Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thèse (M.Ps.) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 2004. / "Mémoire présenté comme exigence partielle de la maîtrise en psychologie offerte à l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi en vertu d'un protocole d'entente avec l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières." Comprend des réf. bibliogr. : f. [91]-102. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF.

Background: This thesis examines the impact of dream or wish fulfilment on seriously ill children and their families. Dream or wish fulfilment is operationalised as the actualisation of a seriously ill child’s wish by a charity that provides desired experiences. Anecdotal reports suggest that the experience of having a dream or a wish fulfilled can provide seriously ill children and their families with a sense of hope and time away from illness. However, little empirical research has been conducted in this area. This thesis reports the impact of dream fulfilment on the psychosocial well-being of ill children and their families. The research questions are: what is the experience of having a dream fulfilled for the child? What is the impact of dream fulfilment on the family? Methods: A constructivist grounded theory methodology was adopted, using theoretical sampling to recruit families from across the UK. Twenty-one families were interviewed, including 15 dream recipients, 8 siblings, and 24 parents. Analysis followed the grounded theory methodology of simultaneous data collection and development of theory, resulting in analytic interpretations of participants’ worlds. Results and Conclusions: This thesis reports for the first time a theory and accompanying theoretical model, that explain the impact of dream fulfilment on families’ lives. The generated theory suggests that dream fulfilment was conceptualised as an alternative milestone in seriously ill children and their families’ lives. Additionally, the dream experience shifted perceptions of illness by providing instances and experiences where illness did not underscore family life. Findings additionally suggest that the dream fulfilment process provided families with ill children, who often felt excluded and stigmatised from services, with a period of much needed support. Findings also highlight the unintended negative consequences of dream fulfilment. Implications for Dreams Come True, and other dream and wish fulfilment organisations are discussed.

129f. / Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-04-03T17:09:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigues_Dissertacao.pdf: 746330 bytes, checksum: a172355c19af9865003f545c9800ac57 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Meirelles(rodrigomei@ufba.br) on 2013-04-09T17:24:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigues_Dissertacao.pdf: 746330 bytes, checksum: a172355c19af9865003f545c9800ac57 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-04-09T17:24:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigues_Dissertacao.pdf: 746330 bytes, checksum: a172355c19af9865003f545c9800ac57 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / A Teoria das Representações Sociais (TRS) permite o estudo dos fenômenos de grupos sociais, por meio da descoberta do modo como os indivíduos e grupos estabelecem um mundo estável, a partir da diversidade de atitudes individuais e de fenômenos que contribuem para a construção de um determinado conhecimento prático compartilhado por um grupo de pertença. Esta pesquisa tem o seguinte objetivo: analisar as representações sociais sobre o ajustamento social elaboradas pelos indivíduos submetidos à revascularização do miocárdio. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório descritivo com abordagem quantitativa e qualitativa, objetivando analisar as representações sobre ajustamento social elaboradas pelos indivíduos submetidos à revascularização do miocárdio. O campo de pesquisa foi um ambulatório de isquemia de um hospital de grande porte, de administração mista, referência em cirurgia cardíaca, da cidade de Salvador - Bahia. Os dados foram coletados através de um instrumento misto de entrevista. Para a análise dos resultados da associação livre de palavras e das entrevistas foram utilizados, respectivamente, o programa informático EVOC e a análise temática de conteúdo, que a partir da freqüência de unidades temáticas permitiram a análise quantitativa e qualitativa. Os resultados evidenciaram que a estrutura da representação do ajustamento social dos entrevistados tem como elemento central a Saúde, associada à necessidade de mudança de vida para o retorno ao cotidiano e as dores da recuperação póscirúrgica. Os elementos periféricos referem-se à gratidão a Deus para superação dos momentos difíceis do ajustamento social, que embora possam dar sustentação ao núcleo central, expectativa de uma vida saudável, estão associados a aspectos negativos, como a impotência, a tristeza e a necessidade de repouso. As representações sociais referentes às funções de saber e orientação para o ajustamento social estão relacionadas à compreensão e explicação da diversidade de concepções sobre esse ajustamento, decorrentes dos requisitos pessoais necessários e do conhecimento adquirido, destacados em cinco categorias e dezesseis subcategorias. Os resultados assinalam indicadores essenciais para avaliar o processo de ajustamento, implementar uma assistência considerando a individualidade de cada pessoa e a necessidade de mudança de hábitos de vida, no sentido de promover o ajustamento social e a saúde dessas pessoas e de seus familiares para melhoria de sua qualidade de vida. Poderão também influenciar na reflexão dos profissionais de saúde sobre as próprias concepções do ajustamento social. / Salvador

