<p> Wilderness therapy camps have been found to be effective for treating a number of youth issues and for generally improving youth functioning. In addition, wilderness therapy camps appear to address current treatment needs of reducing stigma in treatment and providing other benefits, such as physical and social health benefits. However, currently wilderness therapy camps lack systematic training for staff that has been deemed efficacious, utilizing evidence-based techniques. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based therapy (EBT) for use with children with a variety of issues and backgrounds and in diverse settings, useful for reducing child problematic behaviors. Efforts have been made to expand the use of PCIT in a variety of settings, with promising results. </p><p> This dissertation proposes to describe how PCIT might be adapted to train wilderness therapy camp staff in evidence-based methods for working with youth, especially those with mental health needs, such as behavioral issues. The literature concerning PCIT and wilderness therapy camps is reviewed. A needs assessment was conducted, consisting of interviews with key informants, experts in the field of wilderness therapy, PCIT, and training methods. Based on information obtained, a full program for training camp staff, called Counselor-Camper Interaction Training (CCIT) is proposed. Finally a proposal to evaluate the efficacy of this program is put forth. As part of the proposed evaluation, a financial assessment was conducted on the program, with the results presented. </p>

<p> Survival processing posits that our memories become enhanced when faced with a survival situation. The current study investigates how the survival processing effect is influenced by two memory processes well-known for enhancing memory, the self-referential effect and cueing.</p><p> One key question that can be posed is whether self survival provides a richer ("deeper") memory cue than imagining survival of an other (a third person). Depth of processing in relation to the participants' (self vs. other) perspective is manipulated to understand the role perspective and the self-referential effect play in the survival processing advantage.</p><p> The current study found that indeed the self survival scenario does provide a significantly better memory cue than the third person "other" perspectives. This highlights the possibility that the survival processing advantage is not a unique process so much as the combination of other known processes.</p>

<p> This dissertation examined correlates of powerlessness, chronic homelessness (more than one-year homelessness), age, and gender, by analysis of the mental health (MH) and substance use (SU) service requests made by 699 people who attended a San Francisco, California homeless outreach event in May of 2005. People without homes (PWH) suffer MH and SU issues at a much higher rate than housed people, yet PWH who acknowledged they experienced MH and SU issues were least likely to request MH and SU services. PWH may have experienced chronic feelings of powerlessness, which resulted from marginalization. These chronic feelings of powerlessness contributed to a person's belief that his or her actions would produce no positive results. The concept of powerlessness may help explain PWH's reluctance to request MH and SU services. The author explored the relationship between chronicity of homelessness and requests for MH and SU services. Analyses showed that non-chronic PWH requested more MH services than those who were chronically homeless. However, this association was not seen when requests for SU services was examined. Additional analysis examining the relationship between service requests, age and gender did not result in significant findings. These findings provided support for the idea that powerlessness was an intrapersonal factor in PWH's choices to request or not request MH and SU services, based upon non-chronic homelessness and theoretically less exposure to powerlessness. These results assist in identifying intrapersonal factors influencing a person's experience in overcoming homelessness, providing an alternative to the current suggestion from the literature that services were unattractive to PWH.</p>

<p> This study explored the lived experiences of 10 counselors who work with traumatic-brain-injury (TBI) individuals on community reintegration. Constructivist self-development theory was used as the conceptual framework for understanding how exposure to traumatic topics affects the self-development of the therapist, leading to the manifestation of other issues in their lives. Data for this study was collected through in-depth interviews that asked counselors to describe their personal experiences of community reintegration counseling with TBI individuals. A transcendental phenomenological design was used to analyze data from counselor interviews. The outcome of the analysis revealed 10 themes: (a) counselors' satisfaction in knowing they are helping, (b) TBI individuals' memory impairment, (c) counselors' frustration with counseling, (d) countertransference, (e) counselors' knowledgeability about TBI population, (f) TBI individuals' family/caregiver support, (g) lack of community support and resources for TBI individuals, (h) TBI individuals' behaviors, (i) counselors` patience in counseling, and (j) family expectations of TBI individuals. These core themes highlighted a consensus among the counselors of feelings of satisfaction in helping, counselors' acceptance of clients, or both. The significance of these findings can benefit counselor education programs and best practice measures for working with this population.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1993. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-04, Section: B, page: 2183. Chair: Nancy Bliwise.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1994. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: B, page: 0510. Co-Advisers: Bill Nasby, Roger Green.

