Roles In Dual-Career Households Of Married African American Couples, Karolyn H. Thompson

Dissertations

Perceptions and experiences among married African American couples residing in the Southeastern United States were examined in terms of the performance of tasks and childcare giving in dual-career households. A qualitative approach was used in this study and was guided by conceptual frameworks of cultural variations that include behaviors, attitudes, values, and beliefs. In-depth interviews conducted in the couples’ homes were used for data collection. The research population included 15 married African American couples affiliated with a Greek fraternal organization located in the Southeast. The couples were selected using purposeful sampling.

Participant perceptions of the division of labor roles in …

Beyond The Study Of The Natural Man: A Gospel Perspective On Human Nature, Timothy B. Smith, Matthew Draper

Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy

No abstract provided.

Paranoid Personality Disorder., Nancy S. Thurston

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "The core feature of a paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a longstanding, pervasive pattern of mistrust in the motives of others. Persons with this disorder assume that others have malevolent intentions to harm, exploit, or deceive them, even when no objective evidence exists. They ruminate over unfounded suspicions that their family and friends are disloyal and will scrutinize these relationships for evidence of untrustworthiness. In particular they are prone to pathological jealousy of their spouse or lover. They are often reluctant to confide in others out of fear that anything they say will be used against them. This makes …

Models Of Mental Illness, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Although the concept of mental illness is central to the field of mental health and the practice of counseling, there is continuing disagreement about its definition. Several views are widely held. Each has important implications for understanding mental illness, determining which conditions are disorders and who has them, and choosing appropriate approaches to treatment. This controversy involves several important issues."

Overcorrection, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Like extinction, response cost contingency, and time out, overcorrection is a behavioral procedure used to decrease the frequency of an undesired behavior. Overcorrection involves an exaggerated form of making amends or restoring the damages caused by misbehavior. Schreibman, Charlop, and Kurtz (1992) describe overcorrection as a weak or "mild but effective form of punishment [requiring] effortful behavior contingent on the occurrence of inappropriate behavior" (p. 339). For example, a child who runs in the hall may be required to return to the point of the offense and repeatedly walk from there to the desired destination; one who left the …

Covert Sensitization, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "A form of aversion therapy in which a covert response such as a thought or an image is followed by an imagined aversive event. An individual may imagine himself relaxing in front of the television and eating a large bowl of hot buttered popcorn, enjoying the smell and taste; he then imagines the rolls of fat accumulating around his waist, having to buy new clothes, and being rejected by his girlfriend because of his weight. In covert sensitization the cognitive elements of the stimulus-response sequence rather than overt responses and external stimuli are dealt with. The goal is to …

Cognitive-Behavior Therapy With Children, Debra L. Irvin

Graduate Research Papers

This paper will look at the use of cognitive-behavior therapy with children. Specifically, it will focus on the areas of depression and anxiety. First, there will be a look at applying cognitive-behavior therapy to children. This includes strategies for working with children, and developmental considerations with children. Next, there will be a focus on using cognitive-behavior therapy for children with depression. This section includes an examination of depression in children, and three cognitive-behavioral treatment strategies. The strategies to be discussed include affective education, cognitive restructuring, and social skills training. Finally, there will be an exploration of the use of cognitive-behavior …

The Use Of Art Therapy In Counseling Children, Laura Longo

Graduate Research Papers

Art is being used more and more by counselors working with children, particularly within the school setting because it allows for children to communicate nonverbally in a timely manner. "Art therapy in a school setting can offer children the opportunity to work through obstacles that are impeding their educational progress. It can facilitate appropriate social behaviors and promote healthy affective development" (Bush, 1997, p. 16).

The purpose of this paper is to explore how art is used in counseling children and examine specific techniques. Also, the author will focus on the stages of artistic development of children, the use of …

Behavior Modification, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Behavior modification is "learning with a particular intent, namely clinical treatment and change" (Ullmann & Krasner, 1965, p. 1). Initially behavior modification referred largely to operant techniques and behavior therapy to respondent techniques. As early as 1965 the terms behavior modification and behavior therapy were used interchangeably (O'Donohue & Krasner, 1995). With publication of the journal Behavior Research and Therapy in 1963 and the founding of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, behavior therapy became a general term for all of these techniques. Thus behavior therapy will be used in this discussion."

Delusional Disorder, Nancy S. Thurston

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Delusional disorder is one among several types of psychotic disorders, all of which involve grossly impaired reality testing. The core feature of delusional disorder is one or more nonbizarre delusions that last for at least one month. These delusions involve situations that could plausibly happen in life. Apart from the direct impact of the delusion, persons with this disorder appear normal to others and are able to function adequately in everyday life. If the person has a mood episode (such as depression) while having delusions, it must be relatively brief in order to warrant the delusional disorder diagnosis. The …

John Broadus Watson, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Father of American behavioral psychology. Born and reared in Greenville, South Carolina, he received an M.A. from Furman University and then went to the University of Chicago, where he received his Ph.D. in 1903 and remained as an instructor. In 1908 Watson left Chicago for Johns Hopkins. Forced to resign from Johns Hopkins in 1920 due to adverse publicity about his divorce, he subsequently entered the advertising business."

