My family has always been a source of inspiration to me. In the following sections, I attempt to capture the unique experience of growing up as one of them: how they’ve shaped me as I have grown, and the marks we’ve left on one another. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This study investigates the relationship of three protective factors : self transcendance, social interest, and spirituality to well-being among adults living with HIV or AIDS. It is the first study to explore the relationships of these protective factors to well-being. A convenience sample of 115 adults living with HIV or AIDS completed the Self-Transcendance Scale, the Social Interest Index- Short Form-Revised, the Spiritual Perspective Scale, and the Index of Well-Being. The participants were adults diagnosed with HIV or AIDS residing in a large southeastern U.S. city. Data were analyzed with correlational and multiple regression methods. Statistically significant positive moderate to strong relationships were found between well-being and self transcendance (r=.66, p<.001 ), social interest (r=.51, p<.001), and spirituality (r=.39, p<.001). A stepwise regression demonstrated that self transcendance held the highest variance on well-being among the three protective factors (43%). Additionally, self-transcendane and social interest accounted for 45% of the variance in well-being. In short, the hypothesized positive relationship among these protective factors with well-being was supported. This study provides theoretical and empirical support for linking self transcendance, social interest, and spirituality to well-being among adults living with HIV or AIDS. The clinical implications of these findings are also discussed. / by Jonathan J. Sperry. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

A self-discrepancy is a cognitive incompatibility between a conception of the desired self and the perception of the actual self (Higgins, 1987; Rogers & Dymond, 1954). The purpose of this dissertation is to gain a better understanding of the effects of gender self-discrepancies on the personal and social adjustment of preadolescent children. I propose that gender-related stereotypes and self-appraisals can be examined within a self-discrepancy framework. Preadolescent children (N=195) completed a variety of self- and peer-report questionnaires in the fall and spring of the school year. Children reported gender stereotypes and self-appraisals for four attributes (body image, athletics, dominance, and popularity). Measures of gender identity and of adjustment were also collected. Results suggested that children who possess a gender self discrepancy are at risk for maladjustment, especially internalizing difficulties and victimization by both girls and boys. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Absence is the thesis exhibition resulting from the culmination of my three years in the graduate program. In this documentation, I outline historical and contextual influences that shape my ceramic practice. I specify that my work is centered on my life and describe how my work has evolved since I first started in the program. In the process I have gathered source material and have explored key points in the theory and history of Minimalism. As I developed the work, I was able to discuss how my work applied to these sources, and where it differed. I ended with introspective installation work that paralleled the themes I was working with at the start of my graduate experience that shows my evolution from being a child continually bounced around from one family member to another, to being the confidant of my mother and holding her darkest secrets, to feeling alone and unloved, to finally beginning to heal and accept who I am. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Self-concept clarity and grit are important constructs in the self-concept and selfregulation domains. Though distinct in their focus on identity and goal processes, self-concept clarity and grit similarly emphasize the extent to which self-views and goal-perseverance are strong, clear, consistent, and unshakeable. We hypothesized self-knowledge and goalperseverance may be mutually reinforcing given the role of self-knowledge in directing goal pursuit, and of goal pursuit in structuring the self-concept. The present study tested this hypothesis in the form of whether self-concept clarity and grit reciprocally influence one other across time, and was conducted using a daily diary design with 97 college-aged participants across several weeks. Data were analyzed using multilevel cross-lagged panel modeling. Results indicated daily self-concept clarity and grit both had positive influences on each other across time, while controlling for their previous values. The reciprocal influences were also symmetric: self-concept clarity and grit had equally strong influences on each other. The results of the present study are the first to indicate the existence of reinforcing feedback loops between self-concept clarity and grit, and to demonstrate that fluctuations in self-knowledge trigger fluctuations in goal resolve, and vice versa. The results suggest the two are, in part, both causes and consequences of one another. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Agency and communion are fundamental dimensions underlying psychological processes. Although agency and communion are coherent dimensions, their origins, nature, stability differ across theoretical framework. Common to these frameworks are gender differences in agency and communion. The present study hypothesized that because agency and communion relate to gender, they may also relate to digit ratio. The present study is important because digit ratio may offer clues on the origins and nature of agency and communion, and their gender differences. Agency and Communion factors were extracted from implicit linguistic measures obtained by LIWC analysis of selfnarratives. Exploratory structural equation modeling indicated communion related to digit ratio in men, and gender differences in communion. Although the results supported the distal, biological influences of communion argued by evolutionary accounts, the null finding agency was not related to digit ratio, while not directly interpretable, did not contradict socialization accounts of agency. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The aim of my DPhil is to identify educational practices predictive of students' self-regulation development during early childhood. Specifically, I will analyze the Tools of the Mind preschool curriculum (Tools), which emphasizes students' self-regulation cultivation as its paramount aim. Since its development in 1993, Tools has spread to schools in the United States, Canada, and South America. In the face of Tools' proliferation, two questions emerge: does Tools significantly improve children's self-regulation skills? And, if so, then which of its effective elements could be applied across various educational contexts? This dissertation contains two studies. In the first, I will systematically review extant Tools research and then execute a multilevel meta-analysis of the quantitative results. Study one serves three purposes: 1) to identify all studies in the existing Tools evidence base, 2) to estimate an aggregate curricular effect, and 3) to determine how that effect varies across contexts and student characteristics. Thus, study one will assess whether Tools, at the curricular level, improves students' self-regulation. By contrast, study two will involve more granular analyses of the discrete learning activities that collectively comprise Tools. Specifically, study two will analyze child-level self-regulation and teacher-level Tools implementation data for 1145 preschool children in 80 classrooms across six American school districts. I will employ multilevel structural equation models to assess which Tools activities are associated with students' self-regulation growth, which are associated with decline, and which exhibit no association at all. Ultimately, this dissertation features the first Tools meta-analysis as well as the first analysis of specific Tools instructional activities. It is hoped that these analyses will identify educational practices predictive of self-regulation development both within and beyond the Tools curricular context.

