Psychology Commons^™

Yes We Can: A Dyadic Investigation Of Cognitive Interdependence, Relationship Communication, And Optimal Behavioral Health Outcomes Among Hiv Serodiscordant Same-Sex Male Couples, Kristine Elizabeth Gamarel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research suggests that couples who adopt a "we" orientation in relation to illness demonstrate greater resiliency and an increased capacity to cope with stressors. HIV serodiscordant couples (one partner is HIV-positive, the other is HIV-negative) have been identified as a critical mode of HIV transmission. The present study integrates dyadic coping models and interdependence theory to examine whether cognitive interdependence (i.e., the extent to which couples include aspects of their partner into their self-concept) and communication strategies are associated with sexual behavior, antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, depressive symptoms, sexual satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction. The study also tested whether the associations …

Intrusive And Deliberate Rumination Predict Posttraumatic Growth In Members Enrolled In A Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Program, Erika Jade Gerwe

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) can be defined as the experience of positive change, or psychological growth, that occurs as a result of a highly challenging life event or crisis (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004). Given that over one-third of the American population lives with some form of cardiovascular disease (American Heart Association, 2011), promoting posttraumatic growth in this population may promote more successful adaptation and coping and may serve to reduce morbidity and mortality (Affleck, 1987). Thus, the present study investigated the predictors of posttraumatic growth in a cardiac rehabilitation setting at rehabilitation entrance (PTG1) and exit (PTG2) and examined change in …

The Best Intentions : Does Positive Parental Religious Coping Moderate The Relationship Between Parental Perceived Control And Child Anxiety In African American Family Dyads?, James V. Simms

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Stress And Coping As A Function Of Experience Level In Collegiate Flight Students, Jennifer Kirschner, John Young, Richard Fanjoy

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Aviation as an industry requires a high degree of precision at all times. Large amounts of stress have been known to decrease performance to undesirable levels. While stress reactions and the coping skills used after encountering stressful situations differ from person to person, generalities can be made by comparing differences between groups. A large number of pilot applicants receive initial training within a university flight program each year. In order to better understand the perceived stress level and the coping skills used by these students, the current research project administered a perceived stress test and a coping skills inventory to …

A Cultural Examination Of Hardiness: Associations With Self-Esteem, Wisdom, Hope, And Coping-Efficacy, Asea L. Gilmore

Honors College Theses

It is imperative that college students cultivate and exhibit traits associated with resilience to successfully complete their course of study and to protect themselves against the onset of mental health issues. This study aimed to examine positive psychology variables in relation to resilience in order to find variables that promote resilience in college students. Wisdom, hope, and coping self-efficacy were examined amongst 436 undergraduate students. Ethnicity amongst the sample consisted with 136 self-reporting as African American (31.9%), 264 self-reporting as European American (60.6%), 3 self-reporting as Asian (0.7%), 2 self-reporting as Native American (0.5%), and 28 self-reporting as biracial (6.4%). …

Coping With Emotions During Reintegration: An Evaluation Of Service Members' Psychological Health, Christina Marie Marini

Open Access Theses

Upon returning home from deployment, service members are likely coping with strong emotions related to deployment stressors. In addition, service members and their intimate partners may be tasked with emotionally reconnecting with one another after an extended period of separation. Reintegration is therefore a critical, transitory time to evaluate associations between emotional coping strategies utilized by service members and their partners as predictors of service members' well-being. Previous research has indicated that service members' expression of emotions is positively related to their well-being post-deployment, whereas their avoidance is negatively related. These relationships were reevaluated in the current study. The current …

The Role Of Social Support In Adolescents: Are You Helping Me Or Stressing Me Out?, Gonzalo Bacigalupe, Maria Camara

