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The domestic playing of videogames is examined through a series of extended dialogues with male adolescents. The research process was grounded in a theorisation of audience activity in communication studies which sees meanings emerging from the boys’ engagements with kinetic texts in terms of refigurative activity. This encapsulates reading, interpretation, and a cultural productivity whereby the kinetic text is returned to the everyday world, primarily through a relation of mimicry. The cultural fertility of videogames is traced through this mimicry to reveal a series of themes: a de-stabilising of the distinction between work and play spaces; the fragmentation of audiences of the small screen in the home through the establishment of gendered playspaces; the instilling of competitive relations within male community; and the melding of fantasy and discipline. An investigation of the significance of soundtrack to videogame play leads to the conclusion that in videogame playing a new cultural competency is taking shape in the form of a postmodern literacy, which lays stress on a continuous circumlocution, a destabilizing of narrative time, and middles rather than beginnings or endings. The findings contradict many ideas regarding videogame playing: that players are addicts; that videogame play is mindless; or that players are fickle. Videogame playing is implicated as an identity-making discursive project considered central to the business of being a male adolescent. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

‘Psychosocial problems’ are psychological problems that are regarded as resulting from the interaction between the adaptive capacities of individuals and the demands of their physical and social environments. Many different factors have been theoretically proposed, and empirically established, as predictors of a range of psychosocial problems in adolescents. However, a problem exists in that this literature appears to lack an integrative framework that has validity across the range of problems that are observed. The purpose of the current research is to propose and test a model that draws together three clusters of factors that are useful in predicting the incidence of adolescent psychosocial problems. These are family structural background factors, family functioning variables and control beliefs. Data were collected from 155 adolescent males aged between 12 and 19 by a single concurrent and retrospective self-report questionnaire. This included data about the respondent (age, involvements with mental health or juvenile justice agencies) and family structural background factors (days per week worked by mother/father, occupational status for mother/father, residential mobility, number of persons in the family home). The questionnaire also incorporated the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker, Tupling & Brown, 1979) to quantify the levels of perceived parental care and overprotection, and an adaptation of the Parental Discipline Style Scale (Shaw & Scott, 1991), to assess punitive, love withdrawing and inductive discipline practices. In addition, the (Low) Self-control Scale (Grasmick, Tittle, Bursick & Arneklev, 1993) and the Locus of Control of Behaviour Scale (Craig, Franklin, & Andrews, 1984) were used to collect data concerning adolescents’ perceived behavioural self-control and locus of control. Finally, selected sub-scales of the Child Behavior Checklist Youth Self-Report (Achenbach, 1991b) were used to collect data on the incidence of social withdrawal, somatisation, anxiety and depression, aggression and delinquency among the respondents, and in aggregated form, the incidence of ‘total problems’ and internalising and externalising behaviours. Results indicated family structural background factors, family functioning variables and control beliefs possess limited predicted validity and that the usefulness of the proposed model varies between specific psychosocial problems. Family functioning variables were generally stronger predictors than family structural background factors, particularly for internalising behaviours. Of these, levels of parental care and overprotection were generally the strongest predictors. Perceived self-control and locus of control were also generally strong predictors, but were particularly powerful with respect to externalising behaviours. The strength of predictive relationships was observed to vary between specific internalising and externalising behaviours, suggesting that individual difference variables not assessed in the current research were differentially influential. Finally, the parental and individual characteristics that predicted maximal levels of adjustment (defined in terms of minimal levels of internalising and externalising behaviours) were explored and the correlates of various parenting style typologies (Parker et al., 1979) were investigated. These results strongly confirmed the importance of family functioning and control beliefs with respect to the prediction of internalising, externalising and well-adjusted behaviours. In all analyses, substantial proportions of the variance in the incidence of problem behaviours remain unexplained. The findings are examined in relation to previous research focused on (familial) social control and (individual) self-control with respect to psychosocial problems in adolescents. In addition, methodological considerations are discussed and the implications of the findings for clinical and community interventions to address problem behaviours, and for further study, are explored.

This portfolio explored issues that are relevant to the judgements routinely made by clinical psychologists. The first chapter provides a theoretical overview of relevant issues. In this chapter, firstly, the debate over the relative merits of ‘clinical’ and ‘statistical’ approaches to clinical judgement (Meehl, 1954) is reviewed. It is noted that, although much of the empirical evidence supports the greater accuracy of statistical approaches to making judgements (where appropriate methods exist), they are rarely routinely used, and clinical approaches to making judgements continue to dominate in the majority of clinical settings. Secondly, common sources of errors in clinical judgement are reviewed. These include the misuse of cognitive heuristics, the presence of clinicians’ biases, the limitations to human information-processing capacities and the over-reliance on clinical interviews. Finally, some of the basic strategies that can be useful to clinicians in improving the accuracy of clinical judgement are described. These include undertaking advanced level training programs, using quality instruments and procedures, being wary of over-reliance on theories, adhering to the scientist-practitioner approach and being selective in the distribution of professional efforts and time. In the subsequent chapters these strategies are explored further through four clinical case studies. These cases were collected during the university placement program and they have been selected to illustrate some of the approaches as clinician may use in attempting to optimise the accuracy of judgements necessary in the context of clinical psychological practice. The final chapter provides a brief overview and discussion of these cases in relation to the issues identified in Chapter One,

