<p>One in four college aged women have been raped or sexually assaulted. The InterACT Sexual Assault Prevention Program offers promise as an effective intervention for rape prevention, intervention, and response training. Several bystander interventions, including InterACT, regard empathy as a crucial component of successful rape prevention efforts. </p><p> Theoretical foundations for the link between empathy and prosocial behavior are well established; however, the link between rape-specific empathy and rape-specific prosocial behavior has received less attention until recently. Experimental evaluations confirmed InterACT is successful in increasing general and rape-specific empathy among participants. </p><p> Limited research has identified emotional and cognitive components responsible for motivating rape helping behaviors. The current study is the first to empirically identify rape-specific empathy as a significant predictor of rape-specific helping behavior. Such evidence urges rape prevention programs to include rape-specific empathy exercises in intervention designs. Implications for continued research and programming are discussed. </p>

<p> The present study is an attempt to describe the perceptions on the part of congregants of the Black Missionary Baptist Church in New Britain, CT, with respect to the church's pursuit of social justice, measured in the midst of public rallies organized by the BMBC in the summer of 2013, protesting the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a white neighborhood watchman who shot black teenager Trayvon Martin. The researcher used three sources of data to measure perceptions (observations at the rally, a survey of, and interviews with, BMBC members, both during the time of the rally) and concluded that there is a basic foundational commitment to social justice, though there are indicators that the strength of this commitment is questionable. BMBC members were willing and able to attend and be engaged at a specified action-step with a social injustice symbol (like Trayvon Martin), but were less capable of following through or conceiving of action-steps beyond the rally.</p>

<p> The notion of character is a familiar and prominent part of ethical theorizing, and of our everyday discourse. Character is used to explain how people act, to predict what they will do, to judge whether they ought to be trusted, and utilized in a multitude of other ways. A camp of philosophers dubbed the "Situationists", however, argue that research in social psychology shows the notion of character as we traditionally understand it is empirically unsupported, and consequently that all our discourse and ethical thought involving character is gravely mistaken. Instead, these philosophers contend that what influences and informs our perception and actions is largely traceable to the situations we find ourselves in. This dissertation will aim to defend the plausibility of character against this challenge by the Situationists. To do so, it begins by examining the traditional notion of character that is prevalent in ethical theorizing - derived in large part from Aristotle's view of character - and the empirical evidence that Situationists claim undercut the plausibility of that notion. Thereafter, a reply to the Situationists will be offered, arguing that there is persuasive evidence that speaks in favor of character, and moreover, that a character-based explanation of the evidence is more convincing than the account that Situationists propose. The goal of the project is to show that the traditional notion of character is more tenable than Situationists have claimed, and that we are not gravely mistaken by including it in our ethical thought and everyday discourse. In fact, rather than eschewing the notion of character, the dissertation aims to establish that we have strong reasons to continue building the case for it.</p>

<p> This phenomenological study sought to answer, "What is the lived experience of anxiously attached, heterosexual women while in relationships?" The lived experiences of 10 participants ranging in age from 32 to 59 were elicited through interviews. The Moustakas transcendental phenomenological reduction methodology, using the modified Van Kaam method (1994) was used to analyze the data. Five main structures emerged. First, relation to self reflected feeling unlovable, defective, and embarrassed to be single. Second, relation to other had six sub-themes. Participants selected partners who were incompatible and non-committal. They had beliefs of idealized relationships, a struggle, and had a fear of being left. Positive feelings at the outset of relationships turned into ongoing upset. Relationship behaviors included trying to relate effectively, having a major focus on their partner, and reinforcing partners' negative behaviors. Relationship termination occurred with reluctance, there were missed cues, anxiety, and ongoing grief and yearning for the partner. They had current insights of unviable relationships that resulted in ongoing upset feelings that should have terminated sooner. The third structure of causality revealed poor relationship role-modeling and parental treatment of the participants that impacted their view of self, others, and relationships. Fourth, bodily concerns reflected a use of sexuality to connect, and sexual dissatisfaction. Fifth, participants were aware of time in and between relationships. Two conclusions relating to the structure of causality and a lack of insight about relationships are discussed. Future qualitative studies were recommended to provide more understanding of anxious and dismissive avoidant attachment styles.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1990. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: B, page: 2110. Chair: Stephen M. Johnson.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1990. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-08, Section: B, page: 4064.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1992. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-12, Section: B, page: 6555. Adviser: Nancy Bliwise.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1993. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-04, Section: B, page: 2183. Chair: Nancy Bliwise.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1993. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: B, page: 3857. Chairperson: Nancy G. Bhwise.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1993. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: B, page: 3903. Chair: William J. Froming.