The purpose of this study was to test the relationship among sense of humor and three constructs: stress, humor as a coping mechanism, and communication apprehension. The participants were 352 midwestern university students. Respondents answered Likert type scales regarding the constructs.Pearson's correlations were computed to test the hypotheses and research questions. The results show significant, though not strong, relationships among all variables regarding sense of humor: stress, humor as a coping mechanism, and communication apprehension. The relationships between sense of humor and the two constructs, stress and communication apprehension, are unexpectedly positive. There are nonsignificant results between communication apprehension and stress.Since the results between sense of humor and stress are contrary to previous research and this is an original test between sense of humor and communication apprehension,further research is indicated. Future reliability and validity checks on the instrument are necessary. / Department of Speech Communication

This study is an investigation of how people’s attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help are related to how they typically cope with stressors and by their general self-efficacy – a relationship that has not been examined in prior research. Participants were 754 men and women students in a mid-sized Midwestern university. Students completed an online survey that included the Brief COPE, Beliefs About Psychological Services scale, and New General Self-Efficacy scale. Results revealed that higher general self-efficacy and coping by means of Use of Emotional Support, Use of Instrumental Support, and Venting were associated with more positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help; and that lower self-efficacy and coping by means of Denial, Substance Use, Behavioral Disengagement, and Self-Blame were associated with less positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

There is no abstract available for this thesis. / Fisher Institute for Wellness

The purpose of the present study was to continue the development of the Children's Life Situation Scale, in an attempt to create a scale which answered some of the methodological and statistical problems with existing scales and to establish psychometric evidence for its use. The participants were 210 fifth, sixth and seventh graders. Respondents were primarily from the middle class with approximately equal numbers of males (n=105) and females (n=106).The following research questions were addressed: 1. How well do individual items relate to a central concept and what is the internal consistency of the scale?2. What is the internal factor structure of the scale? 3. What is the criterion related validity of the scale in relation to the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992)? 4. Do positive events affect outcome measures in a different way than do negatively stressful events?Results of reliability analysis suggested that the scale was highly internally consistent, and that all items equally related to the central concept of stress. However, Principal Axis Factoring revealed two factors which were conceptualized as "Life Events," and "Daily Hassles." When the total stress score as well as individual factor scores were correlated with the BASC, they were found to correlate significantly with all subscales, with the strongest correlations involving scales of an internalizing nature such as depression. The "Daily Hassles" factor was found to correlate most strongly with students' reports of psychological distress. Not only do the results support the use of the present scale as a reliable and valid measure of stress in children, results support the conceptualization of stress as involving two components, both "Life Events" and "Daily Hassles." / Department of Educational Psychology

