In order to assist people in making positive changes of problematic behaviour it is necessary to examine how people change and what factors influence the process. Criminal offenders represent a group of individuals who often have difficulty desisting from problematic behaviour and continue to engage in illegal activity. Offenders in provincial correctional institutions were administered questionnaires to determine stage of change and processes utilized as outlined in the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of change (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1984). Additionally, offenders were asked about their visions of the future using the Possible Selves (PSs) Model (Markus & Nurius, 1986). Taken together, this study looked at the contribution of the PSs Model to our understanding of the TTM, which has been criticized in recent years as lacking therapeutic significance for treatment providers as they guide individuals through the change process. More specifically, this study compares chronic criminals with first time offenders on psychological variables such as readiness for change, vision of possible selves, and hope for the future, as well as on legal variables such as risk for recidivism and institutional behaviour. The results indicate that most offenders acknowledged their behaviour as problematic and some even reported they were actively taking steps to change; however, chronic offenders admitted having less hope than first time offenders. Interestingly, both groups rated similarly on the dimensions of PSs. The outcomes would suggest that research efforts to incorporate other complimentary theories of change into the TTM, like the PSs model, may be helpful for understanding the process of change. While it seems these models may not be useful for predicting institutional behaviour, the data perhaps demonstrates the complexity of criminal behaviour and speaks to the necessity of further research in this population.

In exploring the role of social influences in the development of the self, the current study evaluated whether young adults use social comparisons in developing their hoped-for possible selves and, if so, whether their developmental process correlates with self-regulatory processes and positive mental health outcomes. The current study found the following: (1) the domains of hoped-for possible selves among young adults were related to the gender of the social comparison target, (2) the direction of young adults’ social comparison processes (upward or downward) did not significantly influence self-regulatory processes (self-efficacy and outcome expectancy) toward achieving their hoped-for possible selves, (3) strong masculine gender identification related to greater outcome expectancy, while strong feminine gender identification related to both greater self-efficacy and outcome expectancy, and (4) self-efficacy related to less state anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression, while outcome expectancy related only to less trait anxiety. Males and females were found to use traditional gender role identification in forming their hoped-for possible selves.

This study explores the potential relationship between disordered eating and appearance-related possible selves. The sample consisted of 293 female college students (mean age=22). Participants were administered interviews consisting of demographic information, the Possible Selves Interview, the Eating Attitudes Test-26, The Physical Self Description Questionnaire, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. More than half of the participants reported an appearance-related possible self (n=154). As expected, disordered eating scores were found to be higher for participants who reported an appearance-related possible self: t(288)=-3.04, p

