published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1993. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-165).

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of Educational Studies

The purpose of this research study was to identify which dimensions of self-concept were predictive of depression and anxiety in gifted adolescents in a residential academic setting. Additionally, this study compared mean scores of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescents (MMPI-A; Butcher, et, al, 1992) to normative data. A total of 278 high school juniors and seniors from the Indiana Academy completed both the Self Description Questionnaire III (Marsh, 1984) and the MMPI-A. After screening data on the basis of MMPI-A validity scales, the final sample of 222 students consisted of 128 females and 94 males.Simultaneous multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify which dimensions of self-concept were related to depression and anxiety. Frequency data was generated to compare the MMPI-A profiles to normative scores.Three dimensions of self-concept; Same-Sex, Emotional Stability, and General Self-Esteem were found to predict depression. Five dimensions of self-concept; Verbal, Problem-Solving Ability, Same-Sex, Emotional Stability, and General Self-Esteem were found to predict anxiety. Frequency data showed 10% of the sample fell in the clinically elevated range on the MMPI-A Depression scale and only 6% of the sample fell in the clinically elevated range on the MMPI-A Anxiety scale.Future research on protective factors in gifted youth should utilize a more heterogeneous sample. In addition, future research should be longitudinal in order to identify causality in the relationship. Implications for counseling psychologists include providing social skills training to enhance social self-concept. Additional implications include providing programming to increase opportunities to practice social skills. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The maltreatment of children is unarguably an important social concern, the negative effects of which have been well-documented in the literature over the past two decades. Research on the etiology of maltreatment, however, has yielded few strong conclusions regarding the characteristics of abusive parents. There is much disagreement with respect to the personality or psychological attributes of those parents who maltreat their children (Belsky, 1993), and the question of how those characteristics are differentially associated with the subtypes of abuse has not been adequately addressed. Furthermore, although the extant literature has consistently agreed that maltreatment contributes to poor psychological outcomes for adolescents it is less clear how these outcomes differ depending upon the type and severity of maltreatment (Trickett & McBride-Chang, 1995). The current study sought to identify those personality attributes that are both predictors and effects of abuse. Scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory- 2nd edition (MMPI-2) were examined to determine personality variables associated with perpetration of each of four major classifications of abuse. Further, scales from the MMPI-Adolescent version (MMPI-A) were utilized to determine those personality variables in adolescents that may be affected by each of those four categories. This study hypothesized that clear patterns would emerge in which certain personality variables are predictive of the type of abuse that parents engage in, and each type of abuse is predictive of the manifestation of certain personality characteristics in adolescents. The effects of gender were also analyzed. Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A data and abuse histories of 100 pairs of offending parents and maltreated adolescents. Results indicated significant direct effects of parent personality on abuse subtype, abuse subtype on adolescent personality, parent personality on adolescent personality, and one significant mediation effect of parent personality on adolescent personality through abuse subtype. Additionally, gender was found to significantly affect the engagement in and experience of abuse, and one significant interaction of gender and abuse subtype on adolescent personality was discovered. Results are of practical importance in designing abuse intervention and prevention programs and inform the current understanding of the intergenerational transmission of abuse. / text

by Leung Alice. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-57). / Abstract and questionnaire also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / Acknowledgment --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.v / List of Tables --- p.vi / List of Figures --- p.vii / List of Appendix --- p.viii / Introduction --- p.1 / Method --- p.16 / Results --- p.25 / Discussion --- p.41 / References --- p.51 / Appendix --- p.58

Adolescents’ (N = 272) psychological changes were examined at a residential academy for gifted junior and senior high school students in the Midwest. The School-Based Conception of Giftedness (Coleman & Cross, 2005) was drawn on to understand how school environment influences student development. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to inform the study. Outcome measurement data from the Youth Outcome Questionnaire Self-Report 2.0 (YOQ-SR) tracked students’ level of psychological distress over the course of an academic year. Using Latent Growth Curve Model (LGM) analysis, the initial level of distress did not impact how students’ stress levels changed over time. The results indicated a strong negative correlation (r =-.884) between the slope and quadratic change; meaning, the more a students’ level of stress increased the more rapidly they were able to reduce it over time. Overall, the change in stress formed an inverted-U shape, as students adapted to the challenges of the school. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with 9 senior students with a wide range of YOQ-SR scores at the beginning of their junior year. Four categories emerged from the interviews about student experiences at the academy: Psychological Changes, Academic Adjustment, Social Adjustment and Social Comparison. In essence, when participating in the academy, students experienced advanced personal development, improved management skills and developed a sense of readiness for college. / Department of Educational Psychology

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-70).

The goal of this research was to determine if there are significant differences in the attribution styles for positive and negative events between students of differing ability and the correlation of these attribution styles to hopefulness. The study examined twelfth grade advanced placement (AP N = 45) students and twelfth grade students with documented learning differences enrolled in college preparatory classes (CP-LD N = 14). Both groups of students came from high socioeconomic backgrounds. The students' internal attributions related to hopefulness were measured with the Hope Scale (Snyder, 1994) which assesses the constructs of agency (will), pathway (way), and produces an overall hopefulness score. Results indicate that AP and CP-LD students had similar measures of internal attribution for positive events, but significantly distinct measures of internal attribution for negative events. However, the AP students show no statistically significant difference from CP-LD students in their measures of agency, pathway, or overall hopefulness.

Personality patterns of sexually abused female adolescent runaways are compared to personality patterns of physically abused female adolescent runaways. Eighty-six female adolescents from 13 to 17 years of age completed a self report inventory to determine personality traits. To test the hypotheses of the study, a multivariate analysis of variance was conducted, followed with univariate tests to find differences on separate dependent measures. Results indicated that on the Jesness Inventory there may be a common personality pattern associated with abuse. Univariate tests yielded data which indicated that although there may be a general personality pattern for abused adolescents, there were significant differences between the physically and sexually abused adolescents on some personality variables. Results were evaluated taking into account the selective sample from which the population was drawn. Recommendations for future research included the use of projectives, a more comprehensive personality inventory, and selected demographics.