Psychology Commons^™

The Relationships Among Literacy, Church Activity And Religious Orientation: A Study Of Adult Members Of The Lds Church In Utah County, Bruce R. Brewer

Theses and Dissertations

The study assessed the interplay among literacy, church activity, and religious orientation and examined the extent to which literacy predicts church activity in the presence of private religious behavior. One hundred fifty-seven subjects were administered measures of intrinsic religiousness, extrinsic religiousness, literacy levels and measures of church activity. The findings from this study suggest that literacy is related to activity, but in a way that is more complex than many investigators have considered. The results of the multiple regression analysis helped clarify the ability of literacy to predict church activity in the presence of religious orientation. Results further indicated that …

The Use Of Phenomenology For Family Therapy Research: The Search For Meaning, Carla M. Dahl, Pauline Boss

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Potential Role Of Social Support Systems And Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Gregory Glenn Harris

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This research is being conducted to determine the possible relationship between an individual's resistance to developing PTSD and his or her social support system. The goal is for this information to be used in clinical settings to develop/facilitate better treatment profiles for individuals suffering from PTSD. In order to determine if a valid and reliable relationship exists between cognitive resistance to developing PTSD and social support systems, a screening tool had to be created. A mixture of biographical information, Impact of Events Scale - Revised, Beck's Hopelessness and Depression Scales was utilized to gather co-relational data so that a factor …

The Development Of A Counselor Performance Evaluation, Amanda Christine Messina

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Client’s Evaluation of Counselor Behavior Short Form (CECB-S) is a 33-question survey based on the factors of empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard. It was completed by the clients following every therapy session for a three-week period for a group of inexperienced counselors just starting their practicum, and a group of experienced counselors getting ready to leave their practicum. A factor analysis found that the CECB-S has 7 factors; Listening/Empathy Skills, Techniques, Goal Setting, Achievements, Availability, Counseling Action and Knowledge. To examine the validity of the survey, a MANOVA was also run to see if clients perceived differences between …

Sex Of Spouse Abuse Offender And Directionality Of Abuse As Predictors Of Personal Distress, Interpersonal Functioning, And Perceptions Of Family Climate, Lisa M. Taylor, Joe F. Pittman

Faculty Research & Creative Activity until 2018 (FCS)

This study examines perceptions of personal distress, interpersonal functioning and family climate reported by men and women involved in unidirectional versus bidirectional spouse abuse. Participants were 7253 offenders treated by the USAF Family Advocacy Program from 1988 to 1996. Over a quarter of the sample is female and included among them were both undirectional and bidirectional offenders. Grouping factors for the analysis are gender, directionality of aggression, history of abuse in childhood, history of recidivism, and severity of aggression. Females and offenders raised in abusive homes reported more negative perceptions across the measured spheres. Unidirectional abusers reported more personal distress, …

Narrative Art Therapy For Families That Have A Child With A Life-Threatening Illness, Andrea A. Seitz

Art Therapy | Master's Theses in Print

Researchers have recognized the importance of meaningful collaboration between family medical and family therapy practitioners. A report published this year (2005) by the American Academy of Pediatrics spells out the need for pediatricians to be cognizant of the entire family’s needs when treating a child. Given the demands on pediatricians it seems almost impossible for them to provide psycho-social support needed by families. Therefore, a partnership between an MFT and a physician is a more realistic alternative. This proposal will offer an intervention model for working with families who have a child with a catastrophic illness. The treatment modality. Narrative …

The Effects Of Social Skills Intervention On The Emotional Intelligence Of Children With Limited Social Skills, Marni B. Betlow

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Impact On Male Therapists Treating Sex Offenders: A Phenomenological Study With A Focus On Gender, Race, And Ethnicity, Sueli S. Decarvalho Petry

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Competent Counselor Practice For Use Of Bibliotherapy, D. Pehrsson, P. S. Mcmillen

Library Faculty Research

We love books; those who know us know that the perfect present for either of us is a book, any kind of book, or something related to books. We are voracious readers. We recommend books to friends, to students, to clinicians, to faculty, and of course, we recommend them to clients. We began to wonder, “How should a counselor choose the appropriate book for a particular client?” We pondered, “Is it simply a matter of trial and error?”

