Perfectionism has been seen to predict treatment outcome and symptom severity in clinically relevant diagnoses such as depression and anxiety disorders. It has also been suggested to be a transdiagnostic phenomenon. The aim of this study was to investigate, for the first time, predictors of change in Internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy for perfectionism. The chosen predictors were perfectionism severity, comorbid diagnosis and degree of self-compassion. The study was a part of the Devin-project; a randomized controlled trial with 150 participants that were allocated to active treatment (N=73) or a waitlist condition (N=77). Multiple linear regression analysis was used for the analyses. Variables chosen a priori did not significantly predict the treatment outcome (R2=.10, p = .099). A post hoc-analysis showed that perfectionism severity, as measured with CPQ, predicted symptom change after treatment (B = .783, β = .56 p < .001). The results indicate that perfectionism severity doesn’t impair the treatment effects and that the treatment is effective, independent of comorbid diagnoses. Self-compassion was investigated on an explorative basis but the results can indicate that the variable is not a risk factor nor a protective factor for perfectionism. As Devin is the largest randomized controlled study of internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy for perfectionism to date, this study generates important implications and suggestions for future research. / Devin

The purpose of this study was to investigate the process of forgiveness and the relationship among state forgiveness, self-compassion, and psychological well-being experienced by Buddhists in the United States. An integral feminist framework was developed for this mixed-method study. For the quantitative component of this study, a convenience sample of 112 adults completed an online survey. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine: (a) the impact of gender, age, and the years spent in Buddhist practice on state forgiveness and self-compassion; (b) the outcome of psychological well-being in relation to state forgiveness and self-compassion; and (c) self-compassion as a mediator for the relationship between state forgiveness and psychological well-being. Quantitative results indicated: (a) state forgiveness positively predicted psychological well-being; (b) the years spent in Buddhist practice positively predicted self-compassion; (c) self-compassion positively predicted psychological well-being; and (d) self-compassion partially mediated the relationship between state forgiveness and psychological well-being. Age did not predict any of the three primary variables. Gender did not predict state forgiveness. For the qualitative component of this study, this researcher purposefully selected four adults from a local Buddhist community in central Kentucky and conducted two in-depth interviews to explore their subjective experiences of forgiveness within their own contexts. A holistic-content narrative analysis revealed unique features of each interviewee’s forgiveness process interwoven with the socio-cultural, family and relational contexts. From a phenomenological analysis, common themes and elements of the interviewees’ forgiveness processes emerged. Qualitative findings corresponded to the quantitative results concerning state forgiveness as a route to psychological well-being, the positive relationship between Buddhist practice and compassion, and the role of self-compassion in the relationship between state forgiveness and psychological well-being. Qualitative findings also suggested the following. First, two-way compassion toward self and the offender was a facilitating factor for forgiveness that may be unique to Buddhists. Second, one’s actual experience of forgiveness may encompass not only cognitive, affective, and behavioral changes, but also transformation of self and perspective on meaning and purpose in life. Third, Enright and his colleagues’ (1998) stage and process models of forgiveness were useful to understand Buddhists’ experiences and processes of forgiveness.