Counseling, School Psychology & Sport Faculty Publication Series

Interpersonal relationships are indispensable in helping adolescents cope with stressors, acting as social support sources that protect them from psychological distress. Learning from their experiences may elucidate what strategies could be employed to support adolescents during this vulnerable life stage. Focus groups (N = 80) with adolescents in the Basque Country, Spain, were conducted to capture adolescents' narratives on stress and social support. Findings revealed the dual role of interpersonal relationships – as stressors and as sources of social support. Adolescents draw on sources of support that are familiar, mature, friendly, and, most importantly, worth of trust. Their most valued …

Exploring The Role Of Perceived Religiosity On Daily Life, Coping, And Parenting For Jewish Parents Of Children With Autism, Frances Rebecca Victory

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This two-part study (a) explores the multi-dimensional aspects of religious and psychosocial experience of Jewish mothers and fathers with and without a child with autism; and (b) uses a multi-method design to examine the influence of perceived religious beliefs, ritual practices, and community context on daily life, parenting, and coping processes for these parents. The first study included 20 fathers and 34 mothers of typically developing children. Participants were affiliated with Reform, Conservative, and Modern Orthodox Judaism. They completed three online q-sorts and five open-ended questions. The three q-sorts focused on the perceptions of religious beliefs, ritual practices, and community …

Clarifying The Nature Of Resilience: A Meta-Analytic Approach, Matthew Robert Grossman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Psychological resilience, conceptualized as the ability to bounce back from stress (Tugade, 2011), has garnered increased attention across various fields of psychology and related disciplines. Despite its popularity, researchers have yet to come to a consensus regarding the nomological network of this construct, as well as its distinctiveness from conceptually similar constructs (i.e., hardiness, grit). In this paper, I use meta-analytic techniques (Hunter & Schmidt, 2004) to quantitatively synthesize three decades of previous empirical work on resilience and related-constructs and their correlates, integrating findings from more than 400 studies. Results show that resilience overlaps substantially with big-five personality traits as …

Understanding And Treating The Psychosocial Consequences Of Infertility, Arthur L. Greil, Lone Schmidt, Brennan Peterson

Marriage and Family Therapy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Psychological distress and infertility are linked in a complex pattern, such that distress may be a cause of infertility and reduce the probability of achieving a pregnancy at the same time that infertility may be a cause of psychological distress. Although infertile women are not more likely to be characterized by psychopathology, they are more likely to experience higher levels of distress than comparison groups. Infertile men also experience psychological distress, but women experience more infertility distress than men. Both infertility and its treatment are stressors putting a heavy psychological strain on couple relationships. Whereas there is general agreement about …

Dimensions Of Religiousness And Cancer Screening Behaviors Among Church-Going Latinas, Jennifer D. Allen, John E. Perez, Claudia R. Pischke, Laura S. Tom, Alan Juarez, Hosffman Ospino, Elizabeth Gonzalez-Suarez

Psychology

Churches are a promising setting through which to reach Latinas with cancer control efforts. A better understanding of the dimensions of religiousness that impact health behaviors could inform efforts to tailor cancer control programs for this setting. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between dimensions of religiousness with adherence to cancer screening recommendations among church-going Latinas. Female Spanish-speaking members, aged 18 and older from a Baptist church in Boston, Massachusetts (N = 78), were interviewed about cancer screening behaviors and dimensions of religiousness. We examined adherence to individual cancer screening tests (mammography, Pap test, and colonoscopy), …

How Coping, Ptsd And Treatment Preferences Interact?, Martha Mae Golubski

ETD Archive

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder characterized by symptoms of intrusive recollection, avoidance or numbing, and hyper arousal following being exposed to a traumatic event involving threatened or actual death or serious injury (4th ed., text rev, DSM-IV-TR American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Those with PTSD, employ a variety of coping strategies to deal with the symptoms following their trauma exposure. Across studies, it has been found that coping styles which are active have a positive effect on both physical and psychological health (Gil & Caspi, 2005 Lazarus & Moskowits, 2004 Olff, Langeland, & Gersons, 2005). However, avoidance coping …

