Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-94). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

Thesis (MPsy(Forensic))--University of South Australia, 2001.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-79).

Thesis (Ph. D. in Religion)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2005. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Male inmates incarcerated in a Federal Correctional Institution viewed one of two videotaped scenes which were presented as recordings of a classification team meeting held in another institution. The two videotapes were actually simulations identical in content except with respect to the presence or absence of a segment in which an inmate model was shown to receive social pressure from his unit manager to enroll in group psychotherapy. This social pressure constituted a threat to the model's freedom to refuse therapy enrollment. It was predicted that observers of the freedom-threat tape would experience observation inductive reactance which would result in their desiring a greater amount of choice about group therapy enrollment at the same time that they would derogate the value of group therapy for themselves. Subjects also completed semantic differential profiles of the unit manager, inmate model, and themselves, allowing a test of predictions that the freedomthreatening unit manager would be rated as negative, potent, and active, while the threatened model would be seen as positive, less potent, and inactive. An optional boring task was presented to subjects to determine whether the freedomthreat observers would show a heightened tendency to refuse the task in order to indirectly reassert their freedom. It was also predicted that subjects with a history of frequent rules infractions would respond more strongly to the modeled freedom threat than would subjects with fewer infractions. The predictions regarding increased choice salience and increased derogation of group therapy for freedom-threat observers were supported by the data analysis. As anticipated, the unit manager was rated as negative and potent inthe freedom threat scene, while the threatened model was perceived as less potent than when he was viewed in the no-threat scene. An unexpected finding showed the model also to be evaluated as negative in the freedom-threat condition. Activity ratings of the unit manager and model did not differ significantly between threat/no threat observation conditions. Compliance rates on the boring task were too minimal in both conditions to permit a test of the indirect restoration of freedom hypothesis; this manipulation was therefore regarded as a failure. The study found only one effect for the individual-differences variable of prior rules infractions: subjects with a high number of infractions showed a greater tendency to negatively evaluate the freedom-threatened model. The results in general provide support for the theory that psychological reactance can be aroused by merely observing a threat to the freedom of a similar other. The negative evaluations of the model provided by freedomthreat observers may however, indicate that perceived similarity between the personal characteristics of the model and observer is not necessary in order for the effect to occur. Instead, the model's role, as similar to that of the observer, may be more important. It was suggested that cognitive consistency processes may need to be invoked in explaining the freedom-threat observers' derogation of group therapy. / Ph. D.

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of filial therapy with incarcerated mothers as a method of increasing empathic behaviors with their children, increasing attitudes of acceptance toward their children, and reducing stress related to parenting. Filial therapy, a method of training parents to respond and interact therapeutically with their children, focuses on enhancing the parent-child relationship. The sample population of 22 volunteer subjects was drawn from a pool of incarcerated mothers in the Denton County Jail who had children between three and ten years of age. The experimental group parents, consisting of 12 incarcerated mothers, received 2-hour filial therapy training sessions biweekly for five weeks and participated in biweekly 30-minute play sessions with one of their children. The control group parents, consisting of 10 incarcerated mothers, received no treatment during the five weeks. The three written self-report instruments completed for pretesting and posttesting purposes by both groups were The Porter Parental Acceptance Scale, The Parenting Stress Index, and The Filial Problem Checklist. The parents were also videotaped in play sessions with their child before and after training as a means of measuring change in empathic behavior. Analysis of Covariance revealed that incarcerated mothers in the experimental group had significant change in 9 of 13 hypotheses, including (a) a significant increase in their level of empathic interactions with their children, (b) a significant increase in their attitude of acceptance toward their children, and (c) a significant reduction in the number of reported problems with their children's behavior. This study supports filial therapy as an effective intervention for enhancing the parent-child relationship with incarcerated mothers and their children. Utilizing instruction and practical application of positive therapeutic methods, filial therapy training empowers parents by increasing their parenting knowledge and skills, and indirectly empowers children who experience the parent-child relationship with an increase in unconditional acceptance and positive regard.

M.A. / Prisons in the South African context are considered to be places of correction for deviant individuals. The perception of the functioning of a correctional space is the correction of a particular type of functioning and the construction of another. One of the underlying assumptions of a penal system is the notion of a subject who is able to undergo a process of normalisation. This dissertation is directed towards the exploration of a different type of space that has been created within the correctional system at the Diepkloof Prison. It will be suggested herein that creative workshops, run within the prison by an outside facilitator, have succeeded in subverting the normalising discourse of the penal system, and have helped to facilitate a different type of healing experience within the confines of the institutional space. In order to place the discussion of the workshopping process within a sound theoretical framework, various theoretical questions regarding the shift from modernist to postmodern psychology are explored in some depth. It will be argued that the ideas emerging from social constructionist and narrative psychology, deconstructionist notions of language and subjectivity, as well as post-structuralist ideas on disciplinary power, offer a theoretical framework from within which to understand the healing process that occurs in the workshops themselves.