<p> This research explores the experience of displacement and resettlement for Rwandan and Congolese refugees in New Hampshire, highlighting cultural perspectives and values that contribute to psychosocial resilience and a restored sense of well-being in these communities. Participants elaborated on their childhood experiences of culture, the disruptions of war and displacement, and their experience of resettlement and adjustment to life in the United States. The research considers the cultural perspectives and values that have contributed to well-being within African refugee communities, and that can generate a sense of stability as refugees negotiate cultural expectations in new homes. The research also considers intercultural relationships and relationships of psychosocial accompaniment. Phenomenological and ethnographic methodologies were used to gather and analyze data through the lens of liberation psychology and depth psychology. Decolonizing methodologies, including a commitment to reflexive practice and psychosocial accompaniment, were also integrated. Data was gathered through semi-formal interviews, focus groups, observations, and researcher field notes. Rarely are refugees invited by resettlement researchers to reflect on patterns of repair, restoration, and the generation of culturally informed adaptations. Participants in this study reveal their experience of culture, overlooked challenges, and the creative adaptations that generate possibilities for success and restored balance in families and communities. The research offers an approach to engaging cultural communities in responding to the challenge of resettlement with integrity, while drawing on resilience and familiar cultural patterns.</p>

<p> In the United States, women&rsquo;s persistent gains in structural power may cause backlash among those motivated to preserve the status quo. The proposed study examines the conditions that prompt men and women to endorse sexism and promote gender stereotypes. System justification theory proposes that people are motivated to justify the socio-political system that governs them and threats to the stability of their system can increase individual&rsquo;s motivated defenses. I expect men to show the strongest motivated defenses when the hierarchy is threatened or viewed as unstable, because to protect group-based interests men will reinforce the legitimacy of the system through stronger endorsement of system defenses. In contrast, women will show the strongest system defenses when the hierarchy is viewed as stable, to avoid feeling trapped in an unchanging system that oppresses them. To test these ideas, 430 men and women were exposed to a gender status hierarchy that was portrayed as stable or unstable and then they responded to several measures of sexism and gender stereotypes. Support for the hypothesis was only found on one measure of gender stereotypes. Men reported more system justifying stereotypes of traditional women in the unstable condition, while women showed the opposite pattern. Exploratory results demonstrate that men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s reports of agentic stereotypes for traditional and nontraditional women depended on whether they were exposed to a stable or unstable gender hierarchy. Future directions and limitations are discussed in consideration of these exploratory findings.</p>

<p> Although it is well established that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-image, choice researchers have largely ignored how this desire impacts what consumers choose. The current research investigates the notion that people's choices can serve as a signal that affects their beliefs about themselves. I explore a self-signaling framework to make unique predictions in two important substantive domains: prosocial giving and forfeiture choice. </p><p> The first essay shows that consumers are more likely to give to a charity when the donation appeal mentions a hedonic product. This occurs because the presence of a hedonic product changes the self-attributions, or self-signaling utility, associated with the choice to donate. I demonstrate the effect with real choice and field experiments, and provide evidence that the increase in donation rates occurs because the choice not to donate is a stronger signal of selfishness in the context of a hedonic product.</p><p> The second essay looks at forfeiture choices and finds that the structure of the self-concept can determine whether or not people give up an unused good. I develop a conceptual framework based on a known aspect of the self (self-concept clarity) to predict that when consumers are less clear about their self-concept they are more likely to self-signal. Four experiments show that people are more likely to keep an informative good or service they do not use (e.g. keep paying for a digital magazine subscription they do not read) when they are unclear about their self-concept.</p><p> Taken together these findings enrich our understanding of the role of self-signaling in choice, enhance our knowledge of how people use choice to manage their self-image, and link the behavioral findings of self-signaling in marketing to an established literature on self in psychology. The results have implications for choice theorists interested in understanding self-image motives and for marketing practitioners interested in understanding choice. </p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1936. / Vita. Bibliography: p. [365]-372.

