Community Psychology Commons^™

Video Game Engagement, Gender, And Age: Examining Similarities And Differences In Motivation Between Those Who May Or May Not Play Video Games, Joseph Camarata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to fill a research gap by examining video games to explore whether gender, age, or hours played per week would exert any influence on the information of those who may or may not play video games. Mood Management Theory and Uses and Gratification Theory were used as the theoretical foundation for this study. Four-hundred-three East Tennessee State University students who received the survey via email were asked to voluntarily participate in a survey about their motivations behind playing video games. Results from MANOVA showed that the motivations of male participants on video games were significantly higher than …

Understanding And Addressing Arab-American Mental Health Disparities, Sherief Y. Eldeeb

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

The landscape of mental healthcare and focus on disparities research in the United States has vastly improved in recent years. However, Arab-Americans continue to be a commonly overlooked group within the scope of the research. This trend is especially worrisome given detrimental factors for Arab-Americans that have arisen as a factor of 9/11 and in the scope of the 2016 United States Presidential Election. This work explores barriers to accessing formal mental health care and offers recommendations to reconcile them for Arab-Americans. The present study completes this through a review of the literature and an interview conducted by the author …

Insights From Survivors And Latino Professional Counselors Providing Interventions To Latino Children Affected By Domestic Violence: Implications For Culturally Responsive Interventions And Professional Training, Estela Melgoza

Dissertations

There is a growing need for intervention models for Latino families experiencing psycho-social issues resulting from domestic violence, given the growth of this population and their experience with this issue. The model needs to be inclusive of culturally attuned interventions, culturally proficiency training for professional counselors, and organizational protocols that will ensure implementation. This investigation included Study I which examined the effectiveness of a culturally responsive therapeutic intervention on a sample of Latino children ages 5-12, “Caritas de Esperanza”. As was hypothesized, children in the experimental group increased their resiliency self-efficacy, self-esteem, and decreased conduct problems and negative emotional symptoms …

Human Migration And Health: A Case Study Of The Chinese Rural-To-Urban Migrant Population, Leah C. Pinckney

Student Publications

Human migration is a complex, ancient process driven by a variety of social, political, and economic factors. Modern migrants and their families are often compelled to migrate voluntarily in pursuit of new opportunities for study or work and, in extreme circumstances, involuntarily for safety and survival. Chinese domestic migrant populations were mobilized with China’s early 1980s economic reform, which enabled rapid economic development largely dependent on urban factories. While this massive influx of young people predominantly from rural locales to urban locales seeking opportunity enabled China’s rise as a world power, their move not only marked changing internal labor patterns …

An Analysis Of Positive Coping Mechanisms Utilized To Overcome Trauma In Post-Genocidal Rwanda, Danielle Marvin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

From April 7th to July 1st of 1994, one million Rwandan people were brutally murdered by their friends and neighbors in the meticulously planned and government-sponsored Genocide against the Tutsi. Survivors witnessed killings and sexual assault, had their lives threatened, lost multiple family members, and hid under dead bodies to evade the killers. To make matters worse, trust within communities and even within families was destroyed as Hutu perpetrators turned against Tutsis they had, days earlier, been inviting to family events. After the genocide, PTSD rates among adults in Rwanda were estimated at 20.5% for men and 30% for women …

Analysis Of Worcester's Youth Employment Sector, Laurie Ross Phd, Ramon Borges-Mendez Phd, Alex Rothfelder

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Overall, the employment rate for Worcester youth has improved since 2000; yet mirroring the nation, Worcester continues to have a smaller share of youth 16-24 employed. This situation is intensified for youth of color and young people facing barriers such as homelessness, exiting foster care, juvenile justice involvement, and limited English proficiency. Mass, Inc. estimates that in Worcester there are 3400 disconnected youth—756 are between 16-19 and 2644 are between 20-24. From the youth employment program inventory, we learned that the city’s programs offer many opportunities for “first job” experiences; has some exemplary programs that integrate youth development and workforce …

Cognitive Dissonance In Society, Brittany Fields

Community of Scholars Day—Posters

This poster illustrates the effects that society and culture have on the psyche and psychology. The difficulty of people trying to function in a society that does not resonate with them can be seen as the root of many mental health problems. I use theories identified with Maslow and Erikson as a way of getting the teachings of psychology more integrated into society. Works of Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Church, Betty Freidan, and Leon Festinger are used as a way of explaining how unresolved cognitive dissonance has negative effects on people.