The Relationship Between Collective Action And Well-Being And Its Moderators: Pervasiveness Of Discrimination And Dimensions Of Action, Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Given the negative impact of perceiving gender discrimination on health (e.g., Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009), there is a need to develop interventions to attenuate this effect; collective action may be one such intervention. Study 1 (N = 185) used an experimental paradigm to investigate whether undergraduate women in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada perceived pervasiveness of discrimination would interact with their collective action-taking to predict negative mood and well-being. Results showed that among those perceiving pervasive gender discrimination, informing friends/family and informing the media led to greater well-being than doing nothing, whereas among those perceiving gender discrimination as isolated, doing nothing …

Coping Similarity And Psychosocial Risk Factors In Couples With Chronic Pain, Amy M. Williams

Wayne State University Dissertations

Chronic pain is an important public health problem that is associated with a host of negative individual and relationship outcomes. Chronic pain is a chronic stressor that both the individual in pain and their spouse must cope with. The current study examined how pain coping similarity within the couple predicted not only patient adjustment, but also spouse adjustment in a longitudinal study. Participants were 108 heterosexual couples in which one partner had chronic pain. The participants completed measures at 3 time points at 6 month intervals. Both the patient and spouse individually completed questionnaires pertaining to their marriage, mood, pain …

Dimensions Of Grace: Factor Analysis Of Three Grace Scales, Rodger K. Bufford, Timothy A. Sisemore, Amanda M. Blackburn

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Measuring grace is challenging. Prior research found the Grace Scale (GS), Richmont Grace Scale (RGS), and The Amazing Grace Scale (TAGS) to be reliable, have promising convergent and divergent validity, and to inter-correlate strongly. However, they may tap different constructs, or grace may be multidimensional (Bufford, Blackburn, Sisemore, & Bassett, 2015). Here two exploratory factor analyses of the combined items showed five factors: experiencing God’s grace, costly grace, grace to self, grace from others, and grace to others, partially paralleling Watson, Chen and Sisemore (2011). Items from all three scales loaded on Factor 1, only items from the RGS loaded …

An Examination Of Coping With Career Ending Injuries- An Ncaa Division I And Ncaa Division Iii Comparison, Hayley C. Marks

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Researchers have suggested that the way an athlete copes with the end of his or her career can be one of the most influential factors in how an athlete transitions out of their respective sport (Gardner & Moore, 2006). Moreover, an athlete is more likely to have sport transitioning issues if he or she sustains a career ending injury (Heil, 1993). Although this is the case, questions arise examining the coping styles and life impact career ending injuries may have on athletes who play at different levels. Sturm et al., (2011) suggested that the athletic identities of NCAA Division I …

Coping With Negative Emotion In Middle Childhood : Relationship To Temperament And Psychopathology, Kristen Uhl

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Children are exposed to various stressors throughout development. Research has demonstrated that childhood stressors can negatively affect adjustment, and that children's temperament and coping impact the effects of stress on adjustment. The current study examines children's coping responses to situations eliciting anger, sadness, fear, and worry in a sample of 191 children (102 boys, 89 girls; mean age = 9.57 years, SD=0.57) recruited from a suburban school district. Additionally, the predictive relationship of temperament variables on coping strategy use is explored. Finally, coping and temperament's effect on the development of psychopathology is investigated. Results show that children reported using more …

Coping Responses And Mental Health Symptoms In Incarcerated Juvenile Males, Jennifer Renae Newhard

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Coping responses develop throughout the lifespan of an individual. Unfortunately for some, difficult life circumstances may lead to the use of maladaptive forms of coping. This study investigated coping responses amongst male incarcerated juvenile offenders and examined which specific mental health symptoms may occur with specific coping responses. The goal of this study was to determine whether male incarcerated juvenile offenders utilize avoidant coping responses over approach coping responses. Also, this study investigated whether specific mental health symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, anger, and disruptive behaviors, were more prevalent amongst those who utilize avoidant coping responses. De-identified, archival data for …