Studies on the effects of marital conflict and child adjustment have documented a consistent relationship between higher amounts of marital conflict and increased child adjustment problems. Recently, researchers have focused on viewing children's perceptions of marital conflict as an important variable that may influence the strength of the association between marital conflict and child adjustment. Recent research has indicated that children's perceptions of interparental conflict may influence overall child adjustment. The present study examined the relationship between marital conflict and child adjustment and the role of children's perceptions of marital conflict in a clinical sample.Forty-four 8- to 12-year-old children and one of their parents participated in this study. Adult participants completed four questionnaires: (1) The O'Leary- Porter Scale; (2) The Conflict Tactics Scale; (3) The Child Behavior Checklist; and (4) a demographic questionnaire. The child participants completed one scale, The Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale. The following research questions were investigated: (1) Is parental assessment of marital conflict related to child adjustment in a clinical sample? (2) Are children's appraisals of marital conflict related to child adjustment in a clinical sample? (3) Are boys' appraisals of interparental conflict related to the parents' appraisals of interparental conflict in a clinical sample? (4) Are girls' appraisals of interparental conflict related to the parents' appraisals of interparental conflict in a clinical sample? And (5) Are children's perceptions of marital conflict better predictors of child adjustment than parents' perceptions of marital conflict in a clinical sample?A significant relationship was found between parents' perceptions of marital conflict and child adjustment. However, children's perceptions of marital conflict did not significantly predict their overall adjustment. In accordance with these findings, it was also found that parents' perceptions of marital conflict were better predictors of child adjustment than children's perceptions of marital conflict in a clinical sample. It was also found that boys' appraisals of marital conflict were significantly related to parents' appraisals of marital conflict. Whereas, girls' perceptions of marital conflict were not significantly related to parents' perceptions of marital conflict. Implications and limitations of these findings and recommendations for future research were discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The validity of the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) for use with adolescents was investigated. Also, a path model of blood pressure based on the cognitive social learning theory was tested using sets of biological (i.e., family history of hypertension and age), psychological (i.e., public self-consciousness, private self-consciousness, suppressed anger and outwardly expressed anger), and lifestyle (i.e., relative weight and smoking) variables.Subjects were 169 female and 124 male adolescents from the southeastern United States. Parents provided information about the subjects' family history of hypertension and health. Subjects completed the SCS and Anger Expression Scale and a health questionnaire. Subjects' blood pressures, weights, and heights were assessed. Data from all subjects were used for the SCS analyses. Data from 36 subjects who reportedly had health problems or used drugs with cardiovascular effects were excluded from the path model analyses.The SCS data were factor analyzed. Based on the initial analysis, four items were excluded from the data. The subsequent factor analysis suggested that the SCS is a valid measure of the dimensions of self-consciousness in adolescents. Test-retest reliabilities and internal consistencies of the SCS showed reasonable reliability. Comparisons of the SCS scores between college students and adolescents and between female and male adolescents were made.The path model was tested separately for males and females on both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), using hierarchical multiple regression analyses of sets. Although the variables collectively explained a significant amount of variance in DBP and SBP for both sexes, few had significant direct and total effects on DBP and SBP, and none had indirect effects on DBP or SBP. Sex differences emerged in the variables' effects on DBP and SBP and the variables' effects on other variables. DBP and SBP increased as relative weight increased for both sexes. No other variables influenced SBP or DBP for males or SBP for females. Females with a positive family history of hypertension had higher DBPs. Females' DBPs decreased as private self-consciousness increased. The implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Graduate student couples were surveyed to determine what effects their sex, graduate status, or level of marital satisfaction had on their attributions of stability, controllability, and locus of causality. There were 242 participants. Of the total, 93 couples returned questionnaires. An additional 56 individuals returned questionnaires without their spouses. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale was utilized to determine each participant's level of marital satisfaction, and the Causal Dimension Scale was used to measure their attributions about their marital satisfaction. Two research designs were developed to organize the data for analysis. The first ANOVA focused on couple dyads, while the second included all participants who returned questionnaires.In the analysis for design one, there was no support for the first hypothesis which stated that graduate students compared to non-graduate students will differ in the type of attributions they report. Support was found, however, for the second hypothesis which stated that satisfied and dissatisfied couples will differ in the type of attributions they report. Partial support was also discovered for the third hypothesis which stated that husbands will differ from wives in the locus of causality, stability, and controllability of their attributions. A significant effect was found for only the attributions of stability and controllability. There was no effect found for locus of causality. Husbands whose wives were satisfied reported more stable and more controllable attributions for their satisfaction than did husbands who were dissatisfied regardless of their wives' level of satisfaction. Wives who were satisfied and married to satisfied husbands along with dissatisfied wives married to satisfied husbands reported more controllable attributions than did wives who were married to dissatisfied husbands. Also, wives who were satisfied and married to either satisfied or dissatisfied husbands made more stable attributions than dissatisfied wives married to dissatisfied husbands.In design two, an ANOVA was conducted to investigate the following hypotheses: (4) Males will vary from females in locus, stability, and controllability attributions; (5) Satisfied and dissatisfied spouses will differ in locus, stability, and controllability attributions; and (6) Graduate students as compared to non-graduate students will differ in locus, stability, and controllability attributions.No support was obtained for the fourth hypothesis. Results did confirm, however, the fifth hypothesis. Satisfied individuals made more stable, controllable, and internal attributions about their marital satisfaction than did dissatisfied individuals. Also, partial support was found for the sixth hypothesis but only for the attribution of locus of causality. Male graduate students as compared to female graduate students made more internal attributions. Additionally, male non-graduate students made more internal attributions as compared to female graduate students.All of these results are discussed in relation to previous research on marital satisfaction and causal attributions. Implications for counseling graduate student couples are also mentioned as are methodological limitations of the current project. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The purpose of this study is to examine whether a typology of narcissism can be identified through various statistical analyses, specifically cluster analysis. Furthermore, this study attempted to further delineate whether claims of a dual nature of narcissism are well founded and to examine the mental health implications of "positive illusions." Subjects were 251 college students at a large Midwest University. The mean age of the participants was 21 years. Self-report measures of narcissism, positive illusions, and mental health were administered in counterbalanced order. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis and cluster analysis to examine the relationship between narcissism, positive illusions and mental health. A moderate amount of narcissism was positively related to mental health and adjustment. Furthermore, participants high and low in narcissism correlated with poorer mental health and adjustment. Positive illusions were related to mental health, except for in groups high in narcissism. Indeed, there appears to be an optimal level of illusions, which are beneficial for mental health. The relationship between narcissism and positive illusions should continue to be explored. / Department of Educational Psychology

