Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether participation in an undergraduate diversity course influenced White participants' racial identity ego status, level of racism, and degree of sexism and homophobia. Participants in the study were 91 White undergraduates enrolled in one of four diversity courses (treatment) or one of three non-diversity courses (control) at a small, private college in the Northeast. Students were assessed during week one and week fourteen of the course.

The purpose of this pilot research is to examine differences between group therapy and group therapy plus exercise in treating college students presenting with symptoms of depression and/or low self-esteem. The participants were thirty three33 students (24 female and 9 male) who sought treatment at the Colorado State University Counseling Center (CSU UCC). These students/clients of the CSU UCC were enrolled in weekly 90 minute cognitive behavioral (CBT) group therapy.

This study looked at the relationship between work and nonwork stressors, coping resources, gender role, and both physical and mental health. The research attempted to develop a predictive model of health using stress, coping, and gender role as predictors.;Thirty nine male and female employees of a residential facility for persons with mental retardation acted as volunteer participants. The sample included 24 female and 15 male participants from professional and nonprofessional occupations within the facility.

Declines in cognitive abilities and difficulties with complex cognitive tasks in elders have been well documented. Research on cognitive declines, however, tends to focus on impaired memory, and seldom considers the cognitive processes involved in learning. Further, studies of minority and underserved elder populations are rare. The purpose of the present study was to contribute to the research literature on cognitive processes by examining the relationship between anxiety and cognitive task performance in Hispanic elders.

This experiment examined two questions regarding the effect of base rate information on the clinical judgment task of predicting treatment outcome. The first question was the extent to which base rate information affects clinical judgments regarding treatment outcome in diagnoses of major depression and borderline personality disorder. The second question asked the degree to which characteristics of base rate information (i.e. causal relevance) influences clinicians' probability judgment regarding treatment outcome for each of the diagnostic cases. Experienced Ph.D.

A sample of 64 fine arts students was examined to assess the canonical correlation between a set of five hypothesized psychological vulnerability variables and four measures of psychopathology including scales for depression, anxiety, psychoticism, and social alienation. Both positive and negative schizotypal factors were included as predictors in accordance with previous findings demonstrating a high prevalence rate of these traits in creative populations.

This was a qualitative investigation into the experience of becoming a counselor or psychotherapist, and the effects of the psychotherapist's personality on that process. It expanded Langman and Langman's (1996, unpublished manuscript) study of counselor development.;Twenty participants were interviewed and administered the NEO-PI-R. Their mean age was 38, and mean number of post-master's clinical experience was 4.75 years. Fifteen were Caucasian, I African American, 2 Latino/Latina, 2 Asian American. Three had physical disabilities.

Several areas of occupational stress have been established by past research. In this study, Maharishi Ayurveda was examined to determine if Ayurvedic mind-body dosha types and Ayurvedic environmental factors contributed to the occurrence of occupational stress.;One hundred and fifty-three participants completed the Dosha Inventory Instrument (DII), the Dosha Aggravation Rating Scale of Occupational Facets (DARSOF), the Occupational Roles Questionnaire (ORQ) scale and the Psychological Strain Questionnaire (PSQ) scale of the Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI).

In spite of the extensive literature on stress, the relationship between stress, personality and psychopathology is virtually unstudied. This study examined the relationship between stress, personality and psychopathology in a sample of 200 middle-level managers. Results found that these three constructs were not independent of each other but rather were interrelated in theoretically sensible ways.;This study examined the array of Occupational Stress Inventory subscales and extracted a limited set of distinct stress, strain and coping patterns.

This study explored the effects of repressive coping on intergroup discrimination under differing conditions of group membership status. It was predicted that the self-enhancing tendencies of repressors would result in more extreme levels of biased social comparisons as compared to nonrepressors.

This study examined the effects of career counseling on the occupational possible selves and occupational constructs of five client volunteers. A discovery-oriented, case study approach was used to collect data on changes which occurred during the course of career counseling. The study focused on three research questions: whether the number of occupational possible selves changed over sessions; whether occupational cognitive constructs changed through the course of counseling; whether a relationship would exist between variables.

The purpose of this study was to determine which attribution theory, Shaver's Defensive Attribution Theory (1970) or Jones and Davis' Theory of Correspondent Inference (1965); provides the best explanation for understanding how counselor trainees attribute blame in a date rape situation when alcohol has been consumed. Specifically assessed were attributions of blame, attitudes towards rape victims, and rape empathy among male and female counselor trainees for date rape when alcohol was involved.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a self-report measure of spirituality (i.e., the Inclusive Spirituality Index; ISI), which can be used with religious and nonreligious people. Spirituality was defined as the part of one's identity that involves purpose and meaning in life, interdependence with others, inner peace, and transcendence. A two-stage process was employed to create the ISI. Stage I concerned scale construction and examined the content validity and clarity of the ISI. Nineteen experts of religion and spirituality rated an initial item pool of 57 items.

Research indicates that children with symptoms of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, in combination with oppositional and aggressive symptoms, have parents with increased levels of stress. Parent stress in such cases is significantly correlated with parenting behavior (Baker & Heller, 1996; DuPaul, McGoey, Eckert, & VanBrakle, 2001; Podolski & Nigg, 2001). Studies examining the relationship between oppositional and aggressive symptoms and parenting behavior have, for the most part, generally employed correlational designs and have focused on older children.

The present study examined the relationship between finding meaning after divorce and subsequent adjustment. The conceptual framework used in this study was an integration of several perspectives on meaning and trauma including Frankl's (1963) existential perspective, the assumptive world perspective (Janoff-Bulman & Frieze, 1983), and Antonovsky's (1979) salutogenic approach to trauma. Meaning was defined from two perspectives, the "symbolic interactionism" (changes in self and relationships) and the "silver lining" (reframing and positive biasing) perspective.

In Confirming Scale Structure and Reliability of Interpersonal Behavioral Value Inventories (IBVI; Forish, 1999), four inventories with 11 scales, assessing interpersonal behavioral values, were found to be internally consistent and valid to the extent that hypothesized factors were supported. In this research, a replication and extension of the original validation study, each inventory was administered to 25% of the subjects on each grade level a second time to provide an assessment of test-retest reliability.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of private self-consciousness, public self-consciousness and feedback expectancy on the validity and reliability of NEO-FFI profiles.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of participation in a support group on an individual's adjustment to HIV.