<p> The present study examined factors for priestly commitment and the relationship between priestly commitment and well-being of Catholic priests and seminarians. While evidence for the effectiveness of assessment in identifying the suitability of applicants to the priesthood and evaluating the general psychological health of priests and seminarians has been well documented, the effectiveness of assessment in predicting commitment to the priesthood remains under question. This study addressed such an issue by identifying the individual and sets of factors for priestly commitment using a sample of 120 priests and 52 seminarians. </p><p> Through Hierarchical Multiple Regression analyses, the present study examined the extent to which demographic factors (e.g., age and vocational status), social factors (e.g., parental environment, family religiosity, and religious experience), psychological factors (e.g., big five personality traits, defensiveness, gender characteristics, and loneliness), and religious factors (e.g., religious orientation, religious coping, spiritual support, sacred view of the priesthood, and relationship with bishop/superior) affect priestly commitment. And, through Multiple Regression, this study examined a correlation between priestly commitment and well-being. </p><p> The results indicated that, when demographic, social, and psychological variables were controlled, an increased level of agreeableness, defensiveness, masculinity, intrinsic religious orientation, sacred view of the priesthood, and relationship with bishop/superior were associated with an increased level of affective commitment, whereas the increased level of parental care, extraversion, and loneliness were associated with a decreased level of affective commitment. Parental overprotection, extraversion, and loneliness positively correlated with thought of leaving the priesthood, whereas masculinity, sacred view of the priesthood, and relationship with bishop/superior had negative correlations. Extrinsic religious orientation had a positive correlation with continuance commitment. In contrast to the previous studies, demographic variables were insignificant. The study also found indirect effects of religious variables on the significant correlations between parental care and affective commitment and between agreeableness and affective commitment. </p><p> Specific to well-being, this study found that affective commitment was positively correlated with affect balance, psychological well-being, and religious well-being, while continuance commitment and thought of leaving the priesthood had negative correlations with psychological well-being. Finally, thought of leaving the priesthood was correlated negatively with affect balance.</p>

<p> The effects of a six-week mindfulness class on racial stereotype bias, attention, and working memory was measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT), Attention Network Task (ANT), and Automated Operation Span Task, respectively. Explicit racism (Modern Racism Scale, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Social Dominance Orientation), mindfulness (Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire), depression, anxiety, and stress (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale) were also examined. Sixty traditional-aged undergraduate women participated in this study (20 completed the mindfulness course and the remaining completed a non-MBSR physical education course). The results revealed that training was not associated with decreased racial stereotype bias on the IAT. Training was associated with increased performance in attention-switching on the ANT. In both groups, explicit racism and working memory predicted racial bias at time 1, and explicit racism predicted change in racial bias between times 1 and 2. Unexpectedly, increase in mindfulness (FFMQ) approached prediction of an increase in racial bias across both groups. In summary, the findings contradict the hypothesis that participation in a six-week mindfulness course will reduce stereotype application and activation.</p>

<p> Mental health stigma, while common, leads to harmful consequences. There is some evidence to show that education reduces stigma. The reduction, however, is short term and only observed in those who are relatively open and flexible with their beliefs. Emerging research suggests that variables such as empathy, perspective taking, and psychological flexibility may be key processes in stigma reduction. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) provides a framework for understanding the development of stigma, the role of inflexibility in maintenance of stigma, and how education that targets flexibility might facilitate reduction in stigma. Applications of RFT have resulted in the development of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, a tool that can be applied for assessment of not only implicit stigmatizing attitudes, but also the flexibility with which they are held. The current study examined the impact of divergent educational experiences on mental health stigma using college students with various levels of formal education relevant to psychological difficulties both implicitly with self-report measures and explicitly with the IRAP. Also examined were empathy and psychological flexibility as moderators of the relationship between education and stigma. Data suggest that mental health bias is a function of education, but that didactic and experiential education may have differential effects. Increases in education and empathy factors were associated with reduced stigma measured explicitly; however, these variables did not correlate with the measure of implicit stigma. Additionally, when empathy moderated the relationship between education and implicit stigma, high levels of empathy were associated with increases in implicit stigma. Inconsistencies in results from implicit and explicit measures indicate a clear need for continued research in this area to more fully understand mental health stigma and to develop reduction interventions. </p>

