The use of projective assessments has a long history and tradition within psychological testing. However, there is a relative lack of research using these techniques with people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Asperger Syndrome (AS). People with ASD have common features known as the „triad of impairments‟: (a) impairments in social interaction (b) qualitative impairments in communication and (c) restricted, repetitive or stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interests or attitudes. Herbert Phillipson‟s (1955) Object Relations Technique (ORT) is a well-established projective assessment that examines an individual‟s ability to describe object relationships. A review of the literature has revealed no published papers using the ORT with this client group. The ORT is a story-based assessment in which the participants respond to a set of ambiguous pictures displaying one, two, three person, or group situations and one blank plate. The test seeks to show the different ways an individual experiences, or will avoid, the particular object relationships. The expectation is that the participants will display a consistency between the four dimensions assessed and how they conduct and view relationships, and this will be reflected in the stories. Five participants were assessed using the ORT. The results were compared to the normative data supplied by Phillipson (1955). The study found that all the participants had difficulties with meeting the full criteria for the stories. Stories lacked emotional connections and interactions between the characters, with a reliance on basic emotional states. Problems were encountered in story production for the blank plate. When compared to normative data the participants displayed a range of perceptual variations in relation to the figures in the pictures. Further analysis was also conducted using Labov‟s (1972, 1982) structural analysis which revealed difficulties with including all the elements in the stories. Miles and Huberman‟s (1994) thematic analysis was also undertaken. The themes that emerged highlighted that the participants‟ stories reflected their adolescent stage of development, though these are not always clearly articulated. Overall, the study highlighted the difficulties with using the ORT with an ASD population, which affects its practicality and usefulness for assessment purposes. The possible reasons for these difficulties are discussed.

acase@tulane.edu / 1 / Blair Youmans

No description available.

Much of the existing scholarship on the popular appeal of television emphasizes the role of content over any of the medium’s other elements. Work within the cultural studies tradition, for example, often centers the importance of specific television programs when discussing the small screen’s allure for discerning viewers. Other analyses that proclaim explicit concern for “the rhetoric of television” as a whole nevertheless tend to limit their focus to specific, recognizable elements within broadcast programming. As a result, there exists no strong theoretical perspective that helps account for an attraction to television as a medium, despite that fact that many people are familiar with instances of television reception that appear to have nothing to do with the specificity of broadcast content (i.e. collapsing in front of “the box” after a long day and watching whatever happens to be on—sometimes for hours at a time). The present study remedies this absence by proposing a rhetorical mode for the medium of television based on the psychoanalytic concept of “projective identification.” Originating in the object relations work of Melanie Klein, projective identification names a primary mechanism by which individuals manage unconscious anxieties that attend modern subjectivity. This study asserts that specific elements of the televisual apparatus in combination invite unconscious acts of projective identification from viewers. Because this invitation relieves viewers of primal anxieties and increases their attraction to the medium itself, it is appropriate to interpret projective identification in this context as an inherently rhetorical concern. This study progresses in three basic sections. The first two chapters review relevant literature in the fields of rhetoric, media, and psychoanalysis in order to propose “the rhetoric of projective identification” as a mode of address inherent to the medium of television through the second half of the 20th century. The middle three chapters then validate and extend this mode by considering three elements of the televisual medium in even greater depth: Intimacy, flow, and instances of audience activism. Finally, the conclusion of the study considers the continued utility of the proposed mode in a contemporary era marked by media convergence and technological implosion.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 19, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Women's Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 424-428). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR38988

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 297-317). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-69). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR31979

No description available.

The focus of this investigation is to assess the relationship between false self behavior, object relations and attachment variables, and adjustment. Theory suggests that object relations and attachment are interrelated, and have been independently linked to psychological consequences. Theory also postulates a relationship between false self behavior and object relations theory. Given the interrelatedness of object relations and attachment theory it is possible that false self behavior may also be linked to attachment variables. While the relationship between object relations and false self behavior seems to have been established object relations theory and attachment theory have not been studied in tandem as related to false self behavior. In addition, this investigation will explore the relationship of adjustment variables to attachment and object relations variables. Undergraduate males and females will be solicited for participation, and will be asked to complete self-report questionnaires measuring false self behavior, object relations, attachment, and adjustment. The primary research hypothesis is that less false self behavior will be related to mature object relations, secure attachment, and fewer symptoms.