The marriage and family therapy profession is comprised mostly of European-American clinicians. Although all academic programs accredited by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) are required to demonstrate effort in recruiting African-American students, these efforts do not appear to be successful. This study was designed to provide suggestions for recruiting and supporting African-American students in marriage and family therapy programs based on perceptions of faculty and current African-American students. Data for this study are based on survey questionnaires received from 25 of 29 directors of AAMFT accredited academic programs and telephone interviews followed by survey questionnaires completed by 15 of the 20 African-American graduate students enrolled in these programs during the 1989-90 academic year. Results indicated that African-American students and faculty are grossly under represented in these programs. Many current African-American students report feeling isolated, alienated and lonely, as well as disappointed with the lack of African-American peers and faculty in their program. Specific suggestions are offered by students and faculty for improving recruitment and retention of African-American students. Suggestions for improving program sensitivity to cultural and racial issues which may impede the full integration of the African-American student into the academic program and the profession are also offered. / Master of Science

Buscando estabelecer controles públicos e empiricamente indexados para o comportamento verbal clínico do terapeuta de serviços, um modelo de Prática Psicológica por Evidências, chamado Prática Controlada, foi adaptado, testado e explorado quanto a algumas de suas possibilidades, em condições reais de aplicação. Esse modelo se fundamenta num arranjo específico dos procedimentos terapêuticos e em cinco instrumentos utilizados para a coleta de informações qualitativas e quantitativas pré-intervenção e na coleta continuada de dados empíricos referentes ao nível de perturbação psicológica do cliente, à qualidade da relação terapêutica e ao seu nível de engajamento nas tarefas terapêuticas, ao longo das primeiras 20 sessões de tratamentos de orientação analítico-comportamental para 34 clientes (10 homens, 33,3 ± 14,2 anos, e 24 mulheres, 35,6 ± 9,9 anos) em três cidades diferentes. As terapias foram conduzidas por três terapeutas experientes e quatro inexperientes. Os resultados indicaram que esse modelo de prática controlada produz indexadores empíricos que podem ancorar o comportamento verbal do terapeuta de serviços (suas interpretações e julgamentos teóricos e clínicos) e que são sensíveis à evolução de curto, médio e longo prazo da terapia, além de permitir a produção de evidências públicas clínica e socialmente relevantes dos resultados intermediários e finais do tratamento. Através da análise das séries temporais obtidas, os resultados também sugerem que a avaliação do cliente do seu nível de perturbação psicológica, do seu engajamento nas tarefas terapêuticas e na sua apreciação da qualidade da relação terapêutica pode responder a controles independentes e/ou a variáveis idiossincráticas. Apresenta-se uma discussão sobre teoria da mensuração, escalas de medidas e medidas em psicologia e em psicoterapia e algumas sugestões para pesquisas futuras são oferecidas. / Aiming to establish public and empirically based controls for the therapist-practitioner\"s clinical verbal behavior, a model of Evidence Based Psychological Practice, called Controlled Practice, was adapted, tested and explored in real-world conditions of application. This model is based on a specific arrangement of the therapeutic procedures and on five instruments for collecting qualitative and quantitative pre-intervention information and empirical data and for collecting continued empirical data on the client\"s level of psychological distress, on the therapeutic relationship\"s quality and on the client\"s level of performance at therapeutic tasks along the first 20 sessions of behavior-analytic oriented psychological treatments of 34 clients (10 males, 33,3 ± 14,2 yrs., and 24 females, 35,6 ± 9,9 yrs.) in three different towns. The therapies were delivered by three experienced therapists and four inexperienced. Results indicates that this model of controlled practice may anchor the practitioner verbal behavior (his/her clinical and theoretical interpretations and judgments) on empirically based indexers that are, at the same time, sensitive to the short, medium and long-term evolution of the therapy and may provide clinically and socially relevant public evidences of the treatment\"s intermediate and outcome results. Through the analysis of the time-series collected results also suggested that the client\"s evaluation of his/her level of psychological distress, his/her engagement in the therapeutic tasks and his/her appraisal of the therapeutic relationship may respond to independent controls and/or to idiosyncratic variables. A discussion of the theory of measurement, measurement scales and measures in psychology and psychotherapy is presented and some suggestions for future researches are offered.