In Their Own Words: Perceived Experiences And Family Functioning Of Suicide Survivors Before And After Suicide Loss, Wendy Shallcross Lam

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This research explored the unique experiences of relatives of individuals who have died by suicide, termed suicide survivors, in an in-depth fashion using qualitative methods. Through a semi-structured interview, the present study explored how families dealt with general stress prior to the experience of suicide loss, how they handled the loss of a family member to suicide, and what has been used to cope in the aftermath. A major focus was to explore whether or not the event of suicide dramatically altered family dynamics or if families continued a pre-existing interaction pattern established prior to the loss. The results revealed …

Examining The Moderating Role Of Specific Coping Strategies On The Relationship Between Body Image And Eating Disorders In College-Age Women, Alexandra Calvert Kirsch

Master's Theses

A sample of college age women assessed at three time points (Time 1: Baseline, assessed before college, Time 2: End of first semester, Time 3: End of first year of college) completed measures of disordered eating, coping, and body image. Results indicated that neither adaptive (problem-focused coping or social support seeking) nor maladaptive coping styles (active emotional coping or avoidant coping) as measured at Time 1 or Time 2 moderated the significant predictive relationship between body dissatisfaction at Time 1 and disordered eating attitudes at Time 3, when adjusting for disordered eating attitudes and BMI at Time 1. However, significant …

Coping Styles Among Individuals With Severe Mental Illness And Comorbid Ptsd, Shannon Ashley Mcneill

Dissertations

There is little known about the mechanisms by which persons with SMI cope with their stress, and virtually no research is available on the influence of comorbid PTSD (SMI-PTSD) on coping within the SMI population. The current study examined coping strategies utilized by individuals with SMI versus those with SMI-PTSD, while also investigating the role of PTSD symptom severity, overall psychological distress, and substance use on coping strategy usage. Participants included adults (N = 90) recruited through a metropolitan community mental health center, all describing current symptoms of an SMI, 48 of whom met criteria for SMI-PTSD. Results of this …

Work Hope And The Socioemotional Functioning Of Offenders, David Guion

Theses and Dissertations

For offenders returning to society at record levels, securing work looms as one of the most crucial factors in successful reentry. Work hope is a construct that seeks to measure the relative presence of goals of securing desired work, thoughts about how to achieve those goals, and agency to achieve those goals, even in the presence of obstacles. This study sought to examine relationships among work hope, the socioemotional variables of attachment, emotion regulation, physical, relational, and workplace victimization, and coping, and the career-related variables of perceptions of career-related barriers and complexity level of career goals. The sample comprised cohorts …

Academic Self-Efficacy, Coping, And Academic Performance In College, Mehjabeen Khan

Student Published Works

This study serves as a pilot study for a possible future study including the same variables. The purpose of the pilot study was to find a relationship in the college academic setting between academic self-efficacy, stress coping skills, and academic performance. Sixty-six undergraduate students, 17 male and 49 female, from a university in northwestern United States participated in the study. Stress was measured using the COPE Inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989). Self-efficacy was measured using the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001). Academic performance was measured using the participants’ college GPA. Academic Self-Efficacy and the Planning subscale …

Life Stressors And Resources And The 23-Year Course Of Depression, Ruth Cronkite, Erin Woodhead, Andrea Finlay, Christine Timko, Kirsten Hu, Rudolf Moos

Faculty Publications

Background Life stressors and personal and social resources are associated with depression in the short-term, but little is known about their associations with the long-term course of depression. The current paper presents results of a 23-year study of community adults who were receiving treatment for depression at baseline (N=382). Methods Semi-parametric group-based modeling was used to identify depression trajectories and determine baseline predictors of belonging to each trajectory group. Results There were three distinct courses of depression: high severity at baseline with slow decline, moderate severity at baseline with rapid decline, and low severity at baseline with rapid …

