<p> Youth-initiated mentoring that focuses on a mentee&rsquo;s academic goals has the potential to positively influence academic, social-emotional, and identity development in older adolescents while building enduring mentor-mentee relationships (DuBois et al., 2011, Schwartz &amp; Rhodes, 2016; Bayer, Grossman, &amp; DuBois, 2015; Karcher &amp; Nakkula, 2010). While the majority of youth mentoring research has focused on long-term (12 months or more) resiliency-based mentoring models, new emerging models like youth-initiated and academic instrumental mentoring need to be investigated (Rhodes, 2002; DuBois et al., 2002; Schwartz &amp; Rhodes, 2016). The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the influences of short-term youth-initiated mentoring on higher order cognitive skill development and mentor-mentee relationship quality. Participants included 145 high school students enrolled in an International private school&rsquo;s youth-initiated academic mentoring program who completed a digital survey twice over three months. The survey instrument included a descriptive section that collected participants&rsquo; demographic information while quantifying their youth mentoring experience, a Mentor-Youth Alliance Survey that assessed mentor-mentee relationship quality (Zand, Thomson, Cervantes, Espiritu, Klagholz, et al., 2009) and two measurement tools that assessed higher order cognitive skills including the Developmental Assets Profile internal assets (Scales, Benson, &amp; Mannes, 2006) and the future expectations the Survey of Academic Youth Outcomes Youth Survey future expectations (NOIST, 2013). Findings indicated that short-term youth-initiated academic mentoring positively influenced high order cognitive development in older adolescent students. In addition, youth-initiated mentoring may promote higher quality mentor-mentee relationships within 3 to 12 months.</p><p>

<p> Profiling has its traditions in criminal investigations where it is used to assist in apprehending an offender by examining and attempting to understand his or her psychological motivations and personality. Terrorist specialists and theorists have applied traditional profiling techniques in hopes of distinguishing nonterrorists from terrorists and in an endeavor to understand the motivators for radicalization. However, these attempts have created a divide between the theorists resulting in contradictory data and debate. With the rise of social media, the methods of terrorism have changed. The Islamic State (IS) in particular has tapped into using media, not only to recruit, but as a form of technological combat, which in turn has added to their success and strength. This dissertation introduces the theory of Combat Branding. The findings of this dissertation suggest that it is possible to create a deductive profile of Western IS recruits by beginning with the examination of IS&rsquo;s Combat Brand. This is a qualitative visual narrative study of official IS media consisting of video and still images. It is my hypothesis that starting with an analysis of the Combat Brand is a missing link to approaching a deductive profile of the intended target audience.</p><p>

Purpose of the study. Although the use of intuition has been ongoing throughout history and documented in the literature, we do not really know how people actually experience and use their intuition, and consequently there is little information about how to nurture and develop the process. The purpose of this study is to discover how intuition is accessed, used, confirmed, understood, nurtured, and developed. The nature, process, and experience of intuition are explored in order to create a better understanding of this way of knowing. Personal narratives elicit information about how one knows intuitively, responds to and utilizes this information, and develops this inherent ability. Methodology. A qualitative research method was employed to initiate an exploratory, phenomenological investigation. In the traditional approach of the cognitive anthropologist, in-depth interviews were conducted as carefully guided conversations to allow the participants to fully express and explore their own experience, world views, and belief systems. From the interviews, profiles were constructed and subsequently examined by using the technique of content analysis. Information, presented in the profiles, was qualitatively analysed and interpreted to identify domains of understanding and specific dimensions of the intuitive experiences. Results and conclusions. Seven dimensions of the intuitive experience were identified as significant areas of interest and concern. Examining the dimensions of access, response, use, confirmation, meaning, development, and constraints provided the format to compare and contrast the participants' experiences, understandings, and beliefs. The themes of trust and source of intuitive information were elucidated. The full experience of intuition as a gestalt was explored to better understand the essence of the intuitive experience. The participants articulated many ways they use intuition, identified ways they nurture it, and speculated about ways they can further develop it. The participants gained expanded insights into their own process and experience, while generating information that has far reaching implications for further study. They found intuition intrinsic in developing interpersonal relationships, communicating caring, reaching meta-levels of understanding, making decisions, and creating meaning. Sometimes surprised, they spoke of the pervasive use of intuition at the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels of awareness.