Buscando estabelecer controles públicos e empiricamente indexados para o comportamento verbal clínico do terapeuta de serviços, um modelo de Prática Psicológica por Evidências, chamado Prática Controlada, foi adaptado, testado e explorado quanto a algumas de suas possibilidades, em condições reais de aplicação. Esse modelo se fundamenta num arranjo específico dos procedimentos terapêuticos e em cinco instrumentos utilizados para a coleta de informações qualitativas e quantitativas pré-intervenção e na coleta continuada de dados empíricos referentes ao nível de perturbação psicológica do cliente, à qualidade da relação terapêutica e ao seu nível de engajamento nas tarefas terapêuticas, ao longo das primeiras 20 sessões de tratamentos de orientação analítico-comportamental para 34 clientes (10 homens, 33,3 ± 14,2 anos, e 24 mulheres, 35,6 ± 9,9 anos) em três cidades diferentes. As terapias foram conduzidas por três terapeutas experientes e quatro inexperientes. Os resultados indicaram que esse modelo de prática controlada produz indexadores empíricos que podem ancorar o comportamento verbal do terapeuta de serviços (suas interpretações e julgamentos teóricos e clínicos) e que são sensíveis à evolução de curto, médio e longo prazo da terapia, além de permitir a produção de evidências públicas clínica e socialmente relevantes dos resultados intermediários e finais do tratamento. Através da análise das séries temporais obtidas, os resultados também sugerem que a avaliação do cliente do seu nível de perturbação psicológica, do seu engajamento nas tarefas terapêuticas e na sua apreciação da qualidade da relação terapêutica pode responder a controles independentes e/ou a variáveis idiossincráticas. Apresenta-se uma discussão sobre teoria da mensuração, escalas de medidas e medidas em psicologia e em psicoterapia e algumas sugestões para pesquisas futuras são oferecidas. / Aiming to establish public and empirically based controls for the therapist-practitioner\"s clinical verbal behavior, a model of Evidence Based Psychological Practice, called Controlled Practice, was adapted, tested and explored in real-world conditions of application. This model is based on a specific arrangement of the therapeutic procedures and on five instruments for collecting qualitative and quantitative pre-intervention information and empirical data and for collecting continued empirical data on the client\"s level of psychological distress, on the therapeutic relationship\"s quality and on the client\"s level of performance at therapeutic tasks along the first 20 sessions of behavior-analytic oriented psychological treatments of 34 clients (10 males, 33,3 ± 14,2 yrs., and 24 females, 35,6 ± 9,9 yrs.) in three different towns. The therapies were delivered by three experienced therapists and four inexperienced. Results indicates that this model of controlled practice may anchor the practitioner verbal behavior (his/her clinical and theoretical interpretations and judgments) on empirically based indexers that are, at the same time, sensitive to the short, medium and long-term evolution of the therapy and may provide clinically and socially relevant public evidences of the treatment\"s intermediate and outcome results. Through the analysis of the time-series collected results also suggested that the client\"s evaluation of his/her level of psychological distress, his/her engagement in the therapeutic tasks and his/her appraisal of the therapeutic relationship may respond to independent controls and/or to idiosyncratic variables. A discussion of the theory of measurement, measurement scales and measures in psychology and psychotherapy is presented and some suggestions for future researches are offered.

This study explores trainee psychotherapists' experiences of double bind situations and inconsistency between explicit and implicit contexts of training. The epistemological foundations of this text are postmodern, social constructionist and ecosystemic. A review of the relevant literature is presented, which includes aspects such as explicit and implicit contexts, double bind and experiences of trainees in training. This is followed by an account of the qualitative research approach adopted, namely, discourse analysis. Themes that are extracted from the text of the transcribed interviews are assumed to reflect discourses in training and the broader societal contexts in which trainees find themselves. These discourses are seen to inform trainees' constructions of their experiences in training. The findings of the analysis are found to concur with the initial hypotheses of this dissertation, as well as with findings in the literature. Recommendations for future research are offered. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Psychology / M.A.(Psychology)

This study is qualitative in nature. It reflects on the rich and varied experiences I encountered during training to be a psychotherapist. The content and process information around training is explored. My personal biases and prejudices towards training are made explicit. The experiences reflected upon are contextualized within the Unisa academic and the hospital clinical internship training contexts. The two contexts of training are contrasted accordingly showing their epistemological stance in their contribution to training of trainee therapists. The primary data in this research is the trainee researcher who is also the only participant subject in the study. The rest of the data is drawn from the experiences of the subject in interaction with others in different systems and subsystems. Through the creative synthesis step in the heuristic research approach the inferred theme is integrated in the analysis. Finally the research shows the limitations and implications involved. / Psychology / M.A. Psychology

This is a postmodernist dissertation contextualised within the new epistemology. The dissertation's descriptive methodology mirrors a personal journey from intrapsychic to ecosystemic psychology which operates within the domain of language and narrative discourse. As such it is founded on the principles of ecosystemic rather than Newtonian thinking. A conversation between various participants constructs the dissertatioi1 through polyphony and academic dialogue. This is then deconstructed through the use of metalogue thereby allowing the dissertation to operate simultaneously on a number of different levels. As it is a postmodernist text, the structure is in a sense an 'anti-structure' in that it is indirect while it is still acknowledged as a construction. In this way it is constructed and deconstructed in terms of its own premises. Expectations in terms of conventional dissertation formulae are challenged without negating academic requirements. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Psychotherapy is an interpersonal encounter where a therapist collaborates with clients to facilitate a healing process. Due to the personal nature of the therapeutic encounter, the therapist requires the necessary skills and knowledge, as well as a differentiated sense of self. The importance of supporting the psychotherapy trainee’s own differentiation process seemed to have been neglected in research in recent years. In South Africa there has recently been increasing pressure to select larger groups of trainees which has the risk that the tending to differentiation would further be neglected. The purpose of this research study is to reemphasise the importance of differentiation of self of the psychotherapy trainee by examining my own process of differentiation during my psychotherapy training. This study introduces the reader to these concepts and explores psychotherapy training in general and the Unisa training method specifically. The research design of this study is autoethnography which falls in the realm of social constructionism and the coding method is Thematic Data Analysis. The research findings as reflected in the two global themes namely individuation; and gaining and strengthening authentic relationships, seem to accurately reflect the process of differentiation. The specific training method of the Unisa training team in combination with the way in which I engaged with this process seemed important for the facilitation of this process of differentiation. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study explores trainee psychotherapists' experiences of double bind situations and inconsistency between explicit and implicit contexts of training. The epistemological foundations of this text are postmodern, social constructionist and ecosystemic. A review of the relevant literature is presented, which includes aspects such as explicit and implicit contexts, double bind and experiences of trainees in training. This is followed by an account of the qualitative research approach adopted, namely, discourse analysis. Themes that are extracted from the text of the transcribed interviews are assumed to reflect discourses in training and the broader societal contexts in which trainees find themselves. These discourses are seen to inform trainees' constructions of their experiences in training. The findings of the analysis are found to concur with the initial hypotheses of this dissertation, as well as with findings in the literature. Recommendations for future research are offered. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Psychology / M.A.(Psychology)