Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Nursing. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-71). Also available online.

The aim of phase one was to explore the self-concept of young carers and to identify school staff awareness regarding young carers. Eleven young carers (aged 11 to 14) participated in a single session involving a self-concept activity and a demographic questionnaire. The self-concept activity was designed to elicit salient aspects of self in the form of twenty statements. These statements subsequently formed a card sorting exercise to identify which statements were most important to the young carer, and considered positive or negative. Through thematic analysis, salient aspects of self were identified, which included reference to individual traits, interests, competencies, social relationships and family, as well as to helping and the caring role. Statements related to traits and family were found to be most important to young carers. Statements regarding traits and competencies were identified as most positive. 39 school staff respondents completed a questionnaire on defining young carers, internal and external support and perceived effectiveness in supporting young carers. Descriptive statistics were used and analysis was carried out on these data. School staff demonstrated a basic awareness of young carers although some inconsistencies regarding knowledge of the young carer experience still remain. School staff provided detail of internal and external support but felt they could still be more effective in supporting young carers. The findings from young carers and school staff are discussed in relation to relevant literature and strengths and limitations of phase one have been noted. In phase two, five young carers participated in three focus group sessions, seeking to identify valued support. Thematic analysis identified key areas of support that are summarised in an information booklet for school staff. The findings are discussed in the context of relevant literature and strengths and limitations of phase two are identified. An overall discussion situates the research in a wider context, reflecting on future directions for research and implications for educational psychologists.

Denmark's (1979) functional definition of profound deafness is adopted. Deaf individuals are aware of sound and may detect vibration but they have a limited facility of speech. Conrad (1979) and Rodda (1970) have shown the low level of scholarly achievement of such individuals. Denmark suggests that as young adults, they face the hearing world largely isolated from their parents, their friends and the professionals who advise them. This study is an attempt to explore the social problems brought about by such isolation. The thesis investigates the individual profoundly deaf young adult's self concept in relation to others. A unique form of Repertory Grid interview (Kelly, 1955)using sign language was developed, and was successfully employed with the majority of individuals. However, it became apparent that a substantial minority were lacking, sometimes wholly, in a structured form of language. A pre-interview routine was used to determine the form of investigation appropriate to the individual - an interview using sign language, or one placing heavy dependence on non verbal communication (such as mime and body language). Both forms of investigation enabled an 'existential phenomenological' description of the self-awareness of the individual to be produced. In the larger group, the procedure followed was near to the orthodox analysis of Rep Grids; in the smaller group, analysis involved a greater degree of interpretive intuition. Justification for the judgements made in each case is provided. The findings are reported in the form of case studies: 40based on Rep Grids, 10 on non-verbal interviews. Thematerial provides an advance in the understanding of the experience of the profoundly deaf young adult. Exuberance and vitality feature in the majority group interviewed by Repertory Grid method. Examples of isolation and of intense personal relationships are found in the minority group. The deaf have a special concern with: those whoaccept them and those rejected by them; dependence upondeaf peers rather than hearing adults; the apprehension of success and personal failure. The main finding of this research is that the young adult deaf do possess a self-awareness and this self-awareness is that of the normal individual. Theidiosyncracies of deaf behaviour are especially wellrepresented in the smaller group. This research confirms the suggestion of Denmark that the majority of deaf individuals referred for psychiatric help are not suffering from mental illness. The study also provides research evidence for necessary changes in the early education and upbringing of the deaf.

In accordance with theories of Carmichael (19), Lecky (41), and Rogers (55), which suggest that adolescence is a time of redefining conceptions about one's self in relation to values, groups, and institutions in one's environment, the following hypotheses were proposed to be investigated in this study: 1. The difference between mothers' and fathers' self-concept scores is nonsignificant. 2. Parents have higher self-concepts than their children. 3. Parents of children with high self-concepts will differ significantly from parents of children with low self-concepts with respect to their values.

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Research indicates that cultural mistrust can have negative impact on academic attitudes and outcomes for Black American students. However, few studies have specifically investigated the role that cultural mistrust has on student's academic self-concept, or perceptions of their academic abilities. Further, no study has explored to what degree student's perceptions of interpersonal relationships with faculty can impact the link between cultural mistrust and academic outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of cultural mistrust in education and training and interpersonal relationships on academic self-concept in a population of undergraduate Black American students enrolled at a predominately white university. Secondarily, the study sought to examine whether aspects of student-professor interaction, specifically faculty approachability, caring attitude, and connection, mediate or moderate the effect of cultural mistrust on academic self-concept. Results of this study show that faculty approachability and caring attitude mediate the effect of the interpersonal relationships sub domain on academic self-concept. Student-professor interaction did not moderate the relationship between cultural mistrust and academic self-concept. Results support the need to facilitate and encourage positive student-faculty interactions with Black American university students. Perhaps mentoring initiatives could aim to foster positive interactions with students and promote the recruitment and retention efforts of African American faculty members. / text

