<p> This thesis examines the topic of the psychological function of loneliness. An alchemical hermeneutic research methodology is utilized to compare established theories on the topic to the researcher&rsquo;s experience. From a contemporary cognitive behavioral perspective, the distress of loneliness has no psychological function. Insecure attachment patterns, schizoid personality structures, introverted personality typologies, subjectivity, and projection appear to influence susceptibility to intense or prolonged loneliness. Analytical psychology describes isolation as a necessary condition of the individuation process, and archetypal psychology identifies loneliness as an immanent psychological phenomenon. This thesis explores the depth psychological observation that the modern, rational psyche&rsquo;s alienation from its irrational, autonomous animating images contributes to experiences of loneliness. Loneliness as a functional symptom of the ego&rsquo;s unconscious need to form symbolic relationships to collective and archetypal psychological dynamics is considered. The standard clinical treatment for loneliness of socialization is critically examined.</p>

<p> The current study investigated the relationships between mother-child, father-child, parent-cohesion, and children&rsquo;s self-concept. Participants included 30 early adolescents (ages 10 to 15 years) from intact family arrangements. Children completed a modified version of the Family System Test (FAST) to assess levels of parent-child cohesion. The Piers-Harris 2 was used to evaluate dimensions of self-concept. A series of sequential multiple regressions were performed to determine the relationships parent-child cohesion variables had with self-concept constructs, after controlling for the children&rsquo;s sex and typical grades. Only father-child cohesion scores significantly related to adolescents&rsquo; ratings on specific facets of self-concept (i.e., Behavioral Adjustment, Intellectual and School Status), suggesting that children who report feeling closer to their fathers also endorsed items reflecting less problematic behavior and more intellectual/academic competence. Findings suggest mothers and fathers contribute differentially to adolescents&rsquo; self-concept. Implications for parental education and ensuring children have a caring, male role model are discussed. Limitations to the study included issues with sample size, generalizability, and data collection.</p>

<p> Current research indicates that college students report a significant degree of unhealthy eating behavior. Research has increasingly focused on emotional models as predictors of eating disorder symptoms. These studies have specifically focused on whether undergraduate students with binge eating behavior have fewer strategies to regulate their emotional experience. Research has not, however, examined whether these findings might be due to general deficits in coping apart from difficulties in managing emotions. The purpose of this project is to replicate and expand on prior work by examining the unique and overlapping nature of emotion regulation strategies and general coping strategies as predicting of binge-eating behavior in a non-clinical, college sample. Results suggest that the number of self-reported episodes of binge-eating behavior is significantly correlated to difficulties regulating emotions and use of positive and negative coping strategies.</p>

<p> Over the last several decades lawmaking in the United States has mostly been punitive in nature with respect to crime that is linked to addiction. As a result of the enormous cost to society in punishing individuals with an addiction, the criminal justice system has increasingly collaborated with the mental health establishment to treat the individual&rsquo;s core addiction associated with crime. The programs of probation and parole having increasingly been used help people with addiction the opportunity to succeed within their community. The role of internal motivation for substance abuse treatment has predicted treatment retention, decreased relapse rates, and more positive outcomes. However, the literature is minimal in regards to the relationship between external motivation and internal motivation in these highly coerced environments. This study examined how external motivation may influence internal motivation within the parole and probation populations. </p>

<p> This psychoanalytically-oriented qualitative research project explores the impact of a father&rsquo;s death on the development of his son&rsquo;s ego-ideal through and beyond adolescence. Following Freud, Chasseguet-Smirgel, and others, the ego-ideal is understood to be a psychic agency initially founded on the fantasied image of primary narcissistic bliss and power enjoyed at the outset of life in fusion with the maternal object. As an infant psychologically differentiates himself from this object, he develops an ego-ideal meant to regain his parents&rsquo; love and the primary narcissism he previously enjoyed. As he passes through the Oedipus complex and into adolescence, his ego-ideal transforms into an internalized image of psychological independence and autonomy based on the fantasied image of the Oedipal father, separate from the engulfing preoedipal mother. The main research question for this project centered on how a boy&rsquo;s navigation of this process changes if his father dies early in his life. Using the Free Association Narrative Interview (FANI) protocol, I interviewed three men who lost their fathers between ages five and nine about the social behavior, affective patterns, family relations, and self-image they maintained through and beyond adolescence. The findings suggest that the death of a father influences the self-image that a boy feels internally and externally pressured to fulfill. The mother-son relationship appears to be a central modulating component in this process, as a mother&rsquo;s reinforcement or counteraction of particular ego-ideal qualities can accentuate or mitigate the burdensome aspects of the ego-ideal towards which her son aspires.</p>

<p> Employment specialist competencies were examined as predictors of employment outcomes for consumers with severe mental illness participating in supported employment. Using a cross-sectional correlational design a variety of self-report and supervisor-rated performance measures were examined for their association with three consumer employment outcomes (e.g., the percentage of consumers on their caseload competitively employed, the percentage of consumers on their caseload employed 90 consecutive days, and the rate in which consumers dropped out of employment services). Six mental health agencies with a total of 57 employment specialists and 14 supervisors from across the nation participated in the study. Competitive employment rates ranged among employment specialists from 0% to 80%. Higher supervisor-rated job performance, supervisor-rated employment specialist efficacy, percentage of work time spent in the community during the past month, and number of contacts with consumers during the past month were related to improved consumer employment outcomes. However, employment specialist attitudes, knowledge of supported employment, conscientiousness, and self-efficacy were unrelated to employment outcomes. This study is one of the first of its kind to examine employment specialist competencies as they relate to supported employment for consumers with severe mental illness. While supported employment is a great improvement over traditional vocational programs, further examination of employment specialist competencies could hold the key to unlocking employment success for many more consumers.</p>

