Community Psychology Commons^™

The Psychological Science Accelerator: Advancing Psychology Through A Distributed Collaborative Network, Hannah Moshontz, Lorne Campbell, Charles R. Ebersole, Hans Ijzerman, Heather L. Urry, Patrick S. Forscher, Jon E. Grahe, Randy J. Mccarthy, Erica D. Musser, Jan Antfolk

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Concerns have been growing about the veracity of psychological research. Many findings in psychological science are based on studies with insufficient statistical power and nonrepresentative samples, or may otherwise be limited to specific, ungeneralizable settings or populations. Crowdsourced research, a type of large-scale collaboration in which one or more research projects are conducted across multiple lab sites, offers a pragmatic solution to these and other current methodological challenges. The Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA) is a distributed network of laboratories designed to enable and support crowdsourced research projects. These projects can focus on novel research questions, or attempt to replicate prior …

Service Use Among Individuals With Serious Mental Illness & Physical Health Problems, Laura May Kurzban

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: This study examined the relationship between (a) physical health problems among individuals diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI), (b) their demographic and psychosocial characteristics which may be risk and protective factors for physical health problems, and (c) the use of mental health case management services. Methods: Data collected from community mental health center consumers residing in supported housing (N = 357) included number of self-reported physical health problems and impairment. Services use and billing data were collected on targeted case management (TCM) and mental illness management services (MIMS). Results: Regression models indicated that …

Never Again! Surviving Liberalized Prostitution In Germany, Sandra Norak, Ingeborg Kraus

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article, co-authored by a six-year survivor of the sex trade industry in Germany (Sandra Norak) and a psychologist and trauma therapist (Ingeborg Kraus), provides perspectives on the difficulty of withstanding the coercion of traffickers and the difficulties of exiting prostitution in a country in which prostitution has been legalized, normalized and made “a job like any other.” This normalization persuades survivors to believe their traffickers that it is a legitimate occupation and encourages them to endure the violence. Liberalization also has prevented the development of needed trauma services to those seeking to exit the sex trade industry.

An Examination Of The Reciprocal Association Of Collective Efficacy And Community Violence Exposure In Low-Resourced, Urban African American Adolescents, Christopher R. Whipple

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

African American adolescents are exposed to community violence at alarming rates. Compared to Caucasian adolescents, African American adolescents are 112% more likely to be exposed to community violence and 6 to 9 times more likely to be victims of homicide. There are many risk factors and behavioral/emotional issues associated with community violence exposure. Collective Efficacy Theory posited that collective efficacy (i.e., social cohesion and informal social control) influence community violence, and that a reciprocal association exists between collective efficacy and community violence. While the influence of collective efficacy on community violence exposure is established, the influence of community violence exposure …

Black Americans’ Social Action Engagement In Their Racial Community: Examining The Roles Of Sociopolitical Control, Critical Reflection, And Racial Centrality, Debeka Bennett

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Black Americans have been engaged in sociopolitical action since their involuntary enslavement in the United States beginning in the 16th century. Blacks have made significant strides in attempting to eradicate and bring awareness to social inequities experienced due to their race. However, not all individuals of African descent engage in sociopolitical behaviors for Black communities. Prior literature has attempted to assess factors that influence Blacks to engage in sociopolitical action but did not examine all the variables assessed in this study in one cohesive model. Therefore, this study aimed to examine Black Americans’ sociopolitical control and their engagement in social …

Illuminating The Trauma Of The Closet Among Sexual Minorities: A Cinematic-Phenomenological Study Of Existential Rights, Nisha Gupta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a phenomenological research study about the lived experience of being in the closet as a sexual minority. This study’s research findings are represented in two distinct but overlapping ways: a traditional written hermeneutic interpretation, and a short film called “Illuminate” which cinematically brings to life the closeted lifeworld. To produce this film, I developed an innovative research method called “cinematic-phenomenology.” As a researcher, I conducted phenomenological research interviews with five self-identified sexual minorities about their lived experiences of being in the closet. During interviews, I helped participants describe their felt sense of the closet through symbolic imagery, …

A Latent Class Analysis Of Community Violence Exposure And Peer Delinquency In African American Adolescents, Amanda N. Burnside, Noni K. Gaylord-Harden, Suzanna So, Dexter R. Voisin

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Aims

Person-based analyses have demonstrated wide variability among the levels of exposure to community violence (ECV) experienced by youth in disadvantaged communities. In addition, social network research has found that violence victimization tends to occur primarily among a small social group, demonstrating that levels of peer delinquency may be a factor that distinguishes among youth who experience high and low levels of ECV.

