Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-131). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 279 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Barbara Lehman, College of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-255).

Thesis (Ed. D.) in Educational Leadership--University of Maine, 2001. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 250-255).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-173). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

This report examines the masculine gender norm of restrictive emotionality, in terms of its effects on mental health and its theoretical relationship to experiential avoidance. This norm has rarely been examined in the context of emotion research despite its similarity to experiential avoidance and emotion dysregulation constructs such as expressive suppression. After reviewing the psychological impact of restrictive emotionality, as well as how it may relate to other maladaptive processes, the report proposes an intervention to reduce adherence to this gender norm. Because traditionally masculine men are often averse to psychotherapy, a writing intervention is hypothesized to benefit this population. Specifically, a guided writing based in contextual reappraisal is posited to help men reduce psychological distress by reducing levels of restrictive emotionality and experiential avoidance. Contextual reappraisal is thought to help increase acceptance of one’s emotions, thus reducing the need to avoid or restrict emotional expression. A writing contextual writing intervention could benefit emotionally restrictive men by encouraging a non-evaluative stance toward vulnerable emotions while offering a private, non-threatening outlet for expression. / text

The purpose of this study is to explore possible interventions aimed at educating college students about the roles, services, settings, and job outlook for school psychologists as a means to increase interest in the field as a graduate school career option. More specifically, the proposed study aims to test what type of educational activity- didactic information presentation versus didactic information presentation coupled with an experiential learning task- interacts with which learning style to produce the greatest gains in interest in the field as a graduate school option. Further, the proposed study seeks to determine if a correlation exists between knowledge of school psychology and level of interest in the field. / text

Despite adolescence and emerging adulthood being a time of peak physical ability, it is marked by a dramatic increase in morbidity and mortality, primarily driven by poor behavioral and emotional control (Dahl, 2004). Multiple lines of recent research are now focusing on how maturation of decision-making impacts risk-taking, and more specifically, what role emotion regulation plays (Weinberger et al., 2005; Steinberg, 2007). Rather than avoiding risk factors, a call is made for strength and skills-based approaches to risk-taking interventions. The purpose of the current exploratory study was to assess the efficacy of an experiential learning (EL) intervention designed to increase participants’ emotion regulation skills and decrease risk-taking. Twenty-eight emerging adults participated; 15 were assigned to the experimental group and presented with two separate sessions on emotional regulation and risk-taking using EL methodology (low and high element activities). The control group’s 13 participants were presented with two separate powerpoint lectures on emotion regulation and risk-taking. Participants’ difficulty with emotion regulation and risk-taking were assessed prior to the first session, between sessions, and one week following the second session. Qualitative interviews assessed participants’ understanding of how emotions and risk-taking are connected and process measures assessed the emotional impact of the intervention activities. While hypotheses were not confirmed, results revealed a significant decline in difficulty with emotion regulation across time for all participants. Unexpectedly, however, there were no significant differences between the groups on emotional regulation and the group x time interaction was also not significant. Additionally, risk-taking significantly increased across time. The control group reported more risk-taking across the three time periods than the experimental group. The time x group interaction approached significance [F(2,56) =2.68, p =.07], showing consistent increases for the control group but relatively low levels for the experimental group. Qualitative data revealed that participants had clear notions of how emotions drive risk-taking, how the thrill of risk- taking can be used to displace negative feelings, and how one’s need to connect to others can lead to risk-taking. Experimental group participants demonstrated a shift from global thinking about emotions and risk-taking to more specific thoughts about emotional awareness as a key skill. / text

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Learning styles may play an important role in how students learn. Three primary types of learning styles are visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Visual learners prefer to see information to process and retain it. Auditory learners prefer to listen to or discuss information and kinesthetic, learners use their bodies and movement to take in knowledge. Students can learn through any modality, but some researchers argue they do so most effectively when their particular learning style is accommodated. Several populations of students that may be labeled as underachievers, possibly due to their preferences not matching the classroom environment. Visual and auditory learners are most frequently catered to within the classroom. Seemingly, students with kinesthetic learning preferences are often not given the chance to move and experience lessons. This prevents them from using their preferred style which allows them to concentrate on the task at hand and keeps them challenged. Experiential learning also allows students to connect classroom content to real-world applications. Educators, including school counselors, have a responsibility to educate students, teachers and parents about learning styles. Counselors can also advocate for students with different learning styles. Diversifying teaching and counseling interventions to accommodate student learning styles will help American schools function more effectively. / text

Experiential avoidance (EA) is an emotion-regulation strategy used to control or avoid unpleasant internal experiences. Experimental studies, however, have shown that EA is associated with an ironic increase in unpleasant experiences. While single manipulation laboratory experiments can demonstrate the immediate ironic detrimental effects of EA, a different methodology is needed to establish how such ironic processes unfold over time in the natural environment. The current study uses a longitudinal design and daily-diary methodology to examine daily associations between EA and negative affect (NA) over a three-week period among college-students who initially reported high levels of psychological distress. A daily measure of state EA based on several avoidant behaviors (thought suppression, emotion suppression, distraction, reflective pondering, and lack of experiential acceptance) was developed for this study. Before and after making daily web-based reports of EA and NA for 21 consecutive days, participants completed a standardized checklist of psychological symptoms, with pre-post change scores on this measure serving as an index of symptomatic improvement. Multilevel modeling analyses showed that, as predicted, symptomatic improvement was associated with decreasing trajectories of EA and NA during the 21-day study period. More symptomatic improvement was associated with weakening (decoupling) of same-day EA-NA links over time. Contrary to predictions, same-day and one-day lagged associations between NA and EA were not associated with symptomatic change. Additional multilevel analyses showed that symptomatic worsening was associated with more daily EA, over and above what was accounted for by daily NA. Likewise, traditional between-person regression analyses showed that overall mean levels of daily EA (aggregated across days) predicted symptomatic worsening, even after statistically accounting for mean levels of daily NA. The results of this study provide partial support for the hypothesis that EA and NA are related to each other in an ironic positive feedback loop that unfolds over time and that symptomatic improvement may involve a process by which EA and NA both decrease and decouple from each other over time. These findings emphasize the importance of using methodologies that track the relationship between EA and its consequences over time using within-person analyses, rather than solely relying on between-person designs.