A Epilepsia Mioclônica Juvenil (EMJ) é uma epilepsia generalizada idiopática geralmente associada à ausência de alterações estruturais. Estudos neuropsicológicos, com um número restrito de paradigmas, sugerem que indivíduos com EMJ apresentam pior desempenho nos testes que avaliam funções executivas. De maneira complementar, a descrição da personalidade nos pacientes com EMJ corrobora os estudos neuropsicológicos, uma vez que relata maior exacerbação da impulsividade nestes pacientes, o que refletiria uma possível disfunção de lobo frontal. Estes estudos baseiam-se ou em observações clínicas ou nos critérios de classificação categorial do DSM-IV. Não há até o momento, estudos sobre traços de personalidade assim como a correlação com a presença de disfunção executiva e traços de personalidade impulsivos nos pacientes com EMJ. Além disso, o impacto da EMJ sobre o funcionamento social não foi estudado. Os objetivos deste estudo foram: 1. verificar se as funções atencionais e executivas encontram-se prejudicadas; 2. verificar se existem diferentes níveis de comprometimento das funções executivas e atencionais; 3. verificar se há alteração dos traços de personalidade, através de instrumento objetivo; 4. verificar se existem prejuízos da adequação social; 5. verificar a correlação entre o desempenho nas funções executivas e atencionais e a expressão de traços de personalidade relacionados a um pior controle de impulsos; 6. verificar a correlação entre as pontuações obtidas nos testes neuropsicológicos avaliadores das funções executivas e atencionais e os escores em adequação social e; 7. verificar se as variáveis clínicas da epilepsia se correlacionam com as pontuações obtidas nos testes neuropsicológicos, a expressão de traços de personalidade relacionados a um pior controle de impulsos e com os escores em adequação social em pacientes com EMJ. Para tanto, foram avaliados 42 pacientes com EMJ através de: a) bateria compreensiva de testes neuropsicológicos avaliadores de funções executivas e atencionais; b) questionário padronizado de avaliação de traços de personalidade (ITC) e; c) escala padronizada de avaliação da adequação social (EAS). Os desempenhos e escores nos testes, questionário e escala dos pacientes com EMJ foram comparados a um grupo de 42 sujeitos controle, sem diagnóstico psiquiátrico ou neurológico, pareados por idade, escolaridade e nível sócio-econômico. Os pacientes com EMJ tiveram piores desempenhos que os controles em testes de atenção imediata, controle mental, atenção seletiva e sustentada, flexibilidade mental, controle inibitório, fluência verbal, formação de conceitos, manutenção de metas, fluência verbal e memória verbal a curto prazo. Quanto à gravidade da disfunção executiva, observou-se que 83,33% apresentaram disfunção executiva moderada ou grave. Os pacientes com EMJ também apresentaram maior expressão dos traços de personalidade impulsivos e pior adequação social em comparação com o grupo controle. Disfunção executiva/ atencional se correlacionaram com o pior controle dos impulsos, porém não com o pior funcionamento social. Houve correlação entre a frequencia de crises e a presença de transtornos psiquiátricos com o pior desempenho executivo/atencional, com a maior expressão de traços impulsivos e com a pior adequação social. A maior duração da epilepsia e a idade de início precoce tiveram relação com a disfunção executiva e personalidade, respectivamente. Na análise categorial entre os grupos de fácil e difícil controle, pacientes refratários apresentaram pior disfunção executiva e uma presença ainda mais expressiva dos traços de personalidade impulsivos. Nosso estudo demonstra a presença de disfunção atencional e executiva nos pacientes com EMJ, além da presença de traços de personalidade impulsivos. O presente estudo identificou a presença de pior funcionamento social destes pacientes. Além disso, verificamos a existência de dois grupos distintos de pacientes, sendo que pacientes mais refratários apresentam-se globalmente comprometidos. Estes achados sugerem que há uma necessidade de melhor caracterização fenotípica dos pacientes com EMJ a fim de incluir endofenótipos visto que nossos resultados demonstram uma possível existência de grupos distintos de pacientes com EMJ. / Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy (JME) is an idiopathic generalized epilepsy usually associated with absence of structural changes. Neuropsychological studies in patients with JME, using a limited number of paradigms, show worse performance on tests assessing executive functions. In addition, the description of personality traits in patients with JME corroborates neuropsychological studies, reporting failure of impulse control in these patients, which reflects a possible frontal lobe dysfunction. These studies are either based on clinical observations or on the categorical classification criteria of DSM-IV. To moment, the correlation between executive dysfunction and impulsive personality traits in patients with JME, has not been performed, as well as neither an objective study of the social adjustment of this population. The objectives of this study were to: 1. Investigate if attentional and executive functions are impaired; 2. Investigate if there are different levels of impairment in attentional and executive functions 3. Investigate if there are alterations in personality traits using an objective instrument 4. Investigate if there is impairment of social functioning 5. Investigate if there are correlations between performance on attentional and executive functions and the expressions of personality traits related to poor impulse control, 6. Verify if there are correlations between scores on neuropsychological tests of attentional and executive functions and social functioning 7. Investigate if there are correlations between clinical variables of epilepsy and neuropsychological performance, expression of impulsive personality traits and social functioning. We evaluated 42 patients with JME by: a) a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests of attentional and executive functions b) a standardized assessment of personality traits (TCI) and c) a standardized scale for assessing social functioning (SAS-SR). The performances and scores on tests, of patients with JME were compared to a group of 42 control subjects without neurological or psychiatric diagnosis, matched for age, education and socioeconomic status. Patients with JME showed worse performance than controls on tests of attentional span, working memory, inhibitory control, concept formation, maintenance of goals, verbal fluency and immediate verbal memory. We also observed that 83.33% of the patients with JME had moderate or severe executive dysfunction. Patients with JME showed higher expression of personality traits associated with an impaired impulse control and worse social functioning, when compared with the control group. Attentional/ executive dysfunction was correlated with poor impulse control, but not with worse social functioning. We found correlations between the frequency of seizures and the presence of psychiatric disorders with attentional and executive dysfunction, with the highest expression of impulsive traits and with worsened social functioning. Longest duration of epilepsy and the early age of onset were respectively associated with executive dysfunction and personality. In the category analysis between groups of patients easy and difficult to control seizures, refractory patients had worse executive dysfunction with an even a greater presence of impulsive personality traits. Our study demonstrates the presence of attentional and executive dysfunction in patients with JME, as well as the presence of impulsive personality traits. Moreover, this study identified the presence of poor social functioning in these patients. We also note the existence of two distinct groups of patients, were more refractory patients appear to present broader impairment. These findings suggest that there is a need for better phenotypic characterization of patients with JME to include diverse phenotypes since our results suggest a possible existence of distinct groups of patients with JME.

