Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-185). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

Research has established locus of control as a strong trait-level predictor of health and well-being and indicates that individuals with a greater sense of internal control benefit from healthier outcomes across a broad range of domains. To date, however, little research has investigated the potential malleability and state-level functioning of locus of control. Drawing from social learning theories, it was predicted that locus of control would vary on a daily basis and further that this variation would be influenced by daily hassles and anxiety. Additionally, an individual’s trait-level of internal locus of control was expected to moderate this association. The current study consists of 58 couples expecting their first child. Couples were asked to independently complete three weeks of daily diaries during their third trimester. Diaries assessed daily feelings of control, anxiety, and number of hassles encountered. Once reliable daily variation of locus of control was established, within-person analyses revealed a negative relationship such that on a day when an individual reported more anxiety or more hassles, that individual also reported feeling less control than on an average day. Further analyses revealed that an individual’s trait-level of internal control influenced this association such that, overall, those individuals with a higher trait-level of internality maintained higher levels of daily control in the face of hassles and anxiety. These findings extend prior research by providing a better understanding of locus of control and suggest important implications for efforts aimed at improving health and well-being. / text

The purpose of this research was to examine the friendships of emerging adults as influenced by familial environments in order to illuminate interpersonal aspects of well-being. Recent literature affirms that friendships play a critical role in the lives of emerging adults; these interpersonal connections rely on the use of friendship formation strategies and maintenance behaviors. Employing a longitudinal design that included both participant and peer reports, this study found that individuals’ use of friendship formation strategies and maintenance behaviors contribute to their overall well-being and that the path for maintenance behaviors was partially mediated by relational quality with friends. Further, it was expected that the propensity to engage in friendship work (i.e., formation strategies and maintenance behaviors) would be predicted by communication within the parent-child relationship. Recent scholarship asserts that parent confirmation affects both the socialization and psychosocial development of children. The current work employed a confirmation perspective to assess how families lay the groundwork for emerging adults’ communicative behaviors in friendship and found that parent confirmation predicted individuals’ use of friendship formation and maintenance behaviors. Together, these associations pave a social-cognitive pathway from family and friendship to well-being. / text

Social capital has been positively associated with adult health and well-being, yet our knowledge about the meaning of social capital for women, especially from developing countries such as Indonesia, is limited. The Indonesian context is particularly suitable for this study since the country is a heterogeneous society in terms of ethnicity, language, and race, and it has rich tradition of social capital. The focus on women is also relevant since the programs and activities of many government and nongovernment organizations target women to improve health and well-being of the family and the community. Because women are the target of these efforts, understanding women's social capital (participation in these organizations) is relevant particularly how participation impacts women's health and well-being. Further, this study investigates whether other dimensions of social capital (social trust and social support) has impact on women's health and well-being. This study utilizes the recent data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS, Wave 4). The findings indicate education has a positive significant effect on health, mental health and well-being outcomes. Higher years of education predict both the odds of being in a good health and having lower mental health problems. Education also predicts higher odds of having adequate standard of living, sufficient food consumption and healthcare, and feeling happy. Among social capital variables, social trust in the general community (feeling safe walking alone at night) has a significant positive effect on good health and lower mental health problems. Participation in Rotating Saving and Credit Association (ROSCA) also has a significant effect on improved women's welfare including having adequate standard of living, enough food consumption, and sufficient healthcare. Living in Java was a determinant factor for having good health, but not the other outcomes. Implications for social work practice and policy development are offered. / text

