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The purposes of this study were: 1) to better understand the doctoral experience as participants described the meanings they gave to their experiences, and 2) to increase understanding about the ways in which the meanings attributed to their doctoral experiences enhance our understanding of doctoral persistence and attrition. The descriptions of the behavior of the selected doctoral students interviewed may help current and future doctoral students, university administrators, and faculty in the common goal of having more scholars complete their dissertations. This study contains rich descriptions of the experiences of nine purposively selected doctoral students in Adult, Higher, and Community Education at a Midwestern university who have completed their doctoral coursework and their comprehensive examinations. All participants were in the all but dissertation (ABD) status at the start of the study. Four participants graduated with the doctorate after the evidence was gathered for this study. One participant remains as an ABD in two doctoral programs. The two interviews with each of the nine participants were semi-structured. They generated evidence that answered the research questions, but also generated additional descriptions of behavior over the entire time period of the participants' doctoral programs. These additional descriptions provided a greater richness to this study.This research study was guided by several research questions. The primary question was:What behaviors filled the three years following the completion of the course requirements and comprehensive examinations for the doctoral degree other than completion of a dissertation? The secondary questions were:What decisions accompanied these behaviors? What rewards were gained by completing the course requirements? A systematic phenomenological analysis identified three major themes: 1) "The value of the doctorate program and degree", 2) "The doctoral experience", and 3) "Facilitators, barriers, and distracters". The three themes each had sub-themes.Six recommendations were provided for facilitating the completion of the doctoral degree. Each study participant is a highly successful individual. Each agreed that this doctoral program has been a tremendous help professionally and personally. None are to be considered failures even if they remain an ABD. / Department of Educational Studies

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 1997. / Includes vita. Bibliography: leaves 96-103.

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

This study examined the effects of a stress inoculation training program on self-reported Type A behaviour pattern (TABP) and irrational beliefs in a sample of female medical, dental, and graduate students. Thirteen female medical students from the first, second, and third years of medical school, one female dental student from the first year of dental school, and 16 female graduate student volunteers were assigned to a 6-week stress inoculation group (SI; n = 14) or a 4-hour brief treatment group (BT; n = 16) in a repeated measures (pre, post, 11-week follow-up) quasi-experimental design. Participants completed the Rational Behavior Inventory, the Irrational Beliefs Test, the Type A Irrational Beliefs Test, and the Framingham Type A Scale (modified) in order to assess treatment effects. Price's (1982) cognitive social learning model proposes that TABP is elicited and maintained, in part, by specific beliefs and the fears and anxieties that they engender. Following this model, it was hypothesized that self-reported TABP, irrational beliefs, and Type A irrational beliefs would significantly decrease, and rational behaviour, or general rational thinking, would significantly increase, from pre- to post-test and these changes would be maintained at 11-week follow-up in the SI group, compared with the BT group. Repeated measures MANOVAs with pre-planned contrasts indicated that SI was effective in significantly reducing TABP from pre-to post-test. Both SI and BT were effective in significantly decreasing irrational beliefs and Type A irrational beliefs, as well as significantly increasing rational behaviour, or general rational thinking, from pre to post-test. These changes were maintained at follow-up and provide further insight into the relationship between TABP and irrational beliefs. This study provides partial support for Price's model and implicates the use of stress inoculation training in the treatment of TABP in female medical, dental, and graduate students. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

While the literature on the experiences of women in academe generaly, is growing, the experiences of women student mothers in post-secondary education are rarely explored. Given the increasing number of women students enroling in university and the fact that the student population is aging, there is a greater likelihood of these students being mothers. A study of these women is timely and crucial to understanding their needs and chalenges within the university. The purpose of the research was to examine the experiences of doctoral student mothers living at the intersection of studenthood and motherhood as it was expected that the demands from the family and university would create specific chalenges. The study delineates the women's understanding of and the degree to which they accepted the dominant North American ideology of intensive mothering and the ideology of the good student. Further, the study sought to ascertain whether the student mothers experienced contradiction between the two ideologies similar to that experienced by the women in Hay's (1996) study of employed and stay-at-home mothers. The study utilizes the concept of the public/private dichotomy and the notions of greedy institutions and competing urgencies in its framework. The design consisted of in-depth semi-structured interviews with seventeen mothers at various stages in their doctoral programme. The women range in age from thirty-three to forty-seven and have at least one child, under age of thirteen, living with them full-time. Findings noted that the women were able to articulate the dominant definitions of the good mother and the good student but, for the most part, they rejected them. They preferred to be balanced both as mothers and as students, although almost all of them insisted their children were their first priority. The women experienced a contradiction between the two ideologies and, using the concept of ideological work developed by Berger (1981), their experiences were explored. The women engaged in ideological work to support their alternative definitions of the good mother and the good student. When they were not as able to sustain their ideological work they tended to revert to the dominant definitions.