Prompts and instructions and reinforcer-sampling procedures were used in an attempt to increase recreational activity attendance of eight former mental patients in a community setting. A multiple baseline design with a reversal component was used to assess the effectiveness of the procedures. Data indicated that there was no increase in the time subjects spent outside of their residential facility, or in the number of recreational activities they attended in the community. There was an increase in the variety of the activities attended, but this increase was not maintained. Future research suggestions for increasing activity attendance are offered, including the effects of exposure to activities with friends and increasing the time spent in reinforcer-sampling activities.

The purpose of this study was to compare the academic achievement and social adjustment of mentally retarded students who have had five years of special education with mentally retarded students who have had no special education. This comparison was made to determine if there is a significant difference between the two groups. The present study was not undertaken to defend or attack special education classes. The study was designed to determine to what extent academic and social differences existed between the two groups. It is hoped the results of this study can be used in planning programs for the educable mentally retarded children in the Weber County Schools. The writer proposes the following hypotheses: 1. There will be no significant difference between the two groups in reading. 2. There will be no significant difference between the two groups in arithmetic. 3. There will be no significant difference between the two groups in language. 4. There will be no significant difference between the two groups in attitude toward school. 5. There will be no significant difference between the two groups as evaluated by their teachers. Data concerning these problems were collected from standardized tests from teacher-appraised school adjustment rating scale, and from school records.

The purpose of this introductory chapter is to make clear the intent of the entire study. First of all, no attempt is made at claiming any distinction for originality, as the information contained herein is gathered from books, magazines, newspapers, conversations with experienced business men and labor men, and some from personal observation. The present unemployment situation causes many people to question our government's policy of leaving our "gates" open to Mexican immigration. Many are the figures that we hear quoted in an effort to bolster personal views on this problem. Dr. Manual Gamio urges a limitation placed on Mexican immigration. Dr. Paul Taylor sees no reason for such a step. Both of these men have studied the problem thoroughly, yet they arrive at opposite conclusions. The former is a Mexican and feels that his suggestions would benefit both countries and their peoples. Individual and cursory investigations seem to be in accord with his advice. Dr. Taylor advises us that time will correct the present condition and apparently we need not attempt to alleviate the problem. Aside from the employment issue, it is argued that the Mexican presents a socio-racial economic problem. The question involved herein is one of adaptation. Naturally he is not accustomed to our mode of living and upon entering this country he % faces a world entirely unknown to his past experiences. He soon finds himself at the mercy of those people more advanced than himself; often he falls into the hands of unscrupulous contractors. Aside flora my personal opinion, I must offer the suggestion that "'big business" seems to favor unrestricted Mexican immigration. Even farmers in this valley advocate restriction. Therefore, this study will involve an unbiased treatment of the subject (to the best of my knowledge) and the conclusions offered shall be based on the facts contained herein.

The purpose of this study was to appraise certain aspects of kindergarten adjustment of children in San Joaquin County, California, who had participated in the Head Start program during the 1965 eight-week session, and compare it with the adjustment of a comparable group of kindergarten children who had not had an organized preschool experience by testing at the beginning and again at the end of the kindergarten year.

It was the purpose of this study (1) to determine the needs of foster-home children; (2) to discover if an how needs of foster-home children are being met in the school; (3) to determine how the placement agency, the school, and the home are working to meet these needs; and (4) to recommend a program of procedure to meet the discovered needs on the basis of the findings. Specifically it will attempt to answer, "What are the needs of foster-home children in some California elementary schools?"