The present study was conducted to determine the effect of a possible selves intervention on self-regulatory efficacy and exercise behaviour. Participants were 19 men and 61 women (Mage= 21.43, SD = 3.28) who reported exercising less than 3 times per week. Participants were randomly assigned to a control condition, a hoped-for possible selves intervention condition, or a feared possible selves intervention condition. Participants in the hoped-for and feared possible selves conditions completed an activity where they imagined themselves in the future as either healthy, regular exercisers or unhealthy, inactive individuals, respectively. Participants in the control group completed a quiz about physical activity. Measures of self-regulatory efficacy (scheduling, planning, goal-setting, and barrier self-efficacy) were taken immediately before and after exposure to the intervention. Participants who received a possible selves intervention reported greater exercise behaviour 4 weeks post-intervention than participants in the control group (p = .05). Furthermore, planning self-efficacy was found to partially mediate the effect of the possible selves intervention on exercise behaviour. These findings suggest that possible selves may play a role in increasing exercise behaviour among inactive individuals. Future research is warranted to examine the role of possible selves interventions in increasing exercise behaviour and to determine which other variables may mediate this intervention-exercise behaviour relationship. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Despite widespread efforts to reduce inequities in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) job market, huge disparities remain for both African Americans and women in those sectors of employment. Extant literature affirms that Black women encounter various challenges when pursuing STEM careers. More specifically, the research on Black women in engineering focuses primarily on their experiences in academia and does not include their experiences as undergraduates transitioning into the industry workforce. To address these gaps in the literature, this study explored the career goal-setting (CGS) processes of Black woman engineering majors (BWEMs) through qualitative inquiry. Using a phenomenological approach, the researcher implemented a two-interview sequence with five Black/African American women enrolled in their final year of a baccalaureate engineering program at a predominantly White institution (PWI) in the southeast. Possible selves theory (Lee and Oyserman, 2009; Strauss, Griffin, and Parker, 2012) served as the framework for the guiding research questions and interview protocol, which were designed to capture the essence of the participants' experiences as they respectively engaged in setting career goals. The findings revealed that the participants' CGS processes encompassed a series of cognitive steps, which included their thoughts about goal-setting in general, exploring engineering careers, making adjustments academically, finding an area of career specialization, and dealing with anxiety related to the challenges they encountered as engineering majors. In addition, possible selves theory was used to explain how the participants' understanding of their experiences in current contexts influenced who they wanted to become in future work conditions. / Doctor of Philosophy / This qualitative study explored the career goal-setting (CGS) processes of Black woman engineering majors (BWEMs). The researcher used phenomenological methods to specifically describe the participants' experiences as they took part in CGS. Five participants were included in the study who all identified as Black/African American women enrolled in their final year of an undergraduate engineering program at a predominantly White institution (PWI) in the southeast. Possible selves theory (Markus and Nurius, 1986; Strauss, Griffin, and Parker, 2012) helped to guide the main research question and the research sub-questions, which were based on Lee and Oyserman's (2009) three individual and contextual factors of past experiences, developmental contexts, and social contexts. The researcher conducted two interviews with each of the five participants. The findings revealed that the participants' CGS processes consisted of several mental steps, which included their thoughts about goal-setting in general, exploring engineering careers, making adjustments academically, finding an area of career specialization, and dealing with anxiety related to the challenges they encountered as engineering majors. In addition, possible selves theory was used to explain how the participants' understanding of their experiences in current contexts influenced who they wanted to become in future work conditions.

Imagining one’s physical activity (PA) possible self can lead to increased PA (e.g., Murru & Martin Ginis, 2010). This online experiment examined potential benefits of forming a self-regulatory PA possible self, which involves reflection on a PA possible self image and strategies to pursue this self. This intervention was compared to a standard PA possible selves intervention and a control condition in terms of impact on motivational, self-regulatory, and PA outcomes. Insufficiently active participants (n = 247) completed baseline measures, were exposed to the intervention or control procedures, and then completed outcome measures immediately and at two and four-weeks post-intervention. The mediational roles of action/coping planning in the intervention-PA relationships were explored. Results: ANCOVAs showed no differences on motivational or self-regulatory outcomes; action/coping planning were not mediators. The two intervention conditions, combined, led to significantly greater PA over the four weeks post-intervention than did the control condition (p. = .041).

Imagining one’s physical activity (PA) possible self can lead to increased PA (e.g., Murru & Martin Ginis, 2010). This online experiment examined potential benefits of forming a self-regulatory PA possible self, which involves reflection on a PA possible self image and strategies to pursue this self. This intervention was compared to a standard PA possible selves intervention and a control condition in terms of impact on motivational, self-regulatory, and PA outcomes. Insufficiently active participants (n = 247) completed baseline measures, were exposed to the intervention or control procedures, and then completed outcome measures immediately and at two and four-weeks post-intervention. The mediational roles of action/coping planning in the intervention-PA relationships were explored. Results: ANCOVAs showed no differences on motivational or self-regulatory outcomes; action/coping planning were not mediators. The two intervention conditions, combined, led to significantly greater PA over the four weeks post-intervention than did the control condition (p. = .041).