The Integration Of Spiritual And Religious Issues In Racial-Cultural Psychology And Counseling., Timothy B. Smith, P Scott Richards

Faculty Publications

A new movement has begun. Spirituality and religion are being integrated into racial-cultural psychology and counseling. This chapter will review the literature that is the basis of that movement. We first describe the historical forces alluded to by Trimble (2000) that until only recently have minimized the relevance of religion and spirituality to psychological research and practice. We then summarize the potential benefits and concerns about incorporating spiritual and religious perspectives into research and practice that have been suggested in publications of the past 30 years. To demonstrate that religion and spirituality are central to racial-cultural psychology and counseling, literature …

The Influence Of Parenting Styles On The Development Of Moral Judgment In College Level Adolescents, Scott M. Hawkins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research project addresses the relationship between parenting styles and the development of moral judgment in college students enrolled in a four year private University in Central Virginia. The purpose of this study is to identify the extent to which parenting styles are one of the "building blocks" for the development of moral judgment in adolescents. The instruments used are the Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1988) and the Defining Issues Test - II (Rest, 1999). The researcher hypothesized that the levels of moral judgment found in college students who perceive that they were parented by parents utilizing an Authoritative parenting …

The Clinical Utility Of The Behavior Rating Inventory Of Executive Function (Brief) In The Diagnosis Of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Stephen J. Mccandless

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Current theories hypothesize that deficits in executive :functioning (EF) are responsible for the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and that specific patterns ofEF deficits may be associated with different subtypes of ADHD. Standard assessment practices for ADHD include behavior rating scales filled out by teachers and parents. The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) is a behavior rating scale designed to assess dimensions of executive :functioning. This study evaluated the validity and clinical usefulness of the BRIEF in assessing for ADHD in a • clinic-referred sample of children and adolescents. This study also examined the effectiveness of …

The Soul In Psychotherapy: Lobbing Dynamite With A James Hillman Construct, Emile Karl Wijnans

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the work of James Hillman-world-renowned psychologist, post-Jungian theorist and founder of archetypal psychology-with specific attention to the iterative illustrations of his central theoretical construct, the soul. An analytic rather than religious term, the soul's approximate definition, meaning, use, and significance as a therapeutic concept are considered across Hillman's 45-year career. To date, no published study has examined Hillman's work with this focus. Published roughly a decade apart, four seminal Hillman texts are analyzed using an interpretative methodology termed conservative hermeneutics. Despite widespread consensus that Hillman' s ideas and literary style are iconoclastic, ephemeral and shape shifting, the …

Representation Of The Elderly In Counselor Education Textbooks, Alicia V. Fahr

Dissertations

The counseling profession requires multicultural competence in meeting the needs of diverse groups. The responsibility for training counseling students to work effectively with the elderly falls upon counselor educators. Textbooks convey cultural values and contribute to what is learned by students. Specifically,textbooks may contribute to how counseling students think about older adults and aging issues. This study was designed to determine how older adults and aging issues are represented in counselor education texts.

The textbooks used most frequently by 11 randomly selected master's degree programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2001) were identified …

Psychopathy And The Five Factor Model In A Noninstitutionalized Sample: A Domain And Facet Level Analysis, Scott R. Ross, Catherine J. Lutz, Steven E. Bailley

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study examined the relationship of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality to primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions in a noninstitutionalized sample. Previous investigations suggest that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism are basic personality traits that characterize psychopathy. However, few studies have examined the relationship of the FFM to primary and secondary psychopathic attributes, respectively. In the current study, the relationship of the FFM using the NEO-PI-R to primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions was investigated in a sample of young adults. Previous findings were extended by (1) addressing the relationship of higher and lower order FFM traits (i.e., facet …

Answering The Earthquake, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

During the past several years, the American Catholic Church has suffered an enormous earthquake due to the child sexual abuse crisis that was initially reported on January 6, 2002 by the Boston Globe Spotlight Team. Although the sexual abuse of children by priests had been in the news many times before, the recent case in Boston 14 Conversations resulted in perhaps the largest earthquake ever in the American Catholic Church. While the epicenter of the quake was centered in Boston, there were many significant aftershocks felt across the land. Sadly, Jesuits and Jesuit universities were not immune from the recent …

Chronic Pain: The Extra Burden On Canadian Women, Marta Meana, Robert Cho, Marie Desmeules

Psychology Faculty Research

Health Issue

Chronic pain is a major health problem associated with significant costs to both afflicted individuals and society as a whole. These costs seem to be disproportionately borne by women, who generally have higher prevalence rates for chronic pain than do men.

