According to theories of social cognition, individuals screen incoming information from the environment using certain cognitive constructs (Wyer & Srull, 1986). Personally relevant construct systems develop from an individuals's particular history of social interactions (Wyer & Srull, 1986). A concern in social cognition theory is whether there are cognitive processes specific to different complaints (Beck & Emery, 1985). This study investigated whether the content of chronically accessible or salient constructs interpersonal constructs could differentiate individuals with social fears from those with different emotional complaints. The accessibility and salience of social constructs of social phobics, agoraphobics, and normal subjects were examined. No differences were found between the groups on an unstructured measure of construct accessibility. Group differences did emerge on a structured task reflecting salience of specific traits. Individuals with agoraphobia reported that they would be more attentive to the dimensions supportive-critical and enabling-bossy. This is consistent with current conceptualizations of agoraphobics as individuals who do not feel they can cope with the dangers of the outside world, and are compelled to seek help from a 'caregiver' (Beck & Emery, 1985). Social phobics reported that they would not be particularly attentive to any of the traits. This may be a result of socially phobic individuals self-focused attention. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This study investigated whether the addition of covert modeling with an assertive model (CM) and of covert assertiveness (CA) would augment the effects of prolonged group exposure in vivo in the treatment of agoraphobia. Thirty-two agoraphobic subjects were divided into three groups. One group (FL/A) received exposure augmented with CM and CA; the second group (FL) received similar exposure with placebo imagery; and the third group served as waiting-list controls. Therapy was brief, time-limited, and intensive. Each group of about five members met for three sessions evenly spaced over five days with each five-hour session including about 2-1/2 hours of in vivo exposure. Both treatment groups were encouraged to use self-paced, home-based exposure practice. Subjective self-report measures, a behavioural diary, and assessment of social performance by a significant other were used to evaluate outcome. A one month follow-up was done. Both treated groups made significant gains compared to controls at posttreatment and at follow-up. Subjective measures of anxiety and avoidance showed stronger effects than behavioural results. Marginal differences were found between treated groups with the FL/A group improving on the FL group with more total time spent away from home (and in particular when unaccompanied), and with decreased anxiety during exposure sessions. Group exposure in vivo is recommended as an efficient and effective therapy for agoraphobia. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis examines the phenomenology and significance of agoraphobia for its mostly women sufferers, principally by means of in-depth individual and group interviews. It argues that agoraphobia, typically characterised by fear and avoidance of social spaces, can be usefully conceptualised in terms of a 'crisis' in the boundaries of the embodied self. That is to say, the disorder radically problematizes the distinction individuals 'normally' experience between 'inner' self and 'outer' space, initiating a profound sense of exposure and insecurity in the face of many social situations. In response, sufferers retreat from the social sphere to the seclusion of their homes, whose walls serve to reinforce their weakened and fragile boundaries. The initial impetus behind this project stems from the fact that, while there has been no shortage of clinical research conducted on agoraphobia, it has received very little attention outside bio-medical and psychological contexts. Chapter l reviews relevant bodies of literature and highlights some of the gaps the project seeks to address. Chapter 2 offers a detailed account of the research design, and the ways in which data were generated and analysed, while chapter 3 offers reflections on what was found to be the 'processual' nature of qualitative research. In each of the five substantive chapters that remain, the thesis interweaves experiential accounts with existential problematics, and presents a general movement from concerns with theory to therapy. It also follows the unfolding development of the existential and phenomenological tradition. Chapter 4 links the more esoteric and subjectivist existentialism of Kierkegaard with experiential accounts of consumption, and chapter 5 explores the socially grounded work of Sartre in relation to sufferers' accounts of extreme discomfort in the public eye. Chapters 6 and 7 utilise the explicitly spatial, embodied, and inter-subjective account of existentialism presented by Merleau-Ponty to present first, a case study, and second, an analysis of sufferers' accounts of pregnancy. In this way the thesis ii also moves from abstract philosophical arguments about the human condition per se to a more nuanced feminist geography capable of accounting for the diversity of experiences of agoraphobia and its gendered relations to pa11icular times and places. In its final chapter, the thesis turns to an explicit discussion of treatment, and critiques the unacknowledged predominance of and reliance on masculinist Cartesian conceptions of selfhood within self-help resources, questioning what treatment based on models of embodied subjectivity more inclusive of unusual spatial relations might look like. In its conclusion, the thesis suggests that by taking account of personal narratives of agoraphobia, and of its wider social contexts and relations, a sensitive, sympathetic and fully spatialised account of the disorder more faithful to the way sufferers actually describe their experiences can be offered.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1992. / Bibliography: leaves 126-143.

