<p> There is a limited amount of research in psychology regarding the impact of money on the therapeutic relationship. Although some research regarding clients&rsquo; transference vis-&agrave;- vis money exists, clinicians&rsquo; countertransference concerning money has been largely ignored. As money and discussion of fees often generate negative countertransference for clinicians, it is likely that this material will not be addressed in the clinicians&rsquo; personal work, and therefore it risks being harmful to the therapy process. The author&rsquo;s goal is to demystify the subject of money in the clinical setting and make it easier for clinicians to discuss money, fees, and the financial aspects of therapy with their clients, while minimizing the harmful impacts of therapists&rsquo; countertransference on the therapeutic frame. Using heuristic and hermeneutic methodologies, the author uses his own experiences as a nascent therapist to illustrate some ways for clinicians to address and minimize the negative impact of their money issues on their work. </p>

<p> The present study investigated the impact of intensity of Facebook use, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance on relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and self-esteem as perceived by individuals within heterosexual couples. One hundred and thirty-nine members of the social networking site, Facebook, who were currently involved in an exclusive, heterosexual relationship with a partner who was also a member of Facebook, completed an online survey in order to be included in the study. Results indicated that intensity of Facebook use was a significant predicator of sexual satisfaction, but did not significantly predict relationship satisfaction or self-esteem. In addition and consistent with previous literature, the current study found that attachment avoidance was a significant predictor of relationship satisfaction and attachment anxiety significantly predicted self-esteem. Given the lack of research in the area of Facebook use, the results from this study offer a platform for future researchers to investigate the complexities of the social networking site on face-to-face relationships.</p>

<p> The transcendent experience is a phenomenon that has long been studied and explored. First providing analysis of its researched content, triggers, and potential meaning, this thesis presents an alternative approach that examines the extent to which the transcendent experience is actually the invocation of an individual&rsquo;s unconscious. The author presents <i> aerobic green exercise,</i> or aerobic exercise within nature and the natural world, as a potential trigger for the transcendent experience, and investigates the concept of the runner&rsquo;s high as an expression of the transcendent experience. Through the author&rsquo;s personal examination, the methods of focusing and active imagination are presented as possible psychotherapeutic tools for clinical application. Using alchemical hermeneutics and heuristic methodologies, this thesis explores how aerobic green exercise might initiate a transcendent experience and also be utilized as a psychotherapeutic intervention. </p>

<p> The importance of reducing the use of psychiatric-mental health mechanical restraints has been the focus of clinical nursing practice. A hospital with two psychiatric-mental health units has demonstrated a sustained success related to reducing mechanical restraints. In this qualitative case study, nurses were interviewed to understand how the reduction of mechanical restraints on the psychiatric-mental health units impacts the practice culture and the perception of the psychiatric nurses toward a mechanical restraint-free practice. This study provided new knowledge related to evidence from the psychiatric-mental health nursing practice, themes of barriers, and facilitators toward a restraint-free practice. The participants describe the complexity of the nursing role, how the decision to use restraints is complex, the first hand experience of the nurse who was a part of the leather restraint process, that moving the restraints off the units did not make a difference, that the removal of the restraints from the building was not supported by the nurses. The barrier themes are current practice, medication, and patient acuity or behavior. The facilitator themes are philosophy, CPI implementation, practice or culture change, and medication. This is an innovative study on a restraint-free practice. The recommendations stem from the new information obtained from the evidence and themes and include further inquiry into the passion of nurses to avoid restraint, understanding personal style as well as interaction and bias, environmental alterations, and theme-based recommendations. The evidence and themes provide nursing and nursing leadership knowledge for application to other facilities that are considering a restraint-free environment.</p>