Key findings

Data obtained from 125,574 respondents to the Canadian Community Health Survey (2000–2001) indicated that 18% of Canadian women suffered from chronic pain, compared to 14% of men. This gender discrepancy, however, seemed to be linked primarily to differences in age, income, and education between adult men and women in this large sample. Age, income, depression …

The Impact Of Racial Identity Attitudes On The Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Of African American Undergraduate Students, Tamara A. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between racial identity attitudes and career decision-making self-efficacy. Two hundred and forty-three African American undergraduate students completed a demographic questionnaire, the Cross Racial Identity Scale (Worrell, Vandiver, & Cross, 2000), and the Career Decision-Making SelfEfficacy- Short-Form (Betz and Taylor, 1994). Results from a hierarchial multiple regression revealed a significant negative relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and pre-encounter self-hatred attitudes, and a significant positive relationship between internalization multiculturalist inclusive attitudes and career decision-making self-efficacy. The other four racial identity attitudes, pre-encounter assimilation, pre-encounter miseducation, immersion-emmersion anti-white, and internalization afrocentricity, were not significant predictors of career decision-making …

Individual Differences And Preference For Therapeutic Factors Among Partial Hospitalization Program Group Clients, Dennis Neil Profitt

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined whether the level of functioning (high vs. low) of individuals in Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) group affected their preference for Yalom's therapeutic factors. Additionally, an attempt was made to replicate past research by reducing Yalom's twelve therapeutic factors to a smaller number of overarching factors. Finally, an attempt was made to extract a new factor structure that differs from Yalom' s factor modet'and reflects the experiences of clients in PHP group. One hundred and fifteen participants who receive PHP treatment from a large community mental health center in western and central Indiana were administered Yalom's Therapeutic Factor …

Examining The Behavioral And Physiological Components Of Communication Skills Training With Married Couples: Are Differential Effects Mediated By The Topic Discussed And Initial Level Of Marital Distress?, Tara L. Cornelius

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to experimentally examine the effects of the Speaker-Listener technique when the couple was instructed to either (a) discuss an issue within, or (b) outside the marriage, on couples’ initial and long-term levels of marital distress and satisfaction. This study was designed to examine Gottman, et al. (1998) hypothesis that the Speaker-Listener skills training technique may be effective and lead to improved levels of marital satisfaction when the couple is complaining about a third party, but complaining about each other may become divisive and weaken the marital relationship, and that such an effect would …

Negative Stereotypes And Childhood Paternal Relationships As Predictors Of Paternal Identity In African American Fathers, Danielle K. Wright

Dissertations

African American men have been widely ignored in the social science literature. When African American men have been studied, it has primarily been from a deficit model. The purpose of this study was to give voice to the African American father, whether he is working-poor, middle-class, or upper-class, biological or non-biological, residential or non-residential. The intent of the study was to explore how African American men view themselves as fathers and their own experiences of being a parent.

One hundred and one men who identified as African American, were at least 18 years old, and who had at least one …

Exploring The Relationship Between Race-Related Stress, Identity And Well-Being Among African Americans, Darrick Tovar-Murray

Dissertations

For almost four hundred years, African Americans have been victims of race-related stress. Race-related stress is defined as the encounters between individuals and their environment that surface from racism and strain an individual's resources or threaten his or her well-being. Despite findings on the negative impact of racism on African Americans' well-being, very little research has focused on the relationships between race-related stress, identity and well-being among African Americans.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between race-related stress, identity, and well-being among African Americans. A total of 196 African American community members and college students participated …

School-Based Prevention Of Depressive Symptoms In Adolescents : A 6-Month Follow-Up., Patrick Pössel, Andrea B. Horn, Gunter Groen, Martin Hautzinger

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Objective: Depressive disorders in adolescents are a widespread problem with extensive psychosocial consequences. We designed a school-based program to prevent the increase of depressive symptoms. We expect the program to reduce dysfunctional automatic thoughts and improve social skills and thus prevent the increase of depressive symptoms. Method: The design includes a training group and a non-treatment control group with pre- and post-measurement and 3- and 6-month follow-ups. We followed 324 eighth graders in both groups. School classes were randomly assigned to one of the two groups. The prevention program, LISA-T, is based on cognitive-behavioral therapy concepts and targets of cognitive …

Melioration And The Behavioral Addiction Process: An Experimental Analysis, Jared Micah Dinehart