An empirical study was performed to test two explanations of changes in beliefs following from major life events. On the one hand, Cognitive-experiential Self-theory would predict that, in the aftermath of major life events, individuals go through a personal process of adjusting their basic beliefs about self and world on the basis of what they have experienced. On the other hand, script theory and social constructionist thought would predict that the well socialized individual has prior knowledge of the changes in cognition that should accompany any major life event. According to these approaches, when the event occurs, the individual undergoes the very changes he or she already knew one should undergo. Reports of actual and hypothetical experiences of seven major life events by 272 undergraduates indicated that for six of the seven events those who had and had not experienced the event had virtually identical understandings of the effects of the event. For the seventh event, sexual abuse, a coherent pattern of differences between the reports of those who had and had not experienced the event was found. The results were interpreted as largely supporting the script and social constructionist position. The contribution of personal experience to socially held scripts was also discussed.

Research on the cessation of violence is important in light of the dramatic increase in public and scientific interest on family violence. Although the marital violence literature more than tripled during the eighties, much of the work has focused solely on the correlates and determinants of marital violence, ignoring the issue of how couples eliminate violence from their relationships. This is an exploratory study of the cessation of men's use of violence against their female partners. Longitudinal survey data were used to evaluate cessation rates, the relationship between demographic characteristics and risk factors for wife abuse and cessation, and the help seeking behavior of partners who ceased the violence. In depth interviews with two couples who had ceased the use of violence were used to elucidate the characteristics of the cessation process. It was found that contextual factors such as financial hardship, increased number of children at home, increased levels of marital conflict, and inadequate conflict resolution skills were negatively related to the cessation of violence. On the other hand, cessation was associated with immersion into a social network that supports nonviolence, development of alternative ways to resolve conflict, and the partners' commitment to the relationship.

The number of human service professionals who are migrating from Puerto Rico to the United States increased since the 1970's, and intensified during the 1980's (Petrovich, 1983; Turner, 1982). Among these professionals there are many psychotherapists who come to work in community mental health centers with poor and low income Puerto Rican migrants. The literature on cross-cultural psychotherapy, however, has virtually overlooked the possible effects on therapy of differences in social class when both parts of the therapeutic dyad are Latinos. This study explored the perceptions of twelve Puerto Rican psychotherapists who migrated from Puerto Rico to the U.S. primarily during the 1980's about how their own condition as migrants and the differences in social class between themselves and their clients affect the therapeutic relationship. Using a qualitative research approach, data was gathered through a structured open-ended interview. Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted with Puerto Rican psychotherapists who work in mental health centers in Massachusetts primarily with poor and low income Puerto Rican migrants. A grounded theory model guided the data analysis in the pursuit of similarities, differences, and patterns among respondents. All interviewed therapists identified significant differences between themselves and their Puerto Rican migrant clients related to social class, including differences in values, belief systems, and general lifestyle. Furthermore, it was found that the concept of migrant is negatively charged in the understanding of interviewed therapists, and it was difficult to match a self-perception as a professional with that of a migrant. It is concluded that the differences identified by interviewed therapists between themselves and their poor and low income Puerto Rican clients in the context of migration makes the therapeutic situation a "cross-cultural" one for all practical purposes, despite the fact of being from the same national origin. Consequently, it is recommended that social class be acknowledged as a highly significant variable in the therapeutic relationship, regardless of nationality of the parts involved. Training about the importance of social class issues in therapy is strongly recommended, both at the level of graduate schools and at the level of employment recruitment.