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that may affect counseling psychology doctoral students' tendencies to seek professional psychological help for their personal problems. The study had the following specific goals: (a) to identify psychology students' reasons for seeking professional help, (b) to identify psychology students' reasons for hesitating to seek professional help, (c) to determine the incidence of personal distress among psychology students, (d) to determine the incidence of professional psychological help seeking, and (e) to begin to examine the impact that training environments have on the development of psychologists' attitudes toward seeking personal psychotherapy.The population of this study was doctoral students in APA-approved programs in Counseling Psychology during their internship phase of training. The sample consisted of 178 pre-doctoral interns. Students were mailed a survey developed by the researcher. The survey instrument consisted of questions about psychological problems experienced and the extent to which students had sought or would seek help for these problems. The survey also addressed students' perceptions about whether or not personal help seeking was advocated in their training programs and extent to which the topic of personal psychotherapy was included in their graduate curriculum.Data were analyzed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative procedures. Grounded theory analysis techniques, frequency distributions and multiple regression analyses were utilized.The study reveals that the decision to seek help is a complex one. While most students had sought or would be willing to seek help in the future, many would hesitate to do so. Conclusions drawn are that psychologists (in training) may prefer to turn to professional help as a last resort, and that there are barriers that prevent trainees from obtaining psychological services including finances, availability of therapists, and concerns about confidentiality. Trainees who have had positive experiences with therapy or who value it for personal or professional growth are more likely to seek help. Trainees who perceive that help seeking is normative among their peers are also more likely to seek help. The topic of "psychologists' seeking help for themselves" is not consistently addressed as a part of counseling psychologists' formal training. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This study examined the motivational orientations of 166 graduate students enrolled in distance education courses at a state university. Data were collected utilizing Boshier’s Education Participation Scale A-Form and analyses were completed for overall results, by gender and age, by academic program and by preferred method of distance course delivery. Additional analyses were performed comparing responses from the distance education students and 42 traditional students. The results of the study showed that professional advancement was the overwhelming motivational orientation for participation in education by these graduate students. The second highest rated motivation was reported as cognitive interest, and the motivational orientations rated as least influential were social contact and social stimulation. There were no differences resulting from gender, but the age group 22-30 rated cognitive interest and social contact as more influential than students in the age 31-44 age group and professional advancement significantly higher than in the 45-59 age group. Also, participants in the age group 45-59 rated social stimulation significantly higher than students aged 31-44. Students from academic programs in education, nursing and business were the principal respondents, and there were no significant differences found in their motivational orientations. However, the education students scored the motivational orientations, social contact and social stimulation, significantly lower than participants from the group, other, which consisted of students from nine different fields of study. Other findings revealed no differences in motivational orientations by students’ expressed preferred method of distance education delivery. Lastly, results showed that traditional students rated social contact, communication improvement, and educational preparation as more influential than distance education students. Findings from this study suggest that graduate students in both distance and traditional graduate programs participate in education primarily for professional and cognitive reasons. In addition, analyses revealed that differences in the seven motivational orientations were impacted by age, academic program, and student type. / Department of Educational Studies

The years spent studying towards a degree represent many challenges to the learner1. These pressures increase once that learner moves into the post-graduate level of professional study. Faced with the pressure of having to perform suitably in order to remain on the programme, the learner finds himself or herself under conditions which may present as stress or illness, depending upon the availability of coping resources and strategies. This study adopted a psychofortigenic2 approach and explored and described the coping (i.e., coping resources and sense of coherence) and subjective well-being (i.e., satisfaction with life, happiness and general psychiatric health) of post-graduate learners in the following six departments of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU): Psychology; Human Movement Science and Sport Management; Environmental Health and Social Development Professions (incorporating MA Health and Welfare Management); Pharmacy; Nursing Science; Biomedical Technology and Radiography. An exploratory descriptive research design was used and the participants were selected by means of non-probability, convenience sampling. The sample consisted of 60 male and female masters and doctoral post-graduate learners in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Biographical data was gathered by means of the administration of a questionnaire. Hammer and Marting’s (1988) Coping Resources Inventory was used to measure the students’ available coping resources. Furthermore, Antonovsky’s (1987) Orientation to Life Scale was used to measure the construct of Sense of Coherence. The Satisfaction with Life Scale by Diener, Emmons, Larson and Griffin (1985) was used to assess the respondents’ overall satisfaction with life. Kamman and Flett’s (1983) Affectometer-2 was used to measure participants’ subjective global happiness. The General Health Questionnaire of Goldberg and Williams (1988) was used to measure the psychiatric morbidity or general psychiatric health of the participants. The data was analyzed using both descriptive statistics and cluster analysis. A Hotellings T² was computed with subsequent t-tests to draw inferences about differences in the means of established groups across the five measures. The results indicated that the participants were generally coping and experiencing subjective well-being. The results indicated two clusters to significantly differ from one another across the five measures. The first cluster could be characterized as high in psychofortology and presented with better coping and subjective well-being. The second cluster could be characterized as low in psychofortology and presented with poorer coping and subjective well-being.

While the literature on the experiences of women in academe generaly, is growing, the experiences of women student mothers in post-secondary education are rarely explored. Given the increasing number of women students enroling in university and the fact that the student population is aging, there is a greater likelihood of these students being mothers. A study of these women is timely and crucial to understanding their needs and chalenges within the university. The purpose of the research was to examine the experiences of doctoral student mothers living at the intersection of studenthood and motherhood as it was expected that the demands from the family and university would create specific chalenges. The study delineates the women's understanding of and the degree to which they accepted the dominant North American ideology of intensive mothering and the ideology of the good student. Further, the study sought to ascertain whether the student mothers experienced contradiction between the two ideologies similar to that experienced by the women in Hay's (1996) study of employed and stay-at-home mothers. The study utilizes the concept of the public/private dichotomy and the notions of greedy institutions and competing urgencies in its framework. The design consisted of in-depth semi-structured interviews with seventeen mothers at various stages in their doctoral programme. The women range in age from thirty-three to forty-seven and have at least one child, under age of thirteen, living with them full-time. Findings noted that the women were able to articulate the dominant definitions of the good mother and the good student but, for the most part, they rejected them. They preferred to be balanced both as mothers and as students, although almost all of them insisted their children were their first priority. The women experienced a contradiction between the two ideologies and, using the concept of ideological work developed by Berger (1981), their experiences were explored. The women engaged in ideological work to support their alternative definitions of the good mother and the good student. When they were not as able to sustain their ideological work they tended to revert to the dominant definitions. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate