Introduction: Care professionals suffering with poor wellbeing is a phenomenon that has been found to have a damaging effect upon individual employees, service users and organisations. Employees working in forensic settings are believed to be at increased risk of damaged wellbeing due to the unique demands of their working environment, including exposure to violence and aggression. This issue was addressed in two ways. Firstly, a systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of person-centred interventions to improve the wellbeing of forensic professionals was prepared. Following this, an empirical study was completed which examined the ability of demands related to violence and aggression, and resources of two types (cognitive and contextual behavioural) to predict the wellbeing of employees in a high secure forensic mental health (FMH) hospital. Method: For the systematic review, relevant databases were systematically searched and 7 papers that met the inclusion criteria were identified. The included studies were quality assessed to identify strengths and weaknesses. For the empirical study, 142 employees at a high secure FMH hospital completed self-report questionnaires which examined their wellbeing, perceptions of the prevalence of aggression, beliefs about safety, attitudes towards aggression, and psychological flexibility. Results: The reviewed studies included psychological, educational and mixed type interventions. Evidence for the effectiveness of interventions was mixed, and problems with methodological quality common. The results of the empirical paper suggested that exposure to violence and aggression was not a good predictor of wellbeing. However, the beliefs staff held about safety and staff‘s level of psychological flexibility were predictive of wellbeing. Conclusions: The review concluded that the existing evidence for the effectiveness of person-centred wellbeing interventions for forensic professionals was generally of poor quality, and inadequate to provide firm recommendations. Further research to assess the effectiveness of interventions and the underlying mechanisms of wellbeing change in forensic settings was advised. The empirical paper concluded that job demands related to staff‘s cognitive appraisal of safety, and the contextual behavioural resource, psychological flexibility, were predictive of staff wellbeing. It was recommended that future interventions to improve the wellbeing of forensic professionals consider the psychological processes staff encounter in the workplace, with a particular focus on contextual behavioural resources, which have an existing evidence base in broader occupational fields. Further research using contextual behavioural interventions within forensic settings is recommended in order to develop the limited research on forensic professionals‘ workplace wellbeing.

This thesis explores the interaction between well-being and environmental volunteering. Focusing on five case study groups across Scotland, the emotional, social and physical well-being impacts of active environmental volunteer work are examined. Through an extensive ethnographic approach incorporating in-depth interviewing, participant observation and focus group work the thesis highlights the importance of studying the initial and continuing motivations for individuals to participate in environmental volunteering. This retains a particular focus on emotional and embodied volunteer experiences, exploring the importance of tasks and landscapes on the volunteering encounters. In considering the meaning of volunteering, the thesis also explores linkages of community and citizenship and how individuals frame and understand their volunteering, especially in relation to the environmental aspects of the work. This speaks directly to academic themes of embodiment, human-nature interactions, emotional geographies and social capital. The studentship was an ESRC-CASE funded project, with the CASE partner being Forestry Commission Scotland. The research takes place within a dynamic political context that encompasses current research and work on volunteering and natural environment encounters within Scotland and the UK as a whole. The thesis looks to inform ongoing policy relevant debates on environmental volunteering within both the Forestry Commission Scotland and the Scottish Government.

The core principle underlying this research program is that places can contribute to identity, and that like other elements of identity they may be subject to the same psychological processes. One way in which personal and social identity have been characterised is by their provision of a psychologically significant sense of identity continuity. The overarching question addressed throughout each chapter of this thesis is whether places are significant aspects of identity because they too provide a sense of temporal endurance: place identity continuity (PIC). Four empirical studies aimed to address this question using insights from social psychological theory. They also aimed to reveal the structure of place identity continuity, its psychological significance, and whether variation in its expression could be accounted for using social context. Following an introduction to the core themes of the thesis in Chapter One, Chapters Two and Three provide reviews of the literature connecting place, identity, and continuity: the first from disciplines outside psychology and the second from psychology itself. Chapter Four describes the research methods to be used, and ends Part I of the thesis. Part II presents the empirical studies. Chapter Five reports the results from Study 1, an interview study conducted with residents of Tayside, exploring their place experiences and perceptions of identity continuity in relation to places. It reveals that place relationships can be characterised by connections with past and future selves, and a sense of fit between place and self, but that they can also vary according to strength of place identification and social context. Chapter Six reports the results of Study 2, a large student survey study leading to the development of a three-dimensional scale to measure PIC, and confirmation that PIC is connected with place attachment and place identity. Chapter Seven reports the results of Study 3, a cross-validation of the PIC measure and examination of the varying connections between PIC dimensions and psychological well-being in a large general public survey study. Finally, Chapter Eight reports the results of Study 4, an experiment showing that PIC can vary according to self-categorisation such that those categorising themselves as a family member will generally rate PIC higher than those primed with a student identity. Chapter Nine draws the results of each study together to conclude that PIC is a significant aspect of place identity, and that it is characterised by connections with past place identity, present place and self congruency, and future place identity, thus extending the existing place identity literature. It is also concluded that the use of social psychological approaches enriches previously static and deterministic understandings of place identity, and provides an opportunity to integrate social and environmental psychology. Limitations, future studies, and theoretical and practical implications are then provided before concluding remarks are offered.