In this dissertation the author embarks on a journey of storying and re-storying her life. Autoethnographic evocative personal narratives are used as the method of presentation. Congruent with a postmodern stance, the text repositions the reader as a co-participant in dialogue. In this journey there is a move from a reductionistic understanding of "self" to an understanding of "self" as socially constructed, multiple and changing processes. The author's process of differentiation is embodied and informed by this changing view of "self" as part of, being informed by, shaping and being shaped by the conversations she co-creates in dialogical contexts. This means taking a double-sided, reflexive view of relationships and systems, opens a space for a flexible way of being and imparts sensitivity to the discourses she co-creates. This journey entails taking action that keeps a self-reflexive dialogue going, allowing for different voices to emerge and various encounters to become possible. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:29:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Carla Silvares Pompeo de Camargo Aros.pdf: 1288339 bytes, checksum: 43b059b659df3392d3e4abb48a3a80ad (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-26 / The current investigation approaches clinical phenomena usually referred to as frivolous experience, unreality and existential emptiness, all described by Winnicott as one s impossibility of feeling alive and real. Presented as an affective ground within a wide range of symptomatic manifestations, including either psychoses or borderline conditions, this is a radical way of suffering, which, according to several authors, has gradually become more ordinary in the contemporary society, the outlines of which we try to grasp by taking Bauman's sociological thought as a starting point. This paper is methodologically organized around a psychoanalytical approach concerned with a human happening of fictional character that is made public through a 1999-movie production entitled Fight Club. The story that is portrayed was conceived as a psychoanalytical narrative stemming from the observation of the fundamental standard to be considered thereafter in terms of capturing the fields of affective-emotional sense. Seven diverse fields were created/found, which are set out as integrating parts of a greater field called to-be-or-not-to-be , corresponding to the existential drama regarding the desperate search for a life that can be felt as being personal and true. By establishing a dialogue with Winnicott and Bauman, it was possible to conclude that the clinical issue in question is intimately concerned with the new forms of organizing the liquid-modern society, which paradoxically develop a certain type of individualism while they make it hard to personal growth in a sense of developing one s ability of feeling alive, real and able to provide spontaneous gesture to transform the self and the world. / A presente investiga??o aborda fen?menos cl?nicos, habitualmente referidos como viv?ncias de futilidade, irrealidade e vazio existencial, que t?m sido descritos por Winnicott como impossibilidade de se sentir vivo e real. Apresentando-se como fundamento afetivo de uma ampla gama de manifesta??es sintom?ticas, que incluem tanto as psicoses como as condi??es borderlines, s?o uma forma radical de sofrimento que, segundo v?rios autores, vem-se tornando cada vez mais comum na sociedade contempor?nea, cujos contornos buscamos apreender a partir do pensamento sociol?gico de Bauman. O trabalho organiza-se, metodologicamente, ao redor da abordagem psicanal?tica de um acontecer humano de car?ter ficcional,veiculado por meio de produ??o cinematogr?fica de 1999 intitulada Clube da Luta. A hist?ria encenada foi elaborada como narrativa psicanal?tica a partir da observa??o da regra fundamental para, a seguir, ser considerada em termos da capta??o de campos de sentido afetivo-emocional. Foram criados/encontrados sete campos diversos, que se configuram como integrantes de um campo maior, denominado "ser ou n?o ser", correspondente ao drama existecial da busca desesperada de uma vida que possa ser sentida como pessoal e verdadeira. Estabelecendo interlocu??es com Winnicott e Bauman, foi poss?vel concluir que a problem?tica cl?nica estudada articula-se intimamente ?s novas formas de organiza??o da sociedade l?quido-moderna que, de modo paradoxal, incrementam um certo tipo de individualismo enquanto dificultam o amadurecimento pessoal no sentido do desenvolvimento da capacidade de se sentir vivo, real e capaz de gestualidade espont?nea e transformadora de si e do mundo.

In this dissertation the author embarks on a journey of storying and re-storying her life. Autoethnographic evocative personal narratives are used as the method of presentation. Congruent with a postmodern stance, the text repositions the reader as a co-participant in dialogue. In this journey there is a move from a reductionistic understanding of "self" to an understanding of "self" as socially constructed, multiple and changing processes. The author's process of differentiation is embodied and informed by this changing view of "self" as part of, being informed by, shaping and being shaped by the conversations she co-creates in dialogical contexts. This means taking a double-sided, reflexive view of relationships and systems, opens a space for a flexible way of being and imparts sensitivity to the discourses she co-creates. This journey entails taking action that keeps a self-reflexive dialogue going, allowing for different voices to emerge and various encounters to become possible. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)