published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purpose of this investigation was to study the relationship between perceived barriers and participation or non-participation by undergraduate females in recreational programming at Ball State University. For the purposes of this study, anything that reinforces a decision not to participate in a program or activity was considered a barrier. Participants were selected from various college units on campus. They were also grouped based upon on campus or off campus residency and whether they were participants or non-participants in programs sponsored by the Office of Recreation Programs at Ball State University. Each participant (n=160) completed two written surveys: survey one: the Leisure Diagnostic Battery (LDB) and survey two: the Perceived Barriers Survey. Data were analyzed using multiple t-tests and associations were revealed at the .05 level on each of the three scales of the LDB (Barriers to Leisure Experience Scale, Depth of Leisure Involvement Scale and the Perceived Leisure Competence Scale). Many perceived personality traits influenced whether a female student participated in campus recreational programming. Survey two also presented associations at the .05 level for the following specific perceived barriers: discomfort; lack of motivation; fatigue; feelings about one's body; other people; pain; lack of time available; inconvenient hours; body image; school responsibilities and a lack of knowledge about what programs were available. Each of these barriers represents a call to action for recreation professionals. Several program strategies were suggested to minimize or eliminate these barriers, and to recruit and retain more female students in campus recreational programming. / Fisher Institute for Wellness

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Because half of age-related physical losses result from inactivity and disuse, and loss frequently antecedes depression and decreased self-esteem; exercise intervention offers potential physiological and psychological benefits. Self-efficacy and personal control is additionally promoted in a wellness concept program. The effect of twelve weeks of wellness-oriented exercise upon depression, self-esteem, and locus of control orientation is studied in an exercise and non-exercise control group of community residing women 65 and older. Statistically significant post-exercise changes result from reductions in two self-report measures of depression in the exercise group, and increased self-esteem scores in the control group. A non-representative sample may account for high pre-exercise scores in all three dependent variables. A replication with a larger, random, representative sample of older people and domain-specific measures is recommended to improve the study of hypothesized psychological benefits associated with exercise.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A review of the past decade of literature on the subject of depression in South African women revealed a paucity of research that documents the perspectives of low-income women who have been diagnosed with depression. Informed by this and recent feminist critiques of the concept of depression, this study aimed to bring traditionally overlooked perspectives to the fore by providing rich descriptions of the subjectively lived experience of depression, as recounted by low-income women themselves. This feminist phenomenological study took place in a poor, rural community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with ten low-income women who had been diagnosed with depression. The transcribed interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. A number of important findings emerged. Firstly, participants were seen to express somatic complaints ahead of (and more frequently than) disclosures of sadness. Secondly, participants often described experiencing their psychological distress as anger, anxiety and a changed sense of self. Thirdly, participants generally attributed these experiences (and their overall distress) to a history of childhood trauma, the loss of important relationships, being physically, sexually or emotionally abused, feeling under supported and overburdened by multiple responsibilities, living in dangerous communities, and/or the various consequences of poverty. Finally, it was observed that while symptoms of suicidal ideation and intent were present in many of the women interviewed, strong religious and cultural norms existed and generally functioned to silence and deny the subject. Overall, the women’s subjective experiences, understandings and descriptions of depression allowed a more complex picture to emerge than that which is currently offered by mainstream biomedical models. Consequentially, the current conceptualisation of the term “depression” was deemed to be inadequate, specifically because it does not fully capture low-income women’s experiences of distress, and also because it tends to obscure the possible impact of socio-economic and political contexts on their mental health. Implications of these findings include firstly, that not only does the diagnosis of depression serve to medicalise women’s misery, but it may simultaneously serve to obscure their feelings of anger, anxiety, sadness, hopelessness and other symptoms of distress that are intrinsically linked to their disadvantageous social and living conditions. Secondly, the findings indicate that the use of traditional diagnostic and suicide assessment interviews may be unhelpful or even irresponsible in some South African contexts. Finally, many of the study findings warrant further investigation and psychological research. Recommendations to this end are thus included and stress the need to use theoretical perspectives and research methodologies that are sensitive to the multilayered, complex psychological experiences of depression in low-income women. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: ’n Oorsig van die afgelope dekade se literatuur oor depressie by Suid-Afrikaanse vroue dui op ’n gebrek aan navorsing oor die perspektiewe van vroue uit lae-inkomstegroepe wat met dié toestand gediagnoseer word. Na aanleiding hiervan sowel as onlangse feministiese kritiek op die konsep van depressie, was hierdie studie dus daarop toegespits om tradisioneel miskende perspektiewe na vore te bring deur middel van ’n ryke beskrywing van die subjektiewe ervaring van die lewe met depressie soos vroue uit lae-inkomstegroepe self daarvan vertel. Hierdie feministiese fenomenologiese studie is in ’n arm, landelike gemeenskap in die provinsie Wes-Kaap, Suid-Afrika, onderneem. Semigestruktureerde diepte-onderhoude is gevoer met tien vroue in die laeinkomstekategorie wat met depressie gediagnoseer is. Die getranskribeerde onderhoude is op vertolkende fenomenologiese wyse ontleed. ’n Aantal belangrike bevindinge is gemaak. Eerstens het die meeste deelnemers somatiese klagtes gehad voordat (en meer dikwels as wat) hulle oor hul neerslagtigheid en terneergedruktheid gepraat het. Tweedens het heelwat deelnemers hul sielkundige nood as woede, angs en ’n gewysigde selfbeskouing beskryf. Derdens het die vroue merendeels hul ervarings (en hul algehele nood) aan ’n geskiedenis van kindertrauma, die verlies van belangrike verhoudings, fisiese, seksuele of emosionele mishandeling, ’n gebrek aan ondersteuning tesame met ’n oormaat verantwoordelikhede, hul gevaarlike woonbuurte en/of die verskillende gevolge van armoede toegeskryf. Laastens is waargeneem dat hoewel die ideasie en voorneme van selfdood wél as simptome by baie van die respondente opgemerk is, daar terselfdertyd sterk godsdienstige en kulturele norme bestaan waarvolgens dié onderwerp oor die algemeen doodgeswyg en ontken word. In die geheel skets die vroue se subjektiewe ervarings, begrippe en beskrywings van depressie ’n meer komplekse prentjie as wat hoofstroom- biomediese modelle tot dusver gebied het. Dus blyk die huidige konseptualisering van die term ‘depressie’ onvoldoende te wees, veral omdat dit nie die ervarings en nood van vroue uit lae-inkomstegroepe ten volle vasvang nie, en ook geneig is om die moontlike impak van sosio-ekonomiese en politieke kontekste op dié vroue se geestesgesondheid te misken. Die implikasies van hierdie bevindinge sluit eerstens in dat die diagnose van depressie nie net hierdie vroue se nood ‘medikaliseer’ nie, maar terselfdertyd dalk ook hul gevoelens van woede, angs, hartseer, hopeloosheid en ander simptome van nood wat ten nouste met hul minderbevoorregte maatskaplike en lewensomstandighede verband hou, verberg. Tweedens dui die bevindinge daarop dat die gebruik van tradisionele diagnostiese en selfdoodevalueringsonderhoude in sekere Suid-Afrikaanse kontekste nutteloos en selfs onverantwoordelik kan wees. Laastens regverdig baie van die studie se bevindinge verdere ondersoek en sielkundige navorsing. Aanbevelings in hierdie verband word dus ingesluit, en beklemtoon onder meer die behoefte aan teoretiese perspektiewe en navorsingsmetodologieë wat gevoelig is vir die meervlakkige, komplekse sielkundige ervarings van depressie by vroue uit laeinkomstegroepe.