Thèse (M.Sc.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2008. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

The research described in this thesis deals with a topic that has received rather little attention in recent years, namely, co-operative problem-solving behaviour in young children. Owing to a lack of previous data the experiment was necessarily exploratory in nature and 78 children, drawn from 3 different schools participated. Each child was required to solve 2 kinds of problem under 3 conditions - (a) on his (or her) own, and (b) with a partner of the same M.A. and C.A., and (c) with a partner of the same M.A. and different C.A. The tasks were roughly equated for difficulty and the intention was to compare the children's performance under the 3 different conditions. In view of the increasing popularity of Bales' method of analysing Interaction Processes it was decided to adopt and at the same time to test his system in the present experiment. For reasons that will be clear in the main discussion it was also decided to introduce an additional "concentration" category in order to render the data more meaningful. An important but unexpected finding was that the Bales' system of categories shows serious weaknesses when applied to young children and full particulars of these are elaborated in the main discussion. Because of these weaknesses in the Bales technique the results are less conclusive than they might have been. Nevertheless a detailed statistical analysis of the data strongly suggests that if a child is made to work [willingly or otherwise] in partnership with a child of a different age, the main effect is to bring about rather sharp changes in what Bales describes as the "negative emotional areas". In other words it is patterns of hostility rather than patterns of co-operation and task involvement which are mostaffected by the different kinds of pairing. In particular there is evidence that it is generally more disturbing for a child to be paired with an older partner than with a younger. However, even this tendency appears to vary for different ages and considerable individual differences appear to be present. For instance one child may welcome the opportunity to show off in front of a younger partner whereas another child may regard a younger partner as a nuisance or even as a threat (if there is any possibility of the younger partner solving the problem first). These and similar problems are discussed in some detail in the main discussion. Finally, consideration is given to various methodological difficulties. Apart from all the usual difficulties due to uncontrolled variables etc. a special difficulty arises from the fact that Bales' system breaks down the interaction process in a rather artificial way. It will accordingly be argued that there is definite scope for broader and psychologically more meaningful categories such as the present writer' s "concentration" category. Yet another difficulty arises from the possible complaint that the experimenter's co-operative situation is too artificial to be legitimately described as "co-operative". This complaint about artificiality is one that all social researchers have to meet. In this particular experiment it can be met by showing that the experimental situation does indeed conform to the various definitions that other theorists have given to the concept of co-operation.

In a study of the effects of obstetric medication on the neonate, 145 mothers and their offspring were studied from 36 weeks of pregnancy to six weeks after the birth. Fifty-one mothers requested intramuscular pethidine, 59 chose epidural bupivacaine and 35 decided not to have drugs. Data were collected during the antenatal period on health, psychological state, and expectations of the coming birth and baby. In the delivery room, observations were made of the infant and his parents, and selected assessments from the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (BNBAS) were performed. The full BNBAS was carried out on days 1, 3, 7, 21, and 42. The Prechtl Neurological Examination (PNE) was done by a paediatrician on day 6. Records were kept by the mother over the first week of her infant's feeding and sleeping pattern, and for 24 hours after the 21 and 42 day visits. A series of questionnaires were also given to the mother during these first six weeks, covering the experience of labour, her mood, and perceptions of the baby. A multiple regression analysis using "dummy variables" for pethidine and bupivacaine indicated that the mere presence or absence of pain-relief during labour generally had no effect on the neonatal measures used. However, when biochemical indices of drug metabolism in the infant (maternal dose, cord blood concentration in the infant, half-life, and pre- and post-delivery "exposure") were entered into the equation then maternal analgesia and anaesthesia were shown to have consistent and long-lasting effects on the infant. Higher cord levels of pethidine were associated with babies who were more prone to respiratory difficulties, and drowsy and unresponsive immediately after delivery. In the following six weeks depressed attention and social responsiveness were found in connection with high drug levels, as were difficulties in state control at 3 and 6 weeks. After greater exposure to bupivacaine in utero infants were more likely to be cyanotic and unresponsive to their surroundings in the delivery room. Visual skills and alertness decreased significantly with increases in the cord blood concentration of bupivacaine, particularly on the first day but also throughout the next six weeks. Adverse effects of bupivacaine levels were seen on motor organisation, state control and physiological response to stress. However, the changes involved were relatively subtle, and the failure to find "between-groups" differences suggests that many mothers who received either bupivacaine or pethidine had babies who performed as well, and sometimes better, than those who had not been given drugs. Sleep and feed patterns and the neurological status of the infant were relatively unaffected by obstetric or medication variables. There were some modest associations between maternal psychological variables and neonatal and parental behaviour in the delivery room, but not over the next six weeks. Neither jaundice nor sex of the baby determined performance on the BNBAS. Discussion focuses on the interpretation of drug effects and the interdependence of psychosocial, obstetric and ecological variables in the management of childbirth.

This study aims to assess whether children have measurably different relationships with some of the familiar adults in their everyday world. Assessment is made by observing preschool children in a conventional park playground, and evaluating whether their activities and social behaviour differ depending on the caretaker type/s accompanying them. The study is in three parts. The first is an empirical validation of the research venue. Since playgrounds are rarely used in developmental research, it is important to establish that the patterns of behaviour observed there are generalisable. The second part is a comparison of children accompanied by either mother, father, grandmother, nanny, or peer's mother. All 5 caretaker types were found to exert some unique influences, although similarities outweighed differences. The third part compares the effect of a single caretaker accompanying a child with the effect of two caretakers. This allows for assessments of the robustness of caretaker influences. Caretaker effects were found to be dynamic, with two caretakers having an effect which could not be predicted from their effects when alone with a child. There is also evidence of some caretakers having a more dominant effect on children's behaviour than others. It is concluded that caretaker roles provide consistent predictors of children's activity and social behaviour although roles are probably only one of a number of salient factors in determining the effect of different familiar adults on children.