<p> This study, as well as the initial pilot study, are the first known, stand-alone, empirical studies of the Tibetan Buddhist <i>tonglen</i> meditation practice, which is intended to increase levels of compassion (and the benefits that come with that), in addition to reducing less helpful mind-states such as fear and egotism. The premise of this larger proof-of-concept study was to investigate whether tonglen meditation can 1) increase self-compassion and compassion for others, 2) in novice meditators 3) with very little instruction, and 4) short amounts of practice time. This study examined changes in self-compassion and compassion for others through a pre/post intervention study design (&alpha; = .05). Subjects (n = 53), who were novice meditators, were given only ten minutes of introduction and instruction; after which, they were asked to participate in an 18-minute guided tonglen meditation, practice on-the-spot tonglen for 30-seconds twice a day for six days, then do one additional 18-minute guided tonglen practice. Results showed a statistically significantly increase in the total scale score of self-compassion (p &lt; .01) and statistically significant beneficial changes in each of the six subscales as measured by Neff's self-report questionnaire, the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). An increase in compassion for others, though trending up, could not be determined through Pommier's self-report questionnaire, the Compassion Scale (CS), due to a ceiling effect. In addition to the study results, this dissertation includes a detailed discussion of the findings and of the results from the qualitative feedback, which offers insight into the perceived benefits subjects reported, including a reduction in pain, increased communication skills, and the ability for greater perspective taking. The dissertation also contains an introduction to tonglen meditation, a tonglen troubleshooting guide, a chart of tonglen commentaries in English organized by century, and an extended literature review of a cousin compassion meditation practice, loving-kindness meditation (LKM).</p>

<p> Mate Poaching is one strategy used for attracting a mate. Under principles of evolutionary theory, mating strategies are driven by inter-sexual selection and intra-sexual competition creating Sex specificity in the way strategies succeed or fail. The relatively recent emergence of the Internet raises questions about its interaction with evolutionary mechanisms that people use to attract a mate. The purpose of this study was to identify whether or not Mate Poaching exists within virtual Social Networking Sites (SNS), and whether or not poaching tactics used in a Face-to-Face Environment are still considered effective in a Virtual one. This study asked whether there was an association between the environment of Mate Poaching and the Sex of a poacher in three environments (Face-to-Face, Virtual, and Blended); the study also asks whether there is a significant interaction between the environment and Sex of a poacher on the Perceived Efficacy of three Mate Poaching tactics (Enhancing Physical Appearance, Demonstrating Resources, and Humor). The study consisted of a mixed design: Part one was a causal-comparative design answered with a modified Anonymous Romantic Attraction Survey (ARAS). Part two was an experimental design, randomly assigning participants to rate the Perceived Efficacy of 42 tactics from the Expanded Acts and Tactics from Schmitt and Buss (2001). The convenience sample (N=233) was drawn from adults 18 years or older who have had at least one romantic relationship in their lifetime, and were residents of the United States. The sample, consisting of 71 males and 162 females, was 84.1% heterosexual, and split evenly on marital status; ages ranged from 18 to 78, with a mean age of 40. Data were analyzed for part one with six chi-square tests of association, and part two with three two-way factorial ANOVAs. Part one found a significant association between Sex and Environment for &ldquo;Have you ever poached?&rdquo; in the Face-to-Face and Blended Environments. The Virtual Environment and all three (Face-to-Face, Virtual and Blended) Environments for &ldquo;Have you frequently poached?&rdquo; did not find a significant association with Sex. Part two found no significant interactions between Sex and environment on the Perceived Efficacy of the three tactics; there was a main effect of Sex on both Enhancing Physical Appearance and Demonstrating Resources, further confirming previous literature. There was no main effect of Sex or environment on the tactic of Humor, consistent with mixed results around this construct in the literature.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: Fernando Rivera. Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-64).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1931. / Vita. "Carried on in the nursery schools of the Child Development Institute of Teachers College, Columbia University."--Introd. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 100.