<p> The current study examines the utilization of religiosity as a protective factor and marijuana use as a risk factor for ethnically diverse female survivors of sexual victimization against the development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Irritable Depression (ID), and sexual revictimization. A sample of ethnically diverse female adult participants who endorsed sexual victimization from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) were included in the study (<i>n</i> = 1115). Logistic regression analyses were used determine the probability of the predictor variables of religiosity, religious identification and marijuana use impacting the outcome variables and whether or not the moderating variable (i.e., ethnicity) changed the relationship between the predictor and outcome variables. Results suggest that individuals who endorsed higher rates of PTSD were more likely to identify with a religious organization, with Latinas experiencing significantly higher rates of PTSD as compared to the other groups. Sexual assault victims who met criteria for Marijuana Abuse or Dependence were significantly more likely to have experienced MDD than sexual assault victims who did not meet criteria. The study highlights the importance of understanding religious coping strategies utilized by ethnically diverse survivors of sexual victimization. This study also highlights implications for providing culturally congruent care. Limitations and implications are discussed. </p><p>

<p>In spite of recent trends that have positively impacted gay men, the United States continues to be permeated by homophobia. This phenomenon often manifests in young gay men as internalized homophobia, which in turn can lead to psychological and physiological symptoms, including engaging in sexual practices that place them at risk for contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The purpose of this study was to explore, from a Jungian perspective, the relationship between internalized homophobia and sexual risk-taking behavior among young gay men. Utilizing interpretive phenomenological analysis, a semistructured interview protocol was employed to elucidate from a sample of this population the relationship between internalized homophobia and sexual-risk taking behavior. The data revealed that none of the participants experienced significant internalized homophobia in either adolescence or adulthood. Furthermore, the data suggested that most of the participants did not engage in conduct that placed them at risk for acquiring HIV. Finally, the data did not evidence the existence of psychological complexes (e.g., parental, inferiority) among any of the participants. Because of the limited scope of this study, the results cannot be taken as representative of young gay men regarding their sexual identities or their sexual behavior.

<p> Conditioned reactions (e.g., cravings) to drug-related stimuli (e.g., objects, emotions, or situations associated with drug taking) have been examined as a potential mechanism to explain the maintenance of drug use and relapse. There is evidence that the expectation that a drug is available for consumption can enhance reactivity to environmental drug stimuli as well as possibly serve as a conditioned stimulus in its own right. Prior studies have found that smokers report greater urges to smoke when they expect to smoke sooner (e.g., 20 minutes) than later (e.g., 3 hours), with greater reactions when smoking stimuli (e.g., pack of cigarettes) are present. However, reactions to extended delays before smoking is available have not been adequately investigated (e.g., delays greater than 4 hours). Using a between-subjects factorial design, daily smokers (N = 180; 112 male, 68 female) were randomized into one of six conditions in which instructions about the next available opportunity to smoke (20 minutes, 3 hours, or 24 hours) were cross with exposure to stimuli (smoking-related or neutral cues). Smoking urge, withdrawal, mood, and reaction time were assessed before and after the manipulation. Then all participants were told that they <i> would</i> have an opportunity to smoke and took part in a smoking versus money choice procedure for 50 minutes. Analyses revealed a main effect of availability on withdrawal symptoms, <i>F</i>(2,173) = 5.414, <i> p</i> &lt; .001 and negative mood, <i>F</i>(2,173) = 8.725, <i> p</i> &lt; .001, which were highly correlated (r = .87). Post-hoc comparisons revealed that those told 24 hours had significantly greater withdrawal symptoms and negative mood compared to those told 20 min and 3 hrs. No main effects of availability were found for urge, positive mood, or reaction time. There were also no main effects for smoking stimuli and no availability by smoking stimuli interactions. Participants who were initially exposed to neutral stimuli and then exposed to smoking stimuli during the choice procedure were more likely to smoke than those already exposed to smoking stimuli. A better understanding of the influence of cognitive and environmental stimuli on smoking motivation and behavior may inform the development of innovative cognitive behavioral treatment strategies for smoking cessation.</p><p>

<p> Treatment for survivors of domestic violence has traditionally followed the feminist model of empowerment (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV); Jones &amp; Schechter, 1992) offering resources, hotlines and shelters to assist women and their children in emergency situations. The model stresses support, validation and psycho-education. The main focus of psychotherapy for survivors of domestic violence has been reducing the negative effects of having experienced abuse, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Cognitive behavioral group therapy models have been found to be effective in treating this population (Kubany, Hill &amp; Owens, 2003; Kubany, et al., 2004; Johnson &amp; Zlotnick, 2009; Iverson, Shek &amp; Fruzzetti, 2009).</p><p> The current study explored posttraumatic growth, a possible positive consequence of trauma. Sixteen female survivors of domestic violence participated in a five-session group intervention modeled after Nelson&rsquo;s (2011) posttraumatic growth path (PTGP) curriculum. Posttraumatic growth has been defined as transforming negative effects of traumatic situations into positive meanings (Tedeschi and Calhoun, 1996). Participants&rsquo; post-treatment ratings on four measures: Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist, Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile and Outcome Rating Scale showed a reduction in negative symptoms and increases in signs of positive growth as compared with their ratings prior to participating in the group sessions. A narrative feminist analysis of the themes discussed by participants during the group sessions indicated that participants were able to identify strengths and other positive aspects in themselves as consequences of having survived the abuse. That recognition seemed to encourage and enable them to take positive actions. These findings suggest that participation in a brief structured therapy group aimed at exploring and eliciting posttraumatic growth can serve as a springboard for survivors of domestic violence to find positive aspects of having endured an abusive relationship and to take positive steps in their lives. This approach can complement and enhance traditional domestic violence treatments that target trauma symptom reduction.</p>