Methods

The current study utilized latent class analysis to examine profiles of ECV and peer delinquency in a sample of 618 African American adolescents (54.7% female; mean age = 15.8, SD = 1.41), and the relationship …

An Attachment-Based Group Intervention, Shannon Dillon

Doctoral Dissertations

This mixed method study aimed to understand and describe the effectiveness of an intervention and the experiences of mothers raising their children in a transitional living home. This was achieved through interviewing four mothers in Gilead House. Initially, participants completed the Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale (DASS-21), the Trauma History Screening (THS), the Adolescent Adult Parenting Inventory-2 (AAPI-2) and a demographics form. The first interview was also completed. Interview questions were based on the Working Model of the Child Interview (WCMI). Following this time 1 meeting an attachment-based group intervention was utilized for eight weeks. This intervention was based on …

Thing-Makers, Tool Freaks And Prototypers: How The Whole Earth Catalog’S Optimistic Message Reinvented The Environmental Movement In 1968, Andy Kirk

History Faculty Research

In the fall of 1968 a Stanford-trained biologist, organizer of the legendary Trips Festival and Merry Prankster named Stewart Brand published the first Whole Earth Catalog. Between 1968 and 1972, the Catalog reached millions of readers and won the National Book Award. The title and iconic cover image of this counterculture classic celebrated the first publicly released NASA photographs showing the whole planet Earth from space. These images profoundly changed the way humans thought about the environment. And the Catalog played an important role in that change.

Psychological Factors And The Relation Between Neighborhood Conditions And Latino Health: A Mixed Methods Study, Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa

Psychology ETDs

Latinos, the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the US, face multiple health inequities including higher rates morbidity and mortality. Despite the importance of context and the wide range of stressors faced by this population, the majority of the literature on Latino and immigrant health concentrates on issues related to cultural adaptation processes. Using a socialdeterminants of health framework, the present convergent mixed methods study investigated the relation between neighborhood conditions and Latino health with a psychological lens. A total of 361 Latino residents of Bernalillo County, the largest county in Albuquerque, New Mexico, were recruited to complete a series of …

Anxiety: An Epidemic Through The Lens Of Social Media, Holly M. Wright

Honors College Theses

Anxiety: An Epidemic was originally inspired by the mental health crisis in my hometown, Palo Alto, California, and evolved to specifically focus on social media-related anxiety. I examined the question: How has social media evolved over the last decade and what effect does the proliferation of social media have on the young adult population? I hypothesized that social media would have a predominately negative effect, especially on young women, and set out to create a theatrical piece inspired by my research. In my meta-analysis of studies conducted, I found that more data needs to be collected on the relatively new …

Acculturation And Cross-Cultural Adaptation Among Refugees: The Moderating Role Of Emotions, Ezdehar Z. Alsahow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a result of venturing across language and culture boundaries, individuals may

be exposed to different ways of living and thinking in which may trigger changes in the

way they conceptualize themselves and others. However, such experiences are not

identical for everyone, and the circumstances facing the crisis of refugees would appear

to be exceptionally difficult.

This paper aimed to address refugees’ attempt to acculturate and integrate into a

new society by examining potential moderating factors of emotional processes. The study

focuses on anger, anxiety, pride, and guilt; emotions that refugees carried with them

when they arrived to the new …

Contextual Perspectives On Heroin Addiction And Recovery: Classic And Contemporary Theories, Sarah L. Callahan

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Drug use and recovery have received considerable attention from social scientists over the past few decades. However, many studies involving heroin use continue to focus on person-centered risk factors surrounding use and, to a lesser extent, recovery processes. There is a need to further develop and use theories that focus on contextual approaches that include opportunity structures and behavioral economic factors. In this article, two classic criminological theories (Differential Opportunity and Subcultural) are reviewed as well as the more recent Social Resource theory (SRT). Differential Opportunity theory focuses on the fact that those involved in illegitimate means of opportunity require …

Police Officer Perspectives On Public Views Of Police, Current Events Involving Police, And The Impact On Police-Community Relationships, Donjae Catanzariti