Frontline Reports: Emergent Topics For Scholarly Development, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Dignity is a scholarly journal dedicated to creating a publishing space for all members of the community—survivors, activists, legal advocates, service providers, researchers, theorists, and scholars—who write about exploitation and violence. Frontline Reports put Dignity on the leading edge of naming, describing, and analyzing topics relevant to our work of ending exploitation and violence. Each report teaches us about the immediate topic and opens up new horizons for future scholarship. By bringing all together, we facilitate the exchange of information and enhance the development of scholarship in the field.

The Effects Of Grace On Self-Forgiveness With A Religious Community, Laura Geczy-Haskins

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Genuine self-forgiveness entails accepting responsibility for wrongdoing while experiencing a continued sense of self-worth (Enright & Human Development Study Group, 1996; Fisher & Exline, 2006; Hall & Fincham, 2005; Martin, 2008; Szablowinski, 2012; Vitz & Meade, 2011; Wenzel, Woodyatt, & Hedrick, 2012; Woodyatt & Wenzel, 2013a; Woodyatt & Wenzel, 2013b). Previous research has demonstrated that a benevolent concept of God and a personal sense of God’s forgiveness facilitate self-forgiveness (Exline, Yali, & Lobel,1999; Hall & Fincham, 2008; Martin, 2008; McConnell & Dixon, 2012), suggesting that those who accept responsibility for the offense and believe God can forgive that offense will …

Community, Purpose, And Empowerment: Developing A Support Program With Student Veterans, Cari Stevenson

Dissertations

Abstract

This set of mixed-method studies evaluated factors impacting student veterans at a Midwestern community college, particularly their sense of community and how their perceptions and experiences relate to academic success. Research on student veterans indicates that many face challenges beyond physical and psychological injury, including difficulties in acclimating to an academic culture and navigating bureaucratic processes. The quantitative and qualitative studies also examined the impact of the academic setting, social climate, supportive services that relate to student veteran perceptions of their sense of community and other academic processes. In the quantitative study, relationships were found between sense of community, …

A Capacity Building Framework For Community-University Partnerships, Katherine S. Hogan, Jacqueline M. Tynan, Virginia J. Covill, Ryan P. Kilmer, James R. Cook

Collaborations: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice

With a focus on organizational capacity building, community-university (CU) partnerships have the potential to yield valuable resources for community nonprofits, which increasingly have to accomplish more with fewer resources. Although a growing body of literature documents the success of such arrangements, both community agencies and universities often face challenges in managing such partnerships. With a focus on student involvement, this paper describes a framework for conceptualizing CU partnerships around capacity building, with efforts designed to address particular program needs as related to the organization’s capacity goals. These needs can be viewed as involving five levels of capacity building: 1) monitoring …

Research Methods In Occupational Health Psychology, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Chu-Hsiang Chang

Publications and Research

http://www.springerpub.com/occupational-health-psychology.html

Occupational Health Psychology (OHP) is a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field that focuses on the science and practice of psychology in promoting and developing workplace health- and safety-related initiatives. This comprehensive text for undergraduate and graduate survey courses is the first to encompass a wide range of key issues in OHP. It draws from the domains of psychology, public health, preventive medicine,nursing, industrial engineering, law, and epidemiology to focus on the theory and practice of protecting and promoting the health, well-being, and safety of individuals in the workplace and improving the quality of work life.

The text addresses key psychosocial …

The Effects Of Community Type And Sexual Orientation On Adolescent Alcohol Abuse: A Retrospective Exploration, Karla Beth Moore

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Considerable research has demonstrated that adolescents, as a whole, are experimenting with alcohol at alarming rates (Biddle, Bank, & Marlin, 1980; Donath, et al., 2011;King, Chassin, & Molina, 2009). However, research is very mixed on findings identifying which groups of adolescents tend to be most at risk for using alcohol, as well as the reasons these groups identify for such experimentation (Carlo, Crockett, Wilkinson, & Beal, 2011; Coomber, Toumbourou, Miller, Staiger, Hemphill, & Catalano, 2011). The current study examined participants from various community types and sexual orientations, in a retrospective manner. Participants (ages 18 and over) answered questions on a …

Burnout-Depression Overlap: A Study Of New Zealand Schoolteachers, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Mayor, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