Three of the major controversial issues in the field of intellectual styles are: 1) whether or not styles can be changed; 2) whether or not styles are value-laden; 3) whether styles are distinct from or they are part of personality traits. The main purpose of this research was to address these three issues by 1) exploring the socialization process of students’ thinking styles through tracing the change of thinking styles over one year and examining the competing influence of students’ perceived parenting styles, perceived learning environment, and personality traits on their thinking styles; and 2) exploring the role of thinking styles in students developmental outcomes with regard to career decision self-efficacy and subjective well-being. The research adopted a quantitatively-driven mixed method design and it involved three phases: the pilot study (a quantitative study), the main study (a longitudinal, quantitative study), and the follow-up study (a qualitative study). The pilot study validated a series of inventories that were subsequently utilized in the main study and preliminarily explored the relevant relationships among three hundred and forty-one Chinese university students from Shanghai, mainland China. In the main study, nine hundred and twenty-six students from the same university responded to a questionnaire consisting of the modified inventories and some demographic information at the beginning of an academic year. One year later, they responded to the same questionnaire again. After that, based on the results of the main study, 29 students were selected to participate in a follow up study that involved individual face-to-face interviews. Results of the main study generally supported the research hypotheses. With regard to the malleability of thinking styles, the research found that students’ thinking styles changed over one year and the change of thinking styles can be at least partially attributed to the two environmental factors (i.e., parenting styles and learning environments). These findings suggest that, albeit relatively stable, thinking styles can be socialized/changed. With regard to the role of thinking styles in student development, results indicated that mainly Type I thinking styles (characterized by creativity, nonconformity, and autonomy) positively contributed to students’ career decision self-efficacy and subjective well-being. Furthermore, Type I thinking styles were also major mediators in the relationships of parenting styles and learning environments to career decision self-efficacy and subjective well-being. These findings suggest that thinking styles are value-laden, with Type I thinking styles being more adaptive than other styles. With regard to the relationship between personality and thinking styles, results indicated that thinking styles and personality traits overlapped with each other to limited extents and both of them made unique contributions to student development. Moreover, thinking styles were more malleable than personality traits. These findings suggest that styles are distinct from rather than subordinate to personality traits. Results from the follow-up interview study further confirmed the results of the main study and provided explanatory information on how the identified relationships happened. Generally speaking, the present research has both theoretical and practical implications. It significantly contributes to the discussion on the aforementioned major controversial issues in the field of styles. Furthermore, based on the research findings, specific suggestions on how to optimize the development of students’ thinking styles are provided for parents, teachers, and university administrators. Finally, the limitations of this research and the recommendation for future studies are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study examined the effectiveness of a hope-based intervention on hope, subjective well-being, goal attainment and degree of goal internalization in a sample of primary 6 students from Hong Kong. Participants were randomly assigned to either intervention condition or control condition. Results from ANCOVAs suggested that there were no main intervention effects on hope and on goal attainment. However, participants benefited from internalizing their self-set goal in the intervention. Concerning the intervention effect on subjective well-being, significant interaction was found. Consistent with the dynamical systems model, regression analyses demonstrated that participants with high initial pleasant affect was more responsive to the intervention and benefited the most in terms of latter pleasant affect. In addition, it was found that goal attainment was significantly associated with subjective well-being and hopeful thinking. Possible explanations for the inconsistent findings with previous studies are provided. Implications for future research on hope-based intervention are also discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

In considering current college students’ general well-being, their diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds need to be considered as an important contributor. Previous research revealed that certain ethnic grouops had more difficulty adjusting to college life. This study examined the contributors to general well-being by introducing self-compassion as an important contributor for college students from three different ethnic backgrounds as determined by their self-identified choices. Data came from the online survey responses of 95 college students attending a southwestern university. Correlations between self-compassion and the nine subscales of general well-being yielded a positive relationship as in previous studies, with six of them meeting the previous criterion ( r = .60). Results showed that etnic groups and degree of ethnic identification did not, for these students, moderate the relationship between self-compassion and general well-being.. / text

I tidigare forskning saknas studier om effekten av Internet på äldres välbefinnande. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur äldres välbefinnande påverkas av vardaglig Internetanvändning inklusive sociala medier. Tio pensionärer i åldern 68-85 år i Mellansverige, varav fem kvinnor, intervjuades i ca 35 minuter var om deras subjektiva upplevelser av Internetanvändning. Intervjuerna meningskoncentrerades och analysen resulterade i fyra gemensamma drag: äldre som använder Internet och sociala medier upplever (1) positiva emotioner, (2) närhet med andra, (3) trygghet och (4) ett rikare liv. Avsaknaden av Internet däremot skulle leda till upplevelsen av tomhet och isolation. Grundat på komponenterna föreslås det att användning av Internet och sociala medier har sammantaget positiv effekt på äldres välbefinnande. Förutom detta identifierades en ny komponent trygghet som inte framkom i tidigare studier om äldres Internetanvändning.

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