Bibliotherapy : Background, Application And Research, Carla Marie Eich

Graduate Research Papers

This paper examines bibliotherapy in several aspects. Bibliotherapy is using books to help with client's problems or for developmental adjustment and growth. Bibliotherapy has a long history, dating back to early man. However, it was not until this century that scholars began studying it further. In 1949, the process of bibliotherapy was developed which is discussed in this paper. Research support for bibliotherapy has been mixed and speculation as to why is also discussed. There are many limitations of bibliotherapy which are important to consider if a therapist is interested in bibliotherapy. This paper allows the critics of bibliotherapy to …

Stereotypic Movement Disorder, Nancy S. Thurston

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Persons with stereotypic movement disorder move their bodies in ways that are nonfunctional, repetitive, and seemingly driven. This may include relatively benign movements such as rocking, hand waving, and twirling objects. However, it may also involve dangerous or even life-threatening behaviors such as head banging and self-biting."

Aversion Therapy, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Aversion therapy uses a number of techniques and stimuli to weaken or eliminate undesirable responses such as deviant sexual behavior and substance abuse. In theory punishment is used to directly reduce the frequency of undesired behaviors through contingent presentation or removal of a stimulus, while aversion, or aversive counter-conditioning, seeks to change the undesirable response indirectly by altering the functions of the discriminative and reinforcing stimuli. In practice this distinction is somewhat blurred, since many aversion procedures have both punishing and stimulus-altering effects."

Behavioral Psychology, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Behavioral psychology is concerned with the conditions involved in development, maintenance, and control of the behavior of individuals and other organisms. Behavioral approaches have been developed in many areas of applied psychology. These raise a number of issues important from a Christian perspective."

Flooding, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "A behavioral approach used in elimination of unwanted fears or phobias. In flooding the client either is directly exposed to or imagines highly frightening events in a protected setting. Presumably the fear-inducing stimuli will lose their influence once the individual is fully exposed to them and discovers that no harm occurs. Following a discussion of the person's fears, the person is then asked to imagine the most feared situation. The therapist describes the salient fearful elements to enhance visualization. Thus an individual who is fearful of elevators is asked to imagine boarding a glass-enclosed high-speed elevator, then watching through …

Burrhus Frederic Skinner, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Considered to be the father of modem behavioral psychology. Son of a moderately prosperous lawyer, Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, and grew up there in a middle-class Protestant family. He attended Hamilton College, completing his B.A. in 1926. Skinner planned on a literary career but quickly gave this up. He enrolled in psychology at Harvard in 192 7, completing his M.A. in 19 30 and his Ph.D. in 1931."

Albert Bandura, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "Known for his development of a social learning theory of personality and abnormal behavior. Bandura grew up in the hamlet of Mundare in northern Alberta. His undergraduate study was done at the University of British Columbia, and at his graduation in 1949 he received the Bolocan Award in psychology."

Covert Modeling, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Excerpt: "A cognitive process in which individuals change response patterns through imagining themselves engaging in the desired responses rather than by observing another person model the responses. Since these new responses are weak, even at the imaginal level, it is essential that they be reinforced in order to strengthen and maintain them. This reinforcement normally is self-administered. Covert modeling thus involves a combination of modeling and self-control procedures, all conducted internally in the form of thought and fantasy."

Three Variations On A Theme: The Power Of Pure Empathy, Jeffrey A. Kottler, Marilyn J. Montgomery, Aretha Faye Marbley

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

With the counseling profession’s increased emphasis on developing brief therapies, applying innovative techniques, and measuring outcomes, helping someone feel understood is sometimes neglected. Three narratives by humanistic practitioners illustrate the value of pure empathy in our work with clients, students, and others in our diverse communities.

The Critical Contact: A Study Of Recruiter Verbal Behavior During Campus Interviews, Camille S. Debell, Marilyn J. Montgomery, Patricia R. Mccarthy, Richard P. Lanthier

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

The verbal behaviors of 25 corporate recruiters were content analyzed and compared to student applicants’ postinterview evaluations of them. Qualitative and quantitative analyses identified and counted helper and other responses made by recruiters. Additional analyses indicated significant variability in the quality of interviews, the talkativeness of recruiters, and the relative impact of recruiter verbal behaviors on the applicants’ ratings. Recruiters who para- phrased, asked questions, and made influencing statements tended to be rated significantly higher on their expertness, or competence. Recruiters who dis- closed sometimes-irrelevant information tended to be rated significantly lower on Responsiveness. These results are discussed within the …

Characteristics And Treatment Of Conduct Disorders, Vicky Jo Kukral

Graduate Research Papers

Conduct Disorder is the most diagnosed condition in both outpatient and inpatient mental health facilities for children in the United States. Behavior problems such as aggression, destruction of property, theft and violation of basic rules are concerns for parents, teachers, peers and other adults. In an effort to help increase the reader's understanding of the Conduct Disorder population and their treatment, the author of this paper will describe and characteristics of this population. The author will also address specific mental health concerns as found in a review of the literature, and the status of mental health treatment.

Solution-Focused Approach To Therapy : An Overview Of The Literature, Gail L. Garwood

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Solution-Focused Therapy philosophy, including some of its basic assumptions and their application in therapy. In doing so, the history of the development of Solution-Focused Therapy will be examined. Covered in this review is a summary of some of the elements borrowed from Social Constructionism and traditional therapies. The underlying assumptions of Solution-Focused Therapy to be examined include its focus on strengths, its particular view of reality (especially in regard to how expectations and the use of language affect outcome), and understanding change.

The therapist's conceptualization of the client …

The Effects Of Childhood Sexual Abuse Upon Adult Male Attachment/Separation, Conflict Resolution And Psychospiritual Well-Being, Amber Thani Samaroo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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