<p>Abstract Mixed findings in the research on mental health issues in the lesbian community have resulted in conflicting conclusions as to whether the prevalence rate of generalized anxiety disorders and depression in the lesbian population differs from that of non-lesbians. The variability of findings may be due to factors such as discrimination, coming-out, and self-esteem. Using the minority stress model a framework, the purpose of this quantitative survey study was to examine whether perceptions of discrimination, coming-out, and self-esteem levels predict lesbians? anxiety and depression. Participants anonymously completed online measures of the Outness Inventory, the Schedule of Sexually Discriminatory Events, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The snowball sample consisted of 105 self-identified lesbian women from the United States. Hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses. According to study results, frequency and stressfulness of sexual discrimination, coming-out, and self-esteem levels predicted depression and anxiety, with low self-esteem as the only significant predictor of depression and anxiety. The findings were only partially consistent with the minority stress model because perceived discrimination did not predict depression or anxiety. This study facilitates positive social change by pointing out and focusing on the need for mental health interventions specific to the stresses that lesbians face pertaining to low self-esteem, as that predicts their anxiety and depression.

<p>This interpretive phenomenological analysis research study articulates the experiences of 3 Christians who manifest secure attachment to God characteristics. Human infant attachment theory and subsequent attachment to God conceptualizations were the perspectives used in order to explore the phenomenon. Analysis of the data led to 4 emergent themes focused on the psychological implications of having a secure attachment to God: View of God as Kindhearted, View of Self Transformed by God, Theological Exploration without Fear, and Need for Closeness When Suffering. Findings indicated that participants experienced God as a loving parent who fully accepted an authentic self. Across time, participants were able to deconstruct theological concepts incongruent to life experiences and explore new theological ideas and practices without anxiety of experiencing negative responses from God. Participants? need for closeness to God when experiencing painful events, in particular when feeling powerless to fix the circumstances, was described as needing authentic conversation with God. These findings suggest that secure attachment to God may have psychological benefit and encourages clinicians to validate and explore attachment to God dynamics with clients who indicate having a relationship with God.

<p> One of the fundamental expectations in the New Testament is that every Christian will become more and more like Jesus Christ. This transformation is characterized by a growing capacity to love as the believer takes on the character of Christ. This change process is life-long, is referred to as progressive sanctification, and is the essence of discipleship. However, research indicates that many believers living in North America are not experiencing a high degree of personal transformation into the image of Christ. Despite trying harder and utilizing the plethora of good discipleship material that is available, change for many believers is largely unrealized. This is a problem that some refer to as the &ldquo;sanctification gap.&rdquo; </p><p> This project addresses the sanctification gap by identifying unresolved emotional pain as a barrier to Christ-like transformation. Specific to this project is a six-week curriculum for discipleship that addresses both the spiritual and emotional aspects essential for spiritual growth. Emotion is powerful and influences thought and behavior. Unresolved emotional pain often promotes distorted thoughts and feelings of shame and fear that in turn influence sinful behavior as a means to cope with or numb the pain. Sadly, this sinful behavior hinders the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and consequently creates the sanctification gap. Therefore, to understand how emotion and thought work together to influence behavior will assist the believer in his or her discipleship to Jesus. </p><p> The curriculum for this project was pilot-tested with a group of male and female adult participants living in Orange County, California. The Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Personal Assessment by Peter Scazzero and Warren Bird was administered before and after this six-week program and revealed that participants experienced discernible growth in the areas of spiritual and emotional maturity that helped them bridge the sanctification gap.</p>

<p>Objectives Past research has shown that low socioeconomic status (SES) and perceived discrimination are related to hypertension in African Americans. Past studies have used the Reserve Capacity Model (RCM; Gallo & Matthews, 2003; 2005; 2011) to understand these relationships which posits that stress can be mitigated by psychosocial resources which lead to healthy lifestyle behaviors predictive of cardiac health. However, few studies have examined the RCM resources to predict hypertension in African Americans and none have included discrimination as a stressor in the model. Methods We examined the mediational effects of RCM resources after low SES and discrimination experiences to predict health behavior (exercise) and hypertension in 1202 middle to older aged African Americans using structural equation modeling. Results Both low SES and perceived racial discrimination predicted a diagnosis of hypertension indirectly through levels of reserve capacity and exercise. Conclusions These findings provide support for the RCM as an explanatory framework for how social stressors affect health through modifiable psychosocial resources and health behaviors in middle to older aged African Americans.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This portfolio has three parts. I. Part one is a systematic literature review entitled ‘What are the psychological factors associated with psychogenic syncope or psychogenic non-epileptic seizures? Psychological factors that appear to be commonly linked to syncopal events of unknown medical origin are explored in relation to psychogenic syncope. Studies have widely acknowledged psychological distress in this patient group. The prevalence of psychological factors and their impact on people remains uncertain. A systematic search of four databases identified eleven studies. The findings are summarised and discussed from various perspectives. Clinical implications and areas of future research are highlighted. II. Part two is an empirical paper, utilising Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) entitled: ‘What are the experiences of people diagnosed with psychogenic syncope?’ The study explores peoples’ perspective of living with psychogenic syncope. A total of six people chose to participate in the study, which employed a semi-structured interview based on the self-regulation model (Leventhal, Nerenz & Steele, 1984). Five superordinate and seven subordinate themes emerged from the data. Peoples’ experience of psychogenic syncope was conceptualised by drawing on various theories in order to highlight a need for holistic healthcare practice. Wider psychosocial influences on people diagnosed with psychogenic syncope were also considered. III. Part three comprises appendices relating to part one and part two. Included in this is an epistemological statement of the stance of the researcher, and a reflective statement on the process of conducting the research, and its challenges.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of warfare exposure and unit cohesion on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology among male and female National Guard and Reserve service members deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. National Guard and Reserve soldiers and female service members have been shown to be at greatest risk of psychological distress, and thus identification of resiliency factors among this population is worthy of further study. An emerging body of research has identified unit cohesion as a potentially modifiable protective factor against the deleterious effects of warfare exposure; however, such research is in its early stages, with female service members consistently reporting less unit cohesion than male service members. National Guard and Reserve soldiers (N = 463; 418 men and 45 women) age 19 to 59 were assessed on measures of warfare exposure, PTSD symptomatology, and degree of unit cohesion immediately following deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Results demonstrated that greater exposure to warfare was associated with more severe PTSD symptoms for both men and women. Specifically, combat experiences involving the threat of direct attack or personal injury tended to occur together and were the most significant risk factors for increased PTSD symptomatology. In addition, female service members in our sample reported significantly lower levels of unit cohesion than male service members, a finding that is consistent with the nascent research on gender differences in cohesion. Although the current study did not find greater unit cohesion to be a buffer against the effects of warfare exposure on PTSD severity, there was a direct effect: greater unit cohesion was associated with less PTSD symptomatology above and beyond the effects of demographic control variables. This relationship held for both male and female service members. Future research should aim to establish causality by examining these constructs longitudinally, with a focus on uncovering the mechanisms by which unit cohesion may lead to fewer PTSD symptoms.