God expresses Himself with emotions. This is well attested in Scripture, with statements of love (1Jn 4:8), anger (Ex 4:14), and delight (Isa 62:4). But the real question is not whether God has emotions, but what is the source of those emotions. If God emotes in the context of our suffering, and our suffering is not abated, does this mean that God is impotent or indifferent? Both possibilities yield a frightening conclusion. Rightly understanding the character and nature of God in this regard is paramount. For the past two thousand years, the prevailing doctrine was that God was in some way impassible, in that He is without passions or emotions with respect to his creation. This means that God does not change his feelings or thoughts about events on the earth. Even though certain passages called the “divine repentance” passages in the Old Testament (Ge 6:6-7; Ex 32:12-14; 1Sa 15:11, 35; Nu 23:19) appeared to contradict God’s impassibility, this was solved through the idea of anthropopathism, that is, the belief that God describes Himself with emotional terms. Prior to 1930, most of the English Bible renderings of the divine repentance passages preferred the word “repent,” because the prevailing theology was rooted in the impassibility of God, and these passages were deemed to be anthropopathic. But with the doctrine of God’s impassibility now in question, English Bible translations began to reflect the view that God actually reacts to our suffering with strong emotion. Words such as “sorry,” “grief,” “regret,” and even “changed his mind” were now used to describe the reaction of God whenever God appeared to be disappointed with his creation, or worse, if He was disappointed with his own plan. The purpose of this study is to provide an exegetical solution to the problem of God’s response in the divine repentance passages in four Old Testament historical texts. These passages are labelled as such because of the use of the Hebrew verb ~xn which describe God as “sorry” or “repenting.” For those who hold to God’s full immutability, the preferred view through the ages was that the Hebrew ~xn was to be taken as anthropopathically. This study will want to explore the possibilities of an alternative view for the Hebrew ~xn in the divine repentance passages which allow for God’s passibility while holding to his full immutability. Specifically, this study not only strives to answer the question “Does God repent?”, but through a sound methodology also wants to answer the larger question of the source of God’s emotion when his judgment or grace is in view. The methodology followed in this study is two-fold. First, it is biblical-theological, meaning that it utilises a whole-Bible theology, and following the work of Walter Kaiser and James Hamilton, posits that the Old Testament contains a theme or centre of grace within judgment. At the Fall in Ge 3, God simultaneously introduced judgment and grace into the world. That judgment and grace has never left. As one looks through the Bible, these are the two unbroken strands that weave their way through every chapter and every book. In addition, this study is also an exegetical study, and follows the grammaticalhistorical- lexical-syntactical methodology of Walter Kaiser. God disclosed Himself objectively through the words of a book. This book records actual historical events, as well as specific declarations and commands from God Himself. It is necessary that the words of this book be correctly understood in their context so that a correct understanding of God will result. Using this methodology, this study will explore the meaning of God’s ~xn in each divine repentance passage. The lexical study will be combined with the biblical-theological approach of a theme or centre of “grace within judgment” that flows through the Old Testament. Because of this, is it possible that God, who is fully immutable, provide us everything that we need to navigate a world of sin, suffering and uncertainty? The answer could very well be in the understanding of God’s ~xn in light of our suffering and sin. / PhD (Old Testament), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

No description available.

Some sections of the appendices are not available in the electronic copy of this thesis due to their format. The full version is available for consultation at the University of Leicester Library.

In this dissertation I engage in life writing and literary métissage (Chambers, Hasebe-Ludt, Leggo, & Sinner, 2012; Hasebe-Ludt, Chambers, & Leggo, 2009) to explore and exemplify mindful, aesthetic, and compassionate practices for working through moments of crisis (Kumashiro, 2010) in teaching and learning. The dissertation is designed as a four-strand braid and organized around the active verb “practising” to dig deep into the dynamic, and often difficult, processes of teaching and learning: (1) Practising Vulnerability; (2) Practising Discomfort; (3) Practising Mindfulness; and (4) Practising Compassion. Each strand is composed of different genres of life writing: theoretical and analytical introductions, letter writing, journal pieces, comics, photos, poetry, creative non-fiction, collages, scenes from a play, and an alphabet book. The multimodal life writing pieces are worked examples (Gee, 2010) of contemplative practices and pedagogical praxis. Life writing offers concrete ways to practise mindfulness, reflection, and reflexivity, which, in turn, invite a more awakened, critical, and compassionate stance as an educator. If teachers want to move beyond simply promoting the importance of reflective practice, wellbeing, self-actualization, and compassion to their students then we need to show more teachers (and teacher educators) the messy process of doing so themselves. Reading life writing is a starting point for teachers at all stages in their careers to imagine how they could, or already do, engage in similar processes and invite them to cultivate compassion and self-compassion as a grounding stance for their life projects as teachers, learners, and human beings. My autoethnographic teacher inquiry (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) was prompted when I encountered “troubling” (Kumashiro, 2009) tensions when first teaching about homophobia and transphobia to teacher education students at a faculty of education on the Canadian prairies. I began to explore the vulnerability and discomfort of this teaching moment from an experimental (Davies, 2011), multimodal (Kress & Street, 2006; Pahl & Roswell, 2006), critical literacy stance (Janks, 2010; Vasquez, Tate, & Harste, 2013). My inquiry shifted after a diagnosis of breast cancer, which became an opportunity for me to awaken to more mindful, empathetic, and compassionate ways of being, living, teaching, and researching. / February 2017