We examined the overlap of burnout with depression in a sample of 184 New Zealand schoolteachers. Burnout and depressive symptoms were strongly correlated with each other (r = .73; disattenuated correlation: .82) and moderately correlated with dysfunctional attitudes, ruminative responses, and pessimistic attributions. All the participants with high frequencies of burnout symptoms were identified as clinically depressed. Suicidal ideation was reported by 36% of those participants. Three groups of teachers emerged from a two-step cluster analysis: “low burnout-depression,” “medium burnout-depression,” and “high burnout-depression.” The correlation between the affective-cognitive and somatic symptoms of depression was similar in strength to the burnout-depression …

“I Wonder What You Think Of Me”: A Qualitative Approach To Examining Stereotype Awareness In Appalachian Students, Chelsea G. Adams

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Historically, Appalachia has been stereotyped as being a culture bred in poverty and ignorance. Much research has shown that stereotyping reveals a pattern of behavioral change and an impact on psychological well-being for the stereotyped (e.g., Pinel, 1999; Woodcock, Jernandez, Estrada, & Schultz, 2012), and has largely been centered on race and gender (e.g., Byrnes, 2008; Tuckman & Monetti, 2011). Less is known about the development of culture-specific stereotypes such as those related to Appalachians – a highly stigmatized group (Daniels, 2014; Otto, 2002). The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how adolescents in rural Appalachia …

Immigrant Health Disparities: Does Neighborliness Improve Health?, Kofi Danso

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Using data from the California Health Interview Survey, this cross-sectional study examined the differential role of neighborhood social capital and other socio-demographic variables in predicting the health of immigrants and native-born Americans. The results revealed a statistically significant association between age, marital status, and poverty level, English proficiency, education and employment, self-reported health, and immigrant and non-immigrant status. With the exception of neighborhood trust, neighborhood social capital indicators such as social cohesion, neighborhood safety, and civic participation were found to significantly predict both immigrant and non-immigrant health. Neighborhood trust was significant for non-immigrants, but was not predictive of immigrant health. …

Consumers, Clergy, And Clinicians In Collaboration: Ongoing Implementation And Evaluation Of A Mental Wellness Program, Glen Milstein, Dennis Middel, Adriana Espinosa

Publications and Research

As a foundation of most cultures, with roots in persons’ early development, religion can be a source of hope as well as denigration. Some religious institutions have made attempts to help persons with mental health problems, and some mental health professionals have sought to engage religion resources. These programs have rarely been sustained. In 2008, the Mental Health Center of Denver (MHCD) developed a program to assess the utility of religion resources within mental health care. In response to positive feedback, MHCD appointed a director of Faith and Spiritual Wellness who facilitates community outreach to faith communities and spiritual integration …

Predictors Of Academic Achievement Of Non-Traditional College Students: Opportunities To Catch-Up And Succeed, Angela Bardwell-Owens

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Non-traditional students make up approximately 20% of the undergraduate student population nationwide and are one of few segments of the student population that are not provided with targeted programs and services. To help this cohort achieve their goals whilst universities can increase their retention rates, this research begins a review of the non-traditional student literature to gain an understanding of what this population faces as far as barriers to their education. The literature also provides recommendations and further information in retention efforts to support the student during their academic years. Next, an analysis of non-traditional student support services at 4-year …

Understanding The Mental Health And Psychosocial Needs, And Service Utilization Of Syrian Refugees And Jordanian Nationals: A Qualitative & Quantitative Analysis In The Kingdom Of Jordan, International Medical Corps

CUP Faculty Research

International Medical Corps sought to enhance existing knowledge to develop a profile of coping mechanisms and help-seeking behaviors utilized among the Syrian refugee population in Jordan, along with identifying barriers to service utilization. Through this assessment, International Medical Corps also seeks to provide information that may contribute to a wider discussion as relevant national and international actors consider how to further promote Mental Health and Psychosocial Services in Jordan.

Cognitive And Emotional Processes Involved In The Experience Of Objects As Holy Or Transcendent, Lotte J. Pummerer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In recent years, attitudes about religion/spirituality have become more pluralistic (Pew Research Center, 2015a). At the same time, the number of individuals who identify themselves as nonreligious, atheist or agnostic are growing (Pew Research Center, 2015b), yet we are lacking words and research to describe their attributions of transcendence in language not bound to religious concepts. This study aims at examining both concepts – holiness and transcendence – in their similarities and differences through assessing cognitive and emotional processes involved in experiences of objects.

The study consisted of two parts with a total of 206 Christian and 52 nonreligious/atheistic/agnostic participants. …