This portfolio is made up of three sections: Part one is a systematic literature review, in which the empirical literature relating to family-based interventions after brain injury –delivered both face-to-face by therapists and utilising new telehealth delivery methods –is reviewed and critically contrasted. It aims to explore the effectiveness of these delivery methods. Part two is an empirical paper exploring the shared relationship of mothers and non-injured siblings of young adults who have incurred severe traumatic brain injury. This was implemented using semi-structured interviews and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, with consequent themes discussed in the context of established empirical and theoretical literature. Part three comprises the appendices, including further information for parts one and two, as well as reflective and epistemological statements.

Two sets of literature are reviewed: firstly, a detailed review isgiven of ideas and indices derived from Kelly's Personal Construct Theory and of their use in research on interpersonal relationships and secondly, a more selective review of the interpersonal attraction literature is presented. Duck's (1973;1977) filter model of friendship, which forms the focus of this research, is then discussed. Five studies are reported. All were concerned with the relationship between friendship and similarity of personal construct content. The positions, within the proposed filter sequence, of similarity of personal construct organisation and structure, were also of primary interest. Other concerns were to investigate the relative importance in friendship of construct similarity, attitude and value similarity, and the meaning-fulness of others' constructs; to compare superordinate and subordinate construct similarity; to assess the effects of using different measures of content similarity; and to investigate sex and age differences. Friends were generally found to he relatively similar in terms of construct content, organisation and structure hut their constructs were not more meaningful and nor was there any evidence of friends having similar attitudes or values. It is suggested, on the basis of the findings relating construct content similarity to friendship, that the strength and nature of this relationship depends on the nature of the group e.g. on its homogeneity and centrality in the lives of its members. Superordinate similarity was found to he more strongly associated with established friendship than subordinate similarity. Some sex differences were found e.g. in the type of content similarity associated with friendship. The last chapter discusses the problems of specifying the filter sequence, the filter model from a Kellian perspective, and the importance of the social context of relationships. Suggestions for future research are made which emphasise the need to tap people's constructs of relationships.

Mischel (1968, 1973), challenged the trait approach to the study of individual differences by claiming that traits lacked predictive utility and that people did not display the degree of consistency pre-supposed by traits. It is suggested here that often the real difference between those who espouse the idiographic and those who espouse the nomothetic approaches is one of emphasis. It is, therefore, proposed that a theory which provides a biological basis for differential conditionability might prove to be a useful point from which to start building a theory of personality which integrates these two approaches. Two theories, Eysenck's and Gray's, initially looked promising and so predictions drawn from these were compared in a series of three conditioning experiments. No support was found for Gray's theory, and although a degree of support was found for Eysenck's theory it was concluded that this theory lacked heuristic value. People were found to condition with remarkable efficiency, however. Experiments four and five followed up some speculations as the nature of anxiety, looked at consistency both behavioural and self-rated and again put predictions drawn from Gray's theory to the test, but this time abandoning Gray's assumption that differential sensitivity to cues of reinforcement is related to the introversion-extraversion dimension, and looking at differential sensitivity as a performance variable. Evidence was found supporting Gray's speculation with respect to differential sensitivity. No evidence of behavioural consistency was found, and no support for a general factor of consistency was found when self ratings of consistency were examined. Cognitive variables did, however, appear to be important in determining behaviour. It was concluded that Eysenck' s theory was not robust enough to form the basis of the type of theory proposed here. Gray's theory needs some major modifications, especially in relation to the assumed relationship between active avoidance and appetitive reinforcement. It seems that whether or not consistency will be observed is determined by many factors, not least of which is the complex relationship between situational and cognitive variables. It is suggested that conditioning may well play an important part in determining behaviour and it might prove fruitful to follow the lead offered by Pavlov, Teplov and Nebylitsyn and move from properties of conditioning and of the nervous system to theories of personality, rather than the other way round. It is also suggested that we should be working towards a theory which explains both why, and in what ways people were different and similar, a theory which set itself the target of describing and explaining the relationships between individual abilities, conditioning and cognitive factors, such as the use made of strategies.