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Alcohol-related expectations have been defined as the anticipated consequences from consuming alcohol (Brown, Goldman, Inn, & Anderson, 1980). Previous research has been conducted to examine the role of alcohol expectations in the co-occurrence of alcohol problems with anxiety and depressive symptoms. In the current study, the relationship between alcohol problems, anxiety and depressive traits, and alcohol expectancies were examined within a male juvenile correction sample. Specifically, statistical analyses were conducted to test the degree to which alcohol expectancies combined with anxiety/depression traits improve the prediction of alcohol-related problems beyond that of anxiety/depression traits alone. Archival data were collected from 205 incarcerated male adolescents who completed both the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire -- Adolescent Form (AEQ-A) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--Adolescent (MMPI-A). Two research hypotheses were tested using correlation and regression analyses. The results demonstrated that depressive traits significantly predicted an increase in alcohol-related problems, and the addition of expectancies related to global positive changes and increased social behavior produced a significant gain in the prediction of alcohol problems. Furthermore, anxiety traits significantly predicted an increase in alcohol-related problems, and the inclusion of tension reduction expectancies yielded a significant gain in prediction. The results suggest that alcohol-related problems may be exacerbated by the presence of reinforcement-based expectancies in male juvenile offenders who are concurrently experiencing elevated levels of anxiety and depressive traits. These findings have implications for prevention and treatment programs that utilize cognitive-behavioral and expectancy challenge techniques to affect change in problematic alcohol consumption behaviors. / "December 2006."

Research has shown that stress is related to negative physical and psychological changes among adults. Compared to the large body of literature on stress among adults, research on the effects of life stress among children and adolescents is relatively sparse. There is evidence, however, that stressful life events are related to problems among children and adolescents. Such problems include poor health, psychological distress, depression, suicide, and delinquent behavior. Research also has revealed several factors that moderate stress in children and adolescents. These factors include high self-esteem, an internal locus of control orientation, and social support from family and friends. Five scales measuring locus of control orientation, social support, level of psychosocial development, self-esteem, life events, and delinquent behavior were given to thirty early adolescents from divorced homes and thirty-four adolescents from intact homes. Results of regression analysis, using a general linear model, indicated that early adolescents from divorced homes had lower levels of self-esteem than children from intact homes. There were no significant differences between children from divorced and intact families in levels of delinquent behavior, locus of control, or psychosocial development as reflected in levels of autonomy, intimacy, and identity. Multiple regression analysis revealed that social support in the form of close friend support had a significant moderating effect on the delinquent behavior of early adolescents experiencing parental divorce. Levels of parental, teacher, and classmate support, as well as self-esteem and locus of control orientation, did not show any moderating effects on delinquent behavior. This study indicates that the impact of parental divorce on early adolescents is influenced by many factors. This study lends support to the need to investigate the effects of divorce on children and adolescents in terms of the coping resources available to the child. / Graduation date: 1992

The purpose of this study was to compare the delinquent behavior, psychological health, and emotional wellbeing of maltreated and nonmaltreated adolescents in a chemical dependency treatment program. Data were collected over a seven year period from intake interviews and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scores of 522 adolescent patients at a chemical dependency treatment program in a Northwest city of about 100,000. The subjects consisted of 220 females and 302 males. Maltreatment was selfreported by 43% of the females and 17% of the males. Results indicated that maltreated, drugaddicted adolescents engaged in significantly more delinquent behavior, including arrests and drugrelated arrests, suicide attempts, runaway behavior and illicit drug use than nonmaltreated adolescents in the program. Results of the MMPI scores revealed that maltreated adolescents scored significantly higher than nonmaltreated adolescents on eight of the ten clinical scales, indicating that maltreated adolescents entered the drug treatment program with higher levels of psychological and emotional distress than did their peers. Analyses run separately for males and females revealed that differences between maltreated and nonmaltreated patients could be accounted for, in large part, by differences between maltreated and nonmaltreated females. Maltreated females, but not males, scored significantly higher on total drug use, and on the Hypochondriasis (Hs), Hysteria (Hy), Psychasthenia (Pt), and Schizophrenia (Sc) scales of the MMPI. The unique needs of maltreated adolescents, in particular maltreated females, in drug treatment programs are discussed. / Graduation date: 1992

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-101). Also available on the Internet.