published_or_final_version / Mental Health / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

No description available.

There is a lack of clarity in the current literature in how potential etiological factors interact and result in disordered eating. The purpose of this study was to examine an expanded model of Personality, Social Support, Appraisal/Coping Processes, Abuse History, Internalization of Sociocultural Standards, Psychological Disturbances, and Body Disparagement in the development of disordered eating. The current model was evaluated using 276 women in their transition to college, a time period highly associated with symptoms believed to increase a woman's risk for the development of disordered eating including perceived difficulty coping, weight gain, and negative affect. Structural equation modeling was used to allow simultaneous examination of the causal relationships between the factors. Structural analyses confirmed that college women with previous stressful experiences appraised the adjustment to college as more stressful and reported feeling less able to cope with the transition. Those women who identified the transition as overwhelming were also aware of increased negative mood and psychological states since beginning the school semester. Further, women with previous traumatic sexual experiences appeared to be at additional risk for increased negative affective symptoms. The resulting model confirmed that those women who experience negative mood states and those that endorse strong internalization of cultural values regarding attractiveness encountered increased dissatisfaction and disapproval of their bodies. Finally, women with higher levels of body concern engaged in more eating behaviors associated with disordered eating. The roles of personality functioning and perceived social support could not be identified in the developmental model. The predictive links between constructs in the resulting model provide meaningful information regarding the transition to college and associated risks for development of disordered eating. Validation of the model in an independent sample would provide confirmation of these relationships and longitudinal research examining females' attitudes across crucial developmental periods might provide important information regarding which individuals are most at risk for development of disordered eating.

Psychological and behavioral characteristics of female undergraduates with varying levels of disordered eating, as measured by the Questionnaire for Eating Disorder Diagnoses (Q-EDD; Mintz, O'Halloran, Mulholland, & Schneider, 1997), were investigated. Results suggest that the Q-EDD is an appropriate instrument for measuring eating disorder symptomatology. Greater disordered eating was associated with more bulimic, dieting, and weight fluctuation symptoms, higher impression management and approval-seeking needs, more dichotomous thinking, self control, and rigid weight regulation, and increased concern with body shape and dissatisfaction with facial features. Eating-disordered and symptomatic women evidenced more severe eating disorder behaviors and psychological distress than asymptomatic women. Findings are congruent with a redefined discontinuity perspective of eating disorder symptomatology. Treatment implications and campus-wide preventions are suggested.