<p> The effects of entertainment-education narratives on pro-social, story-consistent beliefs and behaviors have been discussed by many. Less research has looked into the underlying mechanisms that facilitate these effects. Past research have attempted to explain the process through which persuasion occurs in narrative using a variety of theories, models and constructs. Recently, a better-integrated and structured theoretical framework &mdash; the Entertainment Overcoming Resistance Model &mdash; has been proposed to account for the persuasive effects. It clarifies the role of some similar constructs in narrative message processing. The present study examined several hypothesized relationships in the EORM by investigating the effects of exposure to a major bipolar disorder storyline embedded in a popular serial teen drama &mdash; <i>90210</i> &mdash; compared to those of exposure to a PSA addressing bipolar I disorder. The role of identification, transportation, parasocial interaction, perceived similarity, counterarguing, reactance, and perceived invulnerability in producing persuasive outcomes were re-examined in this bipolar I disorder E-E narrative. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three viewing conditions, a Stormwater Runoff Public Service Announcement plus a video of <i>90210 </i> excerpts containing bipolar disorder storyline, a bipolar disorder PSA paired with a video of <i>90210</i> excerpts without bipolar disorder storyline, and the Stormwater Runoff PSA plus the video of <i> 90210</i> excerpts without bipolar disorder storyline (control condition). They completed a questionnaire immediately after viewing each video and filled out another online follow-up questionnaire two weeks later to assess their responses to the program. Results of the study indicated the following: (1) Relative to the control condition, BPI E-E narrative exposure was not associated with greater overall pro-treatment behavioral intention and behaviors regarding BPI but did enhance the behavioral intention to seek help from mental health professional regarding BPI; (2) among the three resistance-related variables examined in this study, only perceived invulnerability was negatively associated with behavioral intention; (3) identification with characters was the only construct that contributed to reduced perceived invulnerability; and (4) the additional consideration of perceived invulnerability of "others" seemed helpful in understanding the effects of the bipolar I disorder narrative. Implications of findings, suggested areas of future research, and limitations of the present study are discussed.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to assess the attitudes towards individuals with mental illness among the healthcare providers of a long-term care facility. It takes a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive approach to view relationships. Minimal research exists in this subject matter, and literature reviews suggest that negative attitudes toward mental illness exist among healthcare providers (Ahmead et al., 2010; Aydin et al., 2003; Bjorkman et al., 2008; Rao et al., 2008; Reed &amp; Fitzgerald, 2005; Ucok, 2008; Ross &amp; Goldner, 2009; Smith et al., 2011; Zolnierek &amp; Clingerman, 2012). The Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill (CAMI) questionnaire was given to a sample of 51 long-term care employees. Data was analyzed by using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0, focusing on significant results concerning t-test, chi-square, and correlations in order to answer the research questions. Findings suggest a majority of the employee's attitudes in this long-term care facility were nonauthoritarian, nonsocial restrictive, and nonbenevolent. While there was no significant empirical support for differences in attitudes among RNs, LPNs, and CNAs, certain questions on the CAMI did provide significant results. Related to this there was also no empirical evidence for differences among the attitudes of departments, except when individual analysis of each question was complete. Correlational analysis showed relationships between various variables: education and seeking treatment for oneself, race and previous work experience, department and previous work experience, authoritarian views and gender, authoritarian views and education, nonsocial restrictive view and age, community mental health ideology and age, and community mental health ideology and department. Implications on future research and a discussion of recommendations to further decrease stigma in the long-term care environment are completed.</p>

<p> This depth psychological study explores the possibility that the drawing and subsequent recognition of chaotic looking irregular and misshapen shapes, lines, and marks applied in a lopsided and unbalanced manner within and protruding outside a mandala circle represent the beginning of a psychological development in the patient's psyche. Such a shift in the psyche may set the stage for using mandala psychology to facilitate the psychotherapeutic work of gathering and containing additional destructive and shadowy psychological material. </p><p> A retrospective single case study design is combined with a heuristic approach to discover the effects of producing an asymmetrical mandala, as described above, while following the chaotic mandala images through a change in the plot line of the research/participant's psychological story. Information is collected and outlined for the depth psychotherapy community that describes the process of mandala psychology from this vantage point of unbalanced and chaotic mandalas, illustrating the mandala's usefulness as a container for psychological and emotional chaos. The change in the plot line of the subject's mandala story is compared to and amplified with the structure of the plot line of the prototypical fairytale narrative at the moment when the darkly woven female character of the witch enters the narrative. This mythological component is introduced to enrich the telling of this case study. The archetypal analysis hypothesizes that at the moment the research/subject engaged her chaotic mandalas, the shift she experienced represented the collective and empowering primal energy of the dark energies of the feminine, personified for this study as the witch. Key words include: asymmetrical, mandala, chaos, case study, witch, art therapy, creative, container, chaotic images, destructive psychological material, dark feminine, fairy tale.</p>