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Den aktuella studien syftade till att undersöka sambandet mellan självmedkänsla ochgenerell, upplevd stress hos svenska ungdomar, 15-19 år. Förutom att undersökaovanstående fråga undersöktes även hur väl självmedkänsla predicerade generell,upplevd stress i samma stickprov, när effekten av ålder och kön kontrollerades för.Studiens deltagare bestod av 226 ungdomar studerande vid högstadie- ellergymnasieskola i södra Sverige och data samlades in via Self-Compassion Scale ShortForm (SCS-SF) och Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14) och i klassrumsmiljö. Resultatetvisade en signifikant, negativ korrelation mellan självmedkänsla och generell, upplevdstress. Självmedkänsla var också en signifikant prediktor för stress, efter det att effektenav ålder och kön hade kontrollerats för, och förklarade ensam 29,3 % av variansen istress. Detta resultat indikerar att självmedkänsla kan komma att spela en viktig roll iden fortsatta utvecklingen av förebyggande och stressreducerande behandlingar. / The current study aimed at exploring the correlation between self-compassion andgeneral, perceived stress among Swedish adolescents, age 15-19 years. Furthermore, theextent to which self-compassion predicted general perceived stress, when controlling forthe effect of age and gender, was explored. The participants of the study consisted of226 adolescents attending the Swedish equivalent to high-school (year 9-12) in southernSweden, and data was collected with Self-Compassion Scale Short Form (SCS-SF) andPerceived Stress Scale (PSS-14) in classroom settings. Results showed a significant,negative correlation between self-compassion and general, perceived stress. Selfcompassionremained a significant predictor for stress, after controlling for the effect ofage and gender, and uniquely explained 29,3 % of the variance in stress. This resultindicates that self-compassion may be useful in the future development of preventionand stress-reducing treatments.

The aim of our study was to examine war pictures rewarded by the prominent foundation World Press Photo. Direct and indirect the foundation displays pictures to Western audience, pictures that are considered prestigious and current by the foundation itself. The image of World Press Photo and the editorial staff behind the organization therefore reflect how the West perceives current events in the world. Hereby, knowingly and unknowingly the foundation contributes to construct and reproduce everlasting pictures of important events. By examining how pictures are constructed and to ascertain what resemblances and differences that pictures of the Vietnam War as well as modern wars and conflicts contain, we consequently investigated eight war pictures awarded by the foundation World Press Photo. Our findings indicate that these war pictures offer emotional aspects like compassion and suffering. In addition, several photos provide notion of a postcolonial perspective of us and them. Our results also display that the awarded war pictures.

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences, symptoms, and effects of compassion fatigue among emergency nurses, and to identify potentially effective interventions. Compassion fatigue within the profession of nursing is of growing concern due to its negative impact on nurses' mental and physical health, productivity, and patient care. There is a notable paucity of available qualitative research related to compassion fatigue in nursing, but available quantitative data indicates that emergency nurses could be especially at risk for developing compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is commonly conceptualized as being composed of burnout and secondary traumatic stress; however, previous exploratory research indicated that this definition might not adequately fit emergency nurses. Focus group interviews were conducted with emergency department nurses from four local hospitals. The participants were asked about their experiences, symptoms, and perceptions of the effects of compassion fatigue, and about potentially effective interventions to address compassion fatigue within their work setting. A content analysis of the interview data was performed to identify categories, common threads and patterns, and related themes. Although the participants' average length of time working in the emergency setting was less than two years, they all reported having intense experiences related to professional burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and the negative effects of compassion fatigue. The development of compassion fatigue was contributed to both organizational (time pressure and lack of resources and leadership support) and patient (clinical uncertainty, reason for seeing care, and witnessing grief) factors. The main symptoms of compassion fatigue were exhaustion, impaired communication, decreased emotional tolerance, coping with dark humor, and detachment/dissociation. These symptoms affected the participants both at work and home. The suggested potential interventions comprised of self-care activities, debriefing with clinical staff, continuing education, and increasing awareness about compassion fatigue in the work setting. The data from this qualitative descriptive study expands our knowledge of the concept and ramifications of compassion fatigue in nursing, specifically in the emergency setting. It also offers potentially effective interventions to prevent and address the negative effects of compassion fatigue.