The six short stories in this collection explore the lives and desires of disparate women. In "Sentinel," a woman visits an ex-boyfriend, injured in the army, and his family, with whom she has a fraught relationship, in their vacation home. A diagnosis of cancer spurs a woman to change her life in "Cell Division"; when a new possibility for treatment arises, she reconsiders the choice she made to take her life apart. In the story, "A Wake," a funeral and an unexpected pregnancy set the stage for the breakdown of a couple's relationship. In "A Cyclic Process," a woman conflates her ambivalence toward the anti-depressants she takes with her feelings about her relationship; in the end, she cannot let go of either. A woman, traveling with a new acquaintance, takes a trip to Venice in "The Edge of the World," and falls into an unsettling relationship with a man she meets there. The process of protein denaturation serves as a metaphor in "Marina," for the unraveling of a friendship between two teenage girls.

A group of hospitalized psychiatric patients and a randomly selected non-therapy group responded to the Schedule of Recent Experiences questionniare. In order to determine the magnitude of life change events for the two groups, Life Change Unit totals were derived for the years 1966 and 1967. To test the hypothesis that patients in psychiatric treatment have experienced a quantitatively significant greater amount of life change than a group of non-therapy subjects, an analysis of variance was used to determine whether there were significant differences between the scores for the two groups. For the year 1966, no significant difference was found between the therapy and non-therapy samples. For the year 1967, there was a significant difference between the mean Life Change Unit scores for the two groups. As a result of these findings, it is concluded that an accumulation of life change events may serve to precipitate mental health change, and that that probability of such health change occurring is significantly greater when there is a clustering of life change events during any given year than when such a clustering does not occur.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-209).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-240).

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur behandlingspersonal vid en opiatmottagning i en stor stad i Sverige ser på substitutionsbehandling och vilken betydelse behandlingsformen har för klientgruppen. Studien baseras på fyra kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med personal som har olika professioner (kurator, sjuksköterska, läkare samt psykolog) vid en för studien relevant behandlingsenhet. För att analysera det inkomna materialet har följande fem teorier använts: biologiska teorier, systemteorier, stämplingsteori, behavioristiska teorier samt psykodynamiska teorier/anknytningsteori. Resultaten visar att personalen överlag har en liknande syn på bakgrunden till ett drogmissbruk då samtliga anser att orsaken beror på både genetiska och sociala faktorer. Personalen anser även att behandlingsenhetens klienter är i behov av kemiskt framställda opiater (buprenorfin eller metadon) för att kunna bryta med sitt drogmissbruk, detta då det bidrar till att klienterna kan börja fokusera på andra livsområden utöver droganvändandet. Vidare visar resultaten att personalen anser att behandlingens längd varierar från individ till individ. Gruppen opiatberoende anses vara en resurskrävande grupp och önskemål finns gällande bättre samarbete med – för klienten – relevanta myndigheter. Sammanfattningsvis anser personalen att klienterna – genom behandlingen – får hjälp att uppnå ett drogfritt liv, bli en del av samhället, känna sig tillfreds med sig själva; genom detta får klienterna ett bättre och mer stabilt liv. / The purpose of this study is to examine how personnel working at a opiate substitution treatment clinic in a large city in Sweden view the treatment method and how important they reckon that the treatment is for the clientele. The study is based on four qualitative semi-structured interviews with a professional team that consists of counsellor, nurse, doctor and psychologist. To analyze the data the following five theories have been used: biological theories, system theories, labeling theory, behavioristic theories and psychodynamic theories/attachment theory. The results show that the professional team generally have a similar view on the background variables of drug addiction as they generally believe it depends on genetic and social factors. The main consensus of the team is that the clients are in need of chemically manufactured opiates (buprenorphine or methadone) to end their drug addiction because it helps the clients to focus on other areas, besides drugs, in their lives. The results also show that the team believe that the length of the treatment varies from individual to individual. Opiate addicts are considered to be a resource-demanding group and the team would like a better co-operation with relevant authorities. In conclusion the personnel believe that the clients – with help from the treatment method – can reach a life without drugs, become a part of the society and feel satisfied with themselves; with this the clients get a better and more stabile life.