Development And Validation Of A Measure Of Perceived Life Significance, Rachel Hibberd

Dissertations

Theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of meaning in bereavement suggest a distinction between meaning as sense-making, or the integration of the loss into a coherent and positive set of beliefs about world and self, and meaning as life significance, or the perception that some aspect of one's life experience “matters” in the wake of loss. Although several authors have pointed to the importance of life significance in grief recovery, currently no psychometrically valid measure exists. The present study examined the reliability and validity of a new measure: the Perceived Life Significance Scale (PLSS). The PLSS total score, as …

The Effects Of Coping, Self-Esteem, And Social Support On Stress And Wellbeing, Emily Meyerhoffer-Kubalik

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The present study aimed to add to the literature on the internal and external factors that may buffer the negative effects of stress. Specifically, the present study examined the effects of coping styles, self-esteem, and social support on both psychological wellbeing and stress. Participants (N = 198) were administered a measure of coping styles (COPE), self-esteem (Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale), social support (SSQ-R), psychological wellbeing (MHI), and stress (ICSRLE). Results showed problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping were associated with better psychological wellbeing and lower stress. Avoidant coping was associated with lower psychological wellbeing and higher stress. Self-esteem was also related to …

Stress, Coping, And Depression In Adolescents： A Longitudinal Analysis Of Data From National Longitudinal Study Of Adolescent Health, Xiaoyun Zhang

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The study examined the relationships among stress, coping and depression using the public-use data from the first three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Harris & Udry, 1994-2008). The total sample of 3844 participants aged from 11 to 27 was included in the analysis. Latent growth curve modeling was used to identify the developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms and stressful life events from age 12 to age 24, respectively; Latent growth curve modeling with two-construct parallel processes was used to examine the associations between stressful life events and depressive symptoms over time. Path analysis was used to …

Correlates Of Help-Seeking Following Stalking Victimization: A Study Of College Women, Saige E. Jutras, Katie Edwards, Kateryna Sylaska

Honors Theses and Capstones

The current study explored factors related to college women’s coping processes associated with stalking using an online survey methodology. Results (N= 305 college women reporting stalking victimization within the last three years) showed that 85% of women disclosed their stalking experiences most commonly to female friends. Additionally, women used a variety of coping mechanisms in response to their stalking victimization; although avoiding thinking about or acting on the stalking experience were the most common strategies, victims rated direct forms of coping as more effective in deterring the stalking behavior. Women’s coping responses to stalking were related to a …

Strategies Employed By Clergy To Prevent And Cope With Interpersonal Isolation, Ryan C. Staley, Mark R. Mcminn, Kathleen Gathercoal, Kurt Free

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Numerous studies have affirmed that interpersonal isolation is one of the unique challenges clergy face. This study examined the experience of interpersonal isolation among a sample of clergy serving in a senior pastor role by having them complete a modified form of the Social Support Questionnaire, Short Form (SSQSR), as well as six open-ended interview questions. The interview responses of clergy participants were compared based on a median split of the SSQSR satisfaction scores. Analysis of clergy responses revealed several prominent themes in the following areas: barriers to establishing supportive relationships, strategies for establishing and maintaining supportive relationships, lack of …

The Role Of Memory, Personality, And Thought Processes In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Carissa Lynn Broadbridge

Wayne State University Dissertations

Abstract

The autobiographical memory model of PTSD posits that the memory for the traumatic experience is influential in development of the disorder (Rubin, Berntsen, & Bohni, 2008). In particular, Berntsen & Rubin (2006) argue that the degree of event centralization, the incorporation of the memory into the individual's sense of self and life story, is directly related to the degree of PTSD symptoms exhibited by the individual. The present series of studies systematically analyzes event centralization and its relationship to PTSD, while taking into account other variables such as cognitive and emotion variables, as well as individual differences.

Study one …