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The media has presented current tensions between police officers and the communities they serve, particularly the Black community. These tensions have led to calls for reforms in law enforcement and the criminal justice system. However, there has been little focus on the police perspective. Thus, this study sought to address the gaps in the literature by shedding light on the perspective of police officers through the following research question: a) How do police officers perceive the public’s view of them? b) How do police officers’ think the public’s view of them impacts the relationship between police officers and the communities …

Who Are The Elis Of Today? Examining The Adults Present During The Religious Identity Development Of Catholic-Raised Youth, Danielle S. Vaclavik

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Given that a large percentage of former-Catholic adults report leaving the Church before reaching adulthood, and the percentages of Catholic-raised youth retaining their religious identity into adulthood are decreasing, a pressing question currently facing the modern Catholic Church is how to minister to, and retain, Catholic-raised adolescents into adulthood. Current religious and secular literature suggests that adults (both parental and non-parental) may play a crucial role in youths’ religious identity development. However, who these adults are and how their presence influences the experience of growing up Catholic is unexplored in the current literature.

In depth oral history narrative interviews were …

‘I Am Rwandan’: Unity And Reconciliation In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Laura E. R. Blackie, Nicki Hitchcott

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Drawing on a corpus of ten oral interviews with survivors and perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, we examine how the government’s policy of unity and reconciliation has shaped post-genocide identities and intergroup relations in local Rwandan communities. By focusing on the relationships between individuals and the national post-genocide narrative, we show how the socio-political context in Rwanda influences how people locate themselves and how they ascribe rights and duties to and in relation to others. Specifically, we use positioning theory as an interpretive lens to argue that individuals view adherence to the government’s post-genocide narrative …

Effects Of Immigration On Interpersonal Relationships With Others Amongst Native And Mexican-Born Mexican Americans, Juan Zaragoza

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study presents the findings of how and to what extent immigration effects Native and Mexican-born Mexican American’s relationships with others. This study was quantitative and measured participant’s levels and qualities of interactions with others. The participants in this study were students from California State University, San Bernardino’s School of Social Work. The student population that was targeted was Native and Mexican-born Mexican Americans. The participants were contacted via email and provided with a questionnaire that measured the quality and quantity of interpersonal relationships they held with others. The original sample size consisted of 53 participants but reduced to a …

How The Labeling Of “Acting White” Manifests Itself Among People Of Color: The Life Experiences Of Cultural Straddlers, Norah Owens

Dissertations

The purpose of Study 1 (quantitative) and Study 2 (qualitative) was to understand whether the acting white label can either positively or negatively affect a cultural straddler’s decision to assume certain lifestyles. The quantitative study examined how sociocultural norms, the acting white hypothesis, and cultural transmission relate to the academic attitudes of young adults. The study found a significant relationship between a cultural straddler and academic attitude showing a significant relationship within the qualitative study. Study 2, was conducted, consisting of indepth interviews with four parts. The goal of these studies was to understand this societal phenomenon of people of …

Deconstructing Negative Stereotypes, Myths And Microaggressions About Black Women: Reconstructing Black Women’S Narrative, Identity And The Empowering Nature Of Ethnic Identity, Patricia Luckoo

Dissertations

This research study retraces the lives of Black women in America through a microscope that emphasize the historical formulation of Black women's identity and how the distorted figures of stereotypes have emerged and manifested into contemporary microaggressions. The work explores two central inquiries: The first, quantitative study, examines slavery as the malignant marker that has shaped Black women's identity, socioeconomic status, educational progress and political frameworks. The study theorizes that microaggressions towards Black women pose serious harm to their overall psychological sense of self-efficacy and empowerment. However, ethnic identity has within it the resource to combat microaggressive attitudes. The second, …

Parent-Child Discrepancies In Children With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-Like Symptomatology, Carly S. Holtzman, Pamela A. Fox, Leonard A. Jason

DePaul Discoveries

In a sample of children and adolescents with symptoms related to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), we characterized the relationship between parent and child ratings of symptoms as well as domains of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) relevant for the assessment of substantial reductions in functioning. Parent-child dyads (N = 147) were recruited as part of a community-based epidemiological study of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and CFS in Chicago. Parents and children completed the Children’s Health Questionnaire (CHQ) as well as the DePaul Pediatric Health Questionnaire (DPHQ). Results show that inter-rater reliability between parent and child responses was typically strong, however, in …