<p> Atypical sensory reactivity to visual and/or auditory stimuli is prevalent among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Data from cognitive neuroscience research suggests that changes in attention can alter sensory processing at several levels of analysis, and thus could be contributing to changes in sensory reactivity. Furthermore, attentional pathways are modulated by the individual difference variable of working memory capacity (WMC). This study examined the relationship between sensory reactivity, individual difference, and auditory attention in ASD by using electroencephalography technique. Participants (n=25, 12 with ASD and 13 age- and IQ-matched controls) completed a sensory profile, complex operation span task for working memory capacity (WMC), and performed a modified 3-stimulus (target, non-target, and distractor) oddball task under varying perceptual load (high or low). Event-related potential (ERP) analysis assessed early sensory processing (P50, &sim;50ms latency; N100, &sim;100ms latency), cognitive control (N200, &sim;200ms latency), and attentional processing (P3a and P3b, &sim;300ms latency). Behavioral data demonstrates participants with ASD and neurotypical performed similarly on WMC and auditory target detection, but diverged in sensory profiles. In target processing under high perceptual load did not enhance P3b latency in those with ASD suggesting increased perceptual capacity compared to neurotypicals. No neurophysiological difference between groups in target data suggests intact top-down control in people with and without ASD. Early and late orienting ERPs (P50, N100, P3a) in non-target processing were unaffected by perceptual load. Robust differences in distractor processing were observed between groups in both early (N100) and late (N200) neural correlates of auditory attention. N100 responses in participants with ASD were strongly attenuated by increasing perceptual load compared to neurotypical controls. Decreased distractor interference at high loads in participants with ASD contrasted attenuation of enhanced late, perceptual processes indexed by the N200 in neurotypical controls. Increased perceptual capacity and decreased distractor processing suggest enhanced bottom-up attention in participant with ASD and has a direct relationship to atypical sensory reactivity in ASD. Collectively, data describes intact top-down control, behaviorally and neurophysiologically, while demonstrating benefits of atypical sensory reactivity on bottom-up attention in people with ASD. </p>

<p> Psychotherapy is only as effective as the quality of its provider-patient discourse (Poland, 1968; Schwartz, 2009). It is arguable that, in the practice of psychotherapy, theoretical orientations will encapsulate common understandings of the attitude-intention-behavior process, in order to assist in the promotion and prediction of positive health outcomes; and, that personality traits, and professional and demographic characteristics will similarly influence the kind and quality of the therapeutic relationship. </p><p> The current research was interested in investigating whether there were meaningful relationships between the language or labels used to describe consumers of mental health services and the primary theoretical orientation of the clinician. This was accomplished through examination of descriptor preference of consumers. Descriptors that were examined varied in terms of personable descriptors (e.g., the use of a client's initials) versus more traditional labels (e.g., patient and client abbreviations). Participants indicated preference by selecting descriptor words in case study vignettes in two repeated measures of <i> least</i> and <i>most</i> preferred options. Theoretical orientations surveyed were categorized as <i>action-based</i> (e.g., CBT, SBT, ABA, and systemic), <i>insight-based</i> (e.g., psychodynamic and humanistic), and <i>other,</i> which included integrative and crisis-based interventions used in medical environments. </p><p> Results indicated there were differences in the patterns of most and least preferred, depending on theoretical orientation. Insight-based practitioners demonstrated a greater bias against the use of initials and a bias away from the use of patient, whereas Action-based practitioners most preferred initial descriptors. These findings were in direct contrast to previous health care quality studies on physician provider populations, which, in general, opted for maintaining the use of traditional monikers. Further results indicated trends in term preference and demographic and professional variables. For example, related to Gender, men showed a preference for the term patient, whereas women did not. Additionally, older and more experienced clinicians were less biased against the use of the more traditional client. Findings were explained in terms of the differences in the primary foci of services between mental health and physician providers and in terms of the underlying objective in the training of psychotherapy to cultivate heightened listening skills and sensitivity towards the quality of therapeutic discourse.</p>

<p> The relationship between international development and psychological aid is a very complex one. The conversations regarding societal restoration, restorative justice and healing are full of theoretical frameworks aimed at centering on a plan for rehabilitation. The Great Lakes Region of Africa has endured longstanding conflict, famine and poverty and has been the focus of both psychological aid and international relief efforts. While much research focuses on the needs of the communities within the Great Lakes Region, there is a need for the voices of those who are carrying out the restorative work on the ground to be heard. This dissertation focuses on acknowledging the voices of those trauma counselors in Gulu, Uganda and Nakivale Refugee Settlement who have been trained to carry out a specific form of trauma counseling called Scripture Based Trauma Healing. These words reflect their stories.</p>