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Book Summary: This Encyclopedia provides a comprehensive overview of individual differences within the domain of personality, with major sub-topics including assessment and research design, taxonomy, biological factors, evolutionary evidence, motivation, cognition and emotion, as well as gender differences, cultural considerations, and personality disorders. It is an up-to-date reference for this increasingly important area and a key resource for those who study intelligence, personality, motivation, aptitude and their variations within members of a group.

Therapists who specialize in trauma therapy are indirectly exposed traumatic events presented by clients within the therapeutic relationship. The potential consequences for trauma therapists may be the risk of vicarious trauma. Effective coping and self-care are essential in the practice of trauma work. The research question for this study is: Do coping skills and self-care practices in trauma therapists moderate the disruptive effect of vicarious trauma on the fulfillment of their psychological needs (trust/dependence and control)? The purpose of this research study was to examine quantitatively, the role of trauma therapists' beliefs in the effectiveness of coping skills and time spent devoted to self-care practices as moderators of the disruptive effect of vicarious trauma on their fulfillment of psychological needs of trust/dependence and control. Based on the constructive self-development theory, this study explored 2 psychological needs areas including trust/dependence and control. A sample of therapists with 10 years or more experience in the field and who primarily treated traumatized populations were recruited. A survey design methodology via a customized internet-based system was used to administer the trauma and attachment belief scale and the coping inventory scale. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was completed to address the research question and hypotheses. The results of regression analysis supported the research question. Contributions to positive social change include increased awareness of the risk of vicarious trauma and potential coping strategies necessary to address this phenomenon. Therapists may then enhance their therapeutic effectiveness and organizational service delivery to traumatized client populations.

Equality in educational access has long been an area of concern for U.S. educators, policy makers, and advocates. Congress issued a mandate in 1969 to identify the needs of gifted students and to ensure that those needs were being met. However, the needs of gifted minority students were not specifically addressed. Little is known about how African American mothers are affected by the demands of raising and advocating for their gifted child. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative inquiry was to explore the lived experiences of African American mothers raising gifted children. The theory of womanism was used to explore the experiential anecdotes offered by the participants and to guide in analysis of developing themes. In addition, critical race theory was used to further examine the narratives offered by the participant mothers. Nine African American mothers whose children were identified as academically and intellectually gifted participated in interviews; analysis of data included use of the hermeneutic circle and resulted in the identification of 4 essential themes and 8 subthemes. Subthemes, that seemed particularly meaningful to participants, included othermothering, exasperation, resilience, and the Black male experience. Findings highlight the mothers'€™ resilience when dealing with instances of microaggressions and microinsults. Additionally, findings elucidated their desire to see every child succeed through othermothering behaviors. Implications for positive social change include contributing to the body of knowledge regarding the needs and challenges affecting African American mothers raising gifted children.

The Nevada State Juvenile Justice and School systems do not currently screen or treat juveniles for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Left untreated, PTSD may contribute to behaviors that can lead to engagement with the juvenile justice system and contribute to high rates of recidivism and possible future engagement with the adult justice system. Using Erickson's theory of psychological development as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore whether, from the perspectives of key stakeholders whether interventions and prevention services for juvenile justice clients in Carson City met the needs of youthful offenders also diagnosed with PTSD. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 2 mental health counselors, 6 juvenile justice administrators, and 10 parents. Interviews were transcribed and then subjected to Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis procedure. The findings of the study revealed 2 primary findings. First, the juvenile justice system is adequate in terms of identifying youth with mental-health issues and referring to behavioral-health providers when appropriate. Staff, however, may not have adequate training to provide proper intervention when necessary. Second, service delivery by behavioral-health providers fails when health care providers do not accept feedback from stakeholders that may result in inconsistent intervention services. Recommendations to the juvenile justice system decision makers to adopt a validated risk and needs assessment tool to asses all youths' level of care and mental health status and treat youth with mental-health issues separately from other justice-involved youth may lead to improvements in intervention services thereby decreasing youths' involvement with the juvenile justice system.

