Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86, 150-157).

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The purpose of this study was to test a theoretical model that explains how interpersonal trust develops from interactions in personal relationships. The sample consisted of 311 individuals who were randomly recruited with their dating partners for a longitudinal study on dating relationships. Using interdependence theory as a framework, I tested a model of how trust develops from behaviors and attributions in handling situations of conflicting needs, wants, and desires. This model also examined both the direct and indirect effects of two background characteristics, adult attachment style and parental divorce, on beliefs of trust. The model explored whether attributions partially mediated the direct relationship between the background characteristics and trust. Lastly, multiple group analyses explored whether gender and two developmental factors, stage of relationship involvement and developmental change in relationship involvement, moderated the simultaneous relationships among the predictor variables and trust. The analyses testing my model of the development of trust examined two separate outcomes: trust in partners' benevolence and trust in partners' honesty. The results from the path analyses revealed that the data fit the model for trust in partners' benevolence well enough for the importance of the predictors to be interpreted, but did not fit the model for trust in partners' honesty. The findings showed that in the overall model of trust in partners' benevolence, partners' voice and individuals' attributions were significant predictors of trust. The findings for the multiple group comparisons further revealed that the model was not significantly modified by stage of relationship involvement, developmental change in relationship involvement, or gender. A few marginal findings, however, suggest areas for future research.

In this study I explored the intrapersonal and interpersonal differences among individuals who maintained higher levels of hope for their personal future, with lower hope peers who similarly were experiencing challenging and uncertain circumstances. I administered self-report measures of hope and social connectedness to 76 American young adults aged between 18 and 22 years, in order to sample purposively participants who exemplified higher and lower levels of hope. I used qualitative data from semistructured interviews with 13 individuals recruited from three field sites to develop the current model of hope, then tested the model against an additional three individuals from a separate field site, who had scored highly on hope, in order to establish its generalizability. Total interview time with each of the original 13 participants lasted between two and four hours and I coded the resulting transcription data from audio taped discussions for categories and main themes according to grounded theory guidelines. The emergent model of hope comprised five themes, namely: 1) The Initiating Context: Perceptions of challenge and uncertainty; 2) Temporal Comparisons: Envisioning the future, being realistic about the present, learning from the past; 3) Developing Strategies: Values, goals, planning, and action; 4) Drawing on personal and social resources; 5) Openness and flexibility about outcomes. These data suggested that the higher hope participants differed from their lower hope peers with respect to their relationship with change, difficulty, and uncertainty. The higher hope young adults engaged in a process of hoping that relied on an overall positive orientation toward life. This combination of process and orientation better enabled them to take action, exert control, and regulate the fear experienced when faced with ambiguous outcomes associated with personally important and difficult circumstances. I compared and contrasted this new, inductively-derived model of hope with current conceptualizations from the psychological, philosophical, and nursing literatures on hope, and discussed its theoretical and practical implications. / text

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This study was concerned with the perceptions of the members of a college wrestling team which was oganized and operated according to a theory of personal processes. The setting of the study is Pima Community College, Tucson, Arizona. A personal processes theory was derived from the literature of democratic processes as one of two frames of reference. This frame of reference was used to organize the dissertation, develop the questionnaire, and present the data. It included the following categories: (1) contact; (2) consult; (3) find; (4) share; and (5) accompany. A perceptual psychology theory was also derived from the literature as the second frame of reference. This frame of reference was used for the purpose of analyzing the data. It included the following categories: (1) perceptual field; (2) perceptions; (3) needs; (4) self-perceptions; and (5) behavior. Each category of the personal processes theory was organized and presented as follows: (1) a statement concerning the category under examination; (2) certain category related questionnaire statements displaying composite quantitative findings; (3) representative respondents' comments to each questionnaire statement; and (4) an examination of respondents' comments employing the perceptual framework. According to the theory of personal processes used in this investigation: (1) contact is the very beginning of person-to-person relationships; (2) consult is the next step in contact. It constitutes the efforts of one person to learn about another through dialogue; (3) find is the possible outcome of contact and consult. It suggests the discovery of some of the other person's needs, interests, concerns, aspirations, etc.; (4) share is the culmination of the contact, consult, and find categories. It constitutes that stage of the process where the involved persons exchange ideas regarding the identified needs, interests, concerns, aspirations, etc.; and (5) accompany is the final action phase of the process. In this stage, the involved persons actually do things together in pursuing the identified interests of the person. The theory of personal processes utilized by the wrestling coaches at Pima Community College was found to be highly regarded by most of the respondents. Although certain respondents commented that they were at first reluctant to accept this approach, the majority of the team members had little or no difficulties in adjusting to it. They felt that it served their needs, interests, and feelings more nearly than their previous wrestling experiences. The respondents commented that they perceived the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process and the warm, friendly, and supportive atmosphere created by the coaches as major factors in their respective decisions to attend Pima Community College and wrestle. For the wrestling coach who desires to employ an alternative to the coach-centered, traditional approach to coaching, the use of the theory of personal processes is recommended. It is immediately applicable to the following concerns of wrestling team members and their coaches: (1) recruiting; (2) financial aid; (3) housing; (4) enrolling in school; and (5) the acquisition of wrestling skills.