Stress is a construct that has received a great deal of attention in both the scientific and popular literature. particular type of job related stress experienced by human service professionals is burnout. If effective coping strategies to minimize or avoid burnout are present, one's job can remain interesting and challenging. However, if coping strategies are ineffective or absent, the consequences can negatively affect job performance and satisfaction. This study used the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, and a demographic questionnaire to assess perceived burnout, the relative utilization of three coping styles (Task, Emotion, and Avoidance), and general background information, respectively, among 163 nurses in a 600+ bed midwestern, urban hospital. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between these three coping styles and the perception of burnout. The results showed no significant differences in burnout for any of the demographic variables studied. However, there were significant differences in burnout among the 14 hospital units evaluated. In addition when specific demographic variables and unit of primary assignment were controlled statistically, those nurses who utilized more emotion oriented coping styles reported the highest amount of burnout. There were no unit by coping style interactions found. Finally, suggestions for future research and recommedations for trainers and employers of nurses are provided. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Religious coping is used to describe how individuals use their religion and religious beliefs to help them cope with difficult situations. Researchers have investigated the role of religious coping in those with cancer; however, little research has been completed with long-term survivors of cancer. Additionally, little research has been completed regarding religious coping and long-term survivorship using advanced statistical analyses. This investigation sought to clarify the role of religious coping in long-term survivors of cancer and their quality of life. Using structural equation modeling, religious coping was tested as both a mediator and a moderator of quality of life. The study used a sample of 213 participants who were long-term survivors of cancer. The participants completed mail surveys assessing demographic variables, quality of life, and religious coping. Despite poor model fit, religious coping was a mediator in the relationship between demographic variables and quality of life. In the mediation model, both age and sex predicted religious coping. In the moderation model, the only significant path was between religious coping and quality of life. Results of the study indicate that religious coping acts as a mediator in the relationship between demographic variables and quality of life. Religious coping influences quality of lifeand may be beneficial to explore when working with long-term survivors of cancer. These findings enhance the clinical perspective of religious coping and have important ramifications on psychotherapeutic interventions for working with survivors of cancer. Psychologists who work with survivors of cancer should consider and respect the role religious coping has on the survivor. Future research must continue to explore the pathways through which religious coping operates. More work must be done with long-term survivors of cancer and with ethnically diverse populations. Researchers must continue to use advanced statistics to study these complex relationships instead of relying on simple count and frequency data that only measure if religious coping is present. As the world of psycho-oncology continues to grow, so must the understanding of the variables involved in healthy and happy survivorship / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services