<p> This dissertation uses mythological studies, psychological ideas and sociological techniques to introduce the reader to the thesis that tabletop role-playing game (TRPG) characters are intricate, semi-independent personae of their players, who have the potential to be equal in influence to an individual&rsquo;s other expressions of personality (e.g. employee, parent, friend, etc). TRPG characters, like all aspects of personality, exist at the junction of mythical, psychological, and sociological forces. Unlike other personae, TRPG characters exist within alternative realities deliberately crafted from heroic mythology, which feature group-centered behavior at their core. </p><p> By examining differences between character and player perspectives, especially the group based norm of heroism common across many kinds of TRPGs, the importance of studying TRPG characters as personae in their own right is emphasized. The dissertation concludes with ways for TRPG scholars to increase emphasis on TRPG character studies, and with ways for non-TRPG studies to benefit from an increased emphasis on personae play as an important aspect of psychosocial growth, especially with regard to how heroism is understood in American culture. </p>

<p> Practices that cultivate healthy relationships with self and others are always needed and valuable, especially during this modern time of ever-increasing fragmentation through technology. Cultivating empathy individually and communally promotes increased levels of connection among individuals and can create greater harmony among communities. Centering prayer offers an intervention that respects Christian practices of contemplation and can address care needs. This study investigated the impact of centering prayer on levels of empathy. This study was conducted through a single group pilot study using a mixed methods design. Given that centering prayer is primarily a Christian practice of contemplation, the population for this study was a Christian church community. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered to create a greater understanding of possible applications for centering prayer. The initial findings from this study support centering prayer as a positive intervention to help build psychological and emotional tools of empathy that can be added to church community offerings or Christian organizations. </p><p>

<p> Stalking has been a pervasive behavioral pattern that disrupts the lives of many. Previous researchers have examined factors that can predict the occurrence of stalking in victim-perpetrator relationships while simultaneously examining stalking type. Domestic violence and psychopathology have been possible predictors to stalking. A vignette survey examines the public&rsquo;s perception of stalking within former lover, acquaintance, and stranger relationship. A 3x3 factorial MANOVA examined the effects of relationship and type of stalking to danger, violence, and safety. Results demonstrate an interaction effect between former intimate, stalking type of following and perceptions of violence and threat to safety. These findings suggest that prevention programs need to educate communities on domestic violence in intimate relationships and stalking. </p><p>

<p> This qualitative study addresses the lived experience of participants in a specific somatic psychotherapy practice, relational somatic psychotherapy (RSP). The RSP approach is a biologically based, interpersonal exploration of consciousness and self-awareness through authentic relationship (Hilton, 2007). Following an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology, this study analyzes interviews focused on how participants experienced the somatically based psychodynamic healing modality of RSP through group relational dynamics. This study is grounded in depth psychology in that participants in RSP work with the unknown, repressed energy of the body in order to make behavioral and emotional energetic patterns conscious. It is grounded in somatic psychology in that the focus of exploration is in present moment experiences of the body. Thus, the assumption of this study is that the integration of both traditions creates an embodied approach to psyche. Themes that emerged from this study suggest that awareness is transformed through embodied relational experiences. These themes helped articulate that embodied relational experiences in psychodynamic group process supported individuals in integrating the dissociated parts of themselves into consciousness, suggesting that embodiment practices experienced in the context of authentic relationship help to integrate psyche and soma. Such experiences seem to integrate previous unconscious, implicit memory systems into healing and empowering embodied self-awareness. </p><p>

