Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2466. Adviser: Allison Ryan. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-47) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> Two of the hallmark symptoms for psychosis are hallucinations and delusions, indicating to mental health practitioners that the person is experiencing a form of nonconsensual reality. These patients are not given the same opportunities to collaborate in planning for their treatment as those who are being treated for other conditions. Psychosis is a condition with myriad and controversial theories of etiology and treatment, leading to great variation in treatment outcomes. This research offers a perspective on the subjective experience of people being treated for psychosis in the modern mental health system in the United States by documenting how they think and feel about the treatment they are receiving. The method of inquiry was an interpretative phenomenological analysis with six people responding to 15 questions in a semi-structured interview that included questions about what has been beneficial and not beneficial in accessing therapeutic support for their distressing experiences and what advice they would give to mental health workers.</p><p> All participants reported having a positive experience in the study, which indicates the value of asking people about their mental health treatment. Several of the participants explicitly stated that they had never shared, much less had been asked to share, their experiences of treatment throughout sometimes decades of having received treatment for a mental health diagnosis. Advice participants wished to give to mental health workers included being more compassionate and expressing authentic caring, encouraging recovery as opposed to dependency, and instilling hope. Some benefits of current treatments noted by participants included frequent contact with mental health workers in a range of capacities including the development of relaxation skills and activities of daily living (ADLs), family therapy, and individual psychotherapy. This research indicates the following areas for improvement in the treatment of psychosis: focusing on the development of the therapeutic relationship, including active listening and authentic concern; including the patient in the development of goal setting and treatment planning; and focusing on recovery with an attitude of hope.</p>

<p> Managing the behavioral needs of individuals with developmental disabilities has been a long-standing concern for group home managers and direct care staff. Consultee-centered consultation has a history of documented benefits for children in schools and was theorized to be beneficial to adults with developmental disabilities residing in group homes. Adults with disabilities continue to experience behavioral difficulties while staff lack the training to maintain quality support services. Caplan&rsquo;s consultee-centered consultation (1993) bridges the gap between client centered behavioral consultation and consultee effectiveness in addressing client behavioral concerns. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of consultee-centered consultation on client behavior and the group home environment. Three community-based group homes were chosen to participate in this study using matched assignment. Participants included ten clients with challenging behaviors, two consultees (managers of group-homes), three data collectors and direct-care staff working with clients. This study showed encouraging support of a decrease in the frequency of challenging behaviors exhibited by clients residing in two group homes that received consultee-centered consultation for twelve and six weeks. The level of job satisfaction for employees participating in this study did not demonstrate change over the course of the 15-week study. Despite a lack of support for a change in employee satisfaction, both consultees receiving consultee-centered consultation reported that consultation helped them to address staff concerns and improvements in their level of confidence and skills. </p>

<p> James Hillman (1972) declared, &ldquo;What the psyche has experienced during the past seventy years in analytical therapy should also be possible for it wherever it goes&rdquo; (p. 5). As a life coach&mdash;someone who starts from a place of curiosity&mdash;I became curious. Did this mean that the imaginal practices of depth psychology could be used within a life coaching container? Could imaginal practices such as Jung&rsquo;s active imagination and Hillman&rsquo;s personifying work in a life coaching partnership? What benefits might life coaching clients gain through creating a connection with psychic figures? What would a life coach&mdash;or a depth psychologist&mdash;need to merge these two ways of engaging with individuals, both in terms of training and resources? And, finally, what does each profession&mdash;life coaching and depth psychology&mdash;obtain from such a merger? Using the methodology of hermeneutic phenomenology, I entered into a six-session soul-centered coaching partnership with three participants. Each took part in six sessions designed to develop their psychological creativity while experiencing a coaching relationship. Factoring in my own observations, as well as the personal accounts of the participants, I found that imaginal practices positively impacted participants&rsquo; abilities to connect with and move through their life transitions. This merging of the two professions would require life coaches to undergo extensive learning in depth psychology, and depth psychologists to acquire professional coaching skills, but this study holds forth promise for a blending of the two fields. </p><p>

<p> Adolescents who sexually offend are highly diverse both in risk factors as well as inner resources. Utilizing the BERS-2-YRS, the AAQ, and the J-SOAP-II, 38 adjudicated adolescents convicted of a sexual offense in secure care were assessed to determine which protective factors are correlated with reduced sexual re-offense risk. This study also explored how adolescents who have only committed a sexual offense (sex-only) differ from adolescents who have committed a sexual offense in addition to other delinquent behavior (sex-plus). Results indicated that sex-only adolescents demonstrate a significantly lower sexual recidivism risk and have greater affective strength compared to sex-plus adolescents. The sex-only sub-group also demonstrated large correlations for reduced sexual recidivism risk along five protective factors found on the BERS-2-YRS.</p><p>