Evaluating the attitude of African American clergy toward parishioners seeking professional mental health services for mental illness has important treatment implications. Religion and spirituality are equally important determinants of mental health and can affect African American clergy's attitudes toward professional care for mental illness. Utilizing the health belief model (HBM), this quantitative study examined the role of theological beliefs, education, and personal experience with mental illness as they correlated with clergy's attitudes toward seeking professional mental illness services. Approximately 98 African American Protestant Clergy in the states of Georgia and South Carolina participated in this study. Data were collected using self-administered surveys via e-mail and mailings using the religious attitude scale (RAS) and the attitude toward seeking professional psychological help scale (ATSPPHS). A multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the correlation of independent variables. The results of this study indicated that theological beliefs (p = 0.025) but not education (p = 0.084) or personal experience with mental illness (p = 0.078) had a direct effect on the African American clergy attitudes toward parishioners seeking professional mental health services. This research supports the idea that conservative African American pastors' attitudes toward congregants seeking professional mental health services are positive. The results of this study can influence social change by increasing access through clergy's pivotal role as the gatekeeper for parishioners who seek help for mental illness.

There are approximately 1.3 million youth who have been diagnosed with a co-occurring disorder. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the type of therapy (brief strategic family therapy or family functional therapy), demographic factors (age, race, type of drug used), and therapy discharge status (successful or unsuccessful) in male youth with a co-occurring disorder of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance use disorder. A correlational research design of a cross-sectional nature was used for this study and secondary data were obtained from a mental health agency located in Hampton Roads Virginia. The theoretical basis for this study was Bowens family systems theory. A purposeful convenience sample was used from archival data (n=392). Independent sample t-Tests were conducted to analyze differences between demographic groups and discharge status, and it was found that males whose drug of choice was alcohol had a statistically significant lower successful discharge rate (p=.031). Type of therapy unrelated to discharge status at a statistically significant level (p=.418). Results of a multiple logistic regression analysis showed that non-White/Caucasian males were 1.86 times more likely to have a successful discharge status from the program (p=.048). Age, drug type, and therapy used were unrelated to discharge status at statistically significant levels (p>.05). This study can educate therapists about their preconceived notions regarding ethnicity and the potential to successfully complete therapy. This could result in more empowerment shared with clients of these ethnic groups which could positively impact completion of therapy.

This study was undertaken in February and March of 1975 in order to provide in depth analysis of those seeking hospital admission. It is a descriptive study of requests for voluntary admission to Oregon State Hospital. Special care was taken to incorporate the study in such a way that the current admitting procedures would not be rearranged or changed in any way. Essentially the study asks the questions: Who makes self-requests for hospitalization? Where do they come from? When? How do they get there? Why do they come? What is the history of their contact with other community agencies for service or previous hospitalizat ion? How does the hospital respond to the requests? In order to better understand the dynamics of the requesting population, attention was focused on: The possible differences between those individuals admitted and those denied admission. The comparisons of requests for first admission and readmission. The relationship of age and sex differences to the other findings in the study

How do people discuss mental health on social media? Can we train a computer program to recognize differences between discussions of depression and other topics? Can an algorithm predict that someone is depressed from their tweets alone? In this project, we collect tweets referencing “depression” and “depressed” over a seven year period, and train word embeddings to characterize linguistic structures within the corpus. We find that neural word embeddings capture the contextual differences between “depressed” and “healthy” language. We also looked at how context around words may have changed over time to get deeper understanding of contextual shifts in the word usage. Finally, we trained a deep learning network on a much smaller collection of tweets authored by individuals formally diagnosed with depression. The best performing model for the prediction task is Convolutional LSTM (CNN-LSTM) model with a F-score of 69% on test data. The results suggest social media could serve as a valuable screening tool for mental health.