El objetivo de la investigación es describir el bienestar psicológico en profesores que enseñan hatha yoga en la ciudad de Lima. Se contó con la participación de 10 instructores, 4 varones y 6 mujeres entre 21 y 58 años de edad, nacidos en Lima y con residencia en la ciudad. Se utilizó un enfoque cualitativo fenomenológico y la información se obtuvo mediante una entrevista estructurada. Los participantes fueron seleccionados mediante un muestreo intencional y se aplicó un análisis de contenido. Los resultados presentan concordancia entre todos los ejes analizados y por ende se obtuvo un alcance psicológico que describe la teoría de bienestar psicológico en la experiencia de la práctica del hatha yoga. Por último, los profesores concluyen que el hatha yoga brinda un sentido en sus vidas y a estar más involucrados en su trabajo por recompensas intrínsecas. / The objective of the research is to describe the psychological well-being in teachers who teach hatha yoga in the city of Lima. It was attended by 10 instructors, 4 males and 6 women between 21 and 58 years old, born in Lima and residing in the city. A phenomenological qualitative approach was used and the information was obtained through a structured interview. Participants were selected by intentional sampling and content analysis was applied. The results are consistent between all the axes analyzed and therefore a psychological scope was obtained that describes the theory of psychological well-being in the experience of the practice of hatha yoga. Finally, teachers conclude that hatha yoga provides meaning in their lives and to be more involved in their work for intrinsic rewards. / Tesis

No description available.

This thesis investigates the structure of job-related well-being; the identification of variables that contribute to either psychological well-being or distress; and the causal connections among elements of job-related well-being and intrinsic job satisfaction.Two large samples (n=3,044 and 3,709) from a white-collar public sector organisation were used to test a four monopolar model of affective well-being, and the two bipolar model (enthusiasm-depression and anxiety-contentment) proposed by Warr (1990). Structural equation modelling (LISREL) was used to test both models, and results strongly supported a monopolar structure of affective well-being (enthusiasm, depression, anxiety and relaxation). Following the testing of the models, canonical correlation analyses related the set of the four affective variables and intrinsic job satisfaction to a set of predictors. The predictors were drawn from Wan's (1994) sub-categories of nine features of jobs that purport to enhance psychological well-being at work. Two dimensions were extracted from this analysis. The first dimension was mainly defined by intrinsic job satisfaction (from the dependent variable set) and supervisory support and skill utilisation (from the independent variable set). The second dimension was defined mainly by anxiety (dependent variable set) and job demands (independent variable set). From these results a model was developed based on the additive influences of the independent variables on the outcome variables (i.e., affective well-being and intrinsic job satisfaction) that helped explain psychological well-being and distress at work. Finally, a model was also developed that assumed a causal direction from intrinsic job satisfaction to affective well-being. Using a longitudinal sample (n=220) these causal relations were tested with USREL. Results supported the hypothesis that intrinsic job ++ / satisfaction leads to affective well-being, rather than the alternative model that had the causal connections in the opposite direction. It was also possible to demonstrate with the same data set that one objective organisational variable, namely tenure, affects intrinsic job satisfaction over time, thus arguing against the proposition that intrinsic job satisfaction is dispositional.

