Psychology Dissertations and Theses
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/14037
2024-03-29T12:34:41ZAN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLES OF DISTRESS, SELF-STIGMA, CAREGIVER ROLE IDENTITY, AND SELF-COMPASSION IN CLERGY HELP-SEEKING ATTITUDES
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/31544
AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLES OF DISTRESS, SELF-STIGMA, CAREGIVER ROLE IDENTITY, AND SELF-COMPASSION IN CLERGY HELP-SEEKING ATTITUDES
Sager, Kristen
Clergy comprise an essential subpopulation of caregivers, providing spiritual guidance and emotional support to many community members. The intense occupational demands for clergy result in burnout and mental health concerns causing them to seek support through a variety of private and intrapersonal resources, however clergy may underutilize professional psychological services when dealing with distress. A review of literature on mental health stigma, caregiver role identity, and self-compassion provides a framework for examining clergy help-seeking attitudes and understanding its various influencers. This study examines the relationships among distress, self-stigma of help-seeking, caregiver role identity, self-compassion, and attitudes toward psychological help-seeking in a majority Christian clergy sample using a quantitative method and a descriptive correlational design. Goals of this study were to examine whether caregiver role identity and self-compassion predict levels of self-stigma and whether self-stigma predicts attitudes toward help-seeking. Results revealed rates of depression in this clergy sample that resemble previous research, and showed that the stigma associated with mental health help-seeking predicts help-seeking attitudes in clergy. Clergy self-compassion predicted self-stigma of help-seeking and was significantly associated with levels of distress, caregiver role identity, and help-seeking attitudes. Findings also revealed that caregiver role identity did not relate to clergy self-stigma in ways originally hypothesized, however caregiver role identity salience was associated with higher levels of distress in clergy. Findings from this study inform future research and practice recommendations for the field of psychology in supporting the mental health of this population, and for congregations and organizations invested in clergy mental health.
2019-05-31T00:00:00ZExamination of Cognitive Processing Therapy Outcomes in Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, with or without Chronic Pain and with or without Pharmacological Treatment for Pain
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/31535
Examination of Cognitive Processing Therapy Outcomes in Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, with or without Chronic Pain and with or without Pharmacological Treatment for Pain
Farley, Kathryn Elizabeth
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain are two of the most prevalent conditions affecting the veteran population, with approximately 20% of veterans holding a PTSD diagnosis (Fisher, 2014) and roughly 55% suffering from a chronic pain condition (National Institute of Health, 2015). It is estimated that over 60% of veterans with PTSD also hold a chronic pain diagnosis (Asmundson, 2014). Scholars have theorized about the unique relationships between PTSD and chronic pain, including a mutual maintenance model (Sharp & Harvey, 2001) and a shared vulnerability model (Asmundson et al., 2002). Given this rising comorbid prevalence and associated theoretical foundation, the present study aimed to examine treatment outcomes of cognitive processing therapy (CPT), in Veterans with PTSD, with or without chronic pain, and with or without pharmacological treatment for pain, in the reduction of both PTSD and depression symptoms, utilizing the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL) and Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-II). A retrospective chart review resulted in a sample of 94 veterans across three distinct cohorts; Cohort 1: veterans with a chronic pain condition and pharmacological treatment for pain, Cohort 2: veterans with a chronic pain condition and no pharmacological treatment or any other identified treatment for pain, and Cohort 3: veterans without a chronic pain condition. A MANOVA was conducted using the sample’s pre-treatment and post-treatment PCL and BDI-II scores to examine the symptom reduction across and among the three cohorts. Significant differences were observed between pre-treatment and post-treatment measures of both the PCL and BDI-II, across all cohorts. Significance in between-group differences on PCL score change across CPT was not significant, however demonstrated marginal significance. Between-cohort differences on BDI-II score changes were significant through the MANOVA analysis, however the post-hoc cohort mean comparison failed to reach significance. The study discusses the significance of results in the context of existing literature as well as future directions for research.
2019-08-31T00:00:00ZUnderstanding Spirituality among Chinese College Students: Xin-Yang (信仰) and its Assessment
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/31531
Understanding Spirituality among Chinese College Students: Xin-Yang (信仰) and its Assessment
Li, Shengnan
In spite of the effort researchers have made, there still seems to be a lack of cultural appropriateness when it comes to the concept of spirituality. Therefore, the current author considers the cultural appropriateness in the process of developing a scale that measures Chinese college students’ level of spirituality. Three focus groups and face-to-face interviews were conducted to help understand the concept of spirituality among Chinese college students. Xin-Yang 信仰 is the Chinese word the current author decided to use and study among Chinese college students. After the pool of items is developed, a fourth focus group was held among the current researcher and a panel of experts in the field of psychology that enabled the researcher to establish face validity for the current scale. A pilot study was conducted to modify the pool of items. A sample of 2,307 college student participants were recruited online from five different provinces, autonomous regions, and direct-controlled municipality in China. Confirmatory factor analysis, item factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were performed with the data. The final Xin-Yang scale has three factors: characteristics, mental guidance, and relationship to others. Xin-Yang scale is a sound and helpful measurement. Xin-Yang seems to be an important construct to these Chinese college students in relationship to their psychological well-being. Specifically, Xin-Yang is significantly and positively related to hope, self-esteem, and self- efficacy. Xin-Yang is significantly and negatively related to psychological symptoms. In addition, Xin-Yang is significantly and positively related to spirituality. Relationships among these constructs were discussed. Limitations and implications were also discussed.
2019-08-31T00:00:00ZRelationships Among White Supervisor Cultural Humility and Cultural Missed Opportunities and Minority Supervisee Self-Efficacy, Supervisory Working Alliance, and Racial Identity
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/31525
Relationships Among White Supervisor Cultural Humility and Cultural Missed Opportunities and Minority Supervisee Self-Efficacy, Supervisory Working Alliance, and Racial Identity
Vandament, Marcy
The purpose of the present study is to examine how perceived supervisor cultural humility and cultural missed opportunities relate to supervisory working alliance and counselor self-efficacy in clinical supervision relationships where the supervisor is White and the supervisee is a racial minority. Cultural humility is defined as respect to and a lack of superiority toward another person’s culture and background. A cultural missed opportunity is defined as an opportunity to engage in cultural conversations being overlooked, avoided, or otherwise not discussed. Participants included supervisees who were: students/professionals from a mental health field (i.e. counseling psychology, clinical psychology, social work), who self-identified as a racial minority, and who had at least one clinical supervision experience with a White supervisor (N = 87). Using four hierarchical linear regressions the predictor variables (cultural humility and cultural missed opportunities) were used to examine the amount of variance predicted within the criterion variables (supervisory working alliance and counselor self-efficacy). Additionally, the moderating effect of racial identity was examined through each of the four regressions. The results indicated that perceived cultural humility and cultural missed opportunities account for a significant amount of variance in both supervisory working alliance and counselor self-efficacy. Racial identity accounted for a significant amount of variance in counselor self-efficacy. However, there was not a significant interaction between racial identity and either cultural humility or cultural missed opportunities in each of the four regression analyses.
2019-08-31T00:00:00Z