Counseling Psychology Commons^™

Cooperative Parenting: Building A Bridge, Jeanne Brooks

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Ambiguous Versus Blatant Race Related Stress On Ego Depletion In African American Adults, Benita Belvet

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of the current study was to examine variations in the impact of ambiguous versus blatant race related stressors on ego depletion in a sample of African American adults. Blatant race related stress was compared with ambiguous race related stress in regards to the relative impact on the constructs of ego depletion and perseverative cognition. Perseverative cognition was also examined as a potential mediating variable in the relationship between race related stress and ego depletion. Additionally, attributional ambiguity was hypothesized to moderate the effect of race related stress on perseverative cognition. The study implemented an experimental design, and assessed …

Examining The Relationship Between Emotional Schemas, Emotional Intelligence, And Relationship Satisfaction, Gregory Mears

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A review of the literature revealed that the relationship between emotional intelligence, emotional schemas, and relationship satisfaction has not been fully explored. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotional schemas, emotional intelligence and relationship satisfaction in a sample of married individuals, utilizing a cross-sectional, correlational design to assess the constructs via validated assessment tools. Baron and Kenny's methodology for assessing mediating relationships was used to explore the relationship between these variables. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the higher values dimension of emotional schemas accounted for 4.1% of the variance in relationship satisfaction after controlling …

The Foundations Of Hope In Therapy, John M. Winslade

Special Education, Rehabilitation & Counseling Faculty Publications

Hope is a necessary construct in narrative therapy but we need to be careful how we think about it. It does not lie in the essence of persons. There are not categories of people who are hopeful or hopeless. Rather, hope lies in the stories that we use to make sense of our lives but dominant stories from the world around us sometimes interfere with our access to hopeful stories. Therapy can help us reconnect with these stories, leading to the exercise of personal agency in our own lives. This presentation will explore how to help people do this through …

Health And Religious Commitment Among College Students: The Effects Of Health Behavior, Mental Health, And Social Support, Monica Yvette Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Empirical findings supporting the connection between religion and spirituality and health have been consistently found in the literature, whereas the factors explaining this relationship have lacked clarity. The present study sought to explore this relationship and establish health behavior, mental health, and social support as mediating factors to the proposed association between religious commitment and physical health. Physical health was measured by a number of indicators: body mass index, self-reported medical conditions, prescription drug use, over-the-counter medication usage, and problem use of drugs and alcohol. A sample of 150 college students from a university in Central Virginia participated in this …

No-Suicide Contracts With Suicidal Youth: Utah Mental Health Professionals' Perceptions And Current Practice, Andrea L. Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among youth and young adults ages 10--24. In 2001 the U.S. Surgeon General laid out a national strategic plan to more effectively address suicide prevention (United States Public Health Service, 2001). In 2008, Gene Cash, then president of The National Association of School Psychologists, made a "call to action" to prevent suicide. Although suicide prevention has been repeatedly identified as a priority in mental health care, the vast majority of interventions with suicidal youth are not evidence based due to a lack of research utilizing controlled studies (Daniel & Goldston, 2009). Unfortunately …

Influence Of Family On Native American Students, Lisa Jeannette Fox

Theses and Dissertations

Native American* postsecondary education students encounter several barriers to academic persistence including cultural assimilation issues, limited access to career information services, and an individual sense of duty and responsibility to remain tied to traditional spiritual values and beliefs systems, joined with family pressure to stay home. While the presence of Native American students in postsecondary education has increased, the number of students persisting through to graduation remains alarmingly low. Much of the research on Native American academic persistence has focused on acculturation and assimilation issues, leaving the influence of family largely unexplored. To help enrich this aspect of Native …

Social Validity Of Teacher-Written Praise Notes In A Title One Elementary School, Angela Howell

Theses and Dissertations

Praise notes have the potential to positively influence student behavior and relationships. Few studies have examined the social validity of praise, however, and these studies have focused on students' perceptions. The purpose of this study was to describe student, parent, and teacher perceptions of a school-wide praise note intervention at a Title I elementary school. Twenty-three teachers, 203 parents, and 203 students completed surveys regarding a pre-existing praise note intervention. Surveys consisted of 13 quantitative items and two open-ended questions. Quantitative and qualitative results indicate that participants had positive perceptions of praise notes. Participants also believed that praise notes helped …