This study examined the influence of activated and chronic interpersonal expectations on primary and secondary appraisal of a stressful life event. Fifty-one female undergraduates were asked to imagine themselves facing an unplanned pregnancy, after which affective state and coping strategies were assessed. A subliminal priming technique was used during the experimental session to activate either positive, negative or neutral interpersonal expectations. Chronic interpersonal expectations were assessed in a telephone interview, using the Collins and Read (1990) attachment scale. Activated negative interpersonal expectations reduced positive affect; chronic interpersonal anxiety heightened overall negative affect, while chronic comfort with closeness and feeling one can depend on others were associated with less feelings of depression. Both activated and chronically accessible positive interpersonal expectations increased intentions to seek emotional support. Chronic anxiety in relationships was related to hostile coping, while a lack of comfort with closeness and depending on others were conducive to self-blaming. Implications of these findings for close relationships and stressful life events and for future priming research are discussed.

The Reformulated theory of learned helplessness emphasizes maladaptive explanatory style and its influence on depression, achievement, health, and coping. Individuals who habitually explain unpleasant/uncontrollable events by internal, stable and global causes (and good events by external, unstable, specific causes) are said to have a maladaptive explanatory style. Researchers speculate that negative life events (such as parental divorce or death) contribute to the development of this style. Researchers have sought to explain adjustment-related difficulties by focusing on traumatic life events, such as divorce or death of a parent and their adverse effects on childhood development.Literature concerning the correlates of father absence, divorce, parental death, attachment and stressful life events shows that closeness to parents can mediate the impact of these events on adjustment and development. The mediating effects of closeness to parent may explain why not all children who experience these events actually develop maladaptive explanatory styles.This investigation examined the relations between Negative Life Events, Closeness to Parent and Explanatory Style. By looking at these relations, we can determine which variable is more influential in developing the maladaptive style. It was expected that Closeness to Parent would be a better predictor of explanatory style than Negative Life Events.Participants were 86 college students who completed a questionnaire that assessed explanatory style, closeness to parent, negative life events, and level of depression. Multiple regression was used to determine the significant predictors of explanatory style and depression. Results showed that none of the variables were significant predictors of explanatory style. Recent life events, closeness to mother and explanatory style were significant predictors of depression. Discriminant analysis was used to determine whether participants whose parents were divorced could be differentiated from those whose parent's marriage was intact using explanatory style, closeness to parent and depression as predictors. Results showed no significant differences between these groups. Sample group means for depression and life events were higher than those from normative studies for the Beck Depression Inventory and the Life Experience Survey.As the literature showed, closeness to parent and negative life events should account for some of the variance in the maladaptive style. The absence of these relations may be attributed to theoretical and methodological issues concerning closeness to parent and explanatory style.However, since this sample had high levels of depression and life stress, theoretically these relations should have been found. This points to the importance of the problems discussed.Prospective longitudinal studies, although costly and time consuming may be useful in determining the antecedents of a maladaptive explanatory style. / Department of Psychological Science

An important component of a developing identity is an understanding of personal persistence or self-continuity—how one remains the same person throughout the various changes in their life (Chandler, Lalonde, Sokol & Hallet, 2003). Chandler et al., (2003) have suggested that individuals vary in terms of both the style (essentialist or narrativist) and the level of complexity of their reasoning regarding self-continuity. In previous research this variability has been measured using a lengthy interview process. The present study explored the feasibility of more efficiently measuring variability in selfcontinuity understanding with the creation of a new Likert scaled questionnaire. Factor analysis suggested that 20 of the newly created questionnaire items clearly displayed a 2- factor structure mirroring the “essentialist” and “narrativist” styles reported by Chandler et al. (2003). Initial evidence of convergence between the interview and questionnaire methods is also apparent in that those rated as essentialists in the interview scored higher on the first essentialist factor than narrativists and narrativists by the interview scored higher on the second narrativist factor than essentialists.

Thesis (MPsy(Clinical))--University of South Australia, 2002.