<p> The social networking site Facebook is a popular domain where people can share pictures, status updates, and communicate with one another over the internet. While there are benefits to the ability to connect electronically with friends who are geographically distant, recent research illustrates a potentially damaging effect on well-being. In particular, envy plays a mediating role in the relationship between Facebook use and more negative affect and increased depressive symptoms. Although envy can produce positive emotions, as well as motivation to improve oneself, past research primarily identifies only deleterious effects of envy. Through the theoretical framework of the self-evaluation maintenance model, evidence for the phenomena of benign and malicious envy was explored to provide a more complete look at the impact of envy on Facebook.</p><p>

<p>Parenting stress (PS) is a phenomenon experienced by all parents to varying degrees due to the demands of meeting a child?s needs. This distinct type of stress is caused by an imbalance between the perceived demands of parenting and the perceived coping resources available to parents. The construct of twice-exceptionality (2E) is defined as the co-occurrence of giftedness and disability or possessing both high cognitive abilities and at least 1 of 13 potential disabilities identified under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004. The purpose of this study was to understand how PS is experienced by parents of children who have been identified with 2E. The theoretical perspectives of stress appraisal, coping, and attribution guided this study and provided a framework for understanding the lived experiences of parents and the meaning they ascribe to these experiences. The goals of the study were accomplished through in-depth interviews with 13 participants, an extensive literature review, and reflective journaling. Interview data were analyzed using the phenomenological techniques of epoche, bracketing, horizontalization, and imaginative variation, and several relevant themes and subthemes were developed. High levels of PS described by the parents in this study indicate that further research is indicated for better understanding and serving the significant needs of this population. The social implications of this research include raising awareness of PS and 2E; increasing the potential for positive outcomes for children and families; and addressing misconceptions concerning giftedness, gender bias in the perceptions of parental roles, and the impact of PS on family systems.

<p> Children&rsquo;s picture books engage young readers with lessons of both literacy and socialization. They are discursive components of visual culture, with ideological origins that can be traced to European colonizers, whose policies fueled popular sentiment that devalued those who appeared different and, thus, encouraged systemic oppression and genocide. Utilizing Hall&rsquo;s definition of representations will provide perspective in discussions of social constructs (including constructed absences), developmental psychology, and research-evidenced processes of child perception and meaning. These phenomena often convey unearned hierarchical power that culminates in behaviors that include social exclusion and discrimination, and their far-reaching effects are discussed by MacDonald as European Structuralism, in which &ldquo;social and cultural life are governed by deep-seated structural polarities&rdquo; (1995, p. 35). European Structuralism, and related systems, disadvantaged groups that include females, non-European males, non-heterosexuals, those with a high body mass index (BMI), and non-Christians. Visual culture, including picture books, perpetuates these constructs that lead to oppression. To call attention to the origins of biased messages, I analyze the physical characteristics of best-selling picture book authors and illustrators. Few surprises exist, yet these data add another layer to the intricate systems of power dynamics. </p><p>

<p> Through social network measures, this study investigates Shared Leadership and other structures of team leadership as they relate to team performance and team work engagement. A sample of 59 interdisciplinary teams, composed of students at a Midwestern university, were studied during a semester long course that engages students in complex applied projects. Students were rated on their team performance at the end of the semester, and were also asked to rate their individual work engagement and social network interactions within their team. Regression analyses revealed that social network density, but not decentralization, was a consistent positive predictor of team performance and team work engagement. Additionally, network measures and team leadership structures, would relate differentially to either team outcome depending on the type of network content (i.e. instrumental or socio-emotional). Results of moderator analyses reveal that surface (i.e. gender) and deep-level (i.e. academic major) diversity moderate the relationship between instrumental decentralization and team performance. Moreover, deep-level diversity moderates the relationship between teams engaged in instrumental Shared Leadership and team performance. A discussion of the results and implications for research and practice are provided.</p><p>

<p>Across industries and organizations, some managers hold dual roles that require them to meet various demands between internal and external work settings. Further, while these demands may be understood as interrelated and complementary, they can be simultaneously experienced as mutually exclusive, creating paradoxical tensions. This study applied a grounded theory (GT) method to better understand how district managers (DMs) navigated the `corporate/field paradox? in their dual role. Specifically, the DMs were corporate employees who worked remotely in the field to support their respective regional stores, to essentially help their company succeed in the retail industry. Based on a social constructivist approach, 17 DMs? perspectives were gathered through an online questionnaire, and intensive interviews, to generate a theory that reflects how this social process is experienced and understood. Both individual and organizational facets were considered in the dual role navigation of the corporate/field paradox. The following theoretical elements were identified: context (personal and organizational), interpersonal dynamics (relationships, influencing effectiveness, communications), intrapersonal dynamics (cognition, emotions, challenges/rewards), overall impacts (personal and organizational), and adapting. Overall, the generated `Corporate/Field Paradox Theory? from this study proposes an interactive systems approach to better understanding how DMs navigate between all of these interrelated elements. For future research and practice, this theory offers a more holistic and nonlinear interpretation of how paradoxes might be experienced.