The Organization Of Self-Knowledge And Race: Does Self-Concept Structure Impact The Responses Of Black Individuals To Stereotype Threat?, Aisha Denise Baker

Dissertations

Stereotype threat is defined as “the concern or worry that a person can feel when he or she is at risk of confirming or being seen to confirm a negative stereotype about his or her group” (Steele & Davies, 2003, p. 311). Stereotype threat has been examined in a variety of stereotyped groups, but the primary focus of this research has been Black individuals because they often encounter negative stereotypes about their race in the course of their daily lives. Some researchers have suggested that stereotype threat may partially explain the achievement gap between Black and White individuals (Steele & …

Regional Differences In Relational Aggression: The Role Of Culture, Katherine Amanda Czar

Dissertations

It is becoming increasingly clear that relational aggression has just as much potential to cause harm as overt verbal and physical aggression. Though the literature base on relational aggression is growing, far fewer studies have been conducted with late adolescents and adults as compared with children and early adolescents. Moreover, the role of culture in relational aggression has received limited attention. The current study aimed to examine the potential impact of one aspect of culture on relational aggression by focusing on North-South regional differences in the United States. Differing norms and expectations for social behavior between Northern and Southern U.S. …

Relationship Competence: Can Trainee Interpersonal Skills Be Measured Reliably And Do They Predict Clinical Effectiveness?, Jacqueline Camp

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traditional evaluation and assessment procedures in professional psychology programs have long been criticized for inadequately attending to the set of interpersonal skills that are important to professional functioning in the field of psychology. The present study was exploratory and focused on examining the reliability and validity of an evaluation tool designed to capture a set of interpersonal skills that are clinically relevant and grounded in the empirical literature on psychotherapy outcome. Toward this end, the Facilitative Interpersonal Skills (FIS) task (Anderson, Patterson, & Weiss, 2006) was administered to a sample of trainees (n = 19) enrolled in a clinical psychology …

School Counselors' Activities In Predominantly African American Urban Schools, Lacretia T. Dye

Dissertations

Urban school reform has begun to penetrate the school counseling profession in both theory and practice. The American School Counseling Association’s National Model (ASCA, 2005), as well as the Transforming School Counseling Initiatives component of the Education Trust (2007) are initiatives within the school profession promoted, in part, as responses to urban school reform. In particular, the ASCA National model is a “call to action” for school counselors to promote student success by closing the existing achievement gap whenever found between students of color, poor students, or underachieving students and their more advantaged peers (ASCA, 2005). However, little information is …

What Psychotherapists Have To Teach Us About Childhood Developmental Trauma: The Roles Of Attachment Orientation And Coping Strategy, Rebecca Klott

Dissertations

Psychotherapists have been found to have higher rates of childhood developmental trauma when compared to non-clinicians, yet they do not report more distress. The current study added to the literature regarding the experiences of psychotherapists and explored a theoretical model integrating attachment and coping as mediators for the relationship between childhood developmental trauma and psychological distress among psychotherapists.

A total of 130 masters' level psychologists participated in this study. These participants were asked to complete the following measures: The Child Abuse and Trauma Scale (Sanders& Becker-Lausen, 1995), the Ways of Coping-Revised (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985; Folkman, Lazarus, Denkel-Schetter, DeLongis, & …

Predictors Of Counselor Self-Efficacy Among Master's Level Counselor Trainees: Impact Of Cohort Versus Non-Cohort Educational Programs, Regina Lynn Meyer

Dissertations

Self-efficacy, a central component of Bandura's social cognitive theory (SCT), is an important construct in the realm of therapist development and has been associated with client outcome. Researchers have found that some of the strongest predictors of counselor self-efficacy are level of experience, level of training, state anxiety, and trait anxiety. Missing from this body of literature, however, is an understanding of how the educational format of training (i.e., cohort versus non-cohort) impacts counselor self-efficacy. Because cohort membership has been associated with professional confidence and self-esteem, it was hypothesized that educational format would contribute significant variance to counselor self-efficacy scores. …