<p> Transcultural migration is a growing phenomenon, yet research on the lived experience of individuals who willfully leave the security and comfort of their home nation and socio-cultural support to migrate alone as adults to a foreign nation where they do not have citizenship, do not look like the locals, and do not share the local mother tongue had not been previously researched. Marcia&rsquo;s (2002) work on identity exploration and May&rsquo;s existential psychological works (e.g., 1953), particularly his notion of &ldquo;the stages in consciousness of self&rdquo; (p. 100), served as major theoretical foundations of this research. Giorgi&rsquo;s (2009a) descriptive phenomenological psychological method was used, as it aligns with the qualitative and existential nature of this topic. I interviewed three transcultural migrants and analyzed the data sets with imaginative variations to yield an essential psychological structure that describes the phenomenon. Fourteen constituents were identified: the presence of a call to adventure, an urge to defy the sense of confinement or frustration, an appetite to develop one&rsquo;s potential for action in the world, indefinite and flexible migration plans, an imagined or desired horizon as the destination, commitment depending on the passion for and pursuit of growth and challenges, identity reflections on being different, a sense of extra effort or work, constant revival of earlier psycho-social crises, questioning traditional cultural boundaries, integrating cultural experiences into cultural identity and orientation, rebellion against cultural judgment-based interactions, cultural flexibility through experiential understanding, and heightened awareness of global, local, and identity politics. These findings support the existing literature emphasizing migrants&rsquo; openness to experience and interest in developing personal potential (Madison, 2009), their sense of extra effort (Moreau et al., 2009), and a pluralistic sense of political and socio-cultural identity (e.g., Ortega, 2016). In addition, the present findings challenge preconceived notions of culture, suggesting that concepts of cultural orientation, rather than racial/ethnic identity, and cultural humility in place of cultural competency have greater functional applications to the transcultural phenomenon. Some clinical, educational, socio-cultural, and political implications are presented. Future studies are encouraged to examine various transcultural possibilities.</p><p>

<p> Quality of life in mentally ill older adults is an important area to target in psychiatric rehabilitation. Additionally, the ability for these individuals to live a more independent lifestyle and/or to feel fulfilled is a major contributor to their happiness. Therefore, mental health practitioners must have an understanding of how to help older adults diagnosed with a serious mental illness reach their optimal potential as enrollment continues to increase in mental health day programs. The intent of this study was to better understand mental health day program caregiver&rsquo;s experience in working with this population and to provide a description of what a mental health day program was like for the mentally ill residents under their care. The first task was facilitated by semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Secondly, a set of more survey-based questions were added to the interview design in an attempt to set the contextual stage of the described experience. It was believed that combined data would provide a more in depth perspective and set the stage to better explore the caregiver experience. Moreover, this approach is consistent with the generic qualitative method, which allows survey data to be integrated with interview data; in this case to help produce the work context of the caregiver. The combined data would then include attitudes, values, opinions and perspective on what works, what does not work and what could work better in relation to their work with this population. Using a data-driven, inductive coding model advocated by Boyatzis (1998) for conducting thematic analysis, three stages were developed: Stage 1. Sampling and design; Stage 2. Developing themes and codes; and Stage 3. Validating the use of the code. The results of this analysis yielded a total of 33 codes and 299 coded segments (participant comments coded). As a result, three themes were derived from the 12 patterns: 1) Caregivers&rsquo; Attitude towards Mental Health Day Programming, 2) Value that Caregivers Found within Mental Health Day Programs and 3) Caregivers&rsquo; Thoughts, Opinions and Feelings of Necessary Programmatic Model and Services. The original intent of his study was to determine 1.) how residential caregivers perceive specific characteristics or services as being an essential part of a mental health day program based upon their experience in working with older adult residents who have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness, 2.) whether identified services describe a particular mental health day program model or approach (Clubhouse, Psychosocial Rehabilitation or Rehabilitation Skills Training, or Peer/Consumer-Run) that would be the best program fit for older adults diagnosed with a serious mental illness, and 3.) the personal care home caregivers&rsquo; perception of how these services are expected to: provide stimulation and a desire for older adults to learn or grow; create an opportunity for older adults to be a part of the program; and promote older adults in taking part or engaging program activities are addressed. However, it was soon apparent that this type of evaluative research was well beyond the scope of the dissertation. Consequently, a less evaluative and more general descriptive qualitative approach was undertaken wherein the focus was changed with the attempt to 1.) better understand mental health day program caregiver&rsquo;s experience in working with this population, 2.) provide a description of what mental health day programming was like for the mentally ill residents under their care, and 3.) set the contextual stage of the described experience. To the extent that this objective was met was left to the eye of the beholder, but it was hoped that the results would set the stage and lay the groundwork for the next step of the more evaluative approach abandoned for the generic qualitative descriptive study that follows. Thus the original intent was included here given the adage that the best evaluation is always description (Patton, 2008).</p><p>