Theses and Dissertations

Melioration can be a factor contributing to behavioral addiction. In this study, 76 university undergraduates operated a "money machine" by selecting between choices that corresponded to maximization and melioration. Participants initially made choices consistent with a strategy of melioration and demonstrated significantly greater variability in choice behavior when visual cues were presented aimed at exposing the internality (or consequence) of the choice situation. Removal of the visual cues resulted in a return to lower responding. Visual cues may aid in interrupting the behavioral addiction pattern by limiting exclusive use of a melioration choice strategy. Methods of restructuring and experimentation with …

Unhappily Ever After: Effects Of Long-Term Low-Quality Marriages On Well-Being, Daniel Hawkins, Alan Booth

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The present study shows that long-term low-quality marriages have significant negative effects on overall well-being. We utilize a nationally representative longitudinal study with a multi-item marital quality scale that allows us to track unhappy marriages over a twelve-year period and to assess marital happiness along many dimensions. Remaining unhappily married is associated with significantly lower levels of overall happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and overall health, along with elevated levels of psychological distress, compared to remaining otherwise continuously married. There is also some evidence that staying unhappily married is more detrimental than divorcing, as people in low-quality marriages are less happy …

Taiwanese Female Counselors’ Experiences Of Managing Work And Family Roles And Responsibilities, Joy Yuyin Huang

Dissertations

Mental health professionals work in emotionally demanding environments when they work with clients who have emotional problems and interpersonal conflicts. Self-care and managing family and work responsibilities are concerns of great importance for mental health professionals to maintain quality in their services. This is of special concern for Asian female counselors who play important supportive roles for their families. As a result, Asian female counselorsnot only work with clients but also assume heavy family responsibilities, yet there is a dearth of literature on this specific group (Leong, 2002; Saso, 1999; Lee, 1998).

This qualitative study using grounded theory methods explored …

The Sexual Abuse Crisis In The Roman Catholic Church: What Psychologists And Counselors Should Know, Thomas G. Plante, Courtney Daniels

Psychology

Recent events regarding child sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere have yet again resulted in a tremendous amount of media attention and frenzy regarding this topic. During 2002 alone, approximately 300 American Catholic priests, including several bishops, were accused of child sexual abuse. Many were forced to resign their positions while others were prosecuted and went to prison. Curiously, there still exist many myths and misperceptions about priests who sexually abuse children and their victims. Since psychologists and other mental health professionals are likely to interact with many who have been impacted …

Self -Esteem And Sense Of Entitlement In Violent And Nonviolent Criminal Behavior, Susan Frank

Doctoral Dissertations

There are two conflicting theories concerning self-esteem in violent and nonviolent criminal behavior. One theory proposes that low self-esteem is more influential than high self-esteem in an individual's decision to participate in criminal behavior, whereas the other theory proposes the opposite. Limited research is available concerning the role that sense of entitlement has in criminal behavior, beyond its previously explored role in rape. The first purpose of this study was to clarify the role of self-esteem in criminal behavior by having individuals currently incarcerated for both violent and nonviolent crimes complete the Self-Esteem Rating Scale. Using the scores obtained on …

Working With Heterosexual Allies On Campus: A Qualitative Exploration Of Experiences Among Lgbt Campus Resource Center Directors, Melissa A. Bullard

Dissertations

The scholarly literature has just recently begun to address the role that heterosexual allies can play in responding to the unique needs and challenges facing LGBT people. As Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Campus Resource Centers are expanding in number and scope on college and university campuses across the United States, heterosexual allies have increased opportunities to support and advocate for LGBT people. Yet very little is known about what heterosexual allies do, or how their presence and actions impact LGBT people. The purpose of this study is to identify and describe the experiences that LGBT individuals have with …

The Relationship Of Parenting With Adolescent Problem Behaviors And Healthy Development: An Application Of A Motivational Model Of Development, Sharon Ann Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores the relationship between parenting and adolescent outcomes within the context of healthy adolescent development. A motivational model of development provides a framework for understanding adolescent and parent behaviors.

Participants in the study were 4,090 students in grade 8-12. Students' self-reported behaviors and perceptions of their parents' behaviors were collected as part of a statewide school survey.

The study contributes to the understanding of parenting dimensions that underlie parenting styles through the identification of six parenting dimensions (warmth, structure, autonomy support, rejection, chaos, and coercion) that correspond to the motivational model. In addition, monitoring is identified as a …