Emotional intelligence (EI) encompasses abilities (ability EI; AEI) and self-perceptions (trait EI; TEI) related to the expression, understanding, and management of emotions. Research on its developmental dynamics remains heavily weighted by the AEI perspective, whereas TEI has received virtually no attention in the developmental literature. This is a major oversight, as the two EI components are conceptually distinct and contribute independently to the prediction of important outcomes. Using multi-wave data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, this project examined rank-order stability (Study 1) and mean-level change (Study 2) in TEI over a 6-year period from late childhood (age 10-11) to adolescence (age 16-17). Longitudinal measurement invariance of the TEI assessment was also tested (Study 1). Longitudinal mean and covariance structures models (Study 1) and latent growth curve models (Study 2) were fitted to the data from 773 children (51% girls) who completed the Emotional Quotient Inventory–Youth Version Brief form at four biannual waves. Principles from the self-concept literature were used to outline an integrative theoretical framework within which the developmental dynamics of TEI could be studied and understood. Study 1 found that three of the four TEI domains could be measured consistently and reliably over time, and that individual differences in these domains became progressively more stable with age. Contrary to the maturity principle guiding the development of AEI, Study 2 found that mean-level changes in TEI followed a curvilinear trajectory characterizing the development of self-concepts: EI self-perceptions declined between late childhood and early adolescence and then increased later in adolescence. These findings provide, for the first time, important validity evidence for the TEI construct as developmentally distinct from AEI and developmentally similar to self-concept. From an applied standpoint, this implies that enhancing EI abilities alone may not necessarily result in concomitant increases in EI self-concepts, and vice versa. Instead, both AEI and TEI may need to be targeted to maximize the effectiveness of intervention efforts. From a theoretical standpoint, the conceptual link between TEI and self-concept theories suggests that other properties of self-concepts might also generalize to TEI – an important avenue for future research. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2013-01-29 17:40:30.322

Cognitive models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suggest that an ambivalent self-concept and dysfunctional beliefs play an important role in the pathogenesis of OCD. Early attachment experience is argued to be the main process through which such ambivalent self-representations develop. The current study investigated self-concept clarity, a broader construct than ambivalence, attachment security, obsessive-compulsive (OC)-relevant beliefs and their relation to OC symptoms. Forty four people who reported experiencing OC symptoms were compared to 34 individuals who reported no mental health difficulties. People who experienced OC symptoms exhibited significantly less self-concept clarity, less attachment security and higher levels of OC-related beliefs. Once levels of depression were controlled for, no significant relationship between attachment security and self-concept clarity was found in the OCD group. OC symptoms were not significantly correlated with self-concept clarity in the OCD group, although significant negative relationships were found between self-concept clarity and specific OC symptoms. Evidence was found to support the notion that OC-relevant beliefs mediate the relationship between self-concept clarity and OC symptoms, in addition to mediating the relationship between attachment anxiety and OC symptoms. Implications for attachment theory and cognitive models of OCD are discussed, along with clinical and research implications.

The present study investigated the relationship between self concept and children's figure drawings. The principle variable under consideration in each child's drawing were (a) size of the drawing and (b) number of colors used. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale (Fitts, 1965) was administered to 80 students selected from the seventh grade at Logan Junior High School, Logan, Utah. The subjects were then instructed to draw a picture of themselves. No further instructions were given regarding specific details of the requested picture. Ten colored pencils along with a regular pencil were made available to each student. No instructions were given as to the type or number of pencils to be used in their figure drawing. After the subjects completed their respective drawings, the experimenter rated each picture in terms of (a) number of colors used for the drawing, and (b) the height or vertical size of the drawing measured in millimeters from top to bottom of the drawing. It was hypothesized that students who obtain high scores on a measure of self concept (positive self concept) will use a greater number of colors in drawing a picture of themselves than will students who score low (negative self concept) on the same self concept measure. Students with high score on the measure of self concept will also draw a picture of themselves which is larger in size (height) than will students with low scores on the self concept measure. In addition to the two major hypotheses, it was also hypothesized that: (1) the high self concept group will have more smiles on the faces of their drawings than the low self concept group; (2) the high self concept group will draw more full figures than the low self concept group; (3) the high self concept group will use more total space on the paper than the low self concept group; and (4) the high self concept group will draw their figures more in the top two-thirds of the page and the low concept group will draw their figures more in the bottom two-thirds of the page. All of the subjects were ranked from high to low scores obtained on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale and were then divided into a high self concept group (top 20 scores) and a low self concept group (bottom 20 scores). Scores for the total sample of 80 students ranged from 193 to 394. Thus, the high self concept group was comprised of students with scores from 314 to 394. The low self concept group scores ranged from 193 to 246. The figure drawings of high and low scores on the Self Concept Scale were then compared to determine any apparent relationship between measured self concept and (a) number of colors used in the drawing and (b) overall size of the drawing. Analysis of the figure drawings indicated no significant differences, either in number of colors used, or in size of figure between high and low scorers on the Self Concept Scale. the mean number of colors used by high scorers was 3.5 millimeters. Thus, the basic hypotheses of the study were not substantiated by the results obtained. However, subjective inspection of the pictures in terms of the four sub-hypotheses did produce two significant findings in terms of projective-type ratings of the pictures and statistical analysis by the chi square method. In brief, these particular differences were that students who scored high in self concept drew more pictures with smiling faces and utilized the top two-thirds of the drawing paper, while students with low self concept drew pictures with sadder-looking faces and more toward the bottom of two-thirds of the paper. The data also showed a significantly higher number of boys than girls in the high self concept group.