First-Generation, African American Students' Experiences Of Persisting At A Predominantly White Liberal Arts College, Candy S. Mccorkle

Dissertations

Generational status of students is one of the variables that colleges and universities are starting to track and study in order to gain a better understanding of its impact on retention and persistence of students. This phenomenological study provides narrative from five first-generation, African American students who attend a predominantly White liberal arts college in the Midwest; their stories provide a snapshot of how they experienced college, made meaning of those experiences and the impact of these experiences and meaning-making on their motivation to persist in college. These five students participated in individual audio-taped interviews that were analyzed and coded. …

Social Justice, White Racial Identity, And Multicultural Competency Among White Master Level Trainees In Counselor Education And Counseling Psychology, Sara Rebecca Streufert

Dissertations

In recent years, scholars have become more vocal regarding counselors and counseling psychologists’ responsibilities to advance efforts for social change (Goodman et al., 2004; Speight & Vera, 2004; Vera & Speight, 2004). As a result, empirical investigations have started to evaluate variables that may contribute to trainees and mental health professionals’ desire to participate in social justice advocacy (Beer, 2008; Caldwell, 2008; Landreman et al., 2007; Nilsson & Schmidt, 2005). However, most of these studies do not focus on trainees and mental health professionals who identify as White. The present study used quantitative analyses to explore nine hypotheses regarding the …

Does Psychopathy Predict Future Risky Sexual Behavior?, Jessica Jade Fulton

Dissertations

Risky sexual behavior (RSB), such as having sex with an unknown partner, is associated with a variety of negative consequences including sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancy. Previous research (e.g., Fulton, Marcus, & Payne, 2010) suggests that psychopathic personality traits as assessed by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) are associated with RSB. Self-Centered Impulsivity (SCI), which is characterized by impulsivity, irresponsibility, and reckless behavior, was positively associated with RSB among men and women. In contrast, Fearless Dominance (FD), which is characterized by fearlessness, manipulativeness, and social dominance, was positively associated with RSB among men but not women. …

The Relationship Between Suicide Ideation And Parasuicide: An Electrophysiological Investigation Using The Loudness Dependence Of Auditory Evoked Potential, Angelika Marsic

Dissertations

The loudness dependence of the auditory evoked potential (LDAEP) has been proposed as a promising valid and a non-invasive indicator of behaviorally relevant central 5-HT functioning. There is limited research on the utility of the LDAEP in discriminating individuals who engage in various degrees of suicidal behavior. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine if the LDAEP, as a measure of central serotonergic functioning, can be useful in distinguishing groups of individuals who: (a) solely experience suicidal ideation (SI group); (b) experience suicidal ideation and have engaged in deliberate self-harm acts (SH group); and (c) individuals with …

A Study Of Social Injustice And Forgiveness In The Case Of North Korean Refugees, Jin Uk Park

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The current study evaluated the psychometric utility of Decisional Forgiveness Scale and Emotional Forgiveness Scale for the North Korean refugee population and explored the relationship among social adaptation, religious commitment, unforgiveness, forgiveness style and mental health variables (trauma symptoms and depression) among North Korean refugees. Confirmatory Factor Analyses were conducted to investigate the North Korean version of DFS and EFS with collected data from 269 North Korean refugees. The forgiveness instruments, when modified with appropriate item deletions, could be considered as useful for North Korean refugees. In the Multiple Regression Analysis, four of five predictors (social adaptation, hurt characteristics, forgiveness …

Depression As A Risk Factor For Breast Cancer : Investigating Methodological Limitations In The Literature., Patrick Pössel, Erica Adams, Jeffrey C. Valentine

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Purpose: A relationship between depression and the development of breast cancer has not been convincingly shown in the research conducted over the past three decades. Methods: In an effort to better understand the conflicting results, a review was conducted focusing on the methodological problems associated with this literature, including time frame between the assessment of depression and the diagnosis of breast cancer and the use of somatic items in measuring depression. Fifteen breast cancer prospective studies were reviewed. Results: While twelve of the studies found positive associations between depression and breast cancer development, three studies found negative associations. With regards …