published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

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No description available.

No description available.

Causal modeling techniques were utilized to examine a theoretically induced coping model of resources, uncertainty and coping responses. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of five independent resource variables which included psychological resources, socio-community resources, marital role resources, parenting role resources and physical resources, and the influence of one situational variable, ambiguity, on the selection of differing coping decision responses, that is, minimizing stress behaviors, buffering situation behaviors and mobilizing infusion behaviors. The theoretical relationships of the constructs of resources, uncertainty and coping decisions were derived from the literature on coping, decisions under ambiguity and from a previous inductive study conducted with cancer patients by the investigator. The sample(s) selected for this study were patients previously treated for Stage I or II breast cancer and who were currently in remission within Pima County, Arizona, were of caucasian race and under 70 years of age. The sample was selected from patients treated or monitored from the Arizona Health Sciences Center, Department of Radiation-Oncology and Department of Hematology-Oncology and Kino Community Outpatient Cancer Clinic. Data was collected with an interviewer-administered questionnaire conducted in the subject's home and lasting approximately one hour. The data were analyzed by examining (1) the demographic characteristics, (2) correlations among the independent variables, (3) tests for causal assumptions, and (4) regression analysis of the theory model predictions. The evidence supports the original axiom that differential resources, namely, psychological, social and physical, account for an individual's differential selection of coping responses. Specifically, this study found that strong marital resources and a sense of mastery over the environment seems to deter the use of buffering behaviors; strong parenting role resources, physical resources and a self-denigrating attitude of one's self deter the use of mobilizing infusion behaviors. Specification errors included the probable dual dimensionality of the minimizing the mobilizing coping scales. Contributing variables that are absent in the model may include: social resource of occupation, disease and treatment staging, nature of the physician-patient relationship and the amount of accessible information and risk perceived in the situation. Measurement errors included the new reliability of the mastery scale, possible instrumentation error with the physical distress scale, and less than adequate scalability with the minimizing stress scale and mobilizing infusions scale, though these last two measurement errors could also be considered as misspecified variables. A multistaged empirical model of coping was generated from the findings of this study and will serve as the basis of further theory testing. An additional resource variable includes occupational role. Disease stage directly impacts the second stage of the coping model, uncertainty, which is expanded to include information and risk factors along with ambiguity. Coping responses in the third stage includes an additional category, taking direct action. The final stage of the model depicts the outcome of coping efficacy measured by increased psychological resources and reduced ambiguity.

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Every year in America, nurses provide care to 1.5 million women before during and after abortions. While the procedure continues to be legal, the experience for women often remains secret, unshared and unexplored. A grounded theory approach was used to explore women's perceptions of the abortion experience and to investigate the processes women use to create meaning from the abortion experience over time. Parse's Man-Living-Health Model provided a theoretical orientation for this research. Subjects included six nulliparous women aged 25 to 37 who experienced a legal abortion between 1 and 12 years ago. Using grounded theory methodology, a phenomenon of Integrating Ambivalence was developed to describe the circular process by which women are reminded of the abortion experience, and re-evaluate their decision within the context of their lives. Using a variety of strategies, the women moved toward increasing integration of the experience while remaining, to varying degrees, ambivalent about the abortion decision and its consequences.

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Different types of self-discrepancies are associated with different negative affects. The present study explored the relationship between self-discrepancies and depression and anxiety. In addition the relationship between self-discrepancies and coping styles was examined. Data was gathered from questionnaires distributed to second and third year undergraduate psychology students at the University of Natal - Pietermaritzburg. The final sample consisted of 113 subjects. The data was analysed using the Pearson product-moment correlation, hierarchical multiple regression, and non parametric tests. The results of the study showed that subjects are more bound to ideal self-guides, more so those pertaining to their own standpoint. Further, it was found that female subjects manifested higher self-discrepancies than male subjects, except in the ideal/own domain where male subjects had a relatively higher discrepancy. Female subjects manifested the highest discrepancy in the ideal/other domain. In terms of the relationship between the self-discrepancies and affect, it was found that both the total ideal discrepancy and the total ought discrepancy correlated positively with anxiety, with the total ideal discrepancy having a slightly higher correlation. Further, there was a significant positive correlation between the total ideal discrepancy and depression. More specifically a significant positive correlation between the ought/own discrepancy and depression was noted. With regard to coping styles, the findings showed that overall, Black subjects, male subjects and subjects from the lower socioeconomic group used the acceptance style of coping more frequently. Further, some significant positive and negative correlations were noted between different self-discrepancies and different coping styles. In addition, some significant positive and negative correlations were also noted between depression and anxiety and the use of different coping styles. The results were discussed in terms of the self-discrepancy and coping literature. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

One criticism of previous work in the field of adolescent development has been the paucity of research examining the unique and combined contributions of different developmental contexts on adolescents' functioning. In an attempt to address this issue, the current study examined adolescents' perceptions of autonomy and relatedness within parent, peer, and school contexts in relation to school functioning and psychological adjustment. Adolescents (N = 478) in Grades 8, 9, and 11 completed self-report questionnaires assessing feelings about their relationships with parents and peers, and perceptions of school. Teachers completed ratings of adolescents' strengths and competencies. Academic achievement was assessed using end of year school grades. Results revealed several significant gender and grade differences. Whereas girls reported greater deidealization of their parents and peers, and higher quality of attachment to peers than did boys, boys- reported being less dependent on their peers than did girls. Overall, adolescents in grade nine were more dependent on their peers and reported more trust and communication in their peer relationships than did adolescents in grade eight. Correlational results indicated that school functioning was positively associated with school autonomy, parental attachment, peer attachment and school belonging, and that problems in psychological adjustment were negatively associated with peer autonomy, school autonomy, parental attachment, peer attachment, school belonging, and positively associated with parental autonomy. Results of the multiple regression analyses indicated that autonomy and relatedness variables accounted for significant amounts of variance in GPA, teacher-rated school competencies, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Analyses also revealed variables which uniquely predicted areas of functioning across contexts and gender. This cross-sectional study provides new theoretical insights regarding relations of autonomy and relatedness to school functioning and psychological adjustment during adolescence across multiple contexts. The findings contribute to a more thorough understanding of the dimensions of autonomy and relatedness that may have important implications for educators and parents of adolescents for improving educational practice and for promoting school success and positive adjustment.