The number of reported students with psychiatric disabilities who are seeking services and/or accommodations is steadily increasing on college campuses. Much of the research and documentation that surround the study of college students with psychiatric disorders is extremely broad in focus and tends to group all psychiatric diagnoses together when reporting outcome studies. The research literature that is devoted to the study of the college student diagnoses with Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia is limited in scope and nature. The majority of the literature is devoted to the physiological and behavioral ramifications of the disorder or treatment modalities. a review of the extant literature reveals that there is no substantive research available that provides insight into the college experiences of the student diagnoses with Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia. In summary, it is safe to say that there is not enough pertinent information readily available to enlighten college and university faculty and staff about the experiences of college students diagnosed with Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia. specifically, little is known about: (1) the academic, psychosocial, and environmental needs of these students (2) what disability related barriers these student may have experienced (3) what coping mechanisms are typically employed, and (4) what services and accommodations these students have found to be the most effective while they were enrolled in college. The purpose of this study was to examine the nature and the scope of the college experiences of students who were diagnosed with Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia. The subjects for this study consisted of a select group of upperclassmen at Virginia Tech. Gender or age was not a factor in the selection process. For purposes of this study, the qualitative in-depth interview method was considered the most appropriate form of data collection. Analysis of the data revealed the following common experiences among the subjects in the study: (1) All subjects experienced difficulties in the classroom due to their Panic Disorder. (2) All of the subjects had concerns with the physical setting of the campus (i.e. preferential seating, avoidance of large classrooms and auditoriums, and anxiety-like symptoms as the result of bright or fluorescent lighting). (3) A lack of social contacts both in and out of the classroom was a common experience. (4) While all subjects had tried medication to control their Panic Disorder, two of the subjects stopped their medication even though they reported an improvement I their symptoms. The majority of the subjects stated that they did not want to remain on the medication for fear of addiction or using the medication as a "crutch." (5) All of the subjects sought out counseling while attending Virginia Tech. All of the subjects, with the exception of one, did not seek any treatment for their anxiety of Panic Attacks until after they arrived at Virginia Tech. (6) All of the subjects, with the exception of one suffered with either chronic anxiety, or Panic Attacks for over one year before seeking any medical relief or counseling. (7) All of the subjects reported that counseling was helpful and for the most part, they all tried to use relaxation techniques when experiencing a Panic Attack. (8) All of the subjects are still having difficulty with chronic anticipatory anxiety and occasional Panic Attacks. (9) While the majority of the subjects interviewed were optimistic about their career options, it was evident that all of the subjects have encountered significant anxiety-related barriers that have impacted their choice of major and possible future jobs. the majority of the subjects reported that it was important to have a job where the workload was not too stressful and the workplace was viewed as a "safe" environment. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-56). Online version available on World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-101).

True Selves: Narrative Distance in Stories of Fiction and Nonfiction consists of a scholarly preface and four creative works. The preface discusses narrative distance as used in both fiction and nonfiction, and as compares to other narrative agents such as point of view, especially in contemporary creative writing. The selection of stories examines relationships, especially familial, and themes of isolation, community, and memory. Collection includes two chapters of a novel-in-progress, Fences, short fiction story "Trees and Furniture," and creative nonfiction essays, "Floating" and "On the Sparrow."

It is not uncommon to hear people speak of their worlds coming undone during traumatic events of existential crisis or catastrophe. Yet, human geographers have largely neglected to attend to the phenomenal nature of this unbounded sense of 'unworlding' disintegration, as well as the wild material forces, agencies and passions at loose in the world that carry the unlimited potential to wreck the integrity of our worlds. This dissertation dedicates itself to critically thinking through the human experience of suffering to live through, confront and respond to unworlding disasters of sense that are materially capable of disrupting the functional and relational composition of our worlds. More concretely, in this dissertation I explore unworlding disasters of sense through the specific experiences of agoraphobic sufferers. While social scientists, including human geographers, have long been interested in what is sociologically, spatially and clinically exceptional about agoraphobia as a static predicament of being spatially bounded due to fear of public space, little to no consideration has been given to how agoraphobia primitively and phenomenally manifests itself as an eventful disordering of sense that unsettles not just one's situated place in the world, but the entire relational order of the world itself. By critically attending to agoraphobia as an eventful disordering of sense that improperly deforms the structure of a human world, I seek to develop new ways to account for affective disasters of unworlding that carry the potential to overturn a proper sense of the world. Furthermore, I also speculate on the finite human ability to affirmatively respond to, make sense of, and impose limits on unworlding disasters that exceed one's subjective ability to grasp, yet improperly and materially affect the entire scope of one's lifeworld. In terms of its greater contribution to the discipline of geography, in this dissertation I strive to develop new understandings about the human condition of being in an eventful, material world that infinitely exceeds our ability to subjectively control or understand. By doing so, this dissertation aims to reaffirm the humanistic perspective as a theoretically valid and ethically critical way of practicing geography after the non-representational turn. / text