<p> Psychological struggle seems to be an inherent part of the human experience. Unfortunately, the public attitude towards the obese focuses more on negative stereotypes (e.g., undisciplined, ugly, stupid, and lazy) than on the underlying psychological components that lie at the heart of the struggle. Negative stereotypes like these have an affect upon the way the obese think about themselves and may lead to self-stigmatization, which in turn may interfere with a person's attempt to gain control of their health and emotional well-being when eating is used to relieve the associated distress. Many people who struggle with their weight are found to be very rigid in their thought processes regarding food. Perhaps it is not the content of food and body-related cognitions that is important, but the inflexibility with which they are held.</p><p> The current study will investigate the relationships among avoidant eating behavior, perceived stigmatization, self-stigmatization, and psychological flexibility. Participants will be recruited from a population of obese individuals who are seeking help at a bariatric clinic, and from Facebook. Participants will initially complete a packet of questionnaires on psychological flexibility, perceived stigmatization, self-stigmatization, and eating behavior online. Then for seven days they will receive four text messages a day for seven days, three of which will provide them with a link to the Periodic Assessment of Stigmatizing Experiences, and one text message providing a link to the Daily Eating Survey. It is hypothesized that 1) Perceived stigmatizing experiences (i.e., a fear of enacted stigma from society) will predict disordered eating 2) Weight- and food-related psychological inflexibility will moderate the relationship between perceived stigmatizing experiences and disordered eating 3) Self-stigma (i.e., self-devaluation due to perceived stigmatization from society) will moderate the relationship between perceived stigmatizing experiences and disordered eating 4) Psychological inflexibility will predict increased perceived self-stigma.</p>

<p> Prior research has identified a variety of common correlates between food security and depression but oftentimes the data used in these analyses are not representative of the US or do not consider multiple categorical levels of the focal variables. Using data from the 2009-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination (NHANES), this study sought to examine the relationship between four levels of food security - full, marginal, low and very low - and depression. The findings indicate low and very low food security are significantly related to an increased risk of depression, while marginal food security is not significantly different from full food security. Inclusion of interaction effects between food security and gender as well as food security and having a child/children were not found to be a significant improvement to the model.</p>

<p> This dissertation is a phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of adult daughters who perceive their mothers to have struggled with a mental illness throughout their childhood, adolescence, or even into adulthood. An extensive review of the literature showed a noticeable dearth in the existing literature regarding the lived experiences of adult daughters who experienced maternal mental illness first-hand. Qualitative face-to-face interviews were conducted with eight female participants in an effort to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of their retrospective account of living with a mother who is mentally ill. Of particular interest was creating a space for the women to re-tell their stories and to identify ways in which their own relationship with their mothers has had a trans-generational effect on the relationship and parenting styles with their own children. Several thematic patterns were obtained from the interviews including parentification (mothering the mother), minimization of the mother's mental illness, and feelings of anger, sadness, embarrassment that came up as the daughters dealt with the impact of maternal psychopathology. The stories told by these women will hopefully contribute to the existing literature on attachment, maternal mental illness, and the subsequent impact on parenting practices.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1996. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-08, Section: B, page: 5389. Adviser: Bill Froming.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1996. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 58-02, Section: B, page: 1020.

<p> This investigation considered the relationship among attitudes toward interracial relationships, tolerance of ambiguity, and mindfulness using a correlational design. The exploratory research question was: Does a tolerance of ambiguity plays a role in the acceptance of interracial relationships? Adult participants (<i>N</i> = 253) between the ages of 18 and 78 included male, female, and genderqueer adult individuals in the United States. Participants were recruited through online advertisements. They responded to items on a demographic questionnaire, along with four assessment instruments measuring mindfulness (MAAS), tolerance for ambiguity (MSTAT-II), attitudes toward interracial relationships (ATID), and cognitive load (WPM). The key finding in this study was that level of mindfulness was positively related to the level of tolerance for ambiguity (<i>p</i> &lt; .001). However, no significant relationships among mindfulness, cognitive load, or attitudes toward interracial relationships were found. Results for the variable measuring attitudes toward interracial relationships was heavily skewed in the negative direction, indicating a very accepting group, which influenced the nature of data analysis.</p><p>

<p> Theory suggests and research provides evidence that stigma can have a negative impact on the self-concept for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. Labeling theory and modified labeling theory suggest that individuals who are labeled with a socially undesirable status (e.g. mental illness) may develop negative cognitions, self-perceptions and emotions as a result of the associated stigma. However, some evidence suggests that the harmful effects of stigma on self-concept may not have as strong or an enduring of an impact as labeling theories might predict. In this dissertation, I utilize longitudinal survey data of 221 individuals with mental illness to consider the role of empowerment and defensive responses that individuals use to resist the potentially negative effects of stigma. Specifically, I examine defensive strategies, such as secrecy and social withdrawal, and empowerment-oriented responses to stigma, including community activism and righteous anger, as factors that may moderate the effect of stigma on self-concept. I found limited support of the negative effect that perceived stigma has on self-concept. While I did find some evidence that stigma is negatively associated with both self-esteem and mastery, these associations were only of modest strength. There was no finding suggesting that the stigma response items moderate the relationship between stigma and self-concept, but mediating relationships are present. Further research is needed in order to better understand how stigma resistance strategies influence the varying effects of the stigma of mental illness on self-concept.</p>