Breast cancer is a devastating disease that affects thousands of women every year influencing their psychological and physical well-being for many years after being diagnosed. The goal of the current study was to determine if there are distinct trajectories of functioning among breast cancer patients in the domains of negative psychological adjustment, positive psychological adjustment, and physical adjustment. This was accomplished using growth mixture modeling. Another goal of this study was to determine whether demographic, medical, and psychosocial variables were able to distinguish among the trajectories. The study combined women from two samples spanning 10 years providing a sample size of 376 women diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. These women were recruited to participate in a 10-week cognitive behavioral stress management intervention and were either randomized to the 10-week experimental condition or a one-day control group. It was hypothesized that distinct trajectories would emerge for each of the domains and that psychosocial variables (i.e., social support, benefit finding, and emotional approach coping) would distinguish among the trajectories. This study was able to statistically identify multiple classes or trajectories of adjustment, consistent with findings reported by Helgeson and colleagues (2004) and Donovan and colleagues (2007). It is difficult to say, however, whether these classes differ in clinically significant ways. The present study also provides a cautionary note to researchers who intend to use growth mixture modeling to identify different trajectories of functioning and the limitations associated with this statistical technique. First, it is important to start this process with strong empirical or theoretical support for the possibility of different classes or trajectories. Without this foundation it becomes difficult to justify why a certain number of classes were chosen. Another limitation of this statistical approach is that there is not a standard method for determining the best number of classes. There are conflicting opinions among researchers in the field about the best fit index to use when the multiple fit indices do not converge. A serious issue related to this is the fact that classes are used for interpreting results and drawing conclusions and inferences. Therefore, clinicians using GMM must be careful when deciding on the number of classes and the clinical inferences drawn from these analyses. Further research needs to be conducted validating these statistical techniques.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential contribution of religious involvement, spiritual well-being, existential well-being and HIV-related symptoms to health-related quality of life in HIV-infected African American women recovering from substance abuse. The study also examined whether religious and spiritual variables served as potential moderators between HIV symptoms and health-related quality of life. This study relied on data obtained as part of a larger longitudinal investigation of the effectiveness of Structural Ecosystems Therapy (SET) for HIV infected women in substance abuse recovery. A total of 175 participants were recruited from regional residential and outpatient clinics. The sample in this study included 99 African American women who had completed the required baseline assessment. It was hypothesized that religious involvement, spiritual well-being and existential well-being would be positively associated to various health-related quality of life indicators (i.e., physical functioning, social functioning, mental health functioning and health distress). On the other hand, HIV symptoms were hypothesized to be inversely related to the health-related quality of life indicators. Religious involvement, spiritual well-being and existential well-being were posited to moderate the relationship between HIV symptoms and the health-related quality of life indicators. Findings from the multivariate analysis of variance showed existential well-being to be significantly related to mental health functioning and health distress and HIV symptoms to be significantly related to mental health functioning and physical functioning. Results from the regression analyses also showed that after controlling for age, both existential well-being and HIV symptoms were significantly related to mental health functioning. Results suggest that increased symptom frequency is significantly associated with worse mental health while higher levels of existential well-being are significantly related to better mental health. No evidence was found in support of the hypothesized moderating role of religious involvement, spiritual well-being and existential well-being between HIV symptoms and health-related quality of life indicators. Research and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Two experiments examined growth performance and physiological measures of stress in pre- and postweaned Angus steers (313 ± 24.5 kg; n = 48/Exp.), where steers were fitted with (YD) or without (ND) an anti-suckling device (Exp. 1), or provided (YS) or not provided (NS) a grain supplement (Exp. 2) for 7 d and weaned by fenceline (FS) or total separation (TS). Steers in Exp. 1 were weighed and bled on d 0, 3, 7 10, 14, 21, and 42, and in Exp. 2, on d 0, 7, 10, 14, and 21 and provided a grain supplement on d 7-21. In Exp. 1, weight gain was not different (P = 0.74) between ND and YD steers during preweaning. The YD-FS steers lost weight (P = 0.01) by d 10 compared with YD-TS steers. Hematocrit (Hct) increased (P = 0.04) in YD but not ND steers on d 3. Neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio (N:L) increased (P < 0.01) in all steers by d 7. Cortisol values in YD-FS steers were higher (P < 0.05) compared with YD-TS steers on d 10 and 21. The ND-FS steers had higher (P = 0.04) interferon-gamma (IFN) concentrations on d 10 compared with all YD steers. Haptoglobin (HAP) values increased (P < 0.01) in all steers by d 3. The FS steers had higher (P < 0.01) ceruloplasmin (CER) values by d 10 than TS steers regardless of preweaning treatment. Ovalbumin-specific IgG increased (P < 0.01) in all steers 10 d following its administration. In Exp. 2, NS-TS steers lost weight (P < 0.01) between d 7 and 10 compared with the remaining steers. The YS steers had higher cortisol, N:L and CER on d 7 compared with NS steers. Moreover, NS steers had higher (P < 0.01) Hct on d 10 than YS steers. Based upon physiological and growth performance data, it may be concluded that use of an anti-suckling device prior to weaning does not improve the animals’ well-being and, providing a grain supplement beginning 7 d prior to weaning may temper the animals’ stress response due to weaning when total separation is employed.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / 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 (February 27, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.