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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Counseling and Educational Psychology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: B, page: 0549. Adviser: Charles R. Ridley. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 22, 2007)."

Belief in parapsychological/paranormal phenomena is widespread in the American public (Gallup & Newport, 1991). Messer and Griggs (1989) reported that misinformation through the media, including uncritical reports of events and pseudodocumentaries about paranormal phenomena, is a possible reason for the substantial belief in the paranormal evidenced by the American public. The realm of the parapsychological is a particularly important area of research, especially to those who teach psychology. Messer and Griggs (1989) provided evidence that the prevalence of belief in the paranormal was also rather extensive in a sample of college students. Belief and involvement in certain paranormal phenomenon has been correlated with lower grades in an introductory psychology class (Messer & Griggs, 1989). Furthermore, Singer and Benassi (1981) proposed that the level of paranormal belief in the general public should be used as an index of social dislocation and of the inadequacy of the U.S.'s program of science education. Since discussions of the parapsychological/paranormal are most likely to occur in psychology classes, it is important that teachers have methods that they can employ to help their students become skeptical consumers of paranormal claims. Previous researchers have demonstrated that skepticism of paranormal claims can be increased among traditional and nontraditional college samples; however, they did so using elaborate or time consuming procedures (Banziger, 1983; Morris, 1981). This study was designed to examine the effects of exposure to skeptical inquiry on the paranormal beliefs of college students. The researcher assessed the effectiveness of a short video presentation, depicting skeptical explanations of certain paranormal phenomena, on increasing students' skepticism towards claims of the paranormal. Eighty-seven students from various psychology courses served as the participants. Five days prior to their viewing of the video, students were required to complete a series of questionnaires including the Anomalous Experience Inventory (AEI), the Paranormal Belief Scale (PBS), and a General Questionnaire (GQ). Since the AEI and the PBS were found to significantly correlate, the participants were initially classified as believers or skeptics based on their responses to the AEI. After viewing the video, the participants were again asked to complete the AEI and the PBS. Paired t-tests were employed to analyze the pre and posttest PBS scores of the believers and skeptics to determine the effects of exposure to the video. Analysis of the data revealed that the video was effective in increasing skepticism of paranormal phenomena among those initially classified as believers.

<p>The primary goal of this study was to test the role of social determinants, including race/ethnicity, household income, and parent education in predicting child mental health services utilization. Given previously established racial/ethnic disparities in utilization of health care, we were also interested in whether parents perceived barriers to using service differed by service type (medical vs. mental health care) and whether there were racial/ethnic differences in parents' perceived barriers, attitudes about child mental health services. Lastly, we tested whether parents' perceived barriers, attitudes about child mental health services, and insurance status mediated the relationship between social determinants and child mental health service utilization. Participants were a community sample 275 parents (34.2% African American, 36.7% Caucasian, and 29.1% Hispanic) of children ages 9 - 13 years old. Parents were given measures assessing their utilization of child mental health services, beliefs about child mental health services, and perceived barriers to obtaining mental health and medical services. </p><p>Results indicated that minority parents were not less likely than Caucasian parents to seek child mental health services when controlling for parent education, household income, and child problems. Hispanic parents reported barriers as more inhibiting than did African American parents and parents overall reported greater barriers to obtaining mental health services. We found moderate support for insurance status as a mediator between being Hispanic and mental health service utilization. Parent education overall seemed to be an important predictor of child mental health services utilization; parent education predicted parents' reports of stigma and stigma was negatively associated with child mental health service utilization. Potential implications these findings might have for policy and practitioners and directions for future research are discussed. Specifically it may be important to strengthen trust of mental health care providers, increase cultural sensitivity and awareness of parents' attitudes for practitioners, and educate parents about health insurance options and about mental health and mental health care in general.</p> / Dissertation

An exploration of the experience of vicarious traumatization among clincial psychology graduate students in training