Research into transitions which explore the personal changes of those undergoing them, especially men, are still rare, particularly in regards to a changing sense of self and life world. Research into the movement of men out of hierarchy, the dominant structures of work institutions in the western world, is rarer still. Using hermeneutic and phenomenological frameworks, this study tracks the journeys of six men by in-depth interviews and discussions as they move out of hierarchical structures to recreate their work and, in varying degrees, themselves. As a means of looking beyond events, and for their metaphoric and philosophic perspectives, the Hero and Phoenix myths are used to further explore levels of meaning identified within the transition processes. Drawing on the work of Jung, Bridges, Neville, Campbell, O’Connor and Gareth Hill, the six stages into which I have organised the transitions are compared to the six key phases of the Phoenix myth. A Jungian framework informs the interpretation of the underlying significances demonstrated in the men’s processes of regeneration. The men’s individual responses to their transitions are also identified and described, from subjective and proactive perspectives. Changes in the men’s self perceptions and their changing relationships to authority, brought about by their shifting loci of control, are documented. Analysis of the stages most likely to be suitable for proactive intervention (as conscious or organised responses to the process), are indicated. Primary and secondary preconditions for successful transitions out of hierarchies are postulated. The men’s self-reflections illuminate experiences of uncertainty and clarity, confidence and exploration, compartmentalisation and synthesis. The role of an ‘inner voice’ (an unchanging core identity) and their changing relationship with these aspects of Self, is articulated as critical factors in the men’s ‘successful’ transitions. Integral to this research is the concept that the power of an individual’s experience can inform those who share a similar experience. Therefore applications of the research, and strategies to manage and facilitate transitions out of hierarchical environments, are suggested. This thesis is written in support of my hypothesis that transitions can be mapped; that they are journeys on several levels of personal and practical transformation; and that to proactively engage with transition processes requires not only an understanding of the stages of the process itself, but also an understanding that changes in self-perception and self-relationship will also occur for those undergoing them. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This project offers an analysis of how the transformative power of creative process in learning offers humankind relational connections with the natural environment. It supports the recommendation that educational institutions move towards a transformative creative learning process. The paper argues that by teaching children through assumptions of the world as in constant creative becoming humankind will move toward a more encompassing, coherent story of the universe which allows for the increasing self-actualization of individuals. After offering a theoretical discussion of the transformative power of creativity through the works of Brian Swimme, Edmund OSullivan and Alfred North Whitehead, the author provides descriptive, interpretive and critical narrative accounts of a teaching occasion created by her in which she illustrates her understanding of this transformative power.

Recreational running is an activity increasing in popularity (Running USA, 2012). The current study sought to gain an ‘insiders’ perspective into the ‘lived experiences’ and social world of distance running so to explore the meaning, value and significance of the activity to the lives of ‘highly committed’ runners in Toronto (Canada). Ethnography of running club participants was used to inform the research. Findings suggest that commitment to distance running was effective for fulfilling a number of human ‘needs’, including for health, fitness, acceptance, belonging, self-esteem, autonomy, competence, relatedness and perhaps self-actualization as proposed by Maslow (1954) and Deci and Ryan (2000). Running was further conceptualized as a “serious leisure” (Stebbins, 1982) which helps explain the process of adaptively incorporating physical activity into one’s life and committing long-term. This research highlights some oft ignored psychological and social benefits